Necklace with the Rune Pertho

Meaning: vulva, mother goddess, earth

MATERIAL: silver or gilded silver

This rune has been called the greatest secret of the futhark - the runic alphabet. Its meaning is a mystery to interpreters, and interpretations range far and wide, from dance, to fruit tree, to hearth. It has also been noted that the name of the rune, Pertho, has similarities with the Slavic word pizda, meaning vulva. The rune would then be the sacred rune of Frigg, the Norse mother goddess. It has also been thought to symbolize the magical powers of the earth, through its connection to the Latin petra (stone).

The fruit tree for which the rune stands could then be the elderberry, also known as the 'Devil's Tree', which has often been associated with witchcraft. The name elderberry (hyllebuske in Swedish) is said to derive from the Slavic hohl, meaning hollow, which is also a synonym for the female genitals. In the world of fairy tales, Frau Holle shakes her bedclothes so that snow falls on the ground, and the former sky goddess, called Perchta in some tales and furthermore displaced to the bottom of a well, rules over the hearth of the home, drives her chariot across the sky and controls also other spinning things, such as the noble art of spinning. Dancing, as one of the earliest symbolic acts of worship and also a proposed meaning of the rune, with its erotic allusions, was apparently disliked by the proponents of Christianity, as were various mother goddesses, who were often relegated to less spectacular work.

The rune Pertho corresponds to the letter P.

The necklace comes in silver or gold plated silver.