In Anglo-Saxon England, the same rune was called Thorn or "Þorn" and it survives as the Icelandic letter Þ (þ). An attempt has been made to account for the substitution of names by taking "thorn" to be a kenning (metaphor) for "giant".
It is disputed as to whether a distinct system of Gothic runes ever existed, but it is clear that most of the names (but not most of the shapes) of the letters of the Gothic alphabet correspond to those of the Elder Futhark. The name of 𐌸, the Gothic letter corresponding to Þ, is an exception: it is recorded as thyth in the Codex Vindobonensis 795, which has been interpreted as the Gothic word þiuþ "(the) good", and as such unrelated to either þurs or þorn.
The lack of agreement between the various glyphs and their names in Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and Old Norse makes it difficult to reconstruct the Elder Futhark rune's Proto-Germanic name.
Assuming that the Scandinavian name þurs is the most plausible reflex of the Elder Futhark name, a Common Germanic form *þurisaz can be reconstructed (cf. Old Englishþyrs "giant, ogre" and Old High Germanduris-es "(of the) giant").
Rune poems
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Old Norwegian ᚦ Þurs vældr kvinna kvillu,
kátr værðr fár af illu.
Thurs ["Giant"] causes anguish to women,
misfortune makes few men cheerful.
Old Icelandic ᚦ Þurs er kvenna kvöl
ok kletta búi
ok varðrúnar verr.
Saturnus þengill.
Thurs ["Giant"] is torture of women
and cliff-dweller
and husband of a giantess
Saturn's thegn. [The source of this line in the poem is unclear.]
Old English ᚦ Ðorn bẏþ ðearle scearp;
ðegna gehƿẏlcum anfeng ẏs ẏfẏl,
ungemetum reþe manna gehƿẏlcun,
ðe him mid resteð.
The thorn is exceedingly sharp,
an evil thing for any thegn to touch,
uncommonly severe on all who sit among them.
Notes:
In the Icelandic poem, Saturn possibly refers to Ymir or Útgarða-Loki.
References
↑Odenstedt, Bengt (1990), On the Origin and Early History of the Runic Script, Typology and Graphic Variation in the Older Futhark, Uppsala, ISBN91-85352-20-9{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
