Uruz (ᚢ) — Aurochs, Primal Strength

Uruz (ᚢ), second rune of Freyr's ætt, embodies the úr — the aurochs, the extinct wild ox whose untamable strength the Old Icelandic Rune Poem calls 'úr er af illu jarne' (dross comes from bad iron). The aurochs was the supreme test of a young warrior's courage in the Proto-Germanic world; to face it was to confront raw, undomesticated might. Uruz represents the vital force (*ūruz) that precedes all shaping — the primal hamr (life-force) before it has been tempered by will or craft.