ᚹ · sound “w” · Joy
Wunjo (ᚹ) is rune 8 of the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark, in Freyr's aett. Its name means joy.
Joy and harmony. You are at ease with the people around you and with your circumstances, and a long effort starts to pay off in contentment.
Sorrow, alienation or strained ties. Something is out of tune with a group or with yourself, and you may be reaching for an easy pleasure to cover it.
Notice what is already going well.
Wunjo means joy, and its Old English name wynn is the same word. The sign was so useful for the sound w that Anglo-Saxon scribes kept using it as a letter, called wynn, in manuscripts written in the Latin alphabet, until the modern w replaced it. Few runes have left such a visible mark on written English.
Wunjo is contentment more than excitement: being at ease with the people around you and the way things are going. In a reading it can show a good stretch, a sense of belonging, or a goal met. Reversed, it points to separation from a group or a joy that is being put off.