Algiz Rune Meaning
ᛉ · sound "z (later r)" · Heimdall's ætt · name means elk, or protection
protection, awareness, boundaries, shelter
Upright meaning
Algiz is a raised hand, or the antlers of an elk: alert, protective, aware. It invites you to look after your boundaries and to notice what you are guarding, and why. Protection can be a quiet presence rather than a wall.
Reversed (merkstave)
Reversed, Algiz can mirror feeling exposed, or guarding so hard that nothing good can get in either. Ask which of your defenses still serve you and which have become a cage.
Lore
Its name is usually taken to mean elk, or protection. Only the Anglo-Saxon poem gives it a verse of its own, under the name eolhx, the elk-sedge, a marsh grass that cuts the hand of anyone who grabs it. In the later Younger Futhark the same sign, usually turned upside down, kept its sound but took the name ýr, yew, and that is the yew rune the Norse poems describe.