Also called alu formula, laukaz, runic formula words, bindrune for a server
Alu and laukaz are mysterious formula words carved in Elder Futhark runes on amulets, gold bracteates and stones between about the 3rd and 8th centuries. This page explains what runologists know of them and how to inscribe alu, alone or as a bindrune, in a program's comments or on a server as a protective mark.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: Keep runes in comments only; non-ASCII characters in live code or filenames can break some tools. Some modern groups misuse runes for hate symbols; alu and laukaz are not among those signs, but it is worth knowing.
Thin gold pendants copied from Roman imperial medallions were stamped with heads, horses and birds and often the word alu. They were worn as amulets, and the word appears on them more than on any other object type.
Laukaz means leek or garlic and appears on bracteates and on the Fløksand knife. Scholars link it to growth, health and thriving. It is often read alongside alu as a formula of well-being.
A bone piece from Skåne, Sweden, carries a runic name formula, a row of repeated runes and alu at the end, which many read as a closing charm word.
Alu appears in about two dozen runic inscriptions from roughly the third to the eighth century, on bracteates, a brooch from Værløse in Denmark, arrow shafts from the Nydam bog, the Elgesem and Eggja stones and cremation urns at Spong Hill in England. It literally resembles a word for ale, and other proposals link it to protection or to a ritual drink. Runologists agree it is a charm word but not on what exactly it meant.
Laukaz, leek, is the other well known formula word. These inscriptions put words of power on things people owned: pendants, weapons, combs and grave goods. No one carved runes on a computer before our time. Writing alu in a program or on a server is a modern adaptation built on that real habit of inscribing objects. The runes in a comment do nothing to the code, just as runes on a comb did nothing to the teeth.
A small pendant shaped like the hammer of the Norse god Thor, worn for protection and strength. Hundreds of real hammer amulets survive from Viking Age Scandinavia, most from the 10th century, and the symbol is worn today by followers of modern Heathenry and anyone drawn to Norse heritage.
A ring of iron bent so its ends cross and curl, sold as an ancient Scandinavian charm against trolls and evil magic. The jewelry form is a modern invention by a Swedish smith in the late 1990s, though iron charms and protective house marks in Sweden are genuinely old.
Marking slips of wood with signs, scattering them on a white cloth and reading the ones you pick up. Built from Tacitus's account of Germanic lot-casting and modern rune practice.
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