Name and sound values
Týr is a historically transmitted name of the rune and denotes the god Týr. In the Younger Futhark the sign could cover the sound values /t/d/.
Reducing the row from 24 to 16 signs meant that one rune wrote several different sounds. The correct reading therefore depends on vocabulary, grammar, and inscriptional context.
Historical use
Younger runes primarily served writing: on memorial stones, everyday objects, ownership marks, and short messages. Magical inscriptions exist, but they do not turn every rune into an independent magical sign.
The Norse rune poems
The Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems do comment on the sixteen Younger Futhark runes. They survive, however, only through medieval manuscripts and may transmit divergent imagery.
The stanzas assume knowledge of the one-handed god. Their imagery attests the myth, but not a complete oracle system.
Modern interpretation
Present-day practice may use Týr as a symbolic field for “the god Týr”. Such reflection is modern; the rune poems offer images and mnemonics, not a complete surviving system for drawing individual oracle stones.
Rune poems in the original
Old Norwegian
Norwegian Rune Poem
Týr er æinendr ása; opt værðr smiðr blása.Týr is the one-handed god of the Æsir; the smith often has to blow.
A sense-based working translation. The second line is often an independent gnomic statement; a direct semantic link to the rune must not be assumed.
Old Icelandic
Icelandic Rune Poem
Týr er einhendr áss ok ulfs leifar ok hofa hilmir.Týr is the one-handed god, the wolf’s leavings, and the ruler of sanctuaries.
“The wolf’s leavings” alludes to Fenrir’s bite, through which Týr lost his hand.