Perthro, Pertho, or Peorð is an infuriating mystery. It didn’t survive the younger futhark, and all we have as far as rune poems go is the incredibly vague Anglo-Saxon line:
Peorth is a source of recreation and amusement to the great, where warriors sit blithely together in the banqueting-hall.
So that’s nothing.
Possible Interpretations of Perthro:
- chessman: This interpretation comes from the Anglo-Saxon poem. It’s hard to say why it’s specific to chess; I could understand it as any variety of game. But like most of the AS translations, it’s likely highly specific to their Christianized view of things. There’s no reason to believe this was it’s original meaning.
- vulva: This comes from the Slavonic word pizda. So in this case it would be specific to Frigg, a motherly god figure. I kind of like this because it provides a parallel to Inguz ᛜ, which tends to represent masculinity. Also it fits perfectly inside Perthro ᛈ, which I find… satisfying.
- magical earth: This comes from a connection to the Latin word petra, for rock. That’s all I currently know about that.
- dance: I suppose this could make sense in the AS poem.
- fruit tree / elder tree: Wood associate with witchcraft. The word elder could be derived from the Slavonic word hohl, meaning hollow. This leads us back to the female genitalia imagery, which is further reinforced by the following: to the church, witchcraft was a female thing; elder is used in charms for pain relief, and some equate that to the “therapeutic value” of sex. It all still seems like a stretch.