40:1 · This is one of the world's oldest ideograms. It has been found on the walls of the Trois frères cave in France. It was probably drawn some 10,000 years ago. In the Nordic runic alphabet is a sign for a sound that seems to have ceased to be used, but is a character from the Icelandic alphabet in the international set of characters, called thorn in Iceland. The name of this rune is associated with giants, titans.
    On the Middle Ages clog almanacs (see the sign in Group 5) it meant Wednesday; that is, the day of Woden or Odin, the greatest of the Viking gods. The sign is associated with the words turs, and As (the Aesir gods especially Tor, the chief enemy of the giants). Later it was associated with cataract, i.e. an expression of power.
    Compare with , which stands for 5 in the set of golden numbers.
    See also the rune in Group 16.