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Attested
Found in inscriptions or medieval manuscripts.
This is the fifteenth rune of the Elder Futhark, transliterated z. It wrote a sound that never begins a word in Proto-Germanic, so unlike most runes it could not be named after its own first sound. It often appears as the ending of masculine nouns and names in early inscriptions.
Only the Old English poem includes this rune, under the name eolhx. Its stanza describes eolh-sedge, a marsh plant that cuts anyone who grasps it and covers them in blood.
Reconstructed
Scholarly reconstruction from linguistic evidence.
The rune's original name is unknown. "Algiz," meaning elk, is a modern reconstruction based on the Old English poem, and scholars widely doubt it. Ralph Elliott proposed *algiz or *alhiz, "protection," instead.
In practice today
How people use this rune now, in divination, magic, and devotion. Valid in its own right, and labeled modern so it isn’t mistaken for history.
In Ralph Blum's modern divination system, this rune (spelled Algiz) is read as protection.
Misused by hate groups
Where hate groups have taken this rune, so you can recognize it.
Nazi Germany used this rune as the "life rune," including for the SS Lebensborn program, and the neo-Nazi National Alliance later adopted it as its logo. It remains a common white supremacist symbol. Neo-pagans also use it, so any particular use has to be read in context.
Practice today: wyrd, galdr, and other old words people use when working with the runes now.