Höfuð-stafr

Meaning of Old Norse word "höfuð-stafr" (or hǫfuð-stafr)

As defined by the Cleasby & Vigfusson Old Norse to English dictionary:

höfuð-stafr (hǫfuð-stafr)

m., gramm. a ‘head-stave,’ head letter, capital, initial, used freq. in this sense by Thorodd: but grammarians use it specially of the letters h, q, v, þ, which can stand only at the beginnings of syllables, (see gramm. p. xv, col. 1 at the bottom; Skálda 165–171):—in prosody, the third of the alliterative letters (ljóðstafir) standing ‘ahead’ of the second verse line, the preceding two being called stuðlar; thus in ‘þá var grund groin | grænum lauki,’ the g in ‘grænum’ is a höfuðstafr, but in ‘grund’ and ‘gróin’ a stuðill, Edda 120: in mod. usage höfuðstafir in pl. is used of all the alliterative letters, skáldskapr þinn er skothent klúðr | skakk-settum höfuðstöfum með, Jón Þorl.

Orthography: The Cleasby & Vigfusson book used letter ö to represent the original Old Norse vowel ǫ. Therefore, höfuð-stafr may be more accurately written as hǫfuð-stafr.

Possible runic inscription in Younger Futhark:ᚼᚢᚠᚢᚦ-ᛋᛏᛅᚠᚱ
Younger Futhark runes were used from 8th to 12th centuries in Scandinavia and their overseas settlements