U+16D3 "ᛓ" Runic Letter Short-Twig-Bjarkan B Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
ᛓ
U+16D3 "ᛓ" Runic Letter Short-Twig-Bjarkan B is a historical rune from the Younger Futhark alphabet, specifically a variant of the rune that represents the sound "b" and is associated with the birch tree, as its name "Bjarkan" means "birch" in Old Norse. Unlike the more common "long-branch" version, this short-twig form features a simplified, shorter vertical stroke with a small branch, and it was primarily used in Sweden and Norway during the Viking Age for inscriptions on wood and stone. This character preserves a tangible link to the language, culture, and writing practices of the Norse people, reflecting the practical adaptations of runic script for everyday recording and ritual purposes.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+16D3 |
| Version Added | 3.0 |
| Name | Runic Letter Short-Twig-Bjarkan B |
| Block | Runic |
| General Category | Other Letter |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Left To Right |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | ᛓ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | ᛓ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xE1 0x9B 0x93 |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x16D3 |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x000016D3 |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u16d3 |