Original meaning: Gift
A gift - either physical, or an opportunity offered to you. A partnership or other positive commitment is indicated.

Giefu is the rune of gifts and giving. Giving was seen not only as a duty in early Germanic culture, but a necessity, and this verse reflects that. Gifts and giving was for the average man, happiness, praise, support, and a sense of self respect. To those in exile, gifts restored honor, for to receive a gift intimated a bond like that between knight and king, which was very important to the lordless outlaw. Of course, for those with less, slaves and such, gifts were their only means of survival. Giefu governs the law of giving, which states there must be an equal exchange of all things exchanged. Every gift calls for something in return. This gift in return need not a physical one, it can be in the form of acts of kindness or other good deeds or gifts of knowledge. Giefu also governs the exchange of energies, the exchange of mæen.

Gifts were exchanged between lord and vassal, husband and wife, and those making peace.It represented the exchange of mægen and created a bond between two people or groups of people. Giving also governs the hospitality of the home and sacrifices made either to the divine or in one's own life. It is the giving up of something in order to receive something else. Giefu is the rune of the ultimate exchange, that of love between two people in marriage for which no sacrifice is too great, it therefore represents the state of marriage.

Giefu governs the law of giving, that is it governs the exchange of spiritual energy. Failure to return gift for gift or the deliberate theft of something, be it a piece of jewelry or human life results in a scyld, the obligation to repay a debt owed. Failure to repay this debt can result in a loss of main.

In divination, Giefu represents any sort of exchange, while in spell work it can be used to bring about such an exchange