Runic alphabet
See Rune (disambiguation) for other uses.The
Runic alphabets are a set of related
alphabets using letters known as
runes, formerly used to write
Germanic languages, mainly in
Scandinavia and the
British Isles, but before
Christianization also on the European Continent. The Scandinavian variants are also known as
Futhark (or
fuþark, derived from their first six letters:
F, U, Þ, A, R, and
K); the Anglo-Saxon variant as
Futhorc (due to sound changes undergone in
Old English by the same six letters).
The earliest runic inscriptions date from ca.
150, and the alphabet was generally replaced by the
Latin alphabet with
Christianization, by ca.
700 in central Europe and by ca.
1400 in Scandinavia. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in Scandinavia, longest in rural
Sweden until the early 20th century (used mainly for decoration as runes in
Dalarna and on
Runic calendars).
The three best known runic alphabets are:
*the
Elder Futhark (ca. 150–800)
*the
Anglo-Saxon Futhorc (400–1100)
*the
Younger Futhark (800–1100)
The Younger Futhark is further divided into:
*the
Danish futhark script
*the
Swedish-
Norwegian runic script (also: Short-twig or Rök Runes)
*the Hälsinge Runes (staveless runes)
The Younger Futhark developed further into:
*the Marcomannic Runes
*the Medieval Runes (1100-1500)
*the
Dalecarlian Runes (ca. 1500–1800s)
The origins of the runic scripts are uncertain. Many characters of the elder futhark bear a close resemblance to characters from the latin alphabet. Other candidates are the
5th to
1st century BC Northern Italic alphabets,
Lepontic,
Rhaetic and
Venetic, all closely related to each other and themselves descended from the
Old Italic alphabet. These scripts bear a remarkable resemblance to the Futhark in many regards.
The runes were introduced to, or invented by, the
Germanic peoples in the 1st or 2nd century (The oldest known runic inscription dates to ca. the 160s and is found on a comb discovered in the bog of Vimose,
Funen. The inscription reads
harja). While at this time the Germanic language was certainly not at the
Proto-Germanic stage any longer, it may still have been a continuum of dialects not yet clearly separated into the three branches of later centuries, viz.
North Germanic,
West Germanic and
East Germanic. Most of the early runes from the
Scandinavian countries are assumed to be in the
Proto-Norse, the common ancestor language of the modern North Germanic languages. No distinction is made in surviving runic inscriptions between long and short vowels, although such a distinction was certainly present phonologically in the spoken languages of the time. Similarly, there are no signs for
labiovelars in the Elder Futhark (such signs were introduced in both the Anglo-Saxon
Futhorc and the
Gothic alphabet as variants of
p; see
peorð.)
As Proto-Germanic evolved into its later language groups, the words assigned to the runes and the sounds represented by the runes themselves began to diverge somewhat, and each culture would either create new runes, rename or rearrange its rune names slightly, or even stop using obsolete runes completely, to accommodate these changes. Thus, the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc has several runes peculiar unto itself to represent
diphthongs unique to (or at least prevalent in) the Anglo-Saxon dialect. However, the fact that the younger Futhark has sixteen runes, while the Elder Futhark has twenty four, is not fully explained by the some six hundred years of sound changes that had occurred in the
North Germanic language group. The development here might seem rather astonishing, since the younger form of the alphabet came to use fewer different rune-signs at the same time as the development of the language led to a greater number of different phonemes than what had been present at the time of the older futhark. For example, voiced and unvoiced consonants merged in script, and so did many vowels, while the number of vowels in the spoken language increased. From about 1100, this disadvantage was eliminated in the medieval runes, which again increased the number of different signs to correspond with the number of phonemes in the language.
The name given to the signs, contrasting them with Latin or Greek letters, is attested on a 6th century
alamannic runestaff as
runa, and possibly as
runo on the
Einang stone (ca. 4th century). The name is from a root
run- (Gothic
runa) meaning "secret". (C.f. also
Finnish, where
runo was loaned to mean "poem".)
Origins
Mythological
In
Norse mythology, the invention of runes is attributed to
Odin: The
Hávamál (stanzas 138, 139) describes how Odin receives the rune through his self-
sacrifice. The text (in
Old Norse and in English translation) is as follows:
Veit ec at ec hecc vindga meiði a>| I know that I hung on a windy tree | | netr allar nío, | nights all nine, |
| geiri vndaþr oc gefinn Oðni, | wounded with a spear and given to Odin, |
| sialfr sialfom mer, | myself to myself, |
| a þeim meiþi, er mangi veit, hvers hann af rótom renn. | on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run |
| |
| Við hleifi mic seldo ne viþ hornigi, | No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn, |
| nysta ec niþr, | downwards I peered, |
| nam ec vp rvnar, | I took up the runes, |
| opandi nam, | screaming I took them, |
| fell ec aptr þaðan. | then I fell back from there |
The Icelandic sources do not relate how the runes were transmitted to mortal men, but in 1555, the exiled Swedish archbishop
Olaus Magnus recorded a tradition that a man named
Kettil Runske had stolen three rune staffs from Odin and learned the runes and their magic.
Historical
The runes developed comparatively late, centuries after the Mediterranean alphabets from which they are probably descended. There are some similarities to alphabets of
Phoenician origin (Latin, Greek, Italic) that cannot possibly all be due to chance; an
Old Italic alphabet, more particularly the
Raetic alphabet of
Bozen-Bolzano, is usually quoted as a candidate for the origin of the runes, with only five Elder Futhark runes ( ᛖ
e, ᛇ
ï, ᛃ
j, ᛜ
ŋ, ᛈ
p) having no counterpart in the Bolzano alphabet. This hypothesis is supported by the inscription on the
Negau helmet dating to the
2nd century BC. This is in a northern Etruscan alphabet, but features a Germanic name,
Harigast.
The angular shapes of the runes are shared with most contemporary alphabets of the period used for carving in wood or stone. A peculiarity of the runic alphabet as compared to the Old Italic family is rather the absence of
horizontal strokes. Runes were commonly carved on the edge of narrow pieces of wood. The primary grooves cut spanned the whole piece vertically, against the grain of the wood: curves are difficult to make, and horizontal lines get lost among the grain of the split wood. This vertical characteristic also shared by other alphabets, such as the early form of the
Latin alphabet used for the
Duenos inscription.
The "
West Germanic hypothesis" speculates on an introduction by
West Germanic tribes. This hypothesis is based on claiming that the earliest inscriptions of ca. 200, found in bogs and graves around Jutland, exhibit West Germanic name forms, e.g.
wagnija,
niþijo, and
harija, and that these names refer to hitherto unknown tribes located in the
Rhineland. However,
Scandinavian scholars interprete these inscriptions as
Proto-Norse, but it should be noted that the differences between Proto-Norse and other Germanic dialects were still minute and that the classification is mostly based on location rather than forms. Any claim that the forms refer to unknown tribes must be considered highly speculative.
Runes are a popular field for amateur scholars, and many imaginative ideas have been advanced, such as a claim by
Olaus Rudbeck Sr in
Atlantica that
all writing systems originate from proto-runic scripts. Another fringe theory is that the runes originated directly from the
Middle East, and are related to the
Nabataean alphabet, a variant of the
Phoenician alphabet. The introduction of runes is in this scenario ascribed to the
Roman legions, which left
Syria Palaestina during the 2nd century. This theory is based on discovery of early runes on weapons, such as
longbows, and
arrow heads, characteristically belonging to these soldiers. (The historical
Nabataean kingdom, spanning
Jordan,
Sinai, and
South Israel, corresponds to early
Arabia.) This theory has not found main-stream support.
Magic and Divination
|
The Björketorp Runestone. It is 4.2 m tall. |
The earliest runic inscriptions were certainly not coherent texts of any length, but simple markings on artifacts (e.g.
bracteates, combs, etc.), giving the name of either the craftsman or the proprietor, or, sometimes, remaining a linguistic mystery. Because of this, it is possible that the early runes were not so much used as a simple writing system, but rather as
magical signs to be used for charms, or for
divination. The name
rune itself, taken to mean "secret, something hidden", seems to indicate that knowledge of the runes was originally considered esoteric, or restricted to an elite. The eerie 6th century
Björketorp Runestone warns in
Proto-Norse using the word
rune in both senses:
Haidz runo runu, falh'k hedra ginnarunaz. Argiu hermalausz, ... weladauþe, saz þat brytz. Uþarba spa.Here, I have hidden the secret of powerful runes, strong runes. The one who breaks this memorial will be eternally tormented by anger. Treacherous death will hit him. I foresee perdition.The same curse and use of the word rune is also found on the
Stentoften Runestone. There are also some inscriptions suggesting a medieval belief in the magical significance of runes, such as the
Franks Casket (AD 700) panel.
However, it has proven difficult to find unambiguous traces of runic "oracles": Although
Norse literature is full of references to runes, it nowhere contains specific instructions on divination or magic. There are at least three sources on divination with rather vague descriptions that may or may not refer to runes, Tacitus'
Germania, Snorri Sturluson's
Ynglinga saga and Rimbert's
Vita Ansgari.
The first source,
Tacitus' Germania, describes "signs" chosen in groups of three. A second source is the
Ynglinga saga, where
Granmar, the king of
Södermanland, goes to
Uppsala for the
blót. There, the
chips fell in a way that said that he would not live long (
Féll honum þá svo spánn sem hann mundi eigi lengi lifa). The third source is
Rimbert's
Vita Ansgari, where there are three accounts of what seems to be the use of runes for divination, but Rimbert calls it "drawing lots". One of these accounts is the description of how a renegade Swedish king
Anund Uppsale first brings a Danish fleet to
Birka, but then changes his mind and asks the Danes to "draw lots". According to the story, this "drawing of lots" was quite informative, telling them that attacking Birka would bring bad luck and that they should attack a Slavic town instead.
The lack of knowledge on historical usage of the runes has not stopped modern authors from extrapolating entire systems of divination from what few specifics exist, usually loosely based on the runes' reconstructed names (see
runic divination).
The mainstream view among scholars today is that the runes from the start were primarily a writing system, and that magic was not their primary function. However they could be, and were, still used for writing magic incantations, just like any other alphabet could.
Common use
Some later runic finds are on monuments (
rune stones), which often contain solemn inscriptions about people who died or performed great deeds. For a long time it was assumed that this kind of grand inscription was the primary use of runes, and that their use was associated with a certain societal class of rune-carvers.
However, in the middle of the 1950s, about 600 inscriptions known as the
Bryggen inscriptions were found in
Bergen. These inscriptions were made on wood and bone, often in the shape of sticks of various sizes, and contained inscriptions of an everyday nature - ranging from name tags, prayers (often in
Latin), personal messages, business letters, expressions of affection, to bawdy phrases of a profane and sometimes even vulgar nature. Following this find, it is nowadays commonly assumed that at least in late use, Runic was a widespread and common writing system.
In the later Middle Ages, runes were also used in the
Clog almanacs (sometimes called
Runic staff,
Prim or
Scandinavian calendar) of Sweden. The authenticity of some monuments bearing Runic inscriptions found in Northern America is disputed, but most of them date from modern times.
Gothic runes
Theories of the existence of separate
Gothic runes have been advanced, even identifying them as the original alphabet from which the Futhark were derived, but these have little support in actual findings (mainly the
spearhead of Kovel, with its right-to-left inscription, its T-shaped
tiwaz and its rectangular
dagaz). If there ever were genuinely Gothic runes, they were soon replaced by the
Gothic alphabet. The letters of the Gothic alphabet, however, as given by the
Alcuin manuscript (9th century), are obviously related to the names of the Futhark. The names are clearly Gothic, but it is impossible to say whether they are as old as, or even older than, the letters themselves. A handful of Elder Futhark inscriptions were found in Gothic territory, such as the 4th century
ring of Pietroassa.
Main article: Elder Futhark.
 |
the Older Futhark |
The Elder Futhark, used for writing
proto-Norse (
urnordisk,
urnordiska), consist of twenty-four runes, often arranged in three rows of eight. The earliest known full sequential listing of the alphabet dates from ca. 400 and is found on the
Kylver Stone in
Gotland.
The letter values, and their common
transliteration are:
[f],
[u],
[þ] ([th]),
[a],
[r],
[k],
[g],
[w],
[h],
[n],
[i],
[j],
[ï] ([ei]),
[p],
[R],
[s],
[t],
[b],
[e],
[m],
[l],
[ŋ],
[d],
[o].
Names
Each rune most probably had a name, chosen to represent the sound of the rune itself. The names are, however, not directly attested for the Elder Futhark themselves. Reconstructed names in
Proto-Germanic have been suggested for them, based on the names given for runes of the later alphabets in the
rune poems and the names of the letters of the
Gothic alphabet.
fehu "wealth,
cattle":
ûruz "
aurochs" (or
ûram "
water /
slag"?):
þurisaz "
giant":
ansuz "one of the
Aesir" (or
ahsam "ear (of corn)"?):
raidô "ride, journey":
kaunan "
ulcer, illness":
gebô "gift":
wunjô "
joy":
haglaz "
hail (the precipitation)":
naudiz "
need":
îsaz "
ice":
jera "
year":
îhaz /
îwaz "
yew":
perþô? "pearwood"? (uncertain):
algiz "
elk"? (uncertain):
sôwilô "Sun":
tîwaz (
Tiwaz, the etymological continuant of
*Dyeus):
berkanan "
birch":
ehwaz "
horse":
mannaz "
man":
laguz "
lake" (or
laukaz "
leek"?):
ingwaz (a god):
dagaz "
day":
ôþalan "estate,
inheritance"
Main article: Anglo-Saxon Futhorc.
 |
The Fuþorc |
The Futhorc are an extended alphabet, consisting of 29, and later even 33 characters. It was used probably from the 5th century onward. There are competing theories as to the origins of the Anglo-Saxon Fuþorc. One theory proposes that it was developed in
Frisia and later spread to
England. Another holds that runes were introduced by Scandinavians to England where the fuþorc was modified and exported to Frisia. Both theories have their inherent weaknesses and a definitive answer likely awaits more archaeological evidence. Futhorc inscriptions are found e.g. on the
Thames scramasax, in the
Vienna Codex, in
CottonOtho B.x (
Anglo-Saxon rune poem) and on the
Ruthwell Cross.
The
Anglo-Saxon rune poem has: ᚠ feoh, ᚢ ur, ᚦ thorn, ᚩ os, ᚱ rad, ᚳ cen, ᚷ gyfu, ᚹ wynn, ᚻ haegl, ᚾ nyd, ᛁ is, ᛄ ger, ᛇ eoh, ᛈ peordh, ᛉ eolh, ᛋ sigel, ᛏ tir, ' beorc, ᛖ eh, ᛗ mann, ᛚ lagu, ᛝ ing, ᛟ ethel, ᛞ daeg, ᚪ ac, ᚫ aesc, ᚣ yr, ᛡ ior, ᛠ ear.
The expanded alphabet has the additional letters ᛢ cweorth, ᛣ calc, ᛤ cealc and ᛥ stan. It should be mentioned that these additional letters have only been found in manuscripts.
Feoh, þorn, and sigel stood for [f], [þ], and [s] in most environments, but voiced to [v], [ð], and [z] between vowels or voiced consonants. Gyfu and wynn stood for the letters
yogh and
wynn which became [g] and [w] in
Middle English.
The Younger Fuþark, also called Scandinavian Fuþark, is a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters. The reduction correlates with phonetic changes when
Proto-Norse evolved into
Old Norse. They are found in Scandinavia and
Viking Age settlements abroad, probably in use from the 9th century onward. They are divided into long-branch (Danish) and short-twig (Swedish and Norwegian) runes. The difference between the two versions has been a matter of controversy. A general opinion is that the difference was functional, i.e. the long-branch runes were used for documentation on stone, whereas the short-branch runes were in every day use for private or official messages on wood.
Names
The Icelandic and Norwegian
rune poems have 16 runes, with the letter names ᚠ fe ("wealth"), ᚢ ur ("iron"/"rain"), ᚦ
Thurs, ᚬ
As/Oss, ᚱ reidh ("ride"), ᚴ kaun ("ulcer"), ᚼ hagall ("hail"), ᚾ naudhr/naud ("need"), ᛁ is/iss ("ice"), ᛅ ar ("plenty"), ᛋ sol ("sun"), ᛏ
Tyr, ' bjarkan/bjarken ("birch"), ᛘ madhr/madr ("man"), ᛚ logr/lög ("water"),
ᛦ yr ("yew").
Evolution
In the 7th century appeared an intermediary form of runes between the
Elder Futhark and the Younger Futhark, but there are very few inscriptions. Two of them are the
Stentoften Runestone and the
Björketorp Runestone, where the
haglaz rune
has evolved into
having the same form as the h-rune of the younger futhark, but it is used for an a-phoneme. The k-rune, which looks like a Y is a transition form between
and
in the two futharks.
The two futharks were in parallel use for some time, and one example of this is the
Rök Runestone.
|
the Younger Futhark (long-branch runes) |
Long-branch runes
The long-branch runes are the following signs:
ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚬ ᚱ ᚴ ᚼ ᚾ ᛁ ᛅ ᛋ ᛏ ' ᛘ ᛚ ᛦShort-twig runes
The short-twig runes (or Rök runes) are a simplified version of the long-branch runes, consisting of the following sixteen signs::
ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚭ ᚱ ᚴ ᚽ ᚿ ᛁ ᛆ ᛌ ᛐ " ᛙ ᛚ ᛧHälsinge Runes (staveless runes)
Hälsinge runes are found in the
Hälsingland region of
Sweden, used between the
10th and
12th centuries. The runes seem to be a simplification of the Swedish–Norwegian runes and lack vertical strokes, hence the name 'staveless.' They cover the same set of letters as the other Younger Futhark alphabets. This variant has no assigned Unicode range (as of Unicode 4.0).
In a treatise called
de inventione litterarum, preserved in 8th and 9th century manuscripts, mainly from the southern part of the
Carolingian Empire (
Alemannia,
Bavaria), ascribed to
Hrabanus Maurus, a runic alphabet consisting of a curious mixture of Elder Futhark with Anglo-Saxon Futhorc is recorded. The alphabet is traditionally called "Marcomannic runes", but it has no connection with the
Marcomanni and is rather an attempt of Carolingian scholars to represent all letters of the Latin alphabets with runic equivalents.
 |
Medieval Runes |
In the middle ages, the younger futhark in Scandinavia was expanded, so that it once more contained one sign for each phoneme of the old norse language. Dotted variants of voiceless signs were introduced to denote the corresponding voiced consonants, or vice versa, voiceless variants of voiced consonants, and several new runes also appeared for vowel sounds. Inscriptions in medieval Scandanavian runes show a large number of variant rune-forms, and some letters, such as
s, c and
z, were often used interchangeably.(Jacobsen & Moltke, 1941-42, p. VII)(Werner, 2004, p. 20)
Medieval runes were in use until the 15th century. Of the total number of Norwegian runic inscriptions preserved today, most are medieval runes. Notably, more than 600 inscriptions using these runes have been discovered in
Bergen since the 1950s, mostly on wooden sticks (the so-called
Bryggen inscriptions). This indicates that runes were in common use side by side with the latin alphabet for several centuries. Indeed some of the medieval runic inscriptions are actually in latin language.
According to Carl-Gustav Werner, "in the isolated province of
Dalarna in Sweden a mix of runes and Latin letters developed."(Werner 2004, p. 7) The Dalecarlian runes came into use in the early 16th century and remained in some use up to the 20th century. Some discussion remains on whether their use was an unbroken tradition throughout this period or whether people in the 19th and 20th centuries learned runes from books written on the subject. The character inventory was mainly used for transcribing
Älvdalen speech.
Third Reich
Runes have been used in
Nazi symbolism by
Nazis and
neo-Nazi groups that associate themselves with Germanic traditions, mainly the
Sigel,
Eihwaz,
Tyr, Odal (see
Odalism) and
Algiz runes.
The fascination that runes seem to have exerted on the Nazis can be traced to the
occult and
völkisch author
Guido von List, one of the important figures in Germanic mysticism and runic revivalism in the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1908, List published in
Das Geheimnis der Runen ("The Secret of the Runes") a set of 18 so-called "
Armanen Runes", based on the Younger Futhark, which were allegedly revealed to him in a state of temporary blindness after a cataract operation on both eyes in 1902.
In Nazi contexts, the
s-rune is referred to as "Sig" (after List, probably from Anglo-Saxon Sigel). The "
Wolfsangel", while not a rune historically, has the shape of List's "Gibor" rune.
Neopaganism
The runes are a major element in
Germanic neopaganism, often used to indicate ancestry, aesthetically in crafts and for ritual purposes.
New Agers and
Wiccans may also sometimes use runes under various conditions, such as
divination.
Modern popular culture
Historical and fictional runes appear commonly in modern popular culture, particularly in fantasy literature, video games and various other forms of media.
Runic alphabets are assigned
Unicode range 16A0–16FF. This block is intended to encode all shapes of runic letters. Each letter is encoded only once, regardless of the number of alphabets in which it occurs.
The block contains 81 symbols: 75 runic letters (16A0–16EA), three punctuation marks(Runic Single Punctuation 16EB ᛫, Runic Multiple Punctuation 16EC ᛬ and Runic Cross Punctuation 16ED ᛭), and three runic symbols that are used in mediaeval calendar staves ("Golden number Runes", Runic Arlaug Symbol 16EE ᛮ, Runic Tvimadur Symbol 16EF ᛯ and Runic Belgthor Symbol 16F0 ᛰ). Characters 16F1–16FF are presently (as of Unicode Version 4.1) unassigned.
Table of runic letters (U+16A0–U+16EA):
| ᚠ | fehu feoh fe f | 16B0 | ᚰ | on | 16C0 | ᛀ | dotted-n | 16D0 | ᛐ | short-twig-tyr t | 16E0 | ᛠ | ear | | 16A1 | ᚡ | v | 16B1 | ᚱ | raido rad reid r | 16C1 | ᛁ | isaz is iss i | 16D1 | ᛑ | d | 16E1 | ᛡ | ior |
| 16A2 | ᚢ | uruz ur u | 16B2 | ᚲ | kauna | 16C2 | ᛂ | e | 16D2 | ' | berkanan beorc bjarkan b | 16E2 | ᛢ | cweorth |
| 16A3 | ᚣ | yr | 16B3 | ᚳ | cen | 16C3 | ᛃ | jeran j | 16D3 | " | short-twig-bjarkan b | 16E3 | ᛣ | calc |
| 16A4 | ᚤ | y | 16B4 | ᚴ | kaun k | 16C4 | ᛄ | ger | 16D4 | " | dotted-p | 16E4 | ᛤ | cealc |
| 16A5 | ᚥ | w | 16B5 | ᚵ | g | 16C5 | ᛅ | long-branch-ar ae | 16D5 | ᛕ | open-p | 16E5 | ᛥ | stan |
| 16A6 | ᚦ | thurisaz thurs thorn | 16B6 | ᚶ | eng | 16C6 | ᛆ | short-twig-ar a | 16D6 | ᛖ | ehwaz eh e | 16E6 | ᛦ | long-branch-yr |
| 16A7 | ᚧ | eth | 16B7 | ᚷ | gebo gyfu g | 16C7 | ᛇ | iwaz eoh | 16D7 | ᛗ | mannaz man m | 16E7 | ᛧ | short-twig-yr |
| 16A8 | ᚨ | ansuz a | 16B8 | ᚸ | gar | 16C8 | ᛈ | pertho peorth p | 16D8 | ᛘ | long-branch-madr m | 16E8 | ᛨ | icelandic-yr |
| 16A9 | ᚩ | os o | 16B9 | ᚹ | wunjo wynn w | 16C9 | ᛉ | algiz eolhx | 16D9 | ᛙ | short-twig-madr m | 16E9 | ᛩ | q |
| 16AA | ᚪ | ac a | 16BA | ᚺ | haglaz h | 16CA | ᛊ | sowilo s | 16DA | ᛚ | laukaz lagu logr l | 16EA | ᛪ | x |
| 16AB | ᚫ | aesc | 16BB | ᚻ | haegl h | 16CB | ᛋ | sigel long-branch-sol s | 16DB | ᛛ | dotted-l |
| 16AC | ᚬ | long-branch-oss o | 16BC | ᚼ | long-branch-hagall h | 16CC | ᛌ | short-twig-sol s | 16DC | ᛜ | ingwaz |
| 16AD | ᚭ | short-twig-oss o | 16BD | ᚽ | short-twig-hagall h | 16CD | ᛍ | c | 16DD | ᛝ | ing |
| 16AE | ᚮ | o | 16BE | ᚾ | naudiz nyd naud n | 16CE | ᛎ | z | 16DE | ᛞ | dagaz daeg d |
| 16AF | ᚯ | oe | 16BF | ᚿ | short-twig-naud n | 16CF | ᛏ | tiwaz tir tyr t | 16DF | ᛟ | othalan ethel o |
The largest group of surviving Runic inscription are
Viking Age Younger Futhark runestones, most commonly found in Sweden. Another large group are medieval runes, most commonly found on small objects, often wooden sticks. The largest concentration of runic inscriptions are the
Bryggen inscriptions found in
Bergen, more than 650 in total.
Elder Futhark inscriptions number around 350 , about 260 of which are from Scandinavia, of which about half are on
bracteates.
Anglo-Saxon Futhorc-inscriptions number around 100 items.
The following table lists the number of known inscriptions (in any alphabet variant) by geographical region:
| Area | number of rune inscriptions | | Sweden | 3432 |
| Norway | 1552 |
| Denmark | 844 |
| Scandinavian total | 5826 |
| Continental Europe except Scandinavia and Frisia | 80 |
| Frisia | 20 |
| The British Isles except Ireland | > 200 |
| Greenland | > 100 |
| Iceland | < 100 |
| Ireland | 16 |
| Faroes | 9 |
| Non-Scandinavian total | > 500 |
| Total | > 6400 |
The 8th century
Orkhon script (sometimes called Old Turkic), and the related medieval
Old Hungarian script are often
called runes, but strictly speaking that term refers only to the Germanic alphabet. For this reason, they are also sometimes referred to as "runiform".
*
Elder Futhark*
Rune poem*
Rune stone*
Solomon and Saturn*
Codex Runicus*
Siglas Poveiras*
Computus Runicus*
Old Italic alphabet*
Ogham, the early Irish monumental alphabet
*the "
Armanen runes", invented by
Guido von List*the
Cirth "runes", invented by
J.R.R. Tolkien*
Runic divination* Brate, Erik (1922).
Sveriges runinskrifter, (
online text in
Swedish)
* Düwel, Klaus (2001).
Runenkunde, Verlag J.B. Metzler (In German).
* Looijenga, J. H. (1997).
Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150-700, dissertation, Groningen University.
* Page, R.I. (1999).
An Introduction to English Runes, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. ISBN 085115946x.
* Robinson, Orrin W. (1992).
Old English and its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804714541
* Spurkland, Terje (2005).
Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions", Boydell Press. ISBN 1843831864
* Werner, Carl-Gustav (2004). The allrunes Font and Package''[ftp://tug.ctan.org/pub/tex-archive/fonts/allrunes/allrunes.pdf].
*
the Futhark (ancientscripts.com)
*
Omniglot Rune Page*
The Development of Old Germanic Alphabets*
'An Introduction to the Visionary Alphabet of the Northern World'(titus.uni-frankfurt.de, with an image of the
Negau helmet)
*Encoding
**
Code2000 shareware
Unicode font by James Kass
**
Friskfonter 1.0 - a compilation of Runic and Gothic fonts (freeware)
**
Unicode Code Chart (PDF)*Divination
**
Meaning of the Runes**
Runes Index (inthestars.co.uk)
