Runic
Type	Alphabet
Spoken languages	Germanic languages
Time period	Elder Futhark from the 2nd century AD. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the Runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes
Parent systems	Phoenician alphabet  → Greek alphabet (Cumae variant)   → Old Italic alphabet    → Runic
Child systems	Younger Futhark, Anglo-Saxon futhorc
Sister systems	Latin alphabet
ISO 15924	Runr
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to originate around 1050 BC The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early The Cumae alphabet, was a western variant of the early Greek alphabet, used between the 8th to 5th centuries BC Old Italic refers to several now extinct Alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European (predominantly Italic The Younger Futhark, also called the Scandinavian runes, is a Runic alphabet, a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters in Futhorc, a Runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons, was descended from the Elder Futhark of 24 runes and contained between 26 and 33 characters ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, defines two sets of codes for a number of Writing systems (scripts In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

History of the alphabet
Middle Bronze Age 19 c. The history of the Alphabet begins in Ancient Egypt, more than a millennium into the History of writing. The Middle Bronze Age alphabets are two similar Undeciphered scripts dated to be from the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1500 BCE and believed to be ancestral BCE Ugaritic 15 c. The Ugaritic alphabet is a Cuneiform Abjad (alphabet without vowels used from around 1500 BCE for the Ugaritic language, an extinct BCE Phoenician 14–11 c. The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to originate around 1050 BC BCE Paleo-Hebrew 10 c. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, also know as Ktav Ivri, is an offshoot of the ancient Semitic alphabet (see the akin Phoenician alphabet) BCE Samaritan 6 c. The Samaritan alphabet is a direct descendant of the paleo-Hebrew variety of the Phoenician alphabet. BCE Aramaic 8 c. The Aramaic alphabet is an Abjad, a Consonantal Alphabet, used for writing Aramaic. BCE Brāhmī & Indic 6 c. Brāhmī script refers to the oldest members of the Brahmic family of alphabets. The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Asia and East Asia, BCE Tibetan 7 c. The Tibetan script is an Abugida of Indic origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Ladakhi language CE Khmer/Javanese 9 c. The Khmer script (អក្ខរក្រមខេមរភាសា âkkhârâkrâm khémârâ phéasa informally aksar Khmer អក្សរខ្មែរ is used to write the The Javanese script, natively known as Carakan ( Tjarakan) is the script originally used to write Javanese. CE Hebrew 3 c. The Hebrew alphabet (אָלֶף-בֵּית עִבְרִי alephbet ’ivri) consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. BCE Syriac 2 c. The Syriac alphabet is a Writing system used to write the Syriac language from around the 2nd century BC. BCE Arabic 4 c. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. CE Pahlavi 3 c. BCE Avestan 4 c. The Avestan alphabet is a writing system developed during the Sassanid era (226-651 in Iran to render the Avestan language. CE Greek 9 c. The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early BCE Etruscan 8 c. Old Italic refers to several now extinct Alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European (predominantly Italic BCE Latin 7 c. BCE Runic 2 c. CE Gothic 3 c. This article is about the 4th century alphabet of the Gothic bible CE Armenian 405 CE Glagolitic 862 CE Cyrillic 10 c. The Armenian alphabet is an Alphabet that has been used to write the Armenian language since the year 405 or 406. The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavic Alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by CE Paleohispanic 7 c. The Paleohispanic scripts are the writing systems created in the Iberian peninsula before the Latin alphabet became the dominant script BCE Epigraphic South Arabian 9 c. The ancient South Arabian alphabet (also known as musnad المُسند branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in about the 9th century BC. BCE Ge'ez 5–6 c. Ge'ez (gez ግዕዝ) also called Ethiopic, is an Abugida script that was originally developed to write Ge'ez, a Semitic language BCE
Meroitic 3 c. The Meroitic script is an Alphabetic script originally derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs used to write the Meroitic language of the Kingdom of Meroë / BCE
Ogham 4 c. Ogham (ogam ˈɔɣam Modern Irish or, English) is an Early Medieval Alphabet used primarily to represent the Old Irish language (and CE
Hangul 1443 CE
Canadian syllabics 1840 CE
Zhuyin 1913 CE
complete genealogy

The Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages prior to the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter. Canadian Aboriginal syllabic writing', or simply syllabics, is a family of Abugidas {dubious}} used to write a number of Aboriginal Canadian Nearly all the segmental scripts (loosely " Alphabets " but see below for more precise terminology used around the globe appear to have derived from the An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either A letter is an element in an Alphabetic system of writing such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. The Scandinavian variants are also known as Futhark (or fuþark, derived from their first six letters of the alphabet: 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). Thorn, or þorn (Þ þ is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic Alphabets It was also used in Medieval Scandinavia Futhorc, a Runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons, was descended from the Elder Futhark of 24 runes and contained between 26 and 33 characters

The earliest runic inscriptions date from around 150 CE, and the alphabet was generally replaced by the Latin alphabet with Christianization by around 700 CE in central Europe and by around 1100 CE in Scandinavia; however, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in Scandinavia, longest in rural Sweden until the early twentieth century (used mainly for decoration as runes in Dalarna and on Runic calendars). The historical phenomenon of Christianization (or Christianisation &mdash see spelling differences) the conversion of individuals to Christianity "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. The Runic calendar is a Perpetual calendar based on the 19 year long Metonic cycle of the Moon

The three best-known runic alphabets are the Elder Futhark (around 150 to 800 CE), the Anglo-Saxon runes (400 to 1100 CE), and the Younger Futhark (800–1100). The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the Runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes Futhorc, a Runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons, was descended from the Elder Futhark of 24 runes and contained between 26 and 33 characters The Younger Futhark, also called the Scandinavian runes, is a Runic alphabet, a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters in The Younger Futhark is further divided into the long-branch runes (also called Danish, although they were also used in Norway and Sweden), short-twig or Rök runes (also called Swedish-Norwegian, although they were also used in Denmark), and the Hälsinge runes (staveless runes). Staveless runes were the climax of the simplification process in the evolution of Runic alphabets that had started when the Elder Futhark was superseded by the The Younger Futhark developed further into the Marcomannic runes, the Medieval runes (1100 CE to 1500 CE), and the Dalecarlian runes (around 1500 to 1800 CE). The medieval runes, or the futhork, was a Scandinavian 27 letter Runic alphabet that evolved from the Younger Futhark after the introduction of Elfdalian ( Övdalsk or Övdalską in Elfdalian Älvdalska or Älvdalsmål in Swedish) is a linguistic variety of the

The origins of the runic alphabet is 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 BCE Northern Italic alphabets: Lepontic, Rhaetic and Venetic, all of which are closely related to each other and descend from the Old Italic alphabet. Lepontic is an extinct Celtic language that was spoken in parts of Rhaetia and Cisalpine Gaul (today's Northern Italy) between 700 For the modern Romance languages spoken in Switzerland and North-Eastern Italy see Rhaeto-Romance languages. Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken in ancient times in the North- Italian Veneto and modern Slovenia, between Old Italic refers to several now extinct Alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European (predominantly Italic

Contents 1 Background 1.1 Origins 1.1.1 Mythological 1.1.2 Historical 1.2 Runic divination 1.3 Common use 1.4 Gothic runes 1.5 Later development 2 Body of runic inscriptions 3 Elder Futhark 4 Frisian and Anglo-Saxon runes 5 Younger Fuþark 5.1 Names 5.2 Evolution 5.3 Long-branch runes 5.4 Short-twig runes 5.5 Hälsinge runes (staveless runes) 6 "Marcomannic runes" 7 Medieval runes 8 Dalecarlian runes 9 Runology 10 Modern use 10.1 Occultism and Nazi Germany 10.2 J. R. R. Tolkien 10.3 Neopaganism and New Age 10.4 Modern popular culture 11 Unicode 12 See also 13 Notes 14 References 15 External links 15.1 Encoding

Background

The runes were introduced to the Germanic peoples in the 1st or 2nd century CE. The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic (The oldest known runic inscription dates to around 150 CE and is found on a comb discovered in the bog of Vimose, Funen, Denmark. Funen ( Danish: Fyn; ˈfyːˀn with a size of 2984 km² (1152 sq ^[1] The inscription reads harja; a disputed candidate for a 1st century inscription is on the Meldorf fibula in southern Jutland). The Meldorf fibula is a Germanic spring-case-type fibula found in Meldorf, Schleswig-Holstein in 1979. This article is about the region of Denmark. For the World War I naval battle see Battle of Jutland. This period may correspond to the late Proto-Germanic or Common Germanic stage linguistically, with a continuum of dialects not yet clearly separated into the three branches of later centuries; North Germanic, West Germanic, and East Germanic. Proto-Germanic, or Common Germanic, is the hypothetical common ancestor ( Proto-language) of all the Germanic languages such as modern English The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of Languages and include languages such as English The Germanic tribes referred to as East Germanic constitute a wave of Migrants who may have moved from Scandinavia into the area between the Oder

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. The term labiovelar is ambiguous It may mean labial-velar (a Consonant made at two places of articulation, one at the lips and the other at the soft Futhorc, a Runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons, was descended from the Elder Futhark of 24 runes and contained between 26 and 33 characters This article is about the 4th century alphabet of the Gothic bible is the rune denoting the sound p in the Elder Futhark Runic alphabet, in the Anglo-Saxon Rune poem named peorð. )

The name given to the signs, contrasting them with Latin or Greek letters, is attested on a 6th century Alammanic runestaff as runa, and possibly as runo on the 4th century Einang stone. The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Main river ( Germany The Einang stone ( Einangsteinen) is a Runestone near Fagernes, Norway. The name is from a root run- (Gothic runa), meaning "secret" or "whisper" (In Finnish, the term runo was loaned to mean "poem"). Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside

Origins

Mythological

In Norse mythology, the runic alphabet is attested to a divine origin (Old Norse: reginkunnr). Norse mythology comprises the indigenous pre-Christian religion, beliefs and Legends of the Scandinavian peoples including those who settled on Iceland Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age This is attested as early as on the Noleby Runestone from around 600 CE that reads Runo fahi raginakundo toj[e'k]a. The Noleby Runestone, Fyrunga Runestone or Vg 63 is a Runestone in Proto-Norse which is engraved with the Elder Futhark. . . , meaning "I prepare the suitable divine rune . . . "^[2] and in an attestation from the 9th century on the Sparlösa Runestone which reads Ok rað runaR þaR rægi[n]kundu, meaning "And interpret the runes of divine origin". The Sparlösa Runestone in Västergötland is the second most famous Swedish Runestone after the Rök Runestone. ^[3] More notably, in the Poetic Edda poem Hávamál, Stanza 80, the runes are also described as reginkunnr:

Þat er þá reynt, er þú að rúnum spyrr inum reginkunnum, þeim er gerðu ginnregin ok fáði fimbulþulr, þá hefir hann bazt, ef hann þegir. The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval Manuscript Codex Regius. Hávamál (" Sayings of the high one " is presented as a single poem in the Poetic Edda. [4]

That is now proved, what you asked of the runes, of the potent famous ones, which the great gods made, and the mighty sage stained, that it is best for him if he stays silent. [5]

The poem Hávamál explains that the originator of the runes was the major god Odin. Odin (ˈoʊdɪn from Old Norse Óðinn) is considered the chief god in Norse paganism. Stanza 138 describes how Odin received the runes through self-sacrifice:

Veit ec at ec hecc vindga meiði a netr allar nío, geiri vndaþr oc gefinn Oðni, sialfr sialfom mer, a þeim meiþi, er mangi veit, hvers hann af rótom renn.

I know that I hung on a windy tree nine long nights, wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin, myself to myself, on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run. [6]

In stanza 139, Odin continues:

Við hleifi mic seldo ne viþ hornigi, nysta ec niþr, nam ec vp rvnar, opandi nam, fell ec aptr þaðan.

No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn, downwards I peered; I took up the runes, screaming I took them, then I fell back from there. A drinking horn was a Drinking vessel formerly common in some parts of the world and notably in Northern Europe. [6]

In the Poetic Edda poem Rígsþula another origin is related of how the runic alphabet became known to man. The poem relates how Ríg, identified as Heimdall in the introduction, sired three sons (Thrall (slave), Churl (freeman) and Jarl (noble)) on human women. Heimdall ( Old Norse Heimdallr, the prefix Heim- means home, the affix -dallr is of uncertain origin is one of the Æsir A thrall ( Þræll; Þír, f) was a variety of slave in Scandinavian culture during the Viking Age. A churl (etymologically the same name as Charles / Carl and Old High German „karal“ in its earliest Anglo-Saxon meaning was simply "a man" Earl was the Anglo-Saxon form and jarl the Scandinavian form of a title meaning " Chieftain " and referring especially to chieftains These sons became the ancestors of the three classes of men indicated by their names. When Jarl reached an age when he began to handle weapons and show other signs of nobility, Rig returned and, having claimed him as a son, taught him the runes. 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. Olaus Magnus ( Olaus Magni or Olaus Magni Gothus) was a Swedish Ecclesiastic and Writer, who did pioneering work for the interest of Kettil Runske was according to Olaus Magnus ' Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus ( 1555) the man who brought Runes to humankind

Historical

Main article: Elder Futhark

The runes developed centuries after the Mediterranean alphabets from which they are potentially 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 Bolzano, is often 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 (Mees 2000). The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to originate around 1050 BC Old Italic refers to several now extinct Alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European (predominantly Italic For the modern Romance languages spoken in Switzerland and North-Eastern Italy see Rhaeto-Romance languages. For the mathematician see Bernard Bolzano; for other uses see Bolzano (disambiguation. This hypothesis is often denied by Scandinavian scholars, who usually favour a Latin origin for most or all of the runic letters (Odenstedt 1990; Williams 1996). ^[7] An Old Italic or "North Etruscan" thesis is supported by the inscription on the Negau helmet dating to the 2nd century BCE (Markey 2001). Negau helmet refers to one of 28 bronze Helmets (23 of which are preserved dating to ca This is in a northern Etruscan alphabet, but features a Germanic name, Harigast. New archaeological evidence came from Monte Calvario (Auronzo di Cadore).

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 is also shared by other alphabets, such as the early form of the Latin alphabet used for the Duenos inscription. The Duenos Inscription is one of the earliest known Old Latin texts dating from the early 6th century BCE

The "West Germanic hypothesis" speculates on an introduction by West Germanic tribes. The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of Languages and include languages such as English The West Germanic tribes were Germanic peoples who spoke the branch of Germanic languages known as West Germanic languages. This hypothesis is based on claiming that the earliest inscriptions of around 200 CE, found in bogs and graves around Jutland (the Vimose inscriptions), exhibit word endings that, being interpreted by Scandinavian scholars to be Proto-Norse, are considered unresolved and having been long the subject of discussion. Finds from Vimose, Funen, Denmark include some of the very oldest datable Elder Futhark inscriptions in late Proto-Germanic or early Proto-Norse Terminology and usage As a cultural term "Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question as well Proto-Norse (also Proto-Scandinavian, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Ancient Nordic, Old Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic Inscriptions like wagnija, niþijo, and harija are supposed to incarnate tribenames, tentatively proposed to be Vangiones, the Nidensis and the Harii, tribes located in the Rhineland. The Vangiones appear first in history as an ancient Germanic tribe of unknown provenience Among the Germanic tribes mentioned by Tacitus in his Germania were the Harii. ^[8] Since names ending in -io reflect Germanic morphology representing the Latin ending -ius, and the suffix -inius was reflected by Germanic -inio-,^[9] the question of the problematic ending -ijo in masculine Proto-Norse would be resolved by assuming Roman (Rhineland) influences, while "the awkward ending -a of laguþewa (cf. Syrett 1994:44f. ) can be solved by accepting the fact that the name may indeed be West Germanic;"^[10] however, it should be noted that in the early Runic period differences between Germanic languages are generally assumed to be minute. Another theory assumes a Northwest Germanic unity preceding the emergence of Proto-Norse proper from roughly the 5th century. Northwest Germanic is a proposed grouping of the Germanic dialects ^[11] An alternative suggestion explaining the impossibility to classify the earliest inscriptions as either North or West Germanic is forwarded by È. A. Makaev, who assumes a "special runic koine", an early "literary Germanic" employed by the entire Late Common Germanic linguistic community after the separation of Gothic (2nd to 5th centuries), while the spoken dialects may already have been more diverse. Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in ^[12]

The formation of the Elder Futhark was complete by the early 5th century, with the Kylver Stone being the first evidence of the futhark ordering as well as of the p rune. The Kylver stone ( G 88) is a Swedish Runestone which dates from about 400 CE

Runic divination

Main article: Runic divination

In stanza 157 of Hávamál, the runes are attributed with the power to bring that which is dead to life. Hávamál (" Sayings of the high one " is presented as a single poem in the Poetic Edda. In this stanza, Odin recounts a spell:

Þat kann ec iþ tolpta, ef ec se a tre vppi vafa virgilná: sva ec rist oc i rvnom fác, at sa gengr gvmi oc melir viþ mic.

I know a twelfth one if I see, up in a tree, a dangling corpse in a noose, I can so carve and colour the runes, that the man walks And talks with me. [13]

The earliest runic inscriptions found on artifacts give the name of either the craftsman or the proprietor, or, sometimes, remain a linguistic mystery. Due to 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. Magic, sometimes known as sorcery, is a Conceptual system that asserts human ability to control the natural world (including events objects people and Divination (from Latin divinare "to be inspired by a god" related to Divine, Diva and Deus) is the attempt of ascertaining 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 6th century Björketorp Runestone warns in Proto-Norse using the word rune in both senses:

Haidzruno runu, falahak haidera, ginnarunaz. The Björketorp Runestone ( DR 360 U) in Blekinge, Sweden, is part of a grave field which includes Menhirs both solitary and forming stone Proto-Norse (also Proto-Scandinavian, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Ancient Nordic, Old Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic Arageu haeramalausz uti az. Weladaude, sa'z þat barutz. Uþarba spa.

I, master of the runes(?) conceal here runes of power. Incessantly (plagued by) maleficence, (doomed to) insidious death (is) he who breaks this (monument). I prophesy destruction / prophecy of destruction. ^[14]

The same curse and use of the word rune is also found on the Stentoften Runestone. The Stentoften Runestone ( DR 357 U) is a Runestone which contains a curse in Proto-Norse, discovered in 1823 by the dean O There are also some inscriptions suggesting a medieval belief in the magical significance of runes, such as the Franks Casket (700 CE) panel. The Franks Casket (or the Auzon Runic Casket) is a small whalebone chest carved with narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-relief and inscribed with Anglo-Saxon

Charm words, such as auja, laþu, laukaR and most commonly, alu,^[15] appear on a number of Migration period Elder Futhark inscriptions as well as variants and abbreviations of them. Alu is a Germanic charm word appearing on numerous runic inscriptions found in Central and Northern Europe dating from between 200 and 800 CE The Migration Period, also called Barbarian Invasions, or sometimes Völkerwanderung ( German for "wandering of peoples" is the English name Much speculation and study has been produced on the potential meaning of these inscriptions. Rhyming groups appear on some early bracteates that may also be magic in purpose, such as salusalu and luwatuwa. Further, an inscription on the Gummarp Runestone (500 to 700 CE) gives a cryptic inscription describing the use of three staves (runic letters) followed by the Elder Futhark f-rune written three times in succession. The Gummarp Runestone was a Runestone from the Vendel era and which was located in Gummarp in the province of Blekinge, Sweden. ^[16]

Nevertheless, 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. Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age There are at least three sources on divination with rather vague descriptions that may or may not refer to runes: Tacitus's 1st century Germania, Snorri Sturluson's 13th century Ynglinga saga and Rimbert's 9th century Vita Ansgari. Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca 56 &ndash ca 117 was a senator and a Historian of the Roman Empire. The Germania ( Latin title De Origine et situ Germanorum, English for the Origin and Situation of the Germans) written by Gaius The Ynglinga saga was originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson about 1225. Saint Rimbert or Rembert (d 11 June, 888) was Archbishop of Bremen -Hamburg from 865 until his death Vita Ansgari is the biography of Ansgar, written by Rimbert, his successor as archbishop in Hamburg-Bremen.

The first source, Tacitus's 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. Granmar was a king of Södermanland, in Snorri Sturluson 's Heimskringla. sometimes referred to under its Latin form Sudermannia, is a historical province or landskap on the south eastern coast of Sweden. Gamla Uppsala ("Old Uppsala" is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. The blót ( Old Norse plural same as singular refers to Norse pagan sacrifice to the Norse gods and Elves. 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". Anund Uppsale or Anoundus ( Old Norse: Önundr Uppsali) ruled Sweden together with his brother Björn at Haugi, according to Rimbert For a group of islands in the Gulf of Finland, see Berezovye Islands. 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 and additional outside influence.

A recent study of runic magic suggests that runes were used to create magical objects such as amulets (MacLeod and Mees 2006), but not in a way that would indicate that runic writing was any more inherently magical than were other writing systems such as Latin or Greek.

Common use

Some later runic finds are on monuments (runestones), which often contain solemn inscriptions about people who died or performed great deeds. A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock 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.

In the mid-1950s, however, about 600 inscriptions known as the Bryggen inscriptions were found in Bergen. The Bryggen inscriptions are a find of some 670 medieval runic Inscriptions on wood (mostly Pine) and bone found from 1955 and forth at is the second largest city in Norway. It is located on the south-western coast of Norway in the county of Hordaland in between a group of mountains known as De syv fjell 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 and expressions of affection to bawdy phrases of a profane and sometimes even vulgar nature. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. 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 Runic calendar is a Perpetual calendar based on the 19 year long Metonic cycle of the Moon 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). Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. Very few Elder Futhark inscriptions in the Gothic language have been found in the territory historically settled by the Goths ( Wielbark culture, Chernyakhov The t - Rune is named after Tyr, and was identified with this god In Norse mythology, Dagr ( Old Norse "day" is Day personified If there ever were genuinely Gothic runes, they were soon replaced by the Gothic alphabet. This article is about the 4th century alphabet of the Gothic bible The letters of the Gothic alphabet, however, as given by the Alcuin manuscript (9th century), are obviously related to the names of the Futhark. Alcuin of York (Alcuinus or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus (c 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 3rd to fifth century Ring of Pietroassa. The Ring of Pietroassa (or Buzău torc) is a gold torc

Later development

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 to itself to represent diphthongs unique to (or at least prevalent in) the Anglo-Saxon dialect. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with

Nevertheless, the fact that the Younger Futhark has 16 runes, while the Elder Futhark has 24, is not fully explained by the some 600 years of sound changes that had occurred in the North Germanic language group. The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages 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 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.

Body of runic inscriptions

The largest group of surviving Runic inscription are Viking Age Younger Futhark runestones, most commonly found in Sweden. Viking Age is the term denoting the years from about 700 to 1066 in European history. The Younger Futhark, also called the Scandinavian runes, is a Runic alphabet, a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters in 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. The Bryggen inscriptions are a find of some 670 medieval runic Inscriptions on wood (mostly Pine) and bone found from 1955 and forth at is the second largest city in Norway. It is located on the south-western coast of Norway in the county of Hordaland in between a group of mountains known as De syv fjell Elder Futhark inscriptions number around 350, about 260 of which are from Scandinavia, of which about half are on bracteates. The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the Runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes A bracteate (from the Latin bractea, a thin piece of metal is a flat thin single-sided Gold coin produced in Northern Europe predominantly Anglo-Saxon futhorc inscriptions number around 100 items. Futhorc, a Runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons, was descended from the Elder Futhark of 24 runes and contained between 26 and 33 characters

The following table lists the number of known inscriptions (in any alphabet variant) by geographical region:

Area	Number of runic inscriptions
Sweden	3,432
Norway	1,552
Denmark	844
Scandinavian total	5,826
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	> 6,400

Elder Futhark

Main article: Elder Futhark

The Elder Futhark, used for writing Proto-Norse, consists of 24 runes that are often arranged in three groups of eight; each group is referred to as an Ætt. The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the Runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes Proto-Norse (also Proto-Scandinavian, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Ancient Nordic, Old Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic The Scandinavian clan or ætt (ˈɛtt in Old Norse) was a social group based on common descent or on the formal acceptance into the group at a þing The earliest known sequential listing of the full set of 24 runes dates to around 400 CE and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland, Sweden. The Kylver stone ( G 88) is a Swedish Runestone which dates from about 400 CE is a county, province and municipality of Sweden and the largest Island in the Baltic Sea.

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 produced, based on the names given for the runes in the later alphabets attested in the rune poems and the linked names of the letters of the Gothic alphabet. Linguistic reconstruction is the practice of establishing the features of the unattested ancestor ( Proto-language) of one or more given languages Proto-Germanic, or Common Germanic, is the hypothetical common ancestor ( Proto-language) of all the Germanic languages such as modern English The Rune Poems are three poems that list the letters of Runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter This article is about the 4th century alphabet of the Gothic bible The asterisk before the rune names means that they are unattested reconstructions. The 24 Elder Futhark runes are:^[17]

Rune	Value	Proto-Germanic name	Meaning
	F	*fehu	"Money, wealth, cattle"
	U	*ūruz	"Aurochs" (or ûram "water/slag"?) "strength, power"
	TH (Þ)	?*þurisaz	"Giant, monster"
	A	*ansuz	"Æsir"
	R	*raidō	"Ride, journey"
	K	Unknown, possibly *kaunan?	Old English cen "ulcer", Old Norse kaun "torch"
	G	*gebō	"Gift"
	W	*wunjō	"Joy"
	H	*hagalaz	"Hail (precipitation)"
	N	*naudiz	"Need"
	I	*īsa-	"Ice"
	J/Y	*jēra-	"Year, fruitful time of the year"
	EI	*ī(h)waz/*Eihwaz	"Yew-tree"
	P	?*perþ-	Meaning unclear. The Fe Rune ( Old Norse fé; Old English feoh) represents the f -sound in the Younger The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark u rune is *Ūruz meaning " wild ox " or *Ûram The aurochs or urus ( Bos taurus primigenius) was a very large type of cattle that was prevalent in Europe until its Extinction in 1627 Thorn, or þorn (Þ þ is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic Alphabets It was also used in Medieval Scandinavia The Germanic Rune is called Thurs ( Þurs "giant" see Jötunn) in the Icelandic and Norwegian Rune poems A jötunn, sometimes anglicized as jotun (pronounced yotun is a giant in Norse mythology, a member of a race of nature spirits with superhuman strength In Old Norse, áss (or ǫ́ss ás, plural æsir, feminine ásynja, feminine plural ásynjur) is the term denoting one of the principal *Raidô "ride journey" is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the r - Rune of the Elder Futhark. The k - Rune (Younger Futhark, Anglo-Saxon futhorc) is called Kaun in both the Norwegian and Icelandic Rune poems meaning " Gyfu is the name for the g - Rune in the Anglo-Saxon Rune poem, meaning "gift" or "generosity" Wynn ( (also spelled wen, ƿynn, or ƿen) was a letter of the Old English alphabet. *Haglaz or *Hagalaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the h - Rune, meaning " Hail " (the precipitation Hail is a form of precipitation which consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice (hailstones *Naudiz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the n - Rune, meaning "need distress" *Isaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the i - Rune, meaning " Ice " Eiwaz or Eihaz (reconstructed *īhaz / *ēhaz or *īwaz / *ēwaz) was a Proto-Germanic word for " yew " Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest is the rune denoting the sound p in the Elder Futhark Runic alphabet, in the Anglo-Saxon Rune poem named peorð.
	Z, later R.	?*algiz	Unclear, possibly "elk". *Algiz, sometimes *Elhaz, is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name for the rune, representing the Proto-Germanic terminal -z The moose (North America or elk (Europe Alces alces, is the largest extant Species in the Deer family.
	S	*sōwilō	"Sun"
	T	*tīwaz/*teiwaz	"The god Tiw (Later Tyr)"
	B	*berkanan	"Birch twig"
	E	*ehwaz	"Horse"
	M	*mannaz	"Man"
	L	*laguz	"Water" (or possibly *laukaz meaning "leek")
	NG	*ingwaz	"The god Ing"
	O	*ōþila-/*ōþala-	"Hereditary land, possession"
	D	*dagaz	"Day"

Frisian and Anglo-Saxon runes

Main article: Anglo-Saxon runes

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. Frisia ( West Frisian: Fryslân; North Frisian: Fraschlönj, Freesklöön, Freeskluin, Fresklun, and England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland 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 Cotton Otho B. The Thames Scramasax is a 9th century weapon recovered from the Thames at Battersea, London The Codex Vindobonensis 795 ( Vienna Austrian National Library Codex is a 9th century manuscript The Cotton or Cottonian library was the Library compiled by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571 - 1631 an antiquarian and bibliophile x (Anglo-Saxon rune poem) and on the Ruthwell Cross. The Rune Poems are three poems that list the letters of Runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter The Ruthwell Cross is an important Anglo-Saxon Cross, also known as a Preaching cross, dating back to the eighth century when Ruthwell

The Anglo-Saxon rune poem gives the following characters and names: 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, ᛒ 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 features the additional letters ᛢ cweorth, ᛣ calc, ᛤ cealc and ᛥ stan- 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. Not to be confused with the unrelated ʒ. For the rune transcribed as ȝ, see Gyfu. Wynn ( (also spelled wen, ƿynn, or ƿen) was a letter of the Old English alphabet. Middle English is the name given by Historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of

Younger Fuþark

Main article: Younger Futhark

The Younger Fuþark, also called Scandinavian Fuþark, is a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters. The Younger Futhark, also called the Scandinavian runes, is a Runic alphabet, a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters in The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the Runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes The reduction correlates with phonetic changes when Proto-Norse evolved into Old Norse. Proto-Norse (also Proto-Scandinavian, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Ancient Nordic, Old Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age They are found in Scandinavia and Viking Age settlements abroad, probably in use from the 9th century onward. Viking Age is the term denoting the years from about 700 to 1066 in European history. 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 everyday use for private or official messages on wood.

Names

The Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems describe 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, ᛒ bjarkan/bjarken ("birch"), ᛘ madhr/madr ("man"), ᛚ logr/lög ("water"), ᛦ yr ("yew"). The Rune Poems are three poems that list the letters of Runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter The Yr rune is a Rune of the Younger Futhark. The name yr means "yew" in Old Norse.

Evolution

In the 7th century an intermediary form of runes between the Elder Futhark and the Younger Futhark appeared, but there are very few inscriptions. The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the Runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes Two of them are the Stentoften Runestone and the Björketorp Runestone, where there is a new rune , having the same form as the h rune of the Younger Futhark, but it is used for an a-phoneme. The Stentoften Runestone ( DR 357 U) is a Runestone which contains a curse in Proto-Norse, discovered in 1823 by the dean O The Björketorp Runestone ( DR 360 U) in Blekinge, Sweden, is part of a grave field which includes Menhirs both solitary and forming stone The k rune, which looks like a y, is a transition form between and in the two futharks. A somewhat later example is the Snoldelev Stone where the transition is almost complete. The 9th century Runestone at Snoldelev, Ramsø, Denmark, is decorated with a design of three Drinking horns interlocking as incomplete It uses what is an early version of the Younger Futhark, but like the Björketorp runestone it still uses for an a-phoneme and it retains the h-rune, , of the elder futhark.

Long-branch runes

The long-branch runes are the following signs:

Short-twig runes

The short-twig runes (or Rök runes) are a simplified version of the long-branch runes, consisting of the following 16 signs:

Hälsinge runes (staveless runes)

The Hälsinge runes are named after the traditional province of Hälsingland in Sweden, where they were first noted in modern times; however, they were used in a considerably larger area, and they were used between the 10th and 12th centuries. Staveless runes were the climax of the simplification process in the evolution of Runic alphabets that had started when the Elder Futhark was superseded by the is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. It borders to Gästrikland, Dalarna, Härjedalen, Medelpad "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. 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).

"Marcomannic runes"

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. Carolingian Empire is a historiographical term sometimes used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty. Alamannia or Alemannia was the territory inhabited by the Alamanni after they broke through the Roman limes in 213 Bavaria ( German:, with an area of 70553 Km² (27241 square miles and almost 12 Rabanus Maurus Magnentius (c 780 &ndash 4 February 856) also known as Hrabanus or Rhabanus, was a Frankish Benedictine 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. Marcomanni were a Germanic tribe, probably related to the Buri, Suebi or Suevi

Medieval runes

Main article: 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 Scandinavian runes show a large number of variant rune forms, and some letters, such as s, c and z, were often used interchangeably. ^[18][19]

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). is the second largest city in Norway. It is located on the south-western coast of Norway in the county of Hordaland in between a group of mountains known as De syv fjell The Bryggen inscriptions are a find of some 670 medieval runic Inscriptions on wood (mostly Pine) and bone found from 1955 and forth at 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.

Dalecarlian runes

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 Elfdalian. Elfdalian ( Övdalsk or Övdalską in Elfdalian Älvdalska or Älvdalsmål in Swedish) is a linguistic variety of the

Runology

Main article: Runology

Runology is the study of the Runic alphabets, Runic inscriptions and their history. This article is about the philological discipline not to be confused with occultist concepts like Runosophy. Runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics.

Modern use

Runic alphabets have seen numerous usages in modern use, usually in association with or referencing Germanic paganism. Germanic paganism refers to the religious beliefs of the Germanic peoples preceding Christianization.

Occultism and Nazi Germany

The pioneer of the Armanist branch of Ariosophy and one of the more important figures in esotericism in Germany and Austria in the late 19th and early 20th century was the Austrian occultist, mysticist and völkisch author Guido von List. Armanism and Ariosophy are the names of ideological systems of an Esoteric nature pioneered by Guido von List and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels This article gives an overview of esoteric movements in Germany and Austria between 1880 and 1945 presenting Theosophy, Anthroposophy Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich The völkisch movement is the German interpretation of the populist movement with a romantic focus on Folklore and the "organic" Guido Karl Anton List, better known as Guido von List ( October 5, 1848, in Vienna, &ndash May 17, 1919, in In 1908, he published in Das Geheimnis der Runen ("The Secret of the Runes") a set of 18 so-called "Armanen runes", based on the Younger Futhark and runes of List's own introduction, which were allegedly revealed to him in a state of temporary blindness after a cataract operation on both eyes in 1902. The Armanen runes, or Armanen 'Futharkh' as List referred to them are a row of 18 Runes that are closely based on the Younger Futhark which were "revealed

Runes have been used in Nazi symbolism by Nazis and Neo-Nazi groups that associate themselves with Germanic traditions, mainly the Sig, Eihwaz, Tiwaz, Odal and Algiz runes. The twentieth century German Nazi Party was notable for its extensive use of graphic Symbolism, most notably the Hakenkreuz ( Swastika) which it used Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German The term neo-Nazism refers to post- World War II Political movements Social movements and ideologies seeking to revive Nazism, Sig is the name given by Guido von List for the Sigel or s Rune of the Armanen Futharkh, and is also used by Karl Maria Wiligut Eiwaz or Eihaz (reconstructed *īhaz / *ēhaz or *īwaz / *ēwaz) was a Proto-Germanic word for " yew " The t - Rune is named after Tyr, and was identified with this god The Elder Futhark Odal Rune ( represents the o sound Its reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is * ôþalan. *Algiz, sometimes *Elhaz, is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name for the rune, representing the Proto-Germanic terminal -z

The fascination that runes seem to have exerted on the Nazis can be traced to Guido von List. Guido Karl Anton List, better known as Guido von List ( October 5, 1848, in Vienna, &ndash May 17, 1919, in His rune row, however, was later rejected by the Nazis in favor of the Wiligut runes created by the official Nazi Runologist Karl Maria Wiligut. The Wiligut runes are a runic row developed by Karl Maria Wiligut in 1934, Wiligut rejected Guido von List 's Armanen runes and his overall philosophy Karl Maria Wiligut (alias Weisthor, Jarl Widar, Lobesam and Karl Maria Weisthor) ( December 10, 1866 - January 3

In Nazi contexts, the s rune is referred to as "Sig" (after List, probably from Anglo-Saxon Sigel). Sig is the name given by Guido von List for the Sigel or s Rune of the Armanen Futharkh, and is also used by Karl Maria Wiligut The "Wolfsangel", while not a rune historically, has the shape of List's "Gibor" rune; however, it should be noted that the shape of the Armanen rune "Gibor", as envisaged by Von List, is substantially different from the form currently used. Gibor is one of the Armanen runes devised by Guido von List in 1902 (published in his 1908 Das Geheimnis der Runen) Who exactly it is that changed the shape of Gibor is open to debate, but it appeared in its "new form" in the early 1930s. Nevertheless, if one examines Von List's original documents, one will find a somewhat different design, one that bares little resemblance to the "Wolfsangel".

Another modern-day runic row is the Uthark, commonly known through the work of the Swedish scholar and occultist Thomas Karlsson, founder of the Ordo Draconis et Atri Adamantis (or Dragon Rouge), who refers to them as the "night side of the runes". In the Occult study of the esoteric meaning of runes the Uthark theory was first suggested in the 1930s by philologist Sigurd Agrell (1881 -1937, a Swedish "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Thomas Karlsson is a scholar with an MA in the History of Ideas and another in History of Religion at Stockholm University, and currently a Ph Dragon Rouge or the Ordo Draconis et Atri Adamantis, is a magical order which was founded on New Year's Eve 1989 in Sweden whose members practice Occult Dragon Rouge or the Ordo Draconis et Atri Adamantis, is a magical order which was founded on New Year's Eve 1989 in Sweden whose members practice Occult This runic row and theory had however been the subject of an earlier study by the Swedish philologist Sigurd Agrell. See Comparative linguistics for the narrower field of "comparative philology"

J. R. R. Tolkien

In J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, the Anglo-Saxon runes are used on a map to emphasize its connection to the Dwarves. The Hobbit or There and Back Again is an award-winning fantasy They were also used in the initial drafts of The Lord of the Rings, but later were replaced by the Cirth rune-like alphabet invented by Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings is an epic The Cirth (" Runes " are the letters of an Artificial script which was invented by J

Neopaganism and New Age

As forms of Neopaganism can be quite different and have distinctive origins, recognition and usage of runes can vary considerably.

As with Germanic paganism in general, the runes are a major element in Germanic neopaganism used for a wide variety of purposes in varying senses of reconstructionism, depending on the type of group. Germanic paganism refers to the religious beliefs of the Germanic peoples preceding Christianization. Germanic Neopaganism, Heathenism or Heathenry is the modern revival of historical Germanic paganism. Polytheistic reconstructionism, or simply Reconstructionism, is an approach to Neopaganism first emerging in the late 1960s to early 1970s and gatherig momentum

New Agers and some Wiccans may also sometimes use runes under various (generally non-reconstructive) conditions, such as divination. New Age ( New Age Movement and New Age Spirituality) is a Social Collective Phenomenon and a Spiritual Nature

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. Runes also appear frequently in video games, such as RuneScape and Kameo. RuneScape is a Java -based MMORPG ( Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) operated by Jagex Ltd Kameo Elements of Power is a Video game launched for the Microsoft Xbox 360 Video game console and developed by Rare

Unicode

Runic alphabets are assigned Unicode range 16A0–16FF. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's 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). The Runic calendar is a Perpetual calendar based on the 19 year long Metonic cycle of the Moon The Runic calendar is a Perpetual calendar based on the 19 year long Metonic cycle of the Moon The Runic calendar is a Perpetual calendar based on the 19 year long Metonic cycle of the Moon Characters 16F1–16FF are unassigned (as of Unicode Version 5. 0).

Unicode fonts that support the runic range include the following Free Unicode fonts; Junicode, Free Mono, and Caslon Roman and the following non-free Unicode fonts; Code2000, Everson Mono, and TITUS Cyberbit Basic. A few projects exist to provide free software Unicode typefaces, i Junicode (short for Junius-Unicode is a free Unicode Typeface for medievalists designed by Peter S Free UCS Outline Fonts (also known as freefont) is a project for developing fonts by collecting characters from other free fonts and joining them in one package For other uses or meanings of Caslon see Caslon (disambiguation. Code2000 is a pan- Unicode digital font, which includes characters and symbols from a very large range of Writing systems It is designed and implemented Everson Mono is a Monospaced transitional Sans serif Unicode font whose development by Michael Everson began in 1995. Bitstream Cyberbit is a commercial Unicode font designed by Bitstream Inc.

Table of runic letters (U+16A0–U+16EA):

16A0

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

ᛒ

berkanan beorc bjarkan b

16E2

ᛢ

cweorth

16A3

ᚣ

yr

16B3

ᚳ

cen

16C3

ᛃ

jeran j

16D3

ᛓ

short-twig-bjarkan b

16E3

ᛣ

calc

16A4

ᚤ

y

16B4

ᚴ

kaun k

16C4

ᛄ

ger

16D4

ᛔ

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

16EB

᛫

single punctuation

16AC

ᚬ

long-branch-oss o

16BC

ᚼ

long-branch-hagall h

16CC

ᛌ

short-twig-sol s

16DC

ᛜ

ingwaz

16EC

᛬

multiple punctuation

16AD

ᚭ

short-twig-oss o

16BD

ᚽ

short-twig-hagall h

16CD

ᛍ

c

16DD

ᛝ

ing

16ED

᛭

cross punctuation

16AE

ᚮ

o

16BE

ᚾ

naudiz nyd naud n

16CE

ᛎ

z

16DE

ᛞ

dagaz daeg d

16EE

ᛮ

arlaug symbol

16AF

ᚯ

oe

16BF

ᚿ

short-twig-naud n

16CF

ᛏ

tiwaz tir tyr t

16DF

ᛟ

othalan ethel o

16EF

ᛯ

tvimadur symbol

16F0

ᛰ

belgthor symbol

Runic Unicode.org chart (PDF)
U+	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
16A0	ᚠ	ᚡ	ᚢ	ᚣ	ᚤ	ᚥ	ᚦ	ᚧ	ᚨ	ᚩ	ᚪ	ᚫ	ᚬ	ᚭ	ᚮ	ᚯ
16B0	ᚰ	ᚱ	ᚲ	ᚳ	ᚴ	ᚵ	ᚶ	ᚷ	ᚸ	ᚹ	ᚺ	ᚻ	ᚼ	ᚽ	ᚾ	ᚿ
16C0	ᛀ	ᛁ	ᛂ	ᛃ	ᛄ	ᛅ	ᛆ	ᛇ	ᛈ	ᛉ	ᛊ	ᛋ	ᛌ	ᛍ	ᛎ	ᛏ
16D0	ᛐ	ᛑ	ᛒ	ᛓ	ᛔ	ᛕ	ᛖ	ᛗ	ᛘ	ᛙ	ᛚ	ᛛ	ᛜ	ᛝ	ᛞ	ᛟ
16E0	ᛠ	ᛡ	ᛢ	ᛣ	ᛤ	ᛥ	ᛦ	ᛧ	ᛨ	ᛩ	ᛪ	᛫	᛬	᛭	ᛮ	ᛯ
16F0	ᛰ

See also

• Runamo – a false runic inscription
• Erilaz
• Solomon and Saturn
• Codex Runicus
• Computus Runicus
• Rundata

Other scripts, reminiscent of, based on or related to runes:

• 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
• Orkhon script and Old Hungarian script (sometimes referred to as Turkic and Hungarian runes)
• Slavic runes (unattested sign system postulated from medieval accounts)
• Siglas Poveiras

Notes

References

External links

• Ancientscripts.com Futhark entry.
• Omniglot.com runic alphabet entry.
• Nytt om Runer Magazine.
• Bibliography of Runic Scholarship

Encoding

• Unicode Code ChartPDF (68. 3 KB)

Runes

See also: Rune poems · Runestones · Runology · Runic divination

Elder Fuþark:

ᚠ

ᚢ

ᚦ

ᚨ

ᚱ

ᚲ

ᚷ

ᚹ

ᚺ

ᚾ

ᛁ

ᛃ

ᛇ

ᛈ

ᛉ

ᛊ

ᛏ

ᛒ

ᛖ

ᛗ

ᛚ

ᛜ

ᛞ

ᛟ

Anglo-Saxon Fuþorc:

ᚠ

ᚢ

ᚦ

ᚩ o

ᚱ

ᚳ c

ᚷ ȝ

ᚹ

ᚻ

ᚾ

ᛁ

ᛄ

ᛇ eo

ᛈ

ᛉ x

ᛋ

ᛏ

ᛒ

ᛖ

ᛗ

ᛚ

ᛝ

ᛞ

ᛟ œ

ᚪ a

ᚫ æ

ᚣ y

ᛠ ea

Younger Fuþark:

ᚠ

ᚢ

ᚦ

ᚬ ą

ᚱ

ᚴ

ᚼ

ᚾ

ᛁ

ᛅ a

ᛋ

ᛏ

ᛒ

ᛘ

ᛚ

ᛦ ʀ

Transliteration:

f

u

þ

a

r

k

g

w ·

h

n

i

j

ï

p

z

s ·

t

b

e

m

l

ŋ

d

o

The Rune Poems are three poems that list the letters of Runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock This article is about the philological discipline not to be confused with occultist concepts like Runosophy. The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the Runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes The Fe Rune ( Old Norse fé; Old English feoh) represents the f -sound in the Younger The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark u rune is *Ūruz meaning " wild ox " or *Ûram The Germanic Rune is called Thurs ( Þurs "giant" see Jötunn) in the Icelandic and Norwegian Rune poems *Raidô "ride journey" is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the r - Rune of the Elder Futhark. The k - Rune (Younger Futhark, Anglo-Saxon futhorc) is called Kaun in both the Norwegian and Icelandic Rune poems meaning " Gyfu is the name for the g - Rune in the Anglo-Saxon Rune poem, meaning "gift" or "generosity" Wynn ( (also spelled wen, ƿynn, or ƿen) was a letter of the Old English alphabet. *Haglaz or *Hagalaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the h - Rune, meaning " Hail " (the precipitation *Naudiz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the n - Rune, meaning "need distress" *Isaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the i - Rune, meaning " Ice " Eiwaz or Eihaz (reconstructed *īhaz / *ēhaz or *īwaz / *ēwaz) was a Proto-Germanic word for " yew " is the rune denoting the sound p in the Elder Futhark Runic alphabet, in the Anglo-Saxon Rune poem named peorð. *Algiz, sometimes *Elhaz, is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name for the rune, representing the Proto-Germanic terminal -z *Sôwilô or *Saewelô is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the s-rune meaning "sun" The t - Rune is named after Tyr, and was identified with this god *Berkanan is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the b Rune, meaning " Birch " *Ehwaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark e Rune, meaning " Horse " (cognate to Latin *Mannaz or *Manwaz (ᛗ is the Proto-Germanic term for " Man " in the gender-neutral sense of "individual human being" *Laguz or *Laukaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the l - Rune, *laguz meaning " Water " or " Yngvi, Yngvin, Ingwine, Inguin are names that relate to an older theonym Ing and which appears to have been the older name for the god Freyr In Norse mythology, Dagr ( Old Norse "day" is Day personified The Elder Futhark Odal Rune ( represents the o sound Its reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is * ôþalan. Futhorc, a Runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons, was descended from the Elder Futhark of 24 runes and contained between 26 and 33 characters The Fe Rune ( Old Norse fé; Old English feoh) represents the f -sound in the Younger The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark u rune is *Ūruz meaning " wild ox " or *Ûram The Germanic Rune is called Thurs ( Þurs "giant" see Jötunn) in the Icelandic and Norwegian Rune poems O is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin Alphabet. Its name in English is spelled o (oʊ plural usually o's or os; sometimes *Raidô "ride journey" is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the r - Rune of the Elder Futhark. The k - Rune (Younger Futhark, Anglo-Saxon futhorc) is called Kaun in both the Norwegian and Icelandic Rune poems meaning " C is the third letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled cee or occasionally ce (siː Gyfu is the name for the g - Rune in the Anglo-Saxon Rune poem, meaning "gift" or "generosity" See also Grave accent Double acute accent International Phonetic Alphabet Wynn ( (also spelled wen, ƿynn, or ƿen) was a letter of the Old English alphabet. *Haglaz or *Hagalaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the h - Rune, meaning " Hail " (the precipitation *Naudiz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the n - Rune, meaning "need distress" *Isaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the i - Rune, meaning " Ice " Eiwaz or Eihaz (reconstructed *īhaz / *ēhaz or *īwaz / *ēwaz) was a Proto-Germanic word for " yew " is the rune denoting the sound p in the Elder Futhark Runic alphabet, in the Anglo-Saxon Rune poem named peorð. *Algiz, sometimes *Elhaz, is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name for the rune, representing the Proto-Germanic terminal -z *Sôwilô or *Saewelô is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the s-rune meaning "sun" The t - Rune is named after Tyr, and was identified with this god *Berkanan is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the b Rune, meaning " Birch " *Ehwaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark e Rune, meaning " Horse " (cognate to Latin *Mannaz or *Manwaz (ᛗ is the Proto-Germanic term for " Man " in the gender-neutral sense of "individual human being" *Laguz or *Laukaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the l - Rune, *laguz meaning " Water " or " Yngvi, Yngvin, Ingwine, Inguin are names that relate to an older theonym Ing and which appears to have been the older name for the god Freyr In Norse mythology, Dagr ( Old Norse "day" is Day personified The Elder Futhark Odal Rune ( represents the o sound Its reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is * ôþalan. This article is about the typographic ligature for other uses see Oe Œ The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark u rune is *Ūruz meaning " wild ox " or *Ûram The Ear ᛠ rune of the Anglo-Saxon futhorc is a late addition to the alphabet The Younger Futhark, also called the Scandinavian runes, is a Runic alphabet, a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters in The Fe Rune ( Old Norse fé; Old English feoh) represents the f -sound in the Younger The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark u rune is *Ūruz meaning " wild ox " or *Ûram The Germanic Rune is called Thurs ( Þurs "giant" see Jötunn) in the Icelandic and Norwegian Rune poems Ą ( minuscule: ą) is a letter in the Polish, Kashubian, Lithuanian, Creek, Navajo, Western Apache *Raidô "ride journey" is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the r - Rune of the Elder Futhark. The k - Rune (Younger Futhark, Anglo-Saxon futhorc) is called Kaun in both the Norwegian and Icelandic Rune poems meaning " *Haglaz or *Hagalaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the h - Rune, meaning " Hail " (the precipitation *Naudiz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the n - Rune, meaning "need distress" *Isaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the i - Rune, meaning " Ice " *Sôwilô or *Saewelô is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the s-rune meaning "sun" The t - Rune is named after Tyr, and was identified with this god *Berkanan is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the b Rune, meaning " Birch " *Mannaz or *Manwaz (ᛗ is the Proto-Germanic term for " Man " in the gender-neutral sense of "individual human being" *Laguz or *Laukaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the l - Rune, *laguz meaning " Water " or " The Yr rune is a Rune of the Younger Futhark. The name yr means "yew" in Old Norse. The Yr rune is a Rune of the Younger Futhark. The name yr means "yew" in Old Norse. Runic transliteration and transcription are part of analysing a runic inscription. F is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ef or eff (ɛf U is the twenty-first letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled u (juː Î, î ( I - Circumflex) is a letter of Kurdish and Romanian language. The letter A is the first letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is a (eɪ plural R is the eighteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ar (ɑr pronounced or) K is the eleventh letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled kay (keɪ G is the seventh letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled gee or occasionally ge (dʒiː W is the twenty-third letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled double-u (ˈdʌbljuː N is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled en (ɛn I is the ninth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its English name is i (aɪ J is the tenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet; it was the last of the 26 letters to be added Ï is a symbol used in various languages written with the Latin alphabet. P is the sixteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled pee or occasionally pe (piː Z is the twenty-sixth and last letter of the modern Latin alphabet. S is the nineteenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ess or occasionally es (ɛs generally es- T is the twentieth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled tee or occasionally te (tiː B is the second letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled bee or occasionally be (biː plural bees. E is the fifth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled e (iː plural es or ees (also written E's E M is the thirteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled em (ɛm L is the twelfth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is el or occasionally ell (ɛl Ś is an S with an Acute accent. It is found in the Polish alphabet and it is used in some other countries Slavic usually ( Voiceless alveolo-palatal D is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled dee or occasionally de (diː O is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin Alphabet. Its name in English is spelled o (oʊ plural usually o's or os; sometimes

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