Have you heard of runes? What are they?

Before the Latin alphabet was used, northern European countries used runes to communicate. This included Germany, Scandinavian countries, Britain and Iceland. This is how the Viking would have communicated. Some rune stones have been found in central USA, telling us that the Vikings travelled farther inland in America than we ever imagined.

Runes were a set of either 16 or 24 symbols that represented words or even ideas without spelling them out, letter by letter. They were used from about 500 A.D. until about 1400, when our present form of writing began. That’s one of the reasons why very old manuscripts are sometimes difficult to read. They tend to combine both systems, depending on the learning of the person who is writing.

Runes were never meant to be written on paper. They were almost always engraved in stone. That’s why runes have only straight lines, no curves; it is just too difficult to carve curves in stone. Nor are there any capital letters in the runic alphabet which is called futark. Runes looked something like this:

The symbol third from the left in the top row lingers in Icelandic language where it has a “th” sound.

Some translate the word rune as “magic” or “secret”. In the modern world, rune stones are sometimes used to tell fortunes. The runes are engraved on stones (or sometimes printed on cards) which are then thrown like dice, then interpreted by a diviner.

Runes are a fascinating subject, and there is much more to learn.