The names of the runes are preserved in the Old English Rune Poem, which contains stanzas about each character along with 5 from the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc. Each rune likely had a name, chosen to represent the sound of the rune itself. The 4 th century Gothic alphabet, derived by the Greeks to translate the bible, contains two characters than can only have come from runes.
There’s also evidence that the travel was not a one-way thing. The Viking period kicked off with Norse still using the Elder Futhark, which is the one that most closely resembles the Italic scripts that it came from. Dalarna is known as the ‘last stronghold of Germanic script’. There was further development in the 16 th century into the dalecarlian runes or dalrunes that were in use in the Swedish province of Dalarna right up until the 20 thcentury. The medieval runes are probably the runes that people recognise best. These are considered a response to the growth of the Latin alphabet, which was resisted by many at the time. Younger Futhark developed into the medieval runes that followed the Viking Age. While they have all been seen in all parts of the region, the long-branch are more common in Denmark and the Rök are more common in Sweden and Norway. Younger Futhark is divided into three: long-branch runes, Rök runes and stavlösa or Hälsinge runes (also known as staveless runes). It’s called a Futhorc to reflect the changes in sound that happened during this period. There’s also Anglo-Saxon Futhorc which is a development of the Germanic tribes that migrated towards England during the period. We consider three different Futharks as covering the period: Elder Futhark and Younger Futhark. Instead the systems continued to develop.
In terms of Viking runes in Scandinavia and elsewhere, there isn’t just one single set. In the Viking Age, this was no everyday alphabet. What we do know is that runic inscriptions were typically reserved to remember moments or people of great importance. The mystical quality of runes is often cited but is rarely borne out by actual findings. It’s likely that the word does indeed refer to ‘secrets’ as in the beginning, runes were developed by and known only to the elite. The word has similar meanings in celtic language although in others it refers to cutting with a knife, speech or miracle. The name rune comes from the Germanic root run- meaning secret or whisper. It was dropped from the Scandinavian and English languages in favour of ‘th’ but it lives on in Icelandic. You’ll regularly encounter it throughout old Norse and Anglo-Saxon literature. If you’ve ever wondered where the letter Þ (known as thorn) comes from, it’s from the runes. Instead, scholars refer to the Scandinavian runic systems as a Futhark or Fuþark after the first 6 letters: F, U, Th/Þ, A, R and K. The runes don’t start with A and B, they start with F and U, which could lead to some interesting problems! We often see the rune systems referred to as ‘runic alphabets’, which is a perfectly acceptable term for most people.īut alphabet comes from ‘alpha beta’ or ‘aleph beth’ the two first letters in the Greek and Hebrew alphabets. The Gothic Hypothesis sees them develop through the East Germanic expansion through areas such as modern-day Ukraine and Belarus. The West Germanic Hypothesis sees them develop via the nomadic groups around the Elbe river. How we get from Italy to Scandinavia is also up for discussion! As the runes first appear in Denmark and Northern Germany, there are two hypotheses for how they got there. It’s possible that they came from the Etruscan alphabet, which went on to become the Latin alphabet that English and most Western languages use to some extent today.
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