The first known appearance of runes in Scandinavia is on a comb dating to the 2 nd century AD, found at the site of Vimosen, Denmark. Runes likely originated in northern continental Europe, and were used by a wide variety of Germanic peoples in the Migration Period. It is theorized that the futhark was inspired by both the Latin and Greek alphabets, as it was during this time that Germanic peoples of northern Europe were coming into sustained contact with the Roman Empire. One of the theories is that Norse traders who traveled down in the continents were inspired by the traders there who could communicate with each other through writing. When they came back to their homelands, they developed their own written language loosely based on the alphabet used further south.Įxamples of Younger Futhark letters that resemble their Latin counterparts. The Elder Futhark consisted of 24 letters, and was used from the mid-2 nd century AD to around 750 AD. After this, the Younger Futhark-with only 16 letters-developed in Scandinavia, and was used throughout the Viking Age to the Middle Ages. The most common rune alphabets are called the Elder Futhark and the Younger Futhark, the word “futhark” being a transliteration of the first six runes in both versions of the alphabet, ᚠᚢᚦᚮᚱᚴ (F U þ, pronounced like English ‘th’ A R K). Runes are the letters of the Old Norse alphabet-or, more accurately, alphabets, as there are several different versions depending on time period and place.

In this article, we will give you a crash course into the weird and wonderful, dark and mysterious, sometimes even funny or romantic, but always interesting, world of runes. Nowadays, only trained experts and a handful of enthusiasts can understand them, but in their heyday, it is probably that most people in the Scandinavian world could read runes.Īs a standard system of writing, runes were used for a wide variety of purposes and in a wide variety of different media-everything from memorials to graffiti, carved on everything from stone to wood. But in addition to their mundane function as an alphabet, runes also have a mythological component, being heavily associated with magic and divination, the domains of Odin himself. The runes are highly associated with the Vikings-but in fact, they were used long before the Viking Age, and persisted in their use in certain parts of Scandinavia as late as the 18 th century. The Latin alphabet now used in the western world lived side by side with the runic inscriptions longer than most of us are aware of. Runes are the written language used in Scandinavia during the Late Iron Age. – Hávamál, the High One’s Sayings (trans. Jeramy Dodds)

Strong symbols, powerful symbols stained by the mighty sage, hewn by the potent Powers, all etched by the runemaster.”

Best time to blood elder futhark runes