Run – Old English, meaning secret

The word runes, for many, conjures up images of Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”, with dwarves, dragons and magical rings; after reading the book, I remember fondly learning how to write my name in (what I would later learn were) Anglo-Saxon runes. At the time they seemed like fanciful characters, and I was delighted to use them purely for aesthetic reasons – sketching in my school notebooks and such. Little did I know that 1500 years earlier, my ancestors used them daily, not only for writing, but also for magical and divinatory purposes.

There is a good body of knowledge for both the exoteric, and esoteric aspects of the runes – in this chapter we will cover only the exoteric  aspects, such as their history, use in writing, for monuments etc. Chapter 9 - Spiritual Practices, will cover Runic Divination.

The Stenkvista runestone in Södermanland, Sweden, shows Thor's hammer instead of a cross. Only two such runestones are known.

Runes?

So what are Runes? A runic row is a form of alphabet, which itself is a standardized set of letters — basic written symbols or graphemes   — each of which roughly represents a phoneme   in a spoken language, either as it exists now, or as it was in the past.

The runes were used to write various Germanic languages prior to the adoption of the Latin alphabet, and for specialized purposes thereafter. 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 is futhorc (due to sound changes undergone in Old English).

The origins of the runic alphabet are uncertain, although 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 of which are closely related to each other and descend from the Old Italic alphabet.

The runes were in use among the Germanic peoples from the 1st or 2nd century CE. This period corresponds to the late 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.

The name runes contrasts with Latin or Greek letters. It is attested on a 6th century Alamannic runestaff as runa, and possibly as runo on the 4th century Einang stone. The name is from a root run- (Gothic runa), meaning "secret" or "whisper".

The earliest runic inscriptions date from around 150 CE, and the characters were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet along with Christianization by around 700 CE in central Europe, and by around 1100 CE in Northern Europe; however, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in Northern Europe, longest in rural Sweden, until the early twentieth century (used mainly for decoration as runes in Dalarna and on Runic calendars).

The three best-known runic rows, and their approximate years of common usage are:

• Elder Futhark (around 150 to 800 CE)
• Old English Futhorc (400 to 1100 CE)
• Younger Futhark (800–1100 CE)

 Antler Comb

 
A comb made of antler from around 150 to 200 CE and was found in Vimose on the island of Funen, Denmark. The Elder Futhark inscription reads "Harja", a male name. This is the oldest known runic inscription. The comb is housed at the National Museum of Denmark.

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