Runes - A Historical Investigation

As in all things, there is so much mis-information on the world wide web and with AI, that real research takes place in historical sources. This is a research article, not based on fantasy or movies. This being said, I am giving a shout out to J.R.R. Tolkien. While Tolkien is most remembered for the Lord of the Rings novels and movies, Tolkien was a scholar of Old English, Old Norse languages, and of Runes, and many of his academic books are forgotten due to the enormous popularity of his fiction. In the book "The Hobbit" Tolkien even drew his own maps, one of which showed "The Desolation of Smaug" where there appears at first glance writing in Dwarvish. The writing is actually in English using the Anglo-Frisian Futhorc. Nonetheless, while I am glad we have Runes in video games, in fantasy, and in movies; going forward, this article will be academic and research orientated first from the view of the Scandinavians and Saxons (of Saxony), and secondly from the view of the Anglo-Frisian Germanic Runes. Please note, Germanic Peoples used Runes. Germanic peoples lived in Northern Europe, and the Scandinavians are Germanic Peoples. Here is a list of Germanic languages still spoken today, with the languages with the most speakers listed first: English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Afrikaans, Danish, Norwegian, Low German, Yiddish, Scots, Frisian Languages, Luxembourgish, Icelandic, Faroese, as well as a small number of other Germanic languages.

There are three Germanic Runic Alphabets: 1. The Elder Futhark used from the 2nd through 7th centuries CE, primarily recording Proto-Germanic language, the language by which all Germanic languages stem from. 2. The Anglo-Frisian Futhorc was used in Frisia and in England, from the 5th through 10th centuries CE. These Runes were used to write various dialects of Old Frisian and Old English. 3. The Younger Futhark used from the 8th through 14th centuries CE, used for Old Norse languages. This is by far the most widespread runic alphabet from an archaeological standpoint. The name "Futhark" (or "Futhorc") comes from the first six runes in their alphabets. This is a name given by modern runeologists, and it was not the title used by pre-christian Heathens in describing their alphabets. The Old Saxon word for “Runes” is “giruni.” It is very clear that the English language has sounds that the Roman alphabet did not have. We have many instances where it takes two letters to make one sound. The best three examples of this are the sounds “th,” “ng,” and “uu” (w) which were one Rune in the Old Saxon language. The word “giruni” for “Runes” doesn’t mean “letters” like letters in the alphabet. The word means “secret”, but not in the sense of “let me tell you a secret”, but more like “let me tell you a mystery.” With the Runes comes the power of secret spells and charms. Runes are divine secret mysteries which are used to encode meaningful messages from Uurd (Fate).

Runes were carved in stone and wood. Runes were also carved on weapons and other items. A carving has a sense of permanency as they are carved into the wood, stone, weapon, or other object. The Old Saxon verb “uuritan” (“written”) gets translated often incorrectly in English. Our modern English word “to write” comes from this verb, but the word literally means “to carve.” The word "scriban" means "to write on parchment with ink." This would have been a better word in our modern English, as today, only Heathens or Pagans carve Runes into objects. The shapes of the Runes prove that Runes were an alphabet made for carving on wood. Look at our modern letter B, and the Rune of the B sound. Our Modern B has curves, whereas the Rune for "B" looks like two triangles on top of each other with their tops pointed to the right. This proves Runes were meant to be carved on objects. Curves are simply too hard to carve on wood and metal. Look at the image of the Elder Futhark at the bottom of this article. Runes have zero curves, but are all made of straight lines, ideal for carving.

If we were to compare the Elder Futhark to the Greek and Latin Alphabets, the Greek and Latin Alphabets more closely resemble each other than the Runes. This is because the Greek and Latin languages were made to be scribbled on parchment with ink. (Pun intended).

In the Old Saxon language, we have the word "boc." This is where our modern English word "book" comes from. However, "boc" in Old Saxon meant "beechwood." Old Saxon was carved into beechwood (and other objects) in pre-Christian Saxon Heathen times. Nonetheless, Runes were carved in a specific direction on the wood so that Runes can be differentiated between grains in the wood. Also, curves are very hard to make over grains. Wooden slabs would get weakened if Runes were poorly carved. While rock, metal, and bones do not have an issue of "grain", the Runic inscriptions keep their unique shape, as Runes are always "carved". There are just over 8,100 Runic inscriptions ever found, and only a fraction of these finds are wooden. This is due to wood being so perishable. Therefore, without question, there is an extremely vast amount of Runic carvings that did not survive. Of the materials most likely to survive and to be found by an archaeologist, stone, bones, metals, parchments, are all far more likely to survive in northern European moist climates than wood. Wood is the least likely to survive. Because so many Runes were carved on wood, and so few survived, we have lost more evidence than we have gained, through the surviving archaeological findings. Therefore, many of the modern claims of uses of historical runes of magic and sorcery cannot be proven. We have no idea if only nobles had knowledge of Runes, or how literate pre-christian Germanic society was in all social classes. Modern claims of there being say twenty-five runes in the Elder Futhark (including a blank rune) are clearly not based on archaeological fact, due to there being so few inscriptions found by archaeology. Please keep in mind, there are far more Scandinavian Rune stone inscriptions of the Younger Futhark, than there are Elder Futhark and Futhorc inscriptions combined! There are less than 500 confirmed inscriptions of the Elder Futhark. The Elder Futhark is the only Rune found in Old Saxon lands, and of those findings, all are in Proto-Germanic, not in Old Saxon.

The oldest Runic inscription ever found was in Old Saxon lands. It is the Meldorf brooch from Germany, and it contains what scholars believe is a name of a Rune Master (an expert in Runes and Rune-lore). It is dated to the mid first century CE. The Meldorf brooch (fibula) is dated to around 50 CE. Mees and Düwel, interpret the Meldorf-brooch inscription as runic. They read it right to left as iṛiḷi, which they translate as 'to the (rune-)master'. This image here is from Düwe, p. 160

Mees, Bernard (1997); A New Interpretation of the Meldorf Fibula Inscription in Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur no. 126, pp. 131–39. Düwel, Klaus/Gebühr, Michael (1981); Die Fibel von Meldorf und die Anfänge der Runenschrift in Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur no. 110, pp. 159–75.

I wanted to be complete in this article. Some scholars argue that the Meldorf-brooch is not runic, but proto-Latin. Therefore, some scholars consider the Runes found at Thorsberg dated to the second century, the oldest Runes found.

All 24 Runes of the Elder Futhark are not found until the the 5th century, where the complete Elder Futhark is found on the Kylver Stone, dated to circa 400 CE. This was found in 1903 in Gotland Sweden. Below is a recreated image of the stone. Note, some letters are considered upside down or are drawn "incorrectly" when compared to other later inscriptions found. This being said, due to less than 500 Elder Futhark inscriptions found, runeologists cannot say if it his was a Rune-mater who made this carving, or a Rune-novice. Were some letters intentionally carved upside down and backwards? Are some of these partial or incorrect shapes (compared to other runic finds) correct for the region? Are these Runes how Runes were carved locally in Gotland but not elsewhere? Please note, that there is either a fir tree symbol, or a possible bind Rune of T and A Runes put on top of each other on the far right. The Kylver stone also has another word "sueus", which is possibly a magical incantation (a guess because it is the same forwards and backwards), but there is absolutely no scholarly agreement as to what "sueus" is or means.

Elliott, Ralph Warren Victor (1959). Runes: An Introduction. Manchester University Press. p. 14.

Why Runes Declined The most obvious reason that Runes disappeared from usage was the rise of Christianity and Latin. Runes were replaced by the Latin alphabet for writing Germanic languages. Even Germanic words seeped into Christianity. "Hell" (for "hall of the dead") and "hevenuuanga" (heaven) became words used in Christianity in Germanic languages. "Heaven" in Hebrew means "that which is water." (The Ancient Hebrews felt that there was water in the sky which the sun shone through turning it blue, i.e. Heaven was the blue sky firmament in Genesis 1). Heven in Heathen writings is associated with a green meadow, a peaceful hall of the dead or dwelling of the Gods. "Hell" is a new testament only concept, not found in the Hebrew bible (or old testament). In the Hebrew bible, you go to the "place of the dead" (sh'ol) at death, or over time Judaism changed and adopted a resurrection, a bodily earthly resurrection on earth (i.e. Dan 12:2). Nonetheless, since only Christianity felt people "go to hell" at death (Jews do not), the concept of eternal punishment (Greek "hades" or "tartarus") in the new testament got the Germanic word "Hell" meaning "hall." Nonetheless, Latin was the alphabet of the church, and the Roman church adopted the Latin Vulgate as its sacred text (not the Greek text of the New Testament). Hence English and other Germanic languages today are written with the Latin and not the Greek alphabet. Another obvious reason for the decline of Runes is that they are associated with Odin. Thor was more popular amongst the non-noble masses, while Odin was more popular with the aristocracy. The aristocracy adopted christianity first, and it was the aristocracy that spread christianity. Most scholars believe the aristocracy was either more literate than the masses, or the first to lean Latin, as most peasants in the church in Europe did not learn Latin. A third reason for the decline of Runes was that wood and beechwood fell out of favor compared to parchment and ink.