Runes

http://www.crystalinks.com/futhark.gif

Runes were a Germanic script used before the adoption of the Latin alphabet. Runes were found in hard surfaces such as wood, metal, or stone. There are no horizontal lines in ancient runes which might be because of the surface or tools used to write them. Runes were mostly used from 150 A.D to Christianization in 700 by 1100 had mostly faded into the Latin system but were still used in some specific languages in Sweden until 1800 AD. Surprisingly however in northern Europe runes were being used as late as the early 20^th century for decoration.

Runes most likely descended from the Old Italic system of writing. Early runes had 24 characters while the later systems of runes called Younger Futhark had only 16. Runes are divided up into 3 lines of 8 letters called an ætt. Each letter has a specific place within the ætt. For example the S for Sarah is the 8^th rune in the second ætt.

The name rune comes from a gothic word meaning secret or whisper, probably because the original use of runes was most likely something for the elite, wealthy or educated. This is why many today believe that runes had some magical or ritual use. However there is no known knowledge that suggests they were used in such a way. Although early runic alphabets may have been only used by the elite or wealthy it has been proven by the Bryggen Inscriptions that later in runes history it was a common writing system. The Bryggen Inscriptions were found in the 1950s and contained 100s of rune writing including letters, personal notes, prayers, and tokens of love.

Although there are more than 5 different kinds of rune variations it is the medieval rune scripts that have widely survived till today. Medieval Runes were used up into the 15^th century. The Bryggen inscriptions are of the medieval style. The Dalecarlian version of the rune alphabet was used between the 16^th and 19^th century, in a region of Sweden. It has been unclear whether or not it was a custom still being used from medieval times or if it was a resurgence of the writing system.

Contemporary uses of runes have are widely for fantasy or fiction. J.R.R. Tolkien invented his own runes called Cirth for his novels the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. Hermione Granger also uses ancient runes in the Harry Potter novels. There are at least 2 other modern writers who wrote about runes creating occults based on the ancient symbols. The Nazis used one of these writers’ runes when designing the swastika, which is not an original ancient rune, but fabricated. Some pagans and wiccans have also adapted runes into certain practices and ceremonies, which isn’t surprising because after all Runes originated in the birth place of the pagans in northern Europe.

Runes have been widely studied but are still somewhat a mystery when compared to other early writing systems such as hieroglyphs. While we may now know how to read runes their original use and purpose remains a mystery.

http://www.ancientscripts.com/

http://www.wikipedia.com/