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As the Roman Empire and Christian missionaries spread the Latin alphabet throughout Northern Europe and the British Isles, another form of writing developed in those regions. The Runic alphabet, called futhark after its initial letters, was used by the people in that area, both as a functional writing system and as a source of magical power. When runes are referred to it is usually in the context of individual letters in an alphabet, but original usage of the word referred to the written inscriptions that have been found. 1
Archaeologists and historians are not sure how the Runic alphabet developed. The earliest archaeological evidence about the use of them is found in inscriptions that have been dated to the late second and third centuries C.E. 2 Some archaeologists believe that the runes were created by a single person from a Germanic tribe. The creator had both leisure time and insight to the phonetic construction of his language. The model the creator used is believed to be from a North Italian model from the alpine regions that existed in the period c. 250 to 150 B.C.E. 3 Another theory has been that the runic alphabet originated among the Goths along the north coast of the Black Sea and that their model was the Greek alphabet. However, four of the letters, f, u, r, and h are recognized as modeled after Latin letters. 4 Modern archaeologists believe that the runes were developed from the early Etruscan and Latin alphabets because they resemble those alphabets in shape and sound. 5 Because the runic symbols that were actually used do resemble the characters of the North Italian alphabets, that gives credibility to that theory. One of the reasons that it has been so difficult to determine the origins of the runes is that an alphabet containing all the runes has yet to be discovered. 6
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Figure 1. The usual forms of the older Norse fuşark.
R. W. V. Elliott believed that if it had not been for the need to use them for "divination and lot-casting" they would not have been invented. 7 Other scholars believe that their use in magic was secondary and that their real purpose was for writing. Eric J. Sharp believes, "that any alphabet or other form of writing was liable to be used in what we might call a meta-literary way in the ancient world. Most of them were, particularly by people who had not actually mastered the arts of reading and writing." 8
The people who used the runes before the spread of Christianity believed that their god, Odin, had found the runes. Odin was a god of fury and madness, and "belonged to the mysterious region between life and death." His followers were called the berserks which means "dressed in bear's skin." The word now has a different meaning because when the berserks went into battle they did so in a fighting frenzy as if they were mad. This mad fury in battle, believed to be inspired by Odin, in his followers would strike terror in their opponents. The myth believed by Odin's followers was that Odin hung on the gallows at Yggdrasill, the world-tree, for nine days and nights. He had been sacrificed to himself and hung on the tree in the same manner that victims were sacrificed to him by his followers. After the nine days he reached down and picked up the runes, thereby gaining the wisdom of the runes and power over death. 9
With the spread of Christianity the runes continued to be used by converts up to the time of the Reformation. The runes found by Odin were passed to Christ the King and the power in the runes was then made available by baptism to the followers of Christ. The Ribe inscription from Denmark says, "I pray for the aid of earth and high heaven, Sun and Saint Mary and God the King, that he lend me healing hand and life tongue, for the healing of hurt when comfort is called: from back and breast, from body and limbs, from eyes and ears, from all that evil can attack." 10 In describing the early Christian use of the runes Johanna Drucker says, "Many of the early Runic inscriptions express Christian sentiments, prayers or devotion, though earlier instances intoning pagan deities or demons abound. Divinatory practices using Runes were common in England (and Scandinavia) in the Roman period: Tacitus and Julius Caesar both make note of these activities in their writings." She goes on to say the Runes were used to protect, promote, or defend an individual in war, love, illness, and fertility. 11
Eric J. Sharp hypothesizes that the belief was that they not only possessed collective power as written symbols, but that each rune represented its own individual manifestation of power. While the nature of the power invested in the runes, or why that power is ascribed to them, is not easy to explain, it probably could be traced back to the pictograms which were the ancestors of the runes. 12
The runes were used to control supernatural powers throughout the Germanic world between the eighth and thirteenth centuries C.E. They were used on weapons as protection during the battle and when used on monuments they could have been for protection of the dead in the same manner as candles are lit and prayers offered for the dead even today, or as a monument to the bravery of fallen companions. The Gripshom inscription in Sweden is a monument to some Vikings, ". . . They voyaged manfully, to far lands seeking gold; and in the East they fed the eagles; they died southward in Särkland." The Stentofoten Stone is very specific in its claim of runic power, "This is the secret of the runes. Here I hid the runes of power, untroubled by angry sorcery. Whoever destroys this monument, will die by the magical arts." Another example of the power believed to belong to the runes is implied in the Lindholm amulet from Skåne which is inscribed with 'aaaaaaaarrrnnnbmutttalu'. Sharp says, "This looks like a prentice rune-carver practicing his trade; and apart from the last word, alu, a magical word, nothing emerges of sense: but probably it is an expression of non-conceptual power, power merely through the forming of the runes." 13
The runes were not used just for the magical power that was in them, but they were used as a written language. Just as the inscription on a sword could be an amulet of protection, it just as easily be the name of the owner. The inscription on the end-clasp of a sword-sheath from Torasbjærg, Slesvig, c. 300 says, "Ullþer, of no ill fame." It is probably the name of its owner. The inscription on a twelfth century C.E. sword-hilt found in a grave at Greenmount, Louth, Ireland leaves no doubt, "Domnal Seal's-Head owns this sword." The inscription on the Golden Horn of Gallehus, North Slesvig, c. 400 claims, "I, Hlegest of Holt, made the horn." 14
The inscriptions, not only were used to indicate ownership or the identity of the maker, but could be something as simple as a form of proud graffiti found on a stone at Einang, Norway, c. 400, "I, Dag, fashioned these runes." Runes were inscribed in the same manner as we make inscriptions on a cornerstone. At Pennington, Furness, c. 1150 an inscriptions says, "Gamal endowed this church; Hubert the mason built it." Just as people of today write of their wants, dreams, sorrows, and disappointments so did those who wrote the runes. On a piece of bone found at Trondhjem in 1901; c. 1050: "I loved her as a maiden; I will not trouble Erlend's detestable wife. When she is a widow it is the better." 15
It is the inscriptions that tell of the heroic deeds of companions and of loved ones missed that are the most poignant and give us a glimpse, not only into the lives of the people who wrote the runes, but into their hearts. An inscription on a cross on the Isle of Man, c. 1100: "Mael-Lomchon and the daughter of Dubh-Gael, whom Aðils had to wife, raised this cross in memory of Mael-Muire, his fostermother. It is better to leave a good fosterson than a bad son." 16 A tribute to a respected warrior is found on a stone near Karlevi, Sweden, c. 1000: "This stone is set up in memory of Sibbi the Wise son of Foldar, and his henchman set in Oland this memorial in honour of the dead. The tree of the Þruð of battle in whom was the greatest prowess -- most men knew that -- lies hidden in this mound; a more honest, hard-fighting farer upon Ondil's expanses will never rule the land in Denmark." 17
Most of the time, when we talk about the runes it is the context of magic, pagan, or mystical power. Johanna Drucker points out, "The inflation of the magical properties of Runes developed after their demise as a common writing system and was sustained by earlier mentions in medieval manuscripts suggesting such occult values." 18 After reading the translations of some of the runic inscriptions, the runes no longer seem so mystical, but reveal writers who had similiar desires and feelings that the human race still has today.
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Figure 2. a. The Rök stone
b. Runic stone from Kingiktorsoak
1. Johanna Drucker, The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995), 115.
2. Johanna Drucker, The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995), 115.
3. Eric J. Sharp, "The Old English Runic Paternoster" in Symbols of Power, ed. H. R. Ellis Davidson (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977), 52.
4. E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), 181.
5. Johanna Drucker, The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995), 115.
6. E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), 181.
7. Eric J. Sharp, "The Old English Runic Paternoster" in Symbols of Power, ed. H. R. Ellis Davidson (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977), 52, quoting R. W. V. Elliott, Runes: An Introduction (Manchester 1963), 11.
8. Eric J. Sharp, "The Old English Runic Paternoster" in Symbols of Power, ed. H. R. Ellis Davidson (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977), 52.
9. Mythology, An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1980 ed., s.v. "Odin and the Runes."
10. Eric J. Sharp, "The Old English Runic Paternoster" in Symbols of Power, ed. H. R. Ellis Davidson (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977), 54.
11. Johanna Drucker, The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995), 115.
12. Eric J. Sharp, "The Old English Runic Paternoster" in Symbols of Power, ed. H. R. Ellis Davidson (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977), 54.
13. Eric J. Sharp, "The Old English Runic Paternoster" in Symbols of Power, ed. H. R. Ellis Davidson (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977), 52-53.
14. E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), 186-187.
15. E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), 184-186.
16. E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), 185.
17. E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), 191-192.
18. Johanna Drucker, The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995), 116.
Figure 1. E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), 181.
Figure 2. E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), 189.
Davidson, Hilda Ellis. The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe. New York: Routledge, 1993.
Drucker, Johanna. The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995.
Gordon, E. V. An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1957.
Mythology, An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1980 ed., s.v. "Odin and the Runes."
Saxo, Grammaticus (fl.1200). The History of the Danes. 2 Volumes. Translated by Peter Fisher. Edited by Hilda Ellis Davidson. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1979.
Sharp, Eric J. "The Old English Runic Paternoster." In: Symbols of Power, ed. H. R. Ellis Davidson. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977. 41-60, 162-165.
Wahlgren, Erik. The Kensington Stone: A Mystery Solved. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1958.
