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Learn about runes
What runes were, where the script came from, who could read it, and what the surviving inscriptions actually say. Each guide states its evidence and cites its sources.
Guides
What are runes?Runes are the letters used to write Germanic languages from about AD 150 to 1500. What they were, who used them, and where the mystical reputation came from.Where runes came fromThe origins of the runic script: the Latin, Greek and North Italic theories, the earliest datable inscriptions, and thirteen centuries of change.Who could actually read runes?Runic literacy across a thousand years: who carved runes, who could read them, and where the idea of the elite rune-master comes from.What people actually wrote in runesWhat surviving runic inscriptions are about: memorials, ownership, trade, prayer and graffiti, plus the minority that really are charms or curses.Runes in Old Norse literatureThe Old Norse texts about runes, from Hávamál to Egils saga: what each one says, and the gap between when they were written and the writing they describe.Runestones and inscriptionsA guide to the major runestones and runic inscriptions, from Jelling and Rök to the Franks Casket, and what each one tells us.How to pronounce runesSound values for every rune, how the rune names were pronounced, and what the acrophonic principle means in practice.Transliteration is not translationThe difference between transliterating text into runes and translating it into Old Norse, and why it matters for tattoos and inscriptions.Bind runesBind runes in the historical record: what they are, where they appear, and how modern personal bind runes differ.Why "futhark"?The word futhark comes from the sound values of the first six runes: f, u, þ, a, r, k. Why the English version is a futhorc.Cryptic and cipher runesHow runic cipher systems worked: the ætt-and-position principle, branch runes, twig runes, and what the Rök stone tells us about how widely they were used.BracteatesWhat Migration-Period gold bracteates are, why they carry so much of the Elder Futhark corpus, and what alu, laþu and laukaʀ are doing on them.Dalecarlian runesDalecarlian runes were used in Dalarna from the 16th century into the 20th. What they look like, how many survive, and whether the tradition was continuous.Did runes have numbers?The runic alphabets have no numerals. What inscriptions did instead, and the medieval runic calendar that invented three characters to reach nineteen.Frisian runesThe Frisian runic corpus: how many inscriptions there actually are, and why this small group of objects decides how the futhorc gets described.How an inscription gets a dateHow runologists date runic inscriptions: archaeological context, rune forms and sound changes, plus the circularity problem that makes some dates soft.Continental runesThe South Germanic runic corpus: why it is almost all fibulae, the century it clusters in, and why runic writing died out on the Continent.Gothic letters and the runesWhat the Gothic alphabet is, where its letter names come from, and why those names are weaker evidence for rune names than they look.
The rune poems
The primary sources for rune names, with full original texts and our own translations.
All the rune poemsHow to read them, and how not to over-read themThe Old English Rune PoemOld English · 29 stanzas · Composed perhaps 8th–10th century; printed 1705The Norwegian Rune PoemOld Norse · 16 stanzas · Probably 13th centuryThe Icelandic Rune PoemOld Norse (Icelandic) · 16 stanzas · 15th century or earlierAbecedarium NordmannicumOld Saxon · 3 lines · 9th century