Why "futhark"?
The alphabet is named after its own first six runes, the way "alphabet" is named after alpha and beta. When the sounds changed, so did the name.
Read the first six runes of the Elder Futhark in order and you get their sound values: f, u, þ, a, r, k. That is the whole explanation. The alphabet is named after its opening sequence, exactly as "alphabet" comes from alpha and beta and "abecedary" from a-b-c-d.
Why English says "futhorc"
Because the sounds moved. In Old English the inherited a-vowel rounded, so the fourth rune came to write /o/ and was renamed os. The sixth rune acquired the name cen and a c-value. F-u-þ-a-r-k became f-u-þ-o-r-c.
Since the alphabet is named after its first six letters, the name changed with them. "Futhorc" is not a variant spelling of "futhark": it is the same naming principle applied to a different set of sound values, and using the right one signals which alphabet you mean.
| Alphabet | First six values | Name |
|---|---|---|
| Elder Futhark | f u þ a r k | futhark |
| Younger Futhark | f u þ ą r k | futhark |
| Anglo-Saxon | f u þ o r c | futhorc |
Why the order is not alphabetical
This is the puzzling part. If the runic script was modelled on a Mediterranean alphabet (and the shapes strongly suggest it was), then whoever devised it deliberately discarded the inherited a-b-c-d order and substituted a completely different one.
No convincing explanation exists. Proposals have included a mnemonic principle, a numerological arrangement and a grouping by sound type, and none accounts for the sequence we actually have. The Kylver stone gives the order around AD 400 and the Vadstena bracteate gives it again a century later, differing only over eihwaz/perthro and dagaz/othala: four positions of the twenty-four, with Kylver the odd one out on both. So the sequence was stable and old, but still unexplained.
Why the runic alphabet abandoned the alphabetical order of its presumed model is unresolved. It is one of several structural facts about the script that we can describe precisely and cannot explain at all.
A note on spelling
You will see both "futhark" and "fuþark" in the literature, and "fuþąrk" where a writer wants to be precise about the Younger Futhark's nasal fourth rune. The forms with thorn are the accurate transliteration of the third rune. English-language writing usually normalises it to "th" for readability, which is what this site does.
Questions this guide answers
- What does "futhark" mean?
- Nothing, as a word. It is an acronym of sorts: the sound values of the first six runes, read in order.
- Is futhorc the same as futhark?
- They are the same naming principle applied to different alphabets. "Futhorc" specifically means the Anglo-Saxon alphabet, whose first six runes give f-u-þ-o-r-c.
- Why do runes not follow A B C order?
- Nobody knows. The runic order is stable and attested from the earliest complete rows, but why it differs from the Mediterranean alphabets it was apparently modelled on has never been satisfactorily explained.
Sources
Full references on the sources page. Our methodology explains the evidence labels used throughout.