Runes are the letters of the futhark alphabets used to write the Germanic languages from roughly the second century CE, surviving in thousands of inscriptions across Scandinavia, the British Isles and continental Europe. Each rune has a name preserved in the medieval rune poems (cattle, ice, hail, the yew tree), and those names are the basis of the meanings modern practitioners read into them. Whether runes were used for divination in the early period is debated: Tacitus describes Germanic lot-casting with marked slips of wood but does not say the marks were runes, and the systematised rune oracle in use today took shape in the twentieth century.
Facts
Overview
- Entries in the Atlas
- 24
- Size of the Traditional Set
- Elder Futhark: 24 characters 1
- Size of the Traditional Set
- Younger Futhark: 16 characters 1
- Size of the Traditional Set
- Anglo-Saxon futhorc: expanded from 24 to 28 characters, and further in Northumbrian sources 2
Contested Use
- Contested or Appropriated Modern Use
- Runes were taken up by German nationalist and then by Nazi organisations, and several rune forms remain in use by far-right groups today. 3
- Contested or Appropriated Modern Use
- Rune divination is modern. The historical inscriptions are overwhelmingly writing, and no ancient source describes casting runes to answer a question. 1
Origins
- Origin Period
- Second century CE: the earliest datable inscriptions are of about 150-200 CE. 1
- Place of Origin
- Southern Scandinavia and the neighbouring Germanic-speaking areas of northern Europe 1
History
- Era of Modern Revival
- Twentieth century: modern runic occultism begins with Guido von List's invented eighteen-rune Armanen row, published in 1908. 4
Status
- Status Today
- Historical script: runic writing was displaced by the Latin alphabet in the Middle Ages, surviving longest in Sweden. 1
Learn More
The Letters of the Futhark
The runes are the letters of the futhark alphabets used to write the Germanic languages from roughly the second century CE, and they survive in thousands of inscriptions across Scandinavia, the British Isles and continental Europe: on stones, weapons, jewellery and everyday objects. Each rune has a name preserved in later rune-poems, and stands for both a sound and the thing its name denotes.
The principal rows are the twenty-four-character Elder Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon futhorc that expanded it, and the sixteen-character Younger Futhark of the Viking Age. The entries treat the runes of these historical rows.
Writing, magic and modern revival
The historical evidence shows runes used chiefly as writing, with some inscriptions suggesting magical or commemorative use; the elaborate divinatory systems familiar today are largely a twentieth-century development, drawing on the rune-poems' meanings and on modern esoteric writing. The atlas keeps the historical script distinct from the modern practice of rune-casting.
The invented eighteen-rune Armanen row of Guido von List, though rune-shaped, is not a historical futhark and is treated separately under the modern revivals. The entries give each historical rune its name, sound, rune-poem meaning and attested use.
Enter a year to compare these entries as the atlas records them at that moment. Leave it empty for the present. A year before the common era is entered with a minus sign, so 44 BCE is minus 44.