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Runic alphabet

(Redirected from Runes)
Younger Futhark inscription on the Rök Stone
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Younger Futhark inscription on the Rök Stone

Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes that were formerly used to write Germanic languages, mainly in Scandinavia, and the British Isles. In all its varieties, they may be considered to be an ancient writing system in Northern Europe. The Scandinavian version is also known as Futhark (from the first six letters, ᚠᚢᚦᚨᚱᚲ), and the Anglo-Saxon version as Futhorc. The earliest runic inscriptions date from ca. 150, and the alphabet was generally replaced by the Latin alphabet with Christianisation, by ca. 700 in central Europe, and by ca. 1200 in Scandinavia. However, use of runes persisted for specialized uses, mainly in Scandinavia, in rural Sweden until the early 20th century (used mainly for decoration as Dalecarlian runes, and on Runic calendars).

The three best known runic alphabets are:

The Younger Futhork is further divided in

  • the Danish futhark script
  • the Swedish-Norwegian runic script (also: Short-twig or Rök Runes)
  • the Hälsinge Runes (staveless runes)
  • the latinised Dalecarlian futhark script (ca. 1500–1910)

The most likely candidate for the origins of runic scripts are the 5th to 1st century BC Northern Italic alphabet s, Lepontic, Rhaetic and Venetic , all closely related to each other and themselves descended from the Old Italic alphabet. These scripts bear a remarkable resemblance to the futhark in many regards.

Contents

Background

The runes were introduced to, or invented by, the Germanic peoples in roughly the 2nd century. While at this time, the Germanic language was certainly not at the Proto-Germanic stage any longer, it was possibly still a continuum of dialects and not yet clearly separated into the three branches of later centuries, viz. North Germanic, West Germanic and East Germanic. Most of the early runes from the Scandinavian countries are assumed to be in the Old Norse language, a common ancestor language for the North Germanic languages which is assumed to have existed in this region at some time. No distinction is made in surviving runic inscriptions between long and short vowels, although such a distinction was certainly present in the spoken languages of the time. As Proto-Germanic evolved into its later language groups, the words assigned to the runes and the sounds represented by the runes themselves began to diverge somewhat, and each culture would either create new runes, rename or rearrange its rune names slightly or even stop using obsolete runes completely to accommodate those changes. Thus, the Anglo-Saxons had several specialty runes to represent diphthongs unique to (or at least prevalent in) their dialect. Scholars also therefore believe that the reason the younger futhark used by the Vikings usually has sixteen runes, while the elder futhark used by much earlier Germanic tribes in contact with the Roman Empire is usually described as having twenty four, is that the reduction dramatically reflects six hundred years of sound changes in the North Germanic language group.

The name given to the signs, contrasting them from Latin or Greek letters, is first attested on a 6th century alamannic runestaff as runa. The name is from a root run- (Gothic runa) meaning "secret" (c.f. also the chapters of the Kalevala, called runo, plural runot, a loan from North Germanic).

Origins

In Norse mythology, the invention of the runes is attributed to Odin: The Havamal (stanzas 138, 139) describes how Odin receives the rune through his self-sacrifice :


Veit eg aš eg hékk vindgameiši į I know that I hung on a windy tree
nętur allar nķu, nine long nights,
geiri undašur og gefinn Óšni, wounded with a spear dedicated to Odin,
sjįlfur sjįlfum mér, myself to myself,
į žeim meiši er manngi veit hvers af rótum renn.   on a tree of which no man knows from where its foots stem
 
Viš hleifi mig sęldu né viš horni-gi. No bread did they give me nor a tree from a horn,
Nżsta eg nišur, downwards I peered,
nam eg upp rśnar, I took up the runes,
ępandi nam, screaming I took them,
féll eg aftur žašan. then I fell back from there


The runes developed comparatively late, centuries after other alphabets became known in Central Europe, from which they are probably descended: There are some similarities to other alphabets of Phoenician origin (Latin, Greek, Italic) that can impossibly all be due to chance: ᚠ - F, ᚢ - V, ᚱ - R , ᚺ - H, ᛁ - I, ᛊ - S, ᛏ - T, ᛒ - B, ᛗ - M, ᛚ - Λ, ᛞ - Δ, ᛟ - Ω, but other letters seem to be independent. The Northern Italic alphabet is usually quoted as a candidate for the runes' origin. Their angular shapes are usually interpreted adapted to the practice of carving in wood (rather than writing with a reed or a brush).

Another theory is that the runes originated directly from the Middle East, related with the Nabataean alphabet and phonemes, a variant of the Semitian alphabet . The introduction of runes could in this scenario be ascribed to Roman legions, that started to migrate out of Israel during the 2nd century. This theory is based on very early runic finds contained on weapons parts (longbows, triangular arrow head s, etc.), characteristic for these soldiers. (The historical Nabataean kingdom spanned over Jordan, Sinai and South Israel, corresponds to early Arabia.)

The "West Germanic hypothesis" assumes an introduction by West Germanic tribes. This is based on the fact that the earliest inscriptions of ca. 200, found in bogs and graves around Jutland, seem to exhibit West Germanic name forms, e. g. wagnija, niþijo, harija, possibly names of tribes located in the Rhineland. However, the tribes of Jutland (Angles and Jutes) appear to have been speaking more West Germanic (than North Germanic) dialects at the time, which is still noticed in the local dialects of Danish.

Runes are a popular field for scientific speculation, and many other theories have been advanced, e. g. an idea by Olaus Rudbeck Sr in Atlantica claiming that all writing system orginate from (particulary Swedish) proto-runic scripts.

Rune-like alphabets have also existed amongst Finno-Ugric groups, cf. Hungarian "runes", but those are not classified as runes although some may be a derivation. (Unfortunately, it appears that most of the manuscripts with Hungarian script were destroyed with the introduction of Christianity to Hungary).

Later, runes were also mostly used in the Runic calendars (usually called Runstav (Rune staff), Prim or Scandinavian calendar) that became standard equipment within Northern Europe with the introduction of Christianity. The monuments found in Northern America with Runic inscriptions are most likely modern arts and probably derive from the 16th or 20th century.

Divination

The earliest runic inscriptions were certainly not coherent texts of any length, but simple markings on artefacts (e.g. bracteates, combs, etc.), either giving the name of the craftsman, or the proprietor, or even without any apparent linguistic sense. Because of this, it is not unlikely that the early runes were not so much used as a simple writing system, but rather as magical signs to be used for charms, or for divination. The name rune itself, taken to mean "secret, something hidden" seems to indicate that knowledge of the runes was originally considered esoteric, or restricted to an elite.

As soon as one tries to find unambiguous traces of such runic "oracles", their case becomes difficult: Although Norse literature is full of references to runes, it nowhere contains specific instruction on divination or magic. There are two sources on divination which are rather vague descriptions and may not refer to runes. The first one appears in Tacitus' Germania, which describes "signs" chosen in groups of three. The second one appears in Rimbert where he describes how a renegade Swedish king Anund Uppsale first brings a Danish fleet to Birka, but then changes his mind and asks the Danes to draw lots. This drawing of lots was quite informative in telling them that attacking Birka would bring bad luck and that they should attack a Slavic town.

There are some inscriptions containing clues for medieval belief in magical significance of the runes, such as the Franks Casket (AD 700) panel.

This lack of knowledge has not stopped modern authors from extrapolating from what little specifics exist into entire systems of divination, usually loosely based on the runes' reconstructed names. Perhaps the most popular rune author is Ralph Blum , whose Book of Runes comes with a set of runes on ceramic tiles which is loosely based on the runes of the elder futhark. Another author is Edred Thorsson , whose best known books are Futhark, Runelore and Runecaster's Handbook (The Well of the Wyrd).

Common use

Later runic finds are mainly monuments (rune stones) and often contain solemn inscriptions about people who died or performed great deeds. For a long time it was assumed that this kind of grand inscriptions was the primary use of runes, and that it was associated with a certain societal class of rune-carvers.

However, in the middle of the 1950s, about 600 inscriptions known as the Bryggen inscriptions were found in Bergen. These inscriptions were made on wood and bone and contained several phrases of profane and sometimes even vulgar nature. Thus it has nowadays commonly assumed that at least in the late use, Runic was a widespread and common writing system.

Gothic runes

It was by some held that all runes derived from hypothetical Gothic runes, but the few findings don't support this theory. If there ever were genuinely Gothic runes, they were soon replaced with the Gothic alphabet. The letters of the Gothic alphabet, however, as given by the Alcuin manuscript (9th century), are clearly related to the names of the runes. The names are clearly Gothic, but it is impossible to say whether they are as old as, or even older than, the letters themselves.

Elder Fužark

main article: Older Futhark.


The Elder Futhark (named after the initial phoneme of the first six rune names), sometimes also called proto-Nordic (urnordiska), consist of twenty-four runes, often arranged in three rows of eight. The earliest known full sequential listing of the alphabet dates to ca. 400 and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland.


ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ ᚷ ᚹ
ᚺ ᚾ ᛁ ᛃ ᛇ ᛈ ᛉ ᛊ
ᛏ ᛒ ᛖ ᛗ ᛚ ᛜ ᛞ ᛟ

The letter values, and their common transliteration are: ᚠ [f], ᚢ [u], ᚦ [þ], ᚨ [a], ᚱ [r], ᚲ [k], ᚺ [h], ᚾ [n], ᛁ [i], ᛃ [j]; ᛇ [ļ] ([ei]), ᛈ [p], ᛉ [R], ᛊ [s], ᛏ [t], ᛒ [b], ᛖ [e], ᛗ [m], ᛚ [l], ᛜ [ŋ], ᛞ [d], ᛟ [o].


Names

Each rune most probably had a name, chosen to represent the sounds of the rune itself. The names are, however, not directly attested for the Elder Futhark themselves. Reconstructed names in Proto-Germanic have been suggested for them, based on the names given for runes of the later alphabets in the rune poems and the names of the letters of the Gothic alphabet.

fehu "wealth, cattle", ᚢ ûruz "aurochs" (or ûram "water / slag"?), ᚦ thurisaz "giant", ᚨ ansuz "oe of the Aesir" (or ahsam "ear (of corn)"?), ᚱ raidô "ride, journey", ᚲ kaunan "ulcer, illness", ᚷ gebô "gift", ᚹ wunjô "joy",

haglaz "hail", ᚾ naudiz "need", ᛁ îsaz "ice", ᛃ jera "year", ᛇ îgwaz / eihwaz "yew", ᛈ perþô? "pear"?, ᛉ algiz "elk"?, ᛊ sôwilô "Sun",

tîwaz (a god), ᛒ berkanan "birch", ᛖ ehwaz "horse", ᛗ mannaz "man", ᛚ laukaz "lake", ᛜ ingwaz (a god), ᛞ dagaz "day", ᛟ ôþalan "estate, inheritance"

Frisian and Anglo-Saxon Fužorc

Extended alphabet with 29 characters, later expanded to 33 characters. Used probably from 5th century and forward, which was developed in Frisia and later spread to England. Is found on e.g. Thames scramasax , Vienna Codex , Cotton MS Otho B (†) and Ruthwell Cross .


The Anglo-Saxon rune poem has: ᚠ feoh, ᚢ ur, ᚦ thorn, ᚩ os, ᚱ rad, ᚳ cen, ᚷ gyfu, ᚹ wynn, ᚻ haegl, ᚾ nyd, ᛁ is, ᛄ ger, ᛇ eoh, ᛈ peordh, ᛉ eolh, ᛋ sigel, ᛏ tir, ᛒ beorc, ᛖ eh, ᛗ mann, ᛚ lagu, ᛝ ing, ᛟ ethel, ᛞ daeg, ᚪ ac, ᚫ aesc, ᚣ yr, ᛡ ior, ᛠ ear.

The expanded alphabet is has the additional letters ᛢ cweorth, ᛣ calc, ᛤ cealc and ᛥ stan.

Feoh, žorn, and sigel stood for [f], [ž], and [s] in most environments, but voiced to [v], [š], and [z] between vowels or voiced consonants. Gyfu and wynn stood for the letters [yogh] and [wynn] which became [g] and [w] in Middle English.

Younger Fužark

Younger fužark, also called Scandinavian fužark, is a reduced form of the Futhark-24 and contains only 16 characters (but combinations of them make 24 letters). Found in Scandinavia and from old Norse settlements, used probably from 9th c. and forward.

There are varieties of the Younger futhork script, especially the Edward-script which should presumably be grouped into Dalecarlian rune-script; see Image of Edward-script. In total, about 380 objects of various notes from 1500–1910 have been refound from areas of Dalecarlia, Gestricia and Herdalia. The Edward-scripts were used until 1910s in Älvdalen, Dalecarlia and are also used on the Kensington runestone, thus indicating its status as hoax for most researchers.

Danish Fužąrk (long-branch runes)

The Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems have 16 runes,

ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚬ ᚱ ᚴ ᚼ ᚾ ᛁ ᛅ ᛋ ᛏ ᛒ ᛘ ᛚ ᛦ

with the letter names ᚠ fe ("wealth"), ᚢ ur ("iron"/"rain"), ᚦ Thurs, ᚬ As/Oss, ᚱ reidh ("ride"), ᚴ kaun ("ulcer"), ᚼ hagall ("hail"), ᚾ naudhr/naud ("need"), ᛁ is/iss ("ice"), ᛅ ar ("plenty"), ᛋ sol ("sun"), ᛏ Tyr, ᛒ bjarkan/bjarken ("birch"), ᛘ madhr/madr ("man"), ᛚ logr/lög ("water"), ᛦ yr ("yew").

Swedish-Norwegian Fužąrk (short-twig runes)

The short-twig runes (or Rök runes) are clearly a simplified version of the long-branch runes, consisting of the following sixteen signs:

ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚭ ᚱ ᚴ ᚽ ᚿ ᛁ ᛆ ᛌ ᛐ ᛓ ᛙ ᛚ ᛧ

Hälsinge Runes (staveless runes)


Hälsinge runes are found in the Hälsingland region of Sweden, used between the 10th and 12th centuries. The runes seem to be a simplification of the Swedish–Norwegian runes and lack vertical strokes, hence the name 'staveless.' They cover the same set of letters as the other Younger Futhark alphabets. This variant has no assigned Unicode range (as of Unicode 4.0).

Dalecarlian Runic script


Named after Dalecarlia (see Dalecarlian language), the Dalecarlian runic script is an alphabetic script influenced by both long-branch and short-twig runes. It introduces dotted variants of voiceless signs to denote the corresponding voiced consonants, or vice versa, voiceless variants of voiced consonants. It came in use in the late Middle Ages (or in the early 16th century) and remained in some use up to the 20th century. Its inventory is suitable for transcribing modern Swedish:

ᛆ a, ᛒ b, ᛍ c, ᛑ d, ᚦ þ, ᚧ ð, ᛂ e, ᚠ f, ᚵ g, ᚼ h, ᛁ i, ᚴ k, ᛚ l, ᛘ m, ᚿ n, ᚮ o, ᛔ p, ᚱ r, ᛌ s, ᛐ t, ᚢ u, ᚡ v, ᛦ y, ᛎ z, ᛅ æ, ᚯ ų

A runic inscription with dots possibly related with the Dalecarlian runes is found on the controversial Kensington runestone.

Modern use

Fascist symbolism

In addition to the extrapolation of ancient divination use, runes have been used by Nazism and neo-Nazi groups that link themselves to Scandinavian traditions. An example is the use of the Odal rune (see Odalism).

Popular culture

Runes are used for divination and ritual in many variants in occultism and neo-paganism (e.g. Įsatrś, Wicca). Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to draw a line between these and Nazi mysticism, but the mere use of runes should not be construed as sufficient proof of any connection to fascist ideas.

J. R. R. Tolkien popularized runes by his use of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc in The Hobbit, and he also invented his own fictional runic aphabet, the Cirth. In Tolkien's wake, runes apear frequently in Fantasy literature.

In role-playing games, paper- or computer-based (such as the online game Runescape), runes are often used to cast magic spells. There are typically many kinds (Air, Mind, Water, Earth, Fire, Body, Cosmic, Chaos, Nature, Death, Blood, Soul, etc.) and oftimes sophisticated magical effects may be achieved by combining them during the casting or enchantment.

Unicode

Runic alphabets are assigned Unicode range 16A0–16FF. This block is intended to encode all shapes of runic letters. Each letter is encoded only once, regardless of the number of alphabets in which it occurrs.

The block contains 81 symbols: 75 runic letters (16A0–16EA), three punctuation marks (Runic Single Punctuation 16EB ᛫, Runic Multiple Punctuation 16EC ᛬ and Runic Cross Punctuation 16ED ᛭), and three runic symbols that are used in mediaeval calendar staves ("Golden number Runes", Runic Arlaug Symbol 16EE ᛮ, Runic Tvimadur Symbol 16EF ᛯ and Runic Belgthor Symbol 16F0 ᛰ). Characters 16F1–16FF are presently (as of Unicode Version 4.0) unassigned.

Table of runic letters (U+16A0–U+16EA):

16A0 fehu feoh fe f 16B0 on 16C0 dotted-n 16D0 short-twig-tyr t 16E0 ear
16A1 v 16B1 raido rad reid r 16C1 isaz is iss i 16D1 d 16E1 ior
16A2 uruz ur u 16B2 kauna 16C2 e 16D2 berkanan beorc bjarkan b 16E2 cweorth
16A3 yr 16B3 cen 16C3 jeran j 16D3 short-twig-bjarkan b 16E3 calc
16A4 y 16B4 kaun k 16C4 ger 16D4 dotted-p 16E4 cealc
16A5 w 16B5 g 16C5 long-branch-ar ae 16D5 open-p 16E5 stan
16A6 thurisaz thurs thorn 16B6 eng 16C6 short-twig-ar a 16D6 ehwaz eh e 16E6 long-branch-yr
16A7 eth 16B7 gebo gyfu g 16C7 iwaz eoh 16D7 mannaz man m 16E7 short-twig-yr
16A8 ansuz a 16B8 gar 16C8 pertho peorth p 16D8 long-branch-madr m 16E8 icelandic-yr
16A9 os o 16B9 wunjo wynn w 16C9 algiz eolhx 16D9 short-twig-madr m 16E9 q
16AA ac a 16BA haglaz h 16CA sowilo s 16DA laukaz lagu logr l 16EA x
16AB aesc 16BB haegl h 16CB sigel long-branch-sol s 16DB dotted-l
16AC long-branch-oss o 16BC long-branch-hagall h 16CC short-twig-sol s 16DC ingwaz
16AD short-twig-oss o 16BD short-twig-hagall h 16CD c 16DD ing
16AE o 16BE naudiz nyd naud n 16CE z 16DE dagaz daeg d
16AF oe 16BF short-twig-naud n 16CF tiwaz tir tyr t 16DF othalan ethel o


See also

Reference

  • Erik Brate: Sveriges runinskrifter, 1922 (online copy http://www.runor.se/ in Swedish)
  • Orrin W. Robinson Old English and its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages Stanford University Press, 1992. ISBN 0804714541

External links

  • the Futhark http://ancientscripts.com/futhark.html (ancientscripts.com)
  • Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150-700 http://www.ub.rug.nl/eldoc/dis/arts/j.h.looijenga/ by J. H. Looijenga (dissertation, Groningen University)
  • "Code2000.ttf http://home.att.net/~jameskass/ " - a font containing nearly 35,000 glyphs (shareware) by James Kass


 

Runic alphabet | Rune poems
Elder Fuþark
ᚠ f | ᚢ u | ᚦ þ | ᚨ a | ᚱ r | ᚲ k | ᚷ g | ᚹ w
ᚺ h | ᚾ n | ᛁ i | ᛃ j |ᛇ ļ | ᛈ p | ᛉ z | ᛊ s
ᛏ t | ᛒ b | ᛖ e | ᛗ m | ᛚ l | ᛜ ng | ᛞ d | ᛟ o




Last updated: 02-08-2005 09:45:50
Last updated: 02-27-2005 04:33:14