RunesFrom: Page, R.I., Reading the Past: Runes, UC Press, 1989

Additional Insights by D. Gary Mi!er

Quick Rune Facts

Germanic peoples NOT literate (in the modern sense) before Christianization, but were becoming familiar with writing as a concept

Runes designed for carving, not “writing” in our sense of the word: OE writan = “to inscribe, engrave”, OE rædan / ON rá∂a = “to interpret (an inscribed text)”

Quick Rune Facts

Earliest inscriptions date from late 2nd century CE

No standardized Futhark (alphabet)

Runes died out in Germany/Low Countries fairly early - England ~11th cen. - used in Scandinavia well into Middle Ages

Quick Rune FactsRunes can be written in any direction

All voiced consonants are reduplicated

“G” - Take a Germanified version of a Greek gamma (G ), turn it kinda upside down and bend it a bit, then add the mirror image: g

“D” - Take a Germanified version of a Greek delta ( Δ), turn it sideways, then add the mirror image: d

Quick Rune Facts

Each rune had a name that was also a meaningful word.

Gothic rªna = Latin myst§riumrªn can also mean "text"

Alleged magical properties of runes often the result of unattested symbolic / extended meanings being assigned to them.

Rhythmic subdivision for recitation divided into 8s

Vowels

13th rune value disputed - in later use it's a variant of # 11 /i/ -- no ancient distinction between long and short /i/ & /u/ (although they did distinguish between length in mid-vowels) - assume that 11 & 2 can represent /i/ & /¶/, /u/ & /ª/ - to match early Gmc vowels to runic letters, letter for short /e/ (19) and /a/ (4) - long vowel /•/ accounted for (23) - /º/ (or some kind of long, low front vowel) is missing, and THAT should be the mysterious #13

Old RunesOldest OE run from Caistor-by-Norwich - dates back to ~400 CE -- on roe deer ankle bone

Written in the Elder Futhark

Looks like: raI1q;,vxqhan

r + a + æ/´ + h + a + n

Etymology: PIE *roi-k•n > * røi-xøn > Pre OE *raihan > OE r∞(ha) > Mod. Eng. roe