Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as rune-rows, runic alphabets or futharks, native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent sound values (phonemes) but they were also used to represent the concepts after which they are named (ideographic runes). Runology is the academic study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runestones, and their history. Runology forms a specialised branch of Germanic philology.
The earliest secure runic inscriptions date from at latest AD 150, with a possible earlier inscription dating to AD 50 and Tacitus's possible description of rune use from around AD 98. The Hole Runestone dates from between BC 50 and AD 275. Runes were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianisation, by approximately AD 700 in central Europe and 1100 in northern Europe. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes beyond this period. Up until the early 20th century, runes were still used in rural Sweden for decorative purposes in Dalarna and on runic calendars.
The three best-known runic alphabets are the Elder Futhark ( AD 150–800), the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc (400–1100), and the Younger Futhark (800–1100). The Younger Futhark is divided further into the long-branch runes (also called Danish, although they were also used in Norway, Sweden, and Frisia); short-branch, or Rök, runes (also called Swedish–Norwegian, although they were also used in Denmark); and the , or Hälsinge, runes (staveless runes). The Younger Futhark developed further into the medieval runes (1100–1500), and the Dalecarlian runes ( 1500–1800).
The exact development of the early runic alphabet remains unclear but the script ultimately stems from the Phoenician alphabet. Early runes may have developed from the Raetic, Venetic, Etruscan, or Old Latin as candidates. At the time, all of these scripts had the same angular letter shapes suited for epigraphy, which would become characteristic of the runes and related scripts in the region.
The process of transmission of the script is unknown. The oldest clear inscriptions are found in Denmark and northern Germany. A "West Germanic hypothesis" suggests transmission via Elbe Germanic groups, while a "Gothic hypothesis" presumes transmission via East Germanic expansion. Runes continue to be used in a wide variety of ways in modern popular culture.
Name Etymology
The name stems from a Proto-Germanic form reconstructed as , which may be translated as 'secret, mystery; secret conversation; rune'. It is the source of Gothic (, 'secret, mystery, counsel'), Old English ('whisper, mystery, secret, rune'), Old Saxon ('secret counsel, confidential talk'), Middle Dutch ('id'), Old High German ('secret, mystery'), and Old Norse ('secret, mystery, rune').; ; Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v. † roun, n. and rune, n.2. The earliest Germanic epigraphic attestation is the Proto-Norse (accusative singular), found on the Einang stone (AD 350–400) and the Noleby stone (AD 450).
The term is related to Proto-Celtic ('secret, magic'), which is attested in Old Irish ('mystery, secret'), Middle Welsh ('mystery, charm'), Middle Breton ('secret wisdom'), and possibly in the ancient Gaulish (< 'confident'; cf. Middle Welsh , Middle Breton , Middle Irish 'shared secret, confidence') and (< 'sacred secret'), as well as in Lepontic (< * 'belonging to the secret'). However, it is difficult to tell whether they are cognates (linguistic siblings from a common origin), or if the Proto-Germanic form reflects an early borrowing from Celtic. Various connections have been proposed with other Indo-European terms (for example: Sanskrit 'roar', Latin 'noise, rumor'; Ancient Greek 'ask' and 'investigate'), although linguist Ranko Matasović finds them difficult to justify for semantic or linguistic reasons. Because of this, some scholars have speculated that the Germanic and Celtic words may have been a shared religious term borrowed from an unknown non-Indo-European language.
Related terms In early Germanic, a rune could also be referred to as , a compound of and ('staff; letter'). It is attested in Old Norse , Old English , and Old High German . Other Germanic terms derived from include ('counsellor'), and ('secret, mystery'), ('trial, inquiry, experiment'), ('secret of the mind, magical rune'), and ('witch, sorceress'; literally '[possessor of the] Hel-secret'). It is also often part of personal names, including Gothic (), Frankish , Old Norse , , , , , Old English , and Lombardic .
The Finnish word , meaning 'poem', is an early borrowing from Proto-Germanic,Häkkinen, Kaisa. Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja and the source of the term for rune, , meaning 'scratched letter'.Nykysuomen sanakirja: "riimu" The root may also be found in the Baltic languages, where Lithuanian means both 'to cut (with a knife)' and 'to speak'.
The Old English form survived into the early modern period as roun, which is now obsolete. The modern English rune is a later formation that is partly derived from Late Latin , Old Norse , and Danish .
History and use
Runes were in use among the Germanic peoples from the 1st or 2nd century AD. This period corresponds to the late Common Germanic stage linguistically, with a continuum of dialects not yet clearly separated into the three branches of later centuries: North Germanic, West Germanic, and East Germanic.
No distinction is made in surviving runic inscriptions between long and short vowels, although such a distinction was certainly present phonologically in the spoken languages of the time. Similarly, there are no signs for labiovelars in the Elder Futhark (such signs were introduced in both the Anglo-Saxon futhorc and the Gothic alphabet as variants of p; see .)
Origins
The formation of the Elder Futhark was complete by the early 5th century, with the Kylver Stone being the first complete ordering of the whole futhark, as well as of the p rune.
Specifically, the Rhaetic alphabet of Bolzano is often advanced as a candidate for the origin of the runes, with only five Elder Futhark runes ( e, ï, j, ŋ, p) having no counterpart in the Bolzano alphabet. Scandinavian scholars tend to favor derivation from the Latin alphabet itself over Rhaetic candidates. A "North Etruscan" thesis is supported by the inscription on the Negau helmet B dating to the 2nd century BC. This is in a northern Etruscan alphabet but features a Germanic name, . Giuliano and Larissa Bonfante suggest that runes derived from some North Italic alphabet, specifically Venetic: But since Romans conquered Veneto after 200 BC, and then the Latin alphabet became prominent and Venetic culture diminished in importance, Germanic people could have adopted the Venetic alphabet within the 3rd century BC or even earlier.
The angular shapes of the runes are shared with most contemporary alphabets of the period that were used for carving in wood or stone. There are no horizontal strokes: when carving a message on a flat staff or stick, it would be along the grain, thus both less legible and more likely to split the wood. This characteristic is also shared by other alphabets, such as the early form of the Latin alphabet used for the Duenos inscription, but it is not universal, especially among early runic inscriptions, which frequently have variant rune shapes, including horizontal strokes. Runic manuscripts (that is written rather than carved runes, such as ) also show horizontal strokes.
The "West Germanic hypothesis" speculates on an introduction by West Germanic tribes. This hypothesis is based on claiming that the earliest inscriptions of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, found in bogs and graves around Jutland (the Vimose inscriptions), exhibit word endings that, being interpreted by Scandinavian scholars to be Proto-Norse, are considered unresolved and long having been the subject of discussion. In the early Runic period, differences between Germanic languages are generally presumed to be small. Another theory presumes a Northwest Germanic unity preceding the emergence of Proto-Norse proper from roughly the 5th century. An alternative suggestion explaining the impossibility of classifying the earliest inscriptions as either North or West Germanic is forwarded by È. A. Makaev, who presumes a "special runic koine", an early "literary Germanic" employed by the entire Late Common Germanic linguistic community after the separation of Gothic (2nd to 5th centuries), while the spoken dialects may already have been more diverse.
The Meldorf fibula and Tacitus's Germania With the potential exception of the Meldorf fibula, a possible runic inscription found in Schleswig-Holstein dating to around 50 AD, the earliest reference to runes (and runic divination) may occur in the Roman Senator Tacitus's ethnographic Germania.Symons 2020: 5. Dating from around 98 CE, Tacitus describes the Germanic peoples as utilizing a divination practice involving rune-like inscriptions:
For divination and casting lots they have the highest possible regard. Their procedure for casting lots is uniform: They break off the branch of a fruit tree and slice into strips; they mark these by certain signs and throw them, as random chance will have it, on to a white cloth. Then a state priest, if the consultation is a public one, or the father of the family, if it is private, prays to the gods and, gazing to the heavens, picks up three separate strips and reads their meaning from the marks scored on them. If the lots forbid an enterprise, there can be no further consultation about it that day; if they allow it, further confirmation by divination is required.Mattingly 2009: 39.
As Victoria Symons summarizes, "If the inscriptions made on the lots that Tacitus refers to are understood to be letters, rather than other kinds of notations or symbols, then they would necessarily have been runes, since no other writing system was available to Germanic tribes at this time."
Early inscriptions
Runic inscriptions from the 400-year period 150–550 AD are described as "Period I". These inscriptions are generally in Elder Futhark, but the set of letter shapes and bindrunes employed is far from standardized. Notably the j, s, and ŋ runes undergo considerable modifications, while others, such as p and ï, remain unattested altogether prior to the first full futhark row on the Kylver Stone ( 400 AD).
Artifacts such as spear heads or shield mounts have been found that bear runic marking that may be dated to 200 AD, as evidenced by artifacts found across northern Europe in Schleswig (North Germany), Funen, Zealand, Jutland (Denmark), and Scania (Sweden). Earlier—but less reliable—artifacts have been found in Meldorf, , in northern Germany; these include brooches and combs found in graves, most notably the Meldorf fibula, and are supposed to have the earliest markings resembling runic inscriptions.
Magical or divinatory use
The stanza 157 of attribute to runes the power to bring that which is dead back to life. In this stanza, Odin recounts a spell:
The earliest runic inscriptions found on artifacts give the name of either the craftsman or the proprietor, or sometimes, remain a linguistic mystery. Due to this, it is possible that the early runes were not used so much as a simple writing system, but rather as magical signs to be used for charms. Although some say the runes were used for divination, there is no direct evidence to suggest they were ever used in this way. 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. The 6th-century Björketorp Runestone warns in Proto-Norse using the word rune in both senses: