Runes are the characters of the earliest written alphabet used by the Germanic peoples of Europe called Futhark. The runic alphabet was used within Germanic languages but primarily in Nordic countries. Inscriptions have been found throughout northern Europe from the Balkans to Germany, Scandinavia, the British Isles and Iceland, and were in use from about 100 to 1600 AD. Runic inscriptions have even been found in North America, supporting claims that the Vikings arrived in the Americas long before Columbus.
The Runic alphabet is known as Futhark after the first six runes, namely f,u,th,a,r and k. It consisted of 24 letters, 18 consonants and 6 vowels, and was a writing system where each character marked a certain sound. Runes could be written in both directions and could also be inverted or upside down. The earliest runes consisted almost entirely of straight lines, arranged singly or in combinations of two or more. Later runes took on more complex forms and some even resemble modern day letters of the English alphabet.
Elder Futhark is thought to be the oldest version of the runic script, and was used in the parts of Europe that were home to Germanic peoples, including Scandinavia. It consisted of 24 letters, and was used mostly before the ninth century AD. This was the ancestor language of English, Dutch, German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic. As languages changed and more Germanic groups adopted it, Futhark changed to suit the language that it came to write...read more>>>...