Diffusion of Runes (England and back)

Page, Raymond I. An Introduction to English runes. Woodbridge Suffolk, UK: Boydell Press, 1999

            By the fifth century AD ample archeological evidence points to runes being used in Norway, here and there in Sweden, they were fairly common in the Danish isles of Sjaelland, and Fyn. We also find a few pieces of Runic writing as far east as Ukraine (Kovel), Rozwadow (Poland), Pietroassa (Rumania), and szabadattyan (Hungary). It is impressive to learn that runes were found as far east as Ukraine, but the number of runes found in these locations suggests they are simply anomalies, and probably weren’t being used very often. The majority of the runes this early on are being found in Scandinavia.

            Due to the wide spread use of runes in Scandinavia, and the disputed but believable theory that the inventors of Runes were very familiar with the roman alphabet, the birth place of the runes can be placed in Denmark.

            From Denmark Runes spread into lower Saxony, early runic finds dating from about the fifth century AD show that the alphabets are almost identical, apart from a few differences in letter formation. On difference is the h-rune. In northern Germany the h-rune is represented with a single cross stave, where as in west Germany it uses a double cross stave.

            



             one of the earliest finds in England is a deers ankle bone found in a crematorium. The ankle bone is inscribed with a 6 runes. Five of these runes match up perfectly with both northern and western runes, but rune #4 is the h-rune with a single hash, suggesting that it comes from the northern German runes. The cremated remains were also found in pots that appeared to be of similar make to those of northern Germany, suggesting that the runes in England were inspired by the rune styles of northern Germany. Most of the earliest Runes found in England suggest an influence (because of this single cross stave in the h) from northern Germany.

   (Runes found on deer bone)

            The interesting thing though is that some time after the 7^th century, the single cross stave H is replaced with a double cross stave h, suggesting that the runes in England for some reason became more influenced by western Germany, then northern Germany.

            There is very little about runes that is clearly understood. The evidence we find here though is that the runes changed over time, and there is no clear indicator concerning what forces were affecting these changes in the Futhark during the 5^th and sixth centuries.       There is still so much we don’t understand about the political world in this era. Some evidence suggests that writing in the Futhark became very much more prevalent and necessary in modern day England then it was in many Germanic areas. If this were the case historically we could find an argument for the Anglo Saxons in Britain first adopting and using a northern style Futhark, after two hundred years there is no telling what changes may have occurred, but the change in Futhark letters may suggest an influx of western Germanic culture, and with it changes in the writing style.

            Runes were primarily used to write quick inscriptions, if they were used for keeping codex’s or tomes then we have no evidence of them today. Because of its use as a mythical writing system, to imbue power into weapons, or to simply state ownership, or in some cases to send a message to deity through a sacrificial animal or object, the writing of Futhark was much less developed then other writing systems, and much more fluid. Its writing system seems to vary a great deal based on region, and century, suggesting an absence of grammatical rules in regards to the script.