The Runic Script, Ralph W. Elliot

The Runic Script, Ralph W Elliot

            The earliest runic inscriptions from the Denmark and Schleswig- Holstein are all written on portable objects, dating from the 1^st centuries CE. Most of these runic inscriptions appear to be from the Germanic migration period, and might explain why early findings are so broadly distributed throughout Europe. These inscriptions show ‘remarkable’ uniformity, and  variable direction of writing. There was a clear consensus on how these symbols were inscribed, but it appears the direction of the writing was up to the inscriber. The most common direction of writing was left to right, there are some examples of boustrophedon, and right to left, but these are less common.

            The language of the runes is understood as either Runic, or Northwest Germanic, depending on what you want to call it. For the most part the letters of runic are well understood, we know what sounds they produced with a few exceptions. The runic alphabet is comprised of 24 letters, each of these letters, (or runes) had an acrophonic name, these acrophonic names were uniform across Europe, excluding the addition of five runic names by the Anglo Saxons.

            During the Viking age Runes spread from its continental European birthplace, to as far as Iceland and Greenland. There are some “runic” inscriptions found on the American continent, but most scholars accept today that these inscriptions are forgeries, despite the legitimacy of them being defended by hobbyists and amateur archeologists.

            After the Viking age saw a massive spread of Runic, developments were made in different areas that caused changes from the old Futhark, and regional differences in runic usage, letter meaning, and letter count emerged.

            During the eighth century in Denmark the Runic alphabet was reduced from 24, to 16 runes. A majority of the runes maintained their previous usage, but some were changed based on regional needs, for example in Scandinavia the loss of the initial j- sound meant the changing, or loss of that rune.

            For some reason as the centuries moved along a reduction in the runic Futhark became more common, at least in Scandinavia. The 16 letter alphabet also saw a change in writing styles. During the early eleventh century in Halsinge Sweden we find a ‘staveless’ runic style. It appears to work as a bit of a short hand. If you look at the runic tables I have provided, you will find most of the runes are built on a vertical ‘stave’ with lines branching out at angles. The staveless runic style, as the name would suggest, lacks the stave or stem that the rune is built on.

            With the reduction in alphabet size, the runic as incapable of matching up with phonetic values very well, obviously certain runes had to take on multiple phones.  To try and accommodate this failing, a system of ‘pointed’ or ‘dotted’  runes emerged, it was known in Danish as stungne runer. this pointed system gradually made it possible for the runes to be considered more of an alphabet, in some ways adding the points or dots brought the futhark back to their original usefulness.

            Anglo Saxons brought to the british isles the very same common Futhark that was found on continental Europe, these two writing styles although emerging from the exact same Futhark diverged greatly because of geographical, and lingual differences.

            The first main difference was that the runes grew in number,  as apposed to shrinking in Scandinavia. The total number of runes grew to 31 by the tenth century. The addition of runes probably came due to lingual differences between the Germanic peoples, and the languages spoken on the British Isles.

            The runes on the British Isles are referred to as Futhorc, this is because of the slow change that occurred with Germanic.  As Germanic went through a transitional Anglo-Frisian phase, and eventually leading up to Old English. This change lead to a change in the phonetic values of the fourth and sixth runes.  The only complete epigraphic Anglo-Saxon Futhorc is inscribed on a short sword scramasax, of the ninth century found in the River Thames.

            With the spread of Christianity on the british isles the runes continue to be used for a few centuries, but mainly for writing poetry, and especially the signing of ones own name on said poetry. It is also found alongside latin writing on burial memorials.