The earliest form of self expression came from the Hallristingor carvings. These predate the runes and are mainly illustrations of men, animals, parts of the human body, axes, arrows, ships, the sun and the swastika. Runic inscriptions first make their appearance on objects of stone, bone and metal, occasionally wood as well. The earliest are dated to the late 2nd Century AD at archaeological sites within the former sphere of conquest of these Germanic tribes, mainly along the Baltic sea coast.
24 previously unknown symbols, each representing a particular sound value, appear to have formed the base for the first runic script. From the shapes that these letters take, it is clear that they are composed of straight lines that are either vertical or 45 degree angles, intended to be cut across grained surfaces at right angles, to be distinguishable from any underlying grain.
Originally designed to be carved into stone, wood or metal, runes where also stamped, in the case of coins or bractates.
The first example of the full futhark comes from the Kylver stone, from Kylver on the island of Gotland in Sweden. Later mutilated versions appeared on a fibula in Charnay in France, ona stone pillar at Breza in Yugoslavia and on gold bractates at Vadstena and Grumpan in Sweden. The distinctive sequence of the futhork and it's division into three groups of eight runes continues to puzzle runologists. Both these traditions must have been considered important, as they both survive the linguistic changes which reduced the Norse futhark to 16 runes and the expanded Anglo Saxon futhorc to 33.
The source of the runes is hard to identify. Early runologists saw it as having a resemblance to the Greek and Latin alphabets, modern runologists connected it to Etruscan.
Common to runes and etruscan are the similarity of some letter forms, variability of direction of individual letters (and sometimes entire texts), simplification of double consonants, punctuation by means of dots or bars, formulas such as '(name) made me', and the frequent appearance of the letter sequence itself, without any other message.
That runes formed part of the common Germanic heritage is evident by the common use of the word stem 'run-' in words meaning 'runic character'.
Also in nouns meaning 'secret' or 'private consultation'
And also in cognate verbs, meaning 'to whisper'
The earliest inscription of the common Germanic futhark are brief, often cryptic and occasionally impossible to translate. Many consist of just a name, either that of the owner, maker of the object or the carver of the runes. Some others consist of 'magical' or 'protective' names. Because the characters had both single letter and concept meanings, the translation is further confounded.
Most of the examples of runic inscriptions are in the later Norse futhark of 16 letters, a reduced and modified version of the original germanic 24. It made its appearance in Denmark in the beginning of the 9th Century, and with some variations spread from there to Norway and Sweden and then to wherever the Vikings sailed to explore, pillage or settle. Most of the sounds are no different to the original germanic futhark, although a linguistic change in the pronunciation of the fourth rune is an indication of the change from Primitive Germanic to North Germanic of the Viking age.
Several of the inscriptions in this reduced futhark are as unintelligable as the Norse futhark. They record the names of objects, the makers or the carvers of the runes. Other appear to be spells or charms. Some consist of part of the runic sequence itself. Still others are cryptic and non - translatable.
The figures and motifs are often those of the parent germanic futhark, ships, men and animals. Increasingly there is also a serpent motif as well as figures from myth and legend.
From the number of objects now come to light, it is now evident that runes where used for all aspects of recording and communication and not just in the practice of magic, as previously believed.
As a result of a fire which destroyed much of the old quarter of Bergen in Norway in 1955, hundreds of runakefli (wooden rune sticks), once believed to belong more to literature than to ordinary life, were discovered by archaeologists. This showed they were put to a variety of uses, from records of business transactions, to official royal communications, letters between merchants concerning trade, a wife's summons to her husband and a lovers appeal to his mistress.
In England there are few runic inscriptions and fewer references to them. One possible reason for this is the country's early Christianisation and the fact that the Roman alphabet was introduced as early as the 7th Century for secular as well as religious purposes. It is fortunately possible to identify the major functions performed by runes among the Anglo Saxons and to compare these with the usage of the 24 Germanic futhark and it's reduced 16 rune Norse futhark.
The Anglo Saxon rune sequence was an expanded version of the Germanic futhark, modified to represent the expanded phonetics of the Anglo Saxon language. In it's most widely used form it numbers 28 runes. Due to changes in the sound values of the 4th and 6th runes, the Anglo Saxon rune sequence is known as 'futhorc'. A variant of the 12th rune appears instead of that symbol in manuscript versions of the futhorc, such as the rune poem, where the 'normal' form of the 12th rune is displaced and placed as the second to last rune, making a total of 29. There where a few other rune symbols, not as commonly used, found in manuscripts and are found appended to the rune poem.
The use of runes in Britain can be found mainly in three forms:
No great number of pre Christian runic inscriptions have been discovered, where they have, they are usually early grave sites (Caistor by Norwich) on portable objects of wood or stone. They are generally names, and some charms. In this respect they duplicate the usage of the Norse futhark, a parallel of the Norse runkefli occurs in the Anglo Saxon poem, the Husbands Message, in which a wooden rune stick is employed to summon a wife to cross the sea to her husband.
Only a small proportion of Anglo Saxon runic texts is secular or connected with magical practices. Roman missionaries, such as Augustine in the east and south and Irish missionaries such as Columbia in the North and West, effectively ensured that Germanic tribes that settled in England all came in to close contact with the alphabet based culture in the christian monestaries, long before those on the continent. The Anglo Saxon runic inscriptions are after this event is clear through the style, context and literal content.
Although this book deals chiefly with the anglo saxon futhork, there is still plently to go at! Time to go back to the advanced page and pick another page to visit!