"Of all the magickal alphabets, runes are the most developed.  Though, technically, runic is not actually an alphabet."  It has been considered so because of the way the runic system has been organized.   The most common system used today is referred to the Futhark, for the same reason your keyboard is in a QWERTY format.  F, U, R, Th, A, R, and K are the first letters of the First Aett in the Futhark system.

"The actual word 'rune' denotes it's secret and magickal uses.  The old languages of northern Europe preserve this meaning in several ways.  One of the basic meanings of rune is 'to whisper'.  The old English verb 'to rown' and the modern German raunen have a similar meaning."

"Basically the word 'rune' refers to some aspect of the mysterious inner structure of existance.  Every runic letter is a storehouse of knowledge and meaning which can only be understood fully by those who study runecraft.  The magickal power of the runes lies not only in their individual meanings, but also in the possibility of combining these meanings.  Rune magick is dynamic, flexible, creative, and developing."

In the Futhark system, sets of runes are seperated into sections of 8 called Aetts (ä-et).  And in the traditional use of the runes, there have normally been three Aetts.

Now I couldn't very well host this web page without giving due credit.  My sources include various websites, some which are not working anymore.  But what I do know I will post.  If there are any errors, please notify me.  Erilaz

Http://www.futhark.com
Secrets of the Runes - Nigel Pennick - this book is the most comprehensive I've seen.  Although I used it as a reference, Mr. Pennick used a multitude of sources taking up 5 pages in the back to write this book.  Great work Nigel!
Zen Runes - (I lost the book and can't remember the author... this should be corrected shortly.