Of what use would the character ᚴkaun ‘ulcer’ be to its user? If it was to protect against having an ulcer or to cause your enemy to have one, why this one ailment only and none other? The actual meanings, however, are disparate and lack any cohesive theme. But there is little evidence that anything like this ever happened in Viking times.Ī glance at the first letter would suggest that those following will have similar meanings related to good fortune, childbirth, health, or victory in battle. The very first letter, ᚠ fé or ‘wealth’ might be a nice symbol to carve into the main lintel of your household, or keep stowed in your wallet. The characters themselves have an attractive angularity possibly due to their primary use as stone carvings. It is easy to see from this how modern enthusiasts of Norse culture might assign specific magical qualities to each symbol. The only “update” being the m rune changing in appearance. The e, ŋ, o and d runes are lost, while the t, b and l runes remains the same. The theird aett in the Elder futhark possibly went through the largest change, losing four of its original eight runes. In its place, but moved to the end of the 16 Norse runes is the new *yr rune, representing r. The same happened to the old z rune which diseappears. The old j rune was also lost, but in its place came the new *nauðr rune which now represents the a sound in the Norse runes. In what was the second aett in the Elder futhark, the h, and s runes are new and the æ and p runes disappeared. Furthermore, the old g and w runes disappeared. Evolution from Elder to younger futharkįrom the first aett in the Elder futhark, the a rune changed its appearance and went from being associated with the a sound, to an Old Norse ą. On the way they went from 24 runes to only 16, of which were new. Only a handful of the runes actually changed as the as the Scandinavian, or Norse runes (Younger futhark) evolved from the Elder futhark. When comparing the Younger futhark with the Elder futhark, most of the runes stayed unchanged. ᚠᚢᚦᚬᚱᚴ pronounced fé úr Thurs As reið and kaun. Name and Symbol of the Younger Futhark Runesīoth Futhark alphabets get their name from the first six letters listed in each. This may indicate parallel use across generations or conflicting views among older traditionalists and younger progressives. There is an overlapping period between approximately 650 to 800 CE when we find inscriptions in both Futhark alphabets side by side. The resulting alphabet left its users with fewer letters to represent more sounds. Why the Norse community chose to drop 8 characters from their alphabet during a time of increasing linguistic complexity is something of a mystery. The final incarnation of the alphabet happens in the 10th century when vertical strokes are all but abandoned in the ‘staveless’ version. This smaller version of the ancient alphabet is further subdivided into Danish and Swedish/Norwegian versions known respectively as the long-branch and short-twig runes. The Younger Futhark is reduced to 16 characters even though at the time Norse was developing more phonemes in the spoken language.

The Germanic Elder Futhark as we have seen has a total of 24 characters and derives from the Greek alphabet. The alphabet found its final form after a transition period of approximately 200 years in the 7th and 8th centuries. Its adoption is loosely contemporaneous with the Viking age. Widespread use of the Younger Futhark begins in approximately the 9th century. Observed similarities between several of the characters make this abundantly clear. The accepted historical account, agreed upon by modern scholars is that the runes derive from the Greek alphabet.

Viking thought was not as linear as some historians and even many pagans would like it to be. They are not, however, mutually exclusive. One is via traditional lore, the other through modern archaeology. There are two main ways to approach the subject of Norse runes. The Younger Futhark, also known as Scandinavian runes, date from about the 9 th century. This continued until about the 8 th century. Early Germanic tribes used the Elder Futhark system from around the beginning of the Common Era. There are two main versions of Norse runes the Elder Futhark and the Younger Futhark. Asztalos Gyula, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Runes of the elder futhark