The medieval runes, or the futhork, was a
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
n
runic alphabet
Runes are the Letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see ''#Futharks, futhark'' vs ''#Runic alphabets, runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were ...
that evolved from the
Younger Futhark after the introduction of ''stung'' (or ''dotted'')
runes
Runes are the Letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see ''#Futharks, futhark'' vs ''#Runic alphabets, runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were ...
at the end of the
Viking Age
The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...
. These stung runes were regular runes with the addition of either a dot diacritic or bar diacritic to indicate that the rune stood for one of its secondary sounds (so an i rune could become an e rune or a j rune when stung). The medieval futhork was fully formed in the early 13th century. Due to the expansion of its character inventory, it was essentially possible to have each character in an inscription correspond to only one
phoneme
A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...
, something which was virtually impossible in Younger Futhark with its small inventory of 16 runes.
[Enoksen 1998:137]
Medieval runes were in use throughout Scandinavia during the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, and provided the basis for
runology
Runology is the study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, and their history. Runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics.
History
Runology was initiated by Johannes Bureus (1568–1652), who was interested in the ling ...
beginning in the 16th century.
History
Towards the end of the 11th century, the runic alphabet met competition from the introduced
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...
, but instead of being replaced, the runes continued to be used for writing in the native
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
language. The Latin alphabet, on the other hand, was mainly used by the clergy for writing in Latin, but also Latin prayers could be written down with runes. Whereas the Latin letters were written with quill and ink on expensive
parchment
Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...
, the runes were carved with sharp objects on prepared wooden staffs that were cheaper
[Enoksen 1998:140] (see e.g. the
Bryggen inscriptions
The Bryggen inscriptions are a find of some 670 medieval runic inscriptions on wood (mostly pine) and bone found since 1955 at '' Bryggen'' and its surroundings in Bergen, Norway. It has been called the most important runic find in the twentieth c ...
).
Although, it may at first appear that the church did not provide a congenial environment for tradition of writing in medieval runes, there are many known church objects that were engraved with runes, such as reliquaries,
bell
A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...
s, baptismal fonts, iron work on church doors, church porches and church walls.
[Jansson 1997:165] In fact, one of the last
runestone
A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic alphabet, runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th centur ...
s was raised in memory of the archbishop
Absalon (d. 1201).
[Jansson 1997:166]
Most of the runes in the medieval runic alphabet can be traced back to forms in the Younger Futhark as the
runemasters preferred to use, or modify, old runes for new phonemes rather than invent new runes.
[Enoksen 1998:136]
At the end of the 10th century, or the early 11th century, three stung runes were added in order to represent the phonemes in a more exact manner. Rather than create new runes for the , and phonemes, stings were added to the
i,
k and
u runes.
Around the mid-11th century, the
Ä… and the
ʀ runes took on new sounds. In Western Scandinavia, the sound of the ʀ rune merged with the sound of the r rune. Since the ʀ rune's name was ''yr'', and since this name began with /y/, it was no stretch to begin using the rune to stand for /y/. The practice of using the ʀ rune to stand for /y/ then spread to the rest of Scandinavia. Meanwhile, when the nasal changed into , this became the new phoneme for the ą rune.
Towards the end of the 11th century and in the early 12th century, new d and p runes were created through the addition of stings to the
t and
b runes.
A second /p/ rune with a shape similar to an uppercase K, and transliterated as á´˜, begins to appear around the 13th century. This rune may have been invented because stinging a consonant rune usually marks it as voiced, and the stung b rune violated this norm by being unvoiced.
When the medieval runic alphabet was fully developed in the early 13th century, it mixed short-twig and long-branch runes in a novel manner. The short-twig
a rune represented /a/, while the long-branch one represented /æ/. The short-twig ą rune represented /o/, whereas the long-branch form represented /ø/.
As the two alphabets were used alongside each other, there was a mutual influence. The Latin alphabet early borrowed the
þ rune to represent the /θ/ and /ð/ phonemes, but in
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
it was rarely used. In the 15th century, Norwegians and Swedes also stopped using the þ letter, but the Icelanders still retain it in their Latin alphabet. Due to the Latin alphabet the
m and the
l runes changed places so the rune row read fuþorkniastblmy (note that the last rune had come to represent the /y/ phoneme). In addition, Scandinavians began to double spell runes for consonants, influenced by this use in the Latin alphabet.
In the oldest Scandinavian manuscripts that were written with Latin letters, the
m rune was used as a ''conceptual rune'' meaning "man". This suggests that the medieval Scandinavian scribes had a widespread familiarity with the names and the meanings of the individual runes. In the oldest preserved manuscript of the ''
Poetic Edda
The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse ...
'' from 1270, and which is written with the Latin alphabet, the m is used as a conceptual rune meaning "man" and in ''
Hávamál'' it appears 43 times.
In the early 13th century, the runes began to be threatened by the Latin letters as the
medieval Scandinavian laws were written. Until then, the laws had been memorized and recited by the
lawspeaker
A lawspeaker or lawman ( Swedish: ''lagman'', Old Swedish: ''laghmaþer'' or ''laghman'', Danish: ''lovsigemand'', Norwegian: ''lagmann'', Icelandic: , Faroese: '' løgmaður'', Finnish: ''laamanni'', ) is a unique Scandinavian legal offic ...
s. Still, when the runes began to experience competition, they went through a renaissance. A thorough reformation of the runes appeared and the medieval runes reached their most complete form. This may be because the laws were written down, and the oldest manuscript with a Scandinavian law, the
Codex Runicus, was written entirely in runes.
[Enoksen 1998:141]
Early modern legacy

The Latin letters were introduced officially during the 13th century, but farmers, artisans and traders continued to write with runes to communicate or to mark goods.
[ It appears that in many parts of Sweden, people considered Latin letters to be a foreign practice throughout the Middle Ages.][Jansson (1997) p 173] Still in the 16th century, the runes were engraved on official memorials or as secret writing in diaries.[ In the mid-16th century, the parson of the parish of Runsten on ]Öland
Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Oland'' internationally) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area of and is located in the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Småland. ...
wrote a sign on the chancel-wall of the church that said "The pastor of the parish should know how to read runes and write them". It is likely that the text represented the general opinion of the parishioners.[Jansson 1997:175] Since the runes were still actively known and used in the 16th century, when the first runologists began to do scholarly work on the runes, the runic tradition never died out. Many manuscripts written in Iceland through the 16th to 19th centuries featured Medieval runes, Rune Poems
Rune poems are poems that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Four different poems from before the mid-20th century have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune ...
and secret rune sets.
When Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
visited the province Dalarna
Dalarna (; ), also referred to by the English exonyms Dalecarlia and the Dales, is a (historical province) in central Sweden.
Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Nor ...
in 1734, he noted the common use of runes,[ and this province has been called "the last stronghold of the Germanic script". In Dalarna as in the rest of Sweden, the medieval tradition of using ]runic calendar
A Runic calendar (also Rune staff or Runic almanac) is a perpetual calendar, variants of which were used in Northern Europe until the 19th century. A typical runic calendar consisted of several horizontal lines of symbols, one above the ...
s was almost universal until the 19th century. A notable case of a runic calendar is the calendar from Gammalsvenskby in Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
. It was made on Dagö in 1766 before the Swedish settlement was deported on a forced march to the steppes of Ukraine. For 134 years, the people of Gammalsvenskby in Ukraine used it to calculate the passage of time, until 1900 when a member of the community brought it to Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
.[Jansson (1997) p 174]
The prominent Swedish runologist Sven B.F. Jansson commented on the use of runes in his country with the following words:[
]
We loyally went on using the script inherited from our forefathers. We clung tenaciously to our runes, longer than any other nation. And thus our incomparable wealth of runic inscriptions also reminds us of how incomparably slow we were – slow and as if reluctant – to join the company of the civilised nations of Europe.
Letters
The above continues the younger futhark rune order. Although this order was still used in the medieval period, it became increasingly common to arrange the runes in the order of the Latin alphabet. The names listed come from the manuscripts Stowe MS 57, AM 461 12o, and AM 749 4to with slight alteration. The name meanings are inferred from the Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems.
A hallmark of medieval runes was the optional sting or bar diacritic which was often used to indicate when a rune stands for a secondary sound; ᚡ gave /v/, ᚤ gave /y/ and /ø/, ᚧ gave /ð/, ᚵ gave /g/ and /ɣ/, ᛂ gave /e/ and rarely /j/, ᛑ gave /d/, ᛔ gave /p/. Of these, ᚡ and ᚧ were rarer than the other stung runes, and show up later in the timeline.
Other runic characters besides the stock 16 were also used. ᛕ existed as an alternative to ᛔ. In some cases, short-twig and long-branch variants of the same rune became distinct; ᚯ and ᛅ were often used distinctly from ᚮ and ᛆ. Special runes were sometimes used for Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
words. Three additional stung runes are found on Gotland
Gotland (; ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a Provinces of Sweden, province/Counties of Sweden, county (Swedish län), Municipalities of Sweden, municipality, a ...
, though two of them are only attested in one inscription.
Open runes
Some runic symbols involving loops were developed into "open" forms to simplify design. The most prominent of these is an "open version" of ''bjarkan'' (ᛒ) for /p/ (as opposed to the complex ''stung bjarkan'' ᛔ), appearing as a capital k (ᛕ – unicode
Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...
: ''Runic Letter Open-P'') and named ''plastur'' ("bandaid").
Greenlandic Norse
Greenlandic Norse is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Norse settlements of Greenland until their demise in the late 15th century. The language is primarily attested by runic inscriptions found in Greenland. The limited ...
developed a distinctive "open version" of ''reið'' (ᚱ), where the top loop opened up to make with two parallel sloping branches, that is found in 14 Greenlandic inscriptions.
See also
* List of runestones
There are about 3,000 runestones in Scandinavia (out of a total of about 6,000 runic inscriptions). p. 38.
The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia:
The majority are found in Sweden, estimated at between 1,700 and 2,500 (depending ...
Notes
References
*Enoksen, Lars Magnar (1998). ''Runor: historia, tydning, tolkning''. Historiska Media, Falun.
*Jansson, Sven B. F. (1997 987. ''Runes in Sweden''. Stockholm, Gidlund.
External links
Nordic Medieval Runes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medieval Runes
Medieval history of Sweden