The ''Runa ABC'' of

Johannes Bureus Johannes Thomae Bureus Agrivillensis (born Johan Bure; 1568–1652) was a Swedish polymath, antiquarian, mystic, royal librarian, poet, and tutor and adviser of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. He is a well-known exponent of Gothicism. Life a ...

was the first Swedish

alphabet book An alphabet book is a type of children's book giving basic instruction in an alphabet. Intended for young children, alphabet books commonly use pictures, simple language and alliteration to aid language learning. Alphabet books are published ...

and its purpose was to teach the

runic alphabet Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

in 17th century Sweden. The

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 very interested in the lin ...

pioneer

was a religious Christian, but he also thought that the Christian influence had replaced the

with the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...

. His good reputation and his influential friends enabled him to acquire the royal privilege that no alphabet books could be printed without teaching the runic alphabet and no one was allowed to print them but himself. The result was that the first Swedish alphabet book ever printed had the purpose of teaching runes. The first edition of ''Runa ABC'' was printed in 1611. It contained the Latin alphabet in ABC order and the runic alphabet in both the futhark order and in the order of the Latin alphabet. Bureus had also added the names of the runes, the

phonemes In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

they represented as well as some spelling rules. The booklet contained small Christian texts, which were written in runes on one side and in Latin letters on the opposite one. The last edition was printed in 1624, and it was more pedagogical than the first one, since the Latin letters were placed directly under the runes. Whereas the first edition ended with some prayers written in Latin letters, the 1624 edition had the final prayers written with runes, without any Latin transliteration.Enoksen 1998:183 Bureus did not succeed in making the runes replace the Latin alphabet since people were too familiar with the Latin letters. However, during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battl ...

, some Swedish officers encrypted their messages by writing with runes.Enoksen 1998:184 Lars Magnar Enoksen notes that it appears from the title page of Johannes Bureus' first edition that Bureus had some understanding of the staveless runes in 1611, but that this has been denied by virtually all runologists.

Notes

References

*Enoksen, Lars Magnar. (1998). ''Runor : historia, tydning, tolkning''. Historiska Media, Falun.

External links

''Runa ABC''
as a digital facsimile {{Runes ABC, Runa Runology 1611 books Alphabet books Swedish books

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