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 linguistics of the '' Geatish language'' (''Götiska språket''), i.e.

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 ...

. However, he did not look at the runes as merely an alphabet, but rather something holy or magical. The study of runes was continued by Olof Rudbeck the Elder (1630–1702) and presented in his collection ''Atlantica''. The

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Anders Celsius (1701–1744) further extended the science of runes and traveled around Sweden to examine the ''bautastenar'' ( megaliths, today termed runestones). Another early treatise is the 1732 ''Runologia'' by Jón Ólafsson of Grunnavík. The sundry runic scripts were well understood by the 19th century, when their analysis became an integral part of the

Germanic philology Germanic philology is the philology, philological study of the Germanic languages, particularly from a Comparative method, comparative or historical perspective. The beginnings of research into the Germanic languages began in the 16th century, wi ...

and

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical li ...

. Wilhelm Grimm published his ''Über deutsche Runen'' in 1821, where among other things he dwelt upon the " Marcomannic runes" (chapter 18, pp. 149–159). In 1828, he published a supplement, titled ''Zur Literatur der Runen'', where he discusses the '' Abecedarium Nordmannicum''. Sveriges runinskrifter was published from 1900. The dedicated journal ''Nytt om runer'' has been published by the "Runic Archives" of the Museum of Cultural History at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

from 1985. The Rundata project, aiming at a machine-readable catalogue of runic inscriptions, was initiated in 1993.

References

Germanic studies {{philology-stub

History

See also

References