THE

Vikings alphabet

By Karl

TABLE OF CONTENT

pg 4-5 Rune stones

pg 6-7 What are runes?

pg 8-11 Runes in Ireland

pg 12-13 Decode my sentence

pg 14 Interesting facts

pg 15 References

TABLE OF CONTENT

pg 4-5 Rune stones

pg 6-7 What are runes?

pg 8-11 Runes in Ireland

pg 12-13 Decode my sentence

pg 14 Interesting facts

pg 15 References

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RUNE STONES

The Viking alphabet was made up of letters formed of straight lines, called runes. Viking pictures and records were carved in stone, wood or bone. Their straight lines made them easy to carve. Runes were believed to have magical properties, and warriors used runes on their weapons to enhance their power in battle. Runes carved into small pieces of bone or wood were thought to tell the future, heal the sick, and bless people, places, and objects. In everyday life, runes were used for practical purposes, such as labeling objects. Viking also used runes on memorial stones, which were put up in memory of their loved ones.

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Spears from Denmark made around the year 200 AD are inscribed with letters just like this

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RUNE STONES

The Viking alphabet was made up of letters formed of straight lines, called runes. Viking pictures and records were carved in stone, wood or bone. Their straight lines made them easy to carve. Runes were believed to have magical properties, and warriors used runes on their weapons to enhance their power in battle. Runes carved into small pieces of bone or wood were thought to tell the future, heal the sick, and bless people, places, and objects. In everyday life, runes were used for practical purposes, such as labeling objects. Viking also used runes on memorial stones, which were put up in memory of their loved ones.

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Spears from Denmark made around the year 200 AD are inscribed with letters just like this

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What are Runes?

Runes are very old letters which Germanic people used before they started using Latin letters in the Middle Ages. The word runes can mean any cryptic letters, but it usually means the alphabets used by Scandinavian people from about the year 150 CE to the Middle Ages. The oldest of these is called the Elder Fuþark, used from about 150 to 800 CE. Around the year 800 the runes changed into the Younger Fuþark, and these were used until about 1100, when the Latin alphabet replaced them. The Anglo-Saxon runes were used about the same time (400-1100) in Britain. The Scandinavian runes are called "Fuþark" because the first six letters in the runic alphabet are ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ (F U Þ A R K). The Anglo-Saxon runes are called "Fuþorc" because they are a little different.

In the table on the right you can see the evolution of the runic alphabet before it was replaced with the Latin alphabet that we use today.

tools used to write on rune stones

Runes in Ireland 

OVER TIME, PEOPLE LEARNT TO USE LETTERS WHICH EACH REPRESENTED A SOUND
We know what the runes used by Vikings in Ireland looked like because a man in Dublin carved the full alphabet on a piece of wood from an old barrel.

Both runes and ogham letters were designed to be carved with a knife rather than written with a pen.
This is why so few of the symbols have curves in them.

INSTEAD OF INVENTING CONBINATIONS OF LETTERS, THE ANCESTORS OF THE VIKINGS AND THE IRISH BOTH DEVELOPED A LANGUAGE OF THeir OWN.
The Irish invented the ogham alphabet and the Vikings invented the rune alphabet.

One of these is the Viking runic alphabet from Ireland and one is ogham – which is which? The one with the curved letters is the ogham alphabet.

Both runes and ogham letters were designed to be carved with a knife rather than written with a pen.
This is why so few of the symbols have curves in them.

One of these is the Viking runic alphabet from Ireland and one is ogham – which is which? The one with the curved letters is the ogham alphabet.

The Vikings learn the use of the dot from the Irish.
The dot changes our pronounciation. Over time the Vikings also began to use a dot and, like the Irish, they used it to represent sounds for which they did already not have runic symbols. These new symbols were added to the Viking alphabet around the year AD 1000, in the lifetime of King Brian Boru.