runes

runes Angular characters or letters of an alphabet formerly used by Germanic peoples in early medieval times. Also called futhark after its first six letters (f, u, th, a, r, and k), the runic alphabet may have been developed by an unknown Germanic people from a n Italian alphabet.

runes ancient characters used in Teutonic, Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian inscriptions . They were probably first used by the East Goths (c.300), who are thought to have derived them from Helleno-Italic writing. The runes were adapted to carving on wood and stone; they consisted of perpendicular, oblique, and a few curved lines. The first six runic signs were for f, u, th, o ( a ) , r, c ( k ), hence the name Futhorc for the runic alphabets. There were two alphabets, one of 16 signs and the other of 24 (the same 16 with 8 additional signs). They were used extensively throughout N Europe, Iceland, England, Ireland, and Scotland until the establishment of Christianity. From then on the use of runes was reviled as a pagan practice. In Scandinavia their use persisted even after the Middle Ages; there they were used for manuscripts as well as inscriptions. The word rune is derived from an early Anglo-Saxon word meaning secret or mystery.

Bibliography: See A. F. Brodeur, The Riddle of the Runes (1932, repr. 1973); R. I. Page, An Introduction to English Runes (1973).

rune, a letter or character of the earliest surviving Germanic script, most extensively used in inscriptions on wood or stone by the Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons. The earliest runic alphabet seems to date from about the 3rd cent. ad, and is formed by modifying the letters of the Greek and Roman alphabets. Magical and mysterious powers were associated with runes from the Anglo-Saxon period, perhaps because of their employment in riddles, as in the Rune Poem, a 94-line piece illustrating the runes of the Anglo-Saxon Runic alphabet, the Futhorc.