Runes were the earliest alphabets in use among the Teutonic and Gothic
nations of Northern Europe. The exact period of their origin is not
known. The name is derived from the Teutonic _rûn_, a mystery; whence
_runa_, a whisper, and _helrûn_, divination; and the original use
of these characters seems to have been for purposes of secrecy and
divination. Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon tradition agree in ascribing
the invention of runic writing to Odin or Wodin. The countries in which
traces of the use of runes exist include Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
Iceland, Germany, Britain, France, and Spain; and they are found engraved
on rocks, crosses, monumental stones, coins, medals, rings, brooches,
and the hilts and blades of swords. Runic letters were also often cut
on smooth sticks called _rûn-stafas_, or mysterious staves, and used
for purposes of divination. But there is no reason to believe that they
were at any time in the familiar use in which we find the characters
of a written language in modern times, nor have we any traces of their
being used in books or on parchment. We have an explanation of the runic
alphabet in various MSS. of the early middle ages, prior to the time when
runes had altogether ceased to be understood.
The systems of runes in use among the different branches of the Teutonic
stock were not identical, though they have a strong general family
likeness, showing their community of origin. The letters are arranged
in an order altogether distinct from that of any other alphabetical
system, and have a purely Teutonic nomenclature. Each letter is, as in
the Hebrew-Phœnician, derived from the name of some well-known familiar
object, with whose initial letter it corresponds. Runes, being associated
in the popular belief with augury and divination, were to a considerable
extent discouraged by the early Christian priests and missionaries, whose
efforts were directed to the supplanting of them by Greek and Roman
characters. But it was not easy suddenly to put a stop to their use, and
we find runes continuing to be employed in early Christian inscriptions.
This was to a remarkable extent the case in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
of Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia, where we have traces of runic
writing of dates varying from the middle of the seventh to the middle of
the tenth century. Runes are said to have been laid aside in Sweden by
the year 1001, and in Spain they were officially condemned by the Council
of Toledo in 1115.
The different systems of runes, all accordant up to a certain point,
have been classed as the Anglo-Saxon, the German, and the Norse, each
containing different subordinate varieties. The Norse alphabet is
generally considered the oldest, and the parent of the rest. It has
sixteen letters corresponding to our _f_, _u_, _th_, _o_, _r_, _k_, _h_,
_n_, _i_, _a_, _s_, _t_, _b_, _l_, _m_, _y_, but has no equivalent for
various sounds which exist in the language, in consequence of which the
sound of _k_ was used for _g_, _d_ for _t_, _b_ for _p_, and _u_ and _y_
for _v_: _o_ was expressed by _au_, and _e_, by _ai_, _i_, or _ia_; and
the same letter otherwise was made to serve for more than one sound.
Other expedients came, in the course of time, to be employed to obviate
the deficiency of the system,—as the addition of dots, and the adoption
of new characters. But the runic system received a fuller development
among the Germans and Anglo-Saxons, particularly the latter, whose
alphabet was extended to no fewer than forty characters, in which seem to
have been embraced, more nearly than in any modern alphabets, the actual
sounds of a language. The table on the following page exhibits the best
known forms of the Anglo-Saxon, German, and Norse runic alphabets, with
the names and the power of the several letters.
[Illustration]
The Anglo-Saxon runes, as here given, are derived from a variety of MS.
authorities, the most complete containing forty characters, while some
only extend as far as the twenty-fifth or twenty-eighth letter. Neither
the name nor the power of some of the later letters is thoroughly known,
and they are without any equivalents in the Norse runic system. The
German runes are given from a MS. in the conventual library of St. Gall,
in Switzerland. Though the various runic alphabets are not alike copious,
the same order of succession among the letters is preserved, excepting
that, in the Norse alphabet, _laugr_ precedes _madr_, although we have
placed them otherwise, with the view of exhibiting the correspondence
of the three systems. The number of characters in the Anglo-Saxon
alphabet is a multiple of the sacred number eight; and we have the
evidence both of a Swedish bracteate containing twenty-four characters,
and of the above mentioned St. Gall MS., that there was a recognized
division of the alphabet into classes of eight letters,—a classification
which forms the basis of a system of secret runes, mentioned in that
MS. Of these secret runes, there are several varieties specified: in
particular, 1. _Iis-runa_ and _Lago-runa_ (of which specimens exist
in Scandinavia), consisting of groups of repetitions of the character
_iis_ or _lago_, some shorter and some longer, the number of shorter
characters in each group denoting the class to which the letter intended
to be indicated belonged; the number of longer ones, its position in the
class. 2. _Hahal-runa_, where the letters are indicated by characters
with branching stems, the branches to the left denoting the class, and
those to the right the position in that class. There is an inscription
in secret runes of this description at Hackness, in Yorkshire. 3.
_Stof-runa_, in which the class is indicated by points placed above, and
the position in the class by points below, or the reverse.
The best-known inscriptions in the Anglo-Saxon character are those on two
grave-stones at Hartlepool, in Northumberland, on a cross at Bewcastle,
in Cumberland, and on another cross at Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire. The
inscription on the west side of Bewcastle cross, which we give as a
specimen of Anglo-Saxon runes, is a memorial of Alcfrid, son of Oswiu,
who was associated with his father in the government of the kingdom of
Northumbria, in the seventh century.
[Illustration: RUNES.]