Offers a full introduction to and survey of runes and runology: their
history, how they were used, and their interpretation.
Runes, often considered magical symbols of mystery and power, are in
fact an alphabetic form of writing. Derived from one or more
Mediterranean prototypes, they were used by Germanic peoples to write
different kinds of Germanic language, principally Anglo-Saxon and the
various Scandinavian idioms, and were carved into stone, wood, bone,
metal, and other hard surfaces; types of inscription range from
memorials to the dead, through Christian prayers and everyday messages
to crude graffiti. First reliably attested in the second century AD,
runes were in due course supplanted by the roman alphabet, though in
Anglo-Saxon England they continued in use until the early eleventh
century, inScandinavia until the fifteenth (and later still in one or
two outlying areas).
This book provides an accessible, general account of runes and runic
writing from their inception to their final demise. It also covers
modern uses of runes, and deals with such topics as encoded texts, rune
names, how runic inscriptions were made, runological method, and the
history of runic research. A final chapter explains where those keen to
see runic inscriptions can most easily find them.
Professor MICHAEL P, BARNES is Emeritus Professor of Scandinavian
Studies, University College London.
