What runes were
Runes are an alphabet used by Germanic-speaking peoples, and in Scandinavia they were in use well before the arrival of the Latin alphabet. The oldest inscriptions, found on objects such as brooches, weapons and small tools, are usually dated to around the early centuries AD. The earliest runic alphabet is called the Elder Futhark, named after its first six letters, and it had 24 signs.
Over several centuries the Scandinavian language changed, and the alphabet changed with it. By roughly the Viking Age, the Younger Futhark, with only 16 signs, was standard in Scandinavia. Because there were fewer signs than sounds, one rune often stood for several similar sounds, so a reader sometimes has to work out which word was meant. This is one reason scholars still debate the reading of some inscriptions.
The straight, angular shapes were well suited to carving into wood, bone, metal or stone, rather than writing with pen and ink.
What a runestone is
A runestone is a raised stone carved with runic text, often with a looping animal or serpent band that holds the writing. The great majority date from roughly the tenth and eleventh centuries, and Sweden, especially the area around Uppland, has far more of them than Norway or Denmark. They were often painted, so the weathered gray stones we see today give a poor picture of how they once looked.
Most are memorials. A typical text says that a named person raised the stone in memory of a relative, sometimes adding a line about the dead man’s deeds or travels. They were also a public way to display family standing and, in many cases, inheritance claims, since raising a monument was something an heir might do.
Famous examples
The two Jelling stones in Denmark are among the best known. The larger one is traditionally linked to King Harald Bluetooth, who says he made the Danes Christian. It is often described as a kind of “birth certificate” for Denmark, though that phrase is modern, and its date is usually put in the later tenth century. It marks the period when the Scandinavian kingdoms were taking shape under a new church.
The Rök stone in Sweden is the opposite sort of case. Its inscription is very long, probably from the ninth century, and parts of it are still disputed, since it seems to refer to stories and riddles that we no longer know. It is a good reminder that a stone can survive while its meaning does not.
Other stones in Sweden mention men who traveled east or died abroad, which fits the wider picture of Norse exploration and of Scandinavians serving in the Byzantine world. Some stones mention payments to English kings, and a few of the carved crosses and prayers show the shift toward Christianity.
Runes and the old religion
Runes are sometimes assumed to be magical, and some inscriptions do seem to contain charms or protective formulas. But most runic texts are very ordinary, and historians are cautious about reading everything as ritual. The stones that name Thor, for example, are better understood as a sign of the period’s mixed beliefs than as a full picture of Norse mythology, which survives mostly in later written sources.
As the Viking Age ended, runestones increasingly carry Christian formulas, such as a request that God help the soul of the dead.
Everyday runes in the later Middle Ages
Runes did not vanish when the Latin alphabet arrived. In towns such as Bergen, excavations of the waterfront have produced a large collection of small wooden sticks with runic writing from the High Middle Ages. These include merchants’ notes, ownership marks, short messages, prayers and even some jokes or rude remarks. They show that fairly ordinary people, not just carvers of grand monuments, could read and write in runes, alongside Latin for church and legal business.
The Hanseatic League’s growing presence in Bergen brought more writing in Latin script and, in time, in German, and the use of runes slowly declined, though in some remote regions they survived longer in local forms.
What runic evidence can and cannot tell us
Runic inscriptions are valuable because they are original, datable (loosely) objects that were not copied by later scribes. They preserve personal names, family ties and place names, and they give a Scandinavian voice that is not filtered through foreign chroniclers.
They also have limits. The texts are short, formulaic and mostly concerned with commemoration. They tell us little about politics or battles in detail, and they leave out most of everyday life. Dating relies on style and context rather than exact records. For a fuller story, historians combine them with archaeology, foreign chronicles, and the later Icelandic sagas, each of which has its own bias.