Ancient Runes Explained (And How They Influenced The Lord Of The Rings)

Runes are simply the letters of a family of alphabets that appeared in northern Europe at least as far back as the second century, according to the World History Encyclopedia. This writing system was used by ancient Germanic and Norse cultures, including the Vikings.

The first thing one notices about runes are their unique, angular appearance. As described by Terje Spurkland in "Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions," runes have a specific structure. Letters consist of a "stave" which is usually a vertical line that runs to the base of the letter.  Then there are smaller "twigs" that complete the letter, often on diagonals. So for example, the ᛉ rune consists of one stave and two twigs. The ᛚ rune consists of one stave and one twig, and the ᚷ, of two staves. Sometimes, runes would be combined in what are called "bind-runes." The characters are angular because they were carved letters, rather than being written onto paper with ink.

Just like in a modern alphabet, each rune letter represented a sound. These developed into different alphabets called "Futhark." This name comes from the initial six runes of the alphabet: f, u, th, a, r, k. (One can imagine a Viking toddler learning their f-u-th's in lieu of their a-b-c's.) Runes also had meanings. For example, in one version of runic script, the ᛖ rune, called "ehwaz," not only represented the "e" sound but also meant "horse." In Younger Futhark, the ᚠ rune was the "f" sound but also meant "wealth" or "cattle." The ᚦ rune, which was the "th" sound, meant "giants."

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