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Before the Viking Age · c. 450–1000

Anglo-Saxon runes

Also called the futhorc or Anglo-Frisian runes

While the rune row in Scandinavia got shorter, in England it got longer. The Anglo-Saxons and the Frisians added runes for new sounds and ended up with as many as 33 characters.

  1. f
  2. u
  3. þ
  4. o
  5. r
  6. c
  7. g
  8. w
  9. h
  10. n
  11. i
  12. j
  13. ï
  14. p
  15. x
  16. s
  17. t
  18. b
  19. e
  20. m
  21. l
  22. ŋ
  23. œ
  24. d
  25. a
  26. æ
  27. y
  28. ea

A common version with 28 runes. The manuscripts have between 28 and 33.

Origins

The runes came to England with people from the Continent in the 400s. Sound changes in the language gave some runes new values, and new runes were created for the sounds that were missing. Because the a-rune took on the value o, the row is called futhorc rather than futhark.

In use until around AD 1000

The futhorc was used on stone crosses, coins and jewellery, and in manuscripts alongside Latin letters. The Ruthwell Cross in Scotland, from the 700s, has a long poem carved in Anglo-Saxon runes.

There is also an Anglo-Saxon rune poem, which describes the runes verse by verse, just as the Norwegian rune poem does for the Scandinavian ones.

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