Before the Viking Age · c. 150–550
The Elder Futhark
Also called Proto-Norse runes or the 24-rune row
The oldest rune row we know has 24 characters, arranged in three groups of eight. The name futhark comes from the first six runes: f, u, þ, a, r and k.
- ᚠf
- ᚢu
- ᚦþ
- ᚨa
- ᚱr
- ᚲk
- ᚷg
- ᚹw
- ᚺh
- ᚾn
- ᛁi
- ᛃj
- ᛇï
- ᛈp
- ᛉz
- ᛊs
- ᛏt
- ᛒb
- ᛖe
- ᛗm
- ᛚl
- ᛜŋ
- ᛞd
- ᛟo
Where did the runes come from?
Nobody knows for certain. Many of the shapes resemble letters in the alphabets around the Mediterranean, and most runologists believe the runes were created by people who knew the Latin alphabet, through contact with the Roman Empire in the first centuries AD.
Other theories point to the Goths by the Black Sea, to northern Italy or to southern Scandinavia. Theories that the runes are much older, or come from entirely different writing systems, are not supported by the finds.
The oldest finds
The oldest inscriptions that can be securely dated are from around AD 150, among them a comb from Vimose in Denmark. The Svingerud stone from Hole in Norway, found in 2021, may be just as old or older.
We know the whole row in the right order from the Kylver stone on Gotland, from the 400s.
Three ætts
The row is divided into three ætts (families) of eight runes. The names of the ætts and of the individual runes are known from later sources, and the rune names of the Elder Futhark have been reconstructed by scholars.
There are around 200 inscriptions in the elder runes, many of them short: a name, a word, a mark of ownership.
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