The Viking Age · c. 800–1100
Long-branch runes
Also called normal runes or Danish runes
Long-branch runes are the Younger Futhark with long branches: each side stroke runs all the way out from the main stave. They are the most legible forms of the sixteen runes, and the ones you most often see on the great runestones.
- ᚠffécattle, wealth
- ᚢuúrdross, drizzle
- ᚦþþursgiant, ogre
- ᚬąóssriver mouth
- ᚱrreiðriding, journey
- ᚴkkaunulcer, sore
- ᚼhhagallhail
- ᚾnnauðrneed, constraint
- ᛁiíssice
- ᛅaárgood year, harvest
- ᛋssólsun
- ᛏttýrthe god Týr
- ᛒbbjarkanbirch
- ᛘmmaðrhuman being
- ᛚllǫgrwater, sea
- ᛦRýryew
Tap a rune to read more about it.
What the rune names mean
The runes were letters, but each had a name that was an ordinary word. The meanings below are those of the names, as the Norwegian rune poem describes them.
- fé · Cattle, and so wealth: livestock was the oldest form of riches.
- úr · Dross from the forge in the Norwegian rune poem, drizzle in the Icelandic one.
- þurs · The thurses were the giants, the forces of chaos outside the ordered world.
- óss · The river mouth, where the journey begins. In Iceland the rune was read as áss, god.
- reið · Riding and travelling: the journey on horseback.
- kaun · An inflamed sore, and one of the darkest verses in the rune poem.
- hagall · Hail, “the coldest of grains”, which could ruin the harvest.
- nauðr · Need and constraint: the situation where the choices run out.
- íss · Ice, which was also winter’s bridge over water and bog.
- ár · A good year: a rich harvest, peace and plenty.
- sól · The sun, “the light of the lands”.
- týr · The god Týr, who sacrificed his hand to bind the wolf Fenrir.
- bjarkan · The birch, the first tree to turn green in spring.
- maðr · Man, who in the end becomes earth again.
- lǫgr · Water and sea, and the waterfall dropping from the mountain.
- ýr · The yew, the tree that is greenest in winter.
Features
Kvist (twig, branch) is the old Norwegian word for the side stroke that runs out from the main stave. In long-branch runes the branches are long, and several of the runes are symmetrical: ᚼ (h) has two crossing branches, ᛘ (m) opens upwards like a fork, and ᛦ (R) is the same shape turned upside down.
Nine of the sixteen runes have a different shape in the short-twig runes. The other seven, f, u, þ, r, k, i and l, are the same in both.
Where and when
Long-branch runes are also called Danish runes, because they are typical of Viking Age Denmark. The Jelling stones, raised by Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth in the 900s, are carved with them.
They also became the usual forms on runestones in Sweden: the many runestones from the 1000s in the Mälaren Valley mainly use long-branch forms. In Norway they are found both on their own and mixed with short-twig forms.
Why “normal runes”?
The name comes from the fact that the long-branch forms became the most common on runestones, and that scholars have used them as the starting point when describing the Younger Futhark. It does not mean they were more correct than the short-twig runes. The two existed side by side, and were probably used for different things.
The rune overview and the pages for each rune here on the site show the long-branch forms.
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