The Viking Age · c. 800–1100
Short-twig runes
Also called stuttruner (short runes), Swedish-Norwegian runes or Rök runes
Short-twig runes are the Younger Futhark in simplified form: the twigs are cut short, or stand on only one side of the stave. They were quicker to carve, and were probably the everyday script of Viking Age Sweden and Norway.
- ᚠffécattle, wealth
- ᚢuúrdross, drizzle
- ᚦþþursgiant, ogre
- ᚭąóssriver mouth
- ᚱrreiðriding, journey
- ᚴkkaunulcer, sore
- ᚽhhagallhail
- ᚿnnauðrneed, constraint
- ᛁiíssice
- ᛆaárgood year, harvest
- ᛌssólsun
- ᛐttýrthe god Týr
- ᛓbbjarkanbirch
- ᛙmmaðrhuman being
- ᛚllǫgrwater, sea
- ᛧRýryew
Highlighted: different from long-branch. 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
Nine of the runes have their own short-twig form. Some are only halves: ᛌ (s) is a short stroke high up, and ᛧ (R) a short stroke low down. ᚽ (h) has one short twig slanting across the stave instead of two long ones.
The other seven, f, u, þ, r, k, i and l, are the same as in the long-branch runes.
Where and when
Short-twig runes are also called Swedish-Norwegian runes, and Rök runes after the Rök stone in Östergötland from the 800s, the longest runic inscription we know.
They were used in Sweden and Norway, especially in the 800s and 900s, and travelled westwards. We find them, among other places, on the runestones of the Isle of Man.
The geographical names are misleading all the same: in Vestfold in Norway there are inscriptions with long-branch and short-twig runes from roughly the same time.
The everyday script
The simplified forms suggest they were used where speed mattered: on wood, bark and bone, for messages, marks of ownership and names. Most of that has rotted away, so what survives is mostly stone. We therefore do not know how widely short-twig runes were really used.
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