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Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see futhark vs runic alphabet), native to the Germanic peoples of the 1st millennium and beyond. Runes were used to write Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and
Wilhelm Grimm published his Über deutsche Runen in 1821, where among other things he dwelt upon the "Marcomannic runes" (chapter 18, pp. 149–159). In 1828, he published a supplement, titled Zur Literatur der Runen, where he discusses the Abecedarium Nordmannicum. Sveriges runinskrifter was published from 1900.
[9] [full citation needed] The unnamed į rune is found in a personal name (bįrnferþ), where it stands for a vowel or diphthong. Anglo-Saxon expert Gaby Waxenberger speculates that į may not be a true rune, but rather a bindrune of ᛁ and ᚩ, or the result of a mistake. [10] [full citation needed]
The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia: The majority are found in Sweden, estimated at between 1,700 [2] and 2,500 (depending on definition). Denmark has 250 runestones, and Norway has 50. [2] There are also runestones in other areas reached by the Viking expansion, especially in the British Isles. [3]
Schretzheim ring-sword: the sword blade has four runes arranged so that the staves form a cross. Read as arab by Düwel (1997). Schwab (1998:378) reads abra, interpreting it as abbreviating the magic word Abraxas, suggesting influence of the magic traditions of Late Antiquity, and the Christian practice of arranging monograms on the arms of a ...
Fehu is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name for the rune ᚠ (Old Norse: fé; Old English: feoh), found as the first rune in all futharks (runic alphabets starting with F, U, Þ, Ą, R, K), i.e. the Germanic Elder Futhark, the Anglo-Frisian Futhark and the Norse Younger Futhark, with continued use in the later medieval runes, early modern runes and Dalecarlian runes.
Ansuz is the conventional name given to the a-rune of the Elder Futhark, ᚨ. The name is based on Proto-Germanic *ansuz, denoting a deity belonging to the principal pantheon in Germanic paganism. The shape of the rune is likely from Neo-Etruscan a (), like Latin A ultimately from Phoenician aleph.
In addition, Scandinavians began to double spell runes for consonants, influenced by this use in the Latin alphabet. [2] In the oldest Scandinavian manuscripts that were written with Latin letters, the m rune was used as a conceptual rune meaning "man". This suggests that the medieval Scandinavian scribes had a widespread familiarity with the ...