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As highlighted by scholar Leszek Gardeła (National Museum of Denmark), "surviving sagas and poems reveal that certain numbers held special significance among Norse societies. This was certainly the case with the numbers three and nine which are frequently mentioned in connection with the sphere of religion and/or ritual practice." [9]
The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Period .
The Elder Futhark, used for writing Proto-Norse, consists of 24 runes that often are arranged in three groups of eight; each group is referred to as an ætt (Old Norse, meaning 'clan, group'). The earliest known sequential listing of the full set of 24 runes dates to approximately AD 400 and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland , Sweden.
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic [1] or Old Scandinavian, ... accusative, genitive, and dative – in singular and plural numbers. Adjectives and pronouns ...
Old Norse counted large numbers in twelves of tens, with its words "one hundred and eighty" (hundrað ok átta tigir) meaning 200, "two hundred" (tvau hundrað) meaning 240 and "thousand" (þúsund, Old English: þúsend) meaning 1200. [5] The word to signify 100 (a "short hundred") was originally tíu tigir (lit. ' ten tens ').
The notation is similar to the older Roman numerals for numbers 1 to 9 (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX). [1] Unlike the Roman notation, there are only symbols for numbers one ("I") and five ("U"), protruding off the side of a vertical stroke, or stem, which has no numeric value by itself.
Sexagesimal numerals were a mixed radix system that retained the alternating bases of 10 and 6 that characterized tokens, numerical impressions, and proto-cuneiform numerical signs. Sexagesimal numerals were used in commerce, as well as for astronomical and other calculations.
The longest known inscription in the Elder Futhark, and one of the youngest, consists of some 200 characters and is found on the early 8th-century Eggjum stone, and may even contain a stanza of Old Norse poetry. The transition to Younger Futhark begins from the 6th century, with transitional examples like the Björketorp or Stentoften stones.