So far as we can tell from surviving records, The Runes originated
over 2000 years ago in the Nordic region of modern day Sweden,
Norway, Finland, Denmark - including Greenland, and
Iceland.
The runes are known to have been in use
across
this
region
and parts of modern-day Germany during the
first millennia AD.
Artefacts that include fragments of
rune texts have also been found even further afield. Examples have
been discovered
in the Orkney Islands (off the coast of Scotland), and as far
south as Greece and parts of the former Yugoslavia.
The Runes as an alphabet
The characters currently referred to as "the runes" were
originally developed and used as an alphabet consisting of
combinations straight lines. Such a set of characters would have
had the advantage
of being relatively easy to carve into wood
or stone. The earliest versions of these characters may have been
developed independently and then evolved as scripts/artefacts were
exchanged between writers and groups. By about the year
400 A.D.,
a standard set of 24 runes had been established
and its use spread across northern Europe.
This version is now known as the "Elder Futhark" alphabet.
New runes were added to this set over time. Consequently many slightly
different versions of the
futhark emerged, some including up to 38 symbols.
Scholars have argued over the derivation of the "Elder Futhark"
alphabet. Possibilities put forward include runes being
based on the Lation alphabet, runes being based on the Greek
alphabet, runes being based on a combination of the Latin and Greek
alphabets, or runes being based on a North Italic system of
writing. The truth may be a combination of these theories and -
and perhaps now lost in time now. It is interesting to notice
that many of the runes resemble Roman characters -
both Italic and Latin scripts being derived from the Etruscan
alphabet, which is itself a branch of
the Western Greek family of alphabets ! (All these connections
make it particularly difficult to establish the precise derivation
of
the runes.)
The Runes becoming more than just an alphabet
Although it is thought that the runes were originally developed as
alphabetic characters that could be recognisably carved with minimal
skill, they eventually evolved into a method of divination as well.
This
was possible because when the early Nordic and Germanic writers
began to integrate these characters into their own existing
systems
of representation, they gave names to the characters - these
names referring to aspects of their social and religious lives. It was
this association of alphabetic characters with concepts of key
aspects life that enabled the simple combinations of straight
lines to be developed into tools
of self-development and divination.
However, we're not suggesting that The Runes have
the indicative qualities for which they are used as a tool of diviniation
purely because ancient scribes named the characters after concepts
such as "Partnership", "Fertility", "Defence", "Communication"
and so on. This is only the first part of the transformation of
the runes from an alphabetic system to a divinatory system. It
is likely that the next step took place over a period of time during
which users of these characters associated particular combinations
of lines named after a concept that was well-understood to them
(such as, e.g. "fertility") with the energetic essence of that
concept. -[We could digress here, but let's finish the historical
description first]
The end of use of Runes as alphabetic characters
When Christianity spread
throughout Europe during the first millennia, use of the Latin
alphabet also spread - displacing the regional Nordic method of
recording events using the runic characters. Consequently,
use of runes became less
common until it was eventually banned by
the Church. Nevertheless, runic engravings survive today, carved
into stone slabs and other ancient artefacts in the more remote
areas of modern day Sweden.
Use of Runes as a system of divination
Texts state that
the most recent of The Runes as a method
of enlightenment and guidance was in Iceland where
Rune Masters
were active
until at least the 17th Centrury (1600s).
Revival of the Runes
The "New Age" movement of the second half of the 20th Century has
lead to increased in interest in many forms of self-discovery,
enlightenment, and divination techniques.
At the same time, Western
society in general no-longer imposes as strict a system of religious
belief on its
citizens as was the case in previous centries. This is demonstrated
by the "witch trials" of
the strictly Christian 17th Century - through to the stricter
social order and higher church attendance (in the countries of
the West)
during
the 19th
and early 20th Century than is the case today. In the early 21st
Century, mainstream bookshops and even some toy/game shops sell
crystals, tarot decks, books about tea-leaf reading, rune sets,
and many other esoteric products that would not have been permitted
at other times during the last few hundred years. Consequently,
more people may have heard of The Runes than
was the case only 40 or 50 years ago. However, there is a great
difference between awareness of a subject and knowledge of it.
In the fast-moving, commercially driven, "Developed" world of the
21st Century, it is possible to "learn" a subject in an afternoon
or a weekend course - but few take the time and trouble to truely
master any of the ancient arts. If you browse the current issue
of the esoteric magazines on a well-stocked news stand you'll find
far more "psychics", "astrologers", "tarot readers", "clairvoyents"
and other practitioners of the arts of divination than "rune readers".
The same is true of Scandanavian magazines.
In conclusion, it is now respectable to sell and own runes but most
people don't take them seriously. They tend to be of passing interest
at most. The revival of runes has a long way to go ...
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