| Runes History Several ancient western alphabets have magical content. These include Hebrew, Greek, Oghamm, Gaelic and Runic and the lesser known Glagothic, Westphalion and Coelbren. In each of these alphabets every character has a name which reflects its sound and has a series of related meanings.. Through these meanings we can gain a greater understanding of the world. The word 'rune' denotes its secret and magical uses. The old languages of northern Europe preserve this meaning in many ways. One of the basic meanings of rune is 'to whisper'. The Old English verb 'to rown' and the modern German raunen have a similar meaning. In Anglo-Saxon times legal and political discussions were called runes. At such meetings, actual runes were used for guidance. The confidentiality and secrecy of the ancient runes still persists in modern Irish. Her, r�n means 'secret', 'intention', 'inclination' or 'resolution'. Scots Gaelic, too has the word run which means secret, mystery, intention, purpose, wish, accord and 'love'. The word rune can also mean a lot used in divination. The Scots word run-rig describes the old method of allocating rigs or allotments of land, using runes in a lottery. Origin Of The Runes The runes have no 'single source'. As a phonetic alphabet most runic letters come from the North Italic script. This was the system used by the Etruscans. The link between the Etruscan is known from 26 bronze helmets found around 1812 in the Austrian Empire, dating from the fourth century BCE. Also around this time, seers in the Tyrol began to use runic symbols for divination, possibly following Etruscan practice. However, many of the characters that became runestaves already existed elsewhere. Pictographic symbols have been preserved in rock carvings and a few surviving wooden objects. During the late Bronze age and early Iron Ages (1300 - 800 BCE) a large number of pictographic rock carvings (Hallristninger) were made in Scandinavia. It is certain that these symbols were used for divination before the creation of the Futhark. But the runes as such came into being when some of these symbols were identified with corresponding letters of the Etruscan alphabet. The Elder Futhark This is the oldest and most widespread runic system. know as the Common Germanic Futhark or the Elder Futhark which dates back to the 4th century CE. Each rune symbol represents a letter, a sound, and has a literal meaning as well as an esoteric meaning. The runes of the Elder futhark are broken down into three 'aetts' |
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