Futhark - the forgotten runic alphabet of Northern Europe

Futark is the earliest runic alphabet that existed among the Germanic tribes. We know little about who invented the runes when they first started using them. Unambiguously, we can only say that they served as the basis for the Scandinavian and Germanic languages. By the way, from one of them the word "rune" is translated as "secret."

Texts written using the runic alphabet can be found throughout Europe. In its different ends, starting from the Balkans and ending with the Baltic and North Seas, as well as Ireland. Most of them relate to the period from 100 to 1700 AD. But the most interesting thing is that the inscriptions made using the runic alphabet were found during archaeological excavations in North America. This once again confirmed that the Vikings still overtook Columbus.

Modern European languages use Latin letters, but earlier runes were used for this. The oldest of the open runic inscriptions dates back to 160 AD and is found on the bone crest of Vimose. It reads: harja, which translates as "name" or "epithet".

To date, archaeologists have discovered more than 4,000 runic texts, with about 2,500 in Sweden. Many date from the period from 800 to the 1000s and belong to the Viking era. They are mainly made on coins, jewelry, stone slabs, metal products.

Horn comb 150-200 n e. Was found on Funen Island, Denmark.

The early runic alphabet, known as the futark, includes the first six letters in its name: f, u, th, a, r and k. The later alphabet contained 24 letters (18 consonants and 6 vowels) and was a writing system where each symbol denoted a specific sound. Runes could be drawn both from right to left and vice versa, both from top to bottom and from bottom to top.

The earliest runes looked like straight lines. Sometimes they were placed singly or in combination of two, three or more characters. With the development of the alphabet, symbols became more and more difficult and at a certain stage began to resemble the letters of the Latin alphabet.

Amulet with runic inscription

Experts believe that the spelling of the word "futark" was used in ancient Norwegian magic. For example, an amulet made from a brown bear’s tooth, found on the Orkney Islands in the 1930s and containing the word, was used for defensive magic or fertility magic.

Futhark is very similar to Mediterranean writing. Historians suggest that the Etruscans influenced its formation. The principles for writing runic symbols coincide with the archaic Greek or Etruscan alphabet dating back to the third century BC.

Runes are difficult to decipher even for experts. Often artifacts that bear the traces of runic writing are in a state where it is almost impossible to read the text for natural reasons. The texts are either incomplete or faded.

The futark alphabet is the earliest version of runic writing. From it comes the history of the writing of the Germanic peoples. It became the basis of English, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish Icelandic.

As languages have changed, so has the futark. He adapted to the people and language that began to use it. The Goths created their own version of the runic language and used it until the year 500. Then they switched to Greek characters.

Germanic tribes used this alphabet until the middle of the 6th century. Then, for many centuries, the ability to read runes was lost. Only in 1865 did the Norwegian Sofus Bugge find the keys to deciphering the unknown messages of the past.

The younger futark, or “normal runes”, developed from the early (older) futark and stabilized by 800 AD, the beginning of the Viking era. Instead of 24 characters, the Scandinavian junior “futaric” had 16. Nine characters from the older futaric were discarded. The younger futark is divided into two types: Swedish and Danish.

It became the main alphabet in Norway, Sweden and Denmark in the Viking era, was replaced by Latin only by 1200 AD. This was due to the conversion of most of Scandinavia to Christianity. For centuries, the futark was used by European peoples, but by 1600 AD, it became interesting only to scientists.

Between 400 and 600 A.D. three Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons and Utes, invaded Britain and brought with them a futark from continental Europe. They changed it, adapted it for themselves, included 33 characters in the language, thereby indicating the sounds characteristic of Anglo-Saxons.

Since the runes existed before Northern Europe became Christian, they became associated with a “pagan” or non-Christian past. That is how the runic alphabet acquired a mystical negative connotation.