Runes are letters in the runic alphabets of Germanic-speaking peoples, written and read most prominently from at least c. 160 CE onwards in Scandinavia in the Elder Futhark script (until c. 700 CE) and the Younger Futhark - which illuminated the Viking Age (c. 790-1100 CE) - as well as in England and Frisia in the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc (also known as Anglo-Frisian Futhorc) writing system. In England, runes were in use from the 5th century CE until perhaps the turn of the 11th century CE, while in Scandinavia the use of runes extended well into the Middle Ages and beyond.

Designed to be inscribed first into wood and metal, during the Viking Age large amounts of inscribed runestones were erected predominantly throughout Scandinavia; these runestones, despite being tough to decipher, are of absolutely critical value to us, as they are the only written source contemporary to this period. Germanic Runes are found in areas with a history of Germanic-speaking peoples, from Iceland to Scandinavia, through England, through Central Europe to Constantinople – basically places Germanic tribes on occasion called home plus any place the Vikings touched.

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The origins of the runic script are shrouded in a decent amount of mystery. The earliest inscription that is without a doubt runic is the one reading harja (possibly meaning “comb”, or “warrior”) on the Vimose comb from Denmark, dated to c. 160 CE, which uses runes so confidently and maturely that scholars feel it must result from at least a hundred years' experience in writing in runes. How exactly this tradition was pulled out of the hat, however, is subject to much debate and speculation. Inspiration from both the Greek and Roman alphabets, as well as a northern Italic or even Danish origin, has been suggested. The Greek route is perhaps the most likely in light of the resemblances in script, and a variation of a Greek alphabet – Greek was unstandardised between c. 700-400 BCE – may have reached Germanic speakers by way of a 'middle-man' group perhaps made up of eastern Europeans. Norse mythology itself offers us a fun alternative, too, in depicting the god Odin gaining the knowledge of the runes after sacrificing himself to himself and hanging on the “windy tree” for nine nights with no food or drink (Hávamál, 139-140).

Either way, by 500 CE use of the runic script had fanned out across the Germanic world – from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and England to outposts in Germany, Russia, Poland and Hungary – and recorded a variety of Germanic languages. The main runic scripts that eventually came into being were:

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• Elder Futhark (at least c. 160-700 CE)

• Younger Futhark (c. 700 - c. 1200 CE)

• Anglo-Saxon Futhorc (also Anglo-Frisian Futhorc, c. 5th century - c. 1000 CE)

• Medieval Futhork (fully formed c. 13th century CE).

Keeping the runic flame alight after the medieval period, medieval runes actually remained in use, increasingly heavily influenced by Latin, in Sweden's Dalarna province from the 16th through to the 20th century CE, its particular forms known as Dalecarlian runes or Dalrunes. We can conclude that runes are tenacious, for sure; the use of modern runes has even made it into modern paganism, and they appear widely in a fantasy context.