Offers a full introduction to and survey of runes and runology:
their history, how they were used, and their interpretation. Runes,
often considered magical symbols of mystery and power, are in fact
an alphabetic form of writing. Derived from one or more
Mediterranean prototypes, they were used by Germanic peoples to
write different kinds of Germanic language, principally Anglo-Saxon
and the various Scandinavian idioms, and were carved into stone,
wood, bone, metal, and other hard surfaces; types of inscription
range from memorials to the dead, through Christian prayers and
everyday messages to crude graffiti. First reliably attested in the
second century AD, runes were in due course supplanted by the roman
alphabet, though in Anglo-Saxon England they continued in use until
the early eleventh century, inScandinavia until the fifteenth (and
later still in one or two outlying areas). This book provides an
accessible, general account of runes and runic writing from their
inception to their final demise. It also covers modern uses of
runes, and deals with such topics as encoded texts, rune names, how
runic inscriptions were made, runological method, and the history
of runic research. A final chapter explains where those keen to see
runic inscriptions can most easily find them. Professor MICHAEL P,
BARNES is Emeritus Professor of Scandinavian Studies, University
College London.
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