Note: These are my notes from my initial research into the Elder Futhark, first posted in January 2024. I have since learned a lot more about this subject and wanted to migrate this content here to make room for some fresh ideas on my main runes page.
The Kylver Stone
The Kylver Stone was discovered in 1903 during a cemetery excavation in Gotland. Today the ancient slab of limestone can be seen on display in Stockholm’s Swedish Museum of National Antiquities. It features a few inconsistancies from today’s general acceptance and arrangement of the runes; for example, several are only partially inscribed (fehu ᚠ and wunjo ᚹ) and some are mirrored (ansuz ᚨ, sowilo ᛊ, and berkana ᛒ) compared to later uses.
Two other very early examples (sixth century) of the sequential alphabet were were discovered on old Scandinavian pendants. They vary from the Kylver stone in that the positions of eihwaz ᛇ and perthro ᛈ are inverted, as well as the position of the last two symbols: othala ᛟ and dagaz ᛞ.
Extra Engravings On the Kylver Stone
The Kylver Stone also includes an additional tree-like rune after the last character in the alphabet. It’s likely that this is a stacked tiwaz ᛏ rune (or a combo of tiwaz ᛏ and ansuz ᚨ) to invoke protection from the gods. After all, it was a stone marking a grave.
Elsewhere on the Kylver Stone is an interesting occurrance: an inscribed palindrome reading sueus (sowilo ᛊ, uruz ᚢ, ehwaz ᛖ, uruz ᚢ, sowilo ᛊ). The first character is inverted, in the style of the Younger Futhark. Most suspect the palindrome is there for magical protection, or just a strange way to write the word horse.
However, some researchers have postulated otherwise. Because of the presence of the inverted sowilo ᛊ at the start, the possibility of splitting the center letter (ehwaz ᛖ) down the middle could be considered (e.g. Scholma-Mason, 2016). In this case, the central letter would be split into two forms of laguz (one inverted) making the word look more like sul lus, which could potentially mean sunlight or even sunless.
The Younger Futhark
There is also a reduced form of the Elder Futhark known as the Younger Futhark (or Scandinavian runes, Old Norse), used by the Vikings. It came into use during the seventh century (probably extended through the ninth) and includes only 16 runic symbols, seven of which are mostly identical to the original, with most of the meanings carrying over as well. It eventually branched into two different versions: the Danish and the Swedish.
What’s puzzling is why the Vikings tossed aside eight semi-useful runic structures. Three of them weren’t extremely common (eihwaz ᛇ, inguz ᛜ, perthro ᛈ) in actual inscriptions, but eliminating the other five (ehwaz ᛖ, othala ᛟ, dagaz ᛞ, gebo ᚷ, wunjo ᚹ) has seemed excessive and unnecessary to runologists (e.g. Liestøl, 1978).
So why did they get rid of useful things like vowels and common consenant sounds? Some speculate cultural decline, or simply an attempt to render a type of short hand. Others note that both 24 and 16 are divisible by 8 (also the number of runes removed from the original set). Maybe it was just a change of dialect taking place. Whatever the reason, this system seemed to work just fine for the Vikings.
Anglo-Saxon Runes
Meanwhile, the Old English speaking Anglo-Saxons (a culture of Germanic ancestry occupying the area now known as England in the Middle Ages) took the Elder Futhark runes and added five more. This Anglo-Saxon rune system is referred to as the futhorc. It includes some of the original Elder Futhark runes and other variations as well.
Rune Meanings
I’ve seen these runes in lots of places, and they are usually associated with some sort of meaning or a singular word. Turns out, most of the meanings come from four preserved rune poems of Anglo-Saxon, Norwegian, Icelandic and Swedish origin. They each seemed to be a kind of mnemonic device to help remember the order of the runes (not unlike our alphabet song).
What’s interesting (and slightly infuriating) is that there is no surviving rune poem for the original Elder Futhark. The Old English version (Anglo-Saxon) is the only one of the four that includes stanzas related to the eight Elder runes. The other three poems seem to be based on the 16 runes of the Younger Futhark. So those eight runes (gebo ᚷ, wunjo ᚹ, perthro ᛈ, algiz ᛉ, ehwaz ᛖ, inguz ᛜ, othala ᛟ, dagaz ᛞ) that didn’t survive Scandinavia into the 7th century only echo their Anglo-Saxon poem meanings today.
Some of the english representations reflected here are simply direct translations (i.e. algiz ᛉ is the Germanic word for “elk”, othala ᛟ is the Old English word for “homeland”) as they are easier to remember and don’t involve a bunch of archaic characters. The interpretations reflected here are a combination of all of this research and my own personal understandings.