Use of Runes
Runes were normally used for inscriptions in wood, metal, or stone. The runes consist mostly of vertical and diagonal marks, with notably fewer horizontal marks or curves (and in some versions of the runes, none at all). It is speculated that runes were designed this way to aid carving in wood. The words would be written along the grain of the wood, meaning all the marks were cut across the grain. This is good because cuts along the grain might cause the wood to split, or might close up if the wood absorbs moisture.
The earliest surviving runes are tentatively dated to about A.D. 200, though it is generally believed that they were invented no later than year 1. These early runes up to about A.D. 650 appear to all use the same "futhark" with about 24 runes. Most of these older inscriptions are very short and cryptic, and in most cases it is hard to translate them or even be sure what language they are. Most preseved runes are inscriptions in stone, i.e. rune stones, a few fragments exist on wood, barch and bone, and a few on parchment, the most famous being the Codex Runicus.
It appears that runes may actually be much older. The rune for the sound ę, as in sAd, was not used in writing, for at that time the Germanic Languages didn't have that sound. Yet, in every list of characters it always appeared. However, in Proto-West Germanic ę appears to have existed as a full-blown phoneme.
The younger Swedish-Norwegian runes
At later dates the runes varied from country to country. The size of the futhark declined to about 16 or 18 runes in Norway and Sweden, where the vast majority of the later runes are found. In England the futhark increased to about 28 runes (plus a few more only used regionally or for foreign proper names).
Almost all runes which have been deciphered were used for writing Germanic languages, such as Old Norse, Norwegian, Swedish, Old English, and in the case of many older runes, languages that appear Germanic but are difficult to identify more precisely. The only use of runes for identified non-Germanic languages is probably a few Latin inscriptions written with English runes, or with a mixture of Latin letters and English runes. Perhaps there are a few other cases, but they would be rare.
While the runes were used for writing works such as the Bible, they were more commonly used for short inscriptions rather than full text.
Runes appear to have fallen into disuse around A.D. 1000 except in Scandinavia where they continued to be used for a few more centuries. Some more isolated regions of Scandinavia continued using the runes up until modern times. There have been occasional revivals over the centuries, mostly by people wanting to associate with the past in some way. The current wave of enthusiasm seems partly inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien and partly by New Age mysticism. The runes are of important value to followers of the Įsatrś religion.
Runes and their mythological and magical associations
In Norse mythology the god Odin hung on the world-tree, Yggdrasil for nine days in self-sacrifice in order to bring the gift of runes to mankind. According to Tacitus, the ancient Germanic peoples used to carve marks on slips of fruitwood and select them as lots for divination. This account, and the several runic poems associating meanings and images with the names of the runic letters, has led more recent occultists to attempt to reconstruct systems of divination using the runic letters.
Runes and Nationalism
As Germanic symbols, the Runes were used by the Nazis. Some symbols such as the Odal rune are used on neo-nazi flags in place of the banned swastaki.
Unicode coding