Runes are the symbols of a script that was used in Northern Europe from at least the second century AD through to the Middle Ages. Consisting largely of straight lines ,runes were designed for carving on hard surfaces such as wood , stone ,metal, bone. They have been found on tombstones, swords, funerary urns, armor and jewels, as well as on domestic objects such as boxes and bone playing pieces.

From the book "The Almanac of the Ucanny"

"The Runes are an ancient alphabetical script, each of whose letters possesses a meaningful name as well as signifying sound. Runes were employed in Poetry, Inscriptions and Divination, yet never involved as a spoken word.
From the beginning, the Runes took on a ritual function, serving for the casting on lots, for divination to evoke higher powers that could influence the lives and fortune of the people .The craft of the Rune masters and mistresses touched every aspect of life, from the most sacred to the most practical. There were Runes and spells to influence the weather ,the tides, the crops, love, healing, fertility, birth and death"

Runes were carved on amulets, drinking cups, battle spears and on dwellings and ships.
In pre-Christian times, the earth and all created things were alive. Twigs and stones served for Runic divination since, as natural objects, they embodied sacred powers. Runic symbols were carved into pieces of hardwood, incised on metal or cut into leather that was stained with pigment into which human blood was sometimes mixed to enhance the potency of the spell.
The most common Runes were smooth flat pebbles with symbols painted onto one side. The Rune master would shake the pouch containing the Runes and scatter them onto the ground, those falling with the symbols facing upward were then interpreted.

Runes are the ultimate magical tool for ritual work with the Northern deities. Each runic symbol contains an elemental force which corresponds to a god or natural power. Each rune is both a letter and a vessel of natural potency. Runes are descendants of shamanic power symbols, who se origins extend deep into the past before the beginnings of writing.

Linguistically ,the word "rune" has connotations of mystery. The word is believed to come originally from the Indo-European root ru ,which meant "a mysterious or secret thing". Every character that we call a rune is a storehouse of knowledge and meaning but you can only access this wisdom by diligent study of the rune craft in all its aspects.
The runic system is dynamic, flexible, creative and capable of further development. Reality is fluid and so each time the runes are used they react in a new way toward this fundamental reality.

In legend, the runes were discovered by the god Odin through a self-inflicted ordeal.
Odin, wounded himself with his mighty spear Gungnir, hung himself on the Yggdrasil, the World Tree ,and for 9 days and the nights Odin peered into the depths of Niflheim and pondered the mysteries of the Runes, as a sacrifice to himself to gain that hard-won knowledge .With his suffering, Odin won the mysteries of the The Runes, wand with his wisdom he gained power over all things.

I know that I hung on the windswept tree
For nine days and nine nights.
Stuck with a spear,
Bloodied for Odin,
Myself an offering to myself,
Bound to that tree
Whose roots no one knows where they go.

No one gave me bread.
No one gave me drink.
Down into the depths I looked
To take up the runes.
Screaming, I feel back from that place.

Odin's torment was concluded by a flash of insight that allowed him to release the full potencial of the runes for human use.

Runes vary in number ,name and shape. The basic German alphabet consisted of 24 runes .By the early ninth century in Northumbria,and Anglo Saxon had increased it to 33,but it was later reduced to 16 by the Vikings.

Of the 5000 rune inscriptions so far discovered.most are Sweden,were they were used in the Viking age to write epitaphs on the rune stones,memorial stone for the dead.IN some places runes were condemned as Pagan, while in others they had the blessing of the Church .In Anglo-Saxon England, for example ,runic memorial stones began to appear only in Christian times.

Runes you will find, and readable staves,
Very strong staves,
very stout staves,
Staves that Bolthor stained,
Made by mighty powers,
Graven by the prophetic god,
Havamal

Some of the signs in the ancient rock-carvings are identical to the characters of the alphabet that gave rise to the runes,so it is probable that a gifted individual joined the two systems together, bringing the runes into being .This act of creative insight is symbolized in the Norse poem Havamal written as the word of Odin. It tells us:

Know how to cut them, know how to read them,
Know how to stain them, know how to prove them,
Know how to evoke them, know how to prove them,
Know how to send them,
Havamal
In these few lines is the structure of ancient rune magic. They are steps in a formal ritual process for calling up the powers of the runes and directing those powers to accomplish desired ritual ends.

On the following pages, you can find tables of all major rune rows with simplified meanings for each rune, and a more complex description of the Younger Futhark, rune row used by the Vikings of Scandinavia.