Originally, the word rune denoted something occult or cryptic and early on became a synonym for knowledge and wisdom. Eventually the term came to denote the letters of the alphabet (the Futhorc) peculiar to the ancient Teutonic peoples of north west Europe. There are three runic alphabets; the Norse, with 16 characters, the Anglo-Saxon with 40 and the German. Saxon tradition ascribes the invention of the runes to Woden, but in reality they derive from the old Greek alphabet, as demonstrated by Isaac Taylor between 1879 and 1883, and they were introduced into northern Europe during the 6th and 7th centuries BC by the Greek colonists of Scythia. Dr Wimmer argued that they derived from the Latinalphabet. Their use reduced as the influence of the Church or Rome, with its own Roman characters, spread. They were used for casting spells as well as divining the future. Research Runes
Abbreviations
Mythology
Research Runes