No one knows exactly when, where or by whom the runes were invented. The only thing that archaeologists can confirm is that the oldest known runic inscriptions are about 1700 years old, they were found in Denmark and Norway.
What does the word RUNA mean?
All Indo-European languages, including Russian, originate from the single orthodox language of Vedic Sanskrit, in which the most ancient part of the Vedas, the Rig Veda, is written. Namely, in Vedic Sanskrit one should look for the root of the word RUNA. In Vedic Sanskrit the word "rAsnA" means "secret, secret, any secret teaching", in Gothic language the word "runa" means "secret", in English: "Secret" - "hidden".
Old Germanic languages (Old Germanic) define the word rune - "runen" as "secret" or "secret", linking the mysterious signs of runic writing of the Scandinavian runes with magic and sacred rituals.
In Old Norse, the word "runar" means "mystery."
In Old Norse, the word rune means "letter", "inscription" or "letter".
Vikings on the Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry depicts the Norman Vikings crossing the English Strait in their Drakar ships carrying horses and equipment at the end of September AD 1066.
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Viking DNA
Genetic scientists are interested in exploring Normandy because it is the only stable colony established by Vikings in mainland Europe outside of Scandinavia.
The study focused on the population of the Cotentin Peninsula, because there is a particularly strong density of places and people whose names are of Scandinavian origin.
“We were interested in men with Scandinavian surnames that could reflect this Viking heritage: names such as Ankeil, Duto, Equilbek, Gonfrey, Inguf, Lanfrey, Osuf, Osmont, Kettel, Tugis, Tostain, Raoul - and their many variations”, explained by Richard Jones at the University of Leicester.
Viking Rollo (circa 846 - 930 AD), first Duke of Normandy, was according to the sagas so large that no horse could carry him and he often had to walk, hence the nickname "Gang Roll" which means "Roll / Roll Messenger".
Among the eighty-nine (89) men who participated in the genetic study, the majority (52 people) were from the R1b haplogroup, the type of Y chromosome variation most common in northern and western Europe.
26 people with Scandinavian surnames were carriers of the R1a haplogroup - a genetic marker of the Russian people, which is often viewed in Scandinavia as a typical Scandinavian haplogroup R1a.
Haplogroup I1 was found in 11 people, indeed, more than 45% of the modern population in some areas of Scandinavia belongs to the I1 genetic group, possibly of Germanic origin. It is very tempting to view haplogroup I1 as a marker left by the Vikings in Normandy.
132 runic characters associated with the Proto-Slavic and Proto-Bulgarian languages.
The runic alphabet was first used in the Proto-Slavic languages, in the Old Germanic languages, then in the Old Norse language in the Scandinavian countries. Runic writing is a writing system in which each sign had a specific sound.
Runes can be written in both directions from right to left or left to right. Runes can also be flipped or rotated.
The runic alphabet is called "Futhark" - Futhark - by the name of the first six runes.
In early AD 700, a shorter runic alphabet of 16 characters dominated. These changes were associated with the so-called years of syncopation - around 500-700 AD, when the northern languages underwent major changes, the words in speech decreased.
Words in Old Norse have been abbreviated (i.e. syncopated, truncated). For example, the word "Yara" - "jára" - the year was shortened to "ár". The letter "á" eventually became the letter "å" in the modern Scandinavian alphabet.
In 500-700 A. D. in Old Norse, some runes received new sounds. Scientists have found examples of various changes in Futhark in the 7th century in Norway. The Elder Futhark was used in 600 AD. and consisted of 24 characters.
Cryptography. Hip runes.
Examples of various runic writing are found on wooden objects, on stone, on swords and pendants, which were worn as charms by the inhabitants of medieval Europe from the Balkans to Germany, Scandinavia and the British Isles.
The oldest runic inscription dates back to the 1st century AD, and can keep the secret of an ancient conspiracy, a secret ritual, or carry a sign of a hidden magic amulet.
Codex runicus, a vellum manuscript dated 1300 AD, containing one of the oldest and best-preserved texts of the Skånske lov, written entirely in runes.
There are various variants of runic writing. Several different codes of the runic alphabet have been created, in different forms and contexts.
Jötunvillur is a little-known runic alphabet of the 11th or 12th century. In Northern Europe, only nine examples of Jotunvillur inscriptions have been found on wooden planks, cracked from time to time, making them difficult to read.
Over the years, many discoveries have been made around the study of runes, but they still have a 900-year-old mystery, and many questions remain to be answered. For example, were the encoded messages intended to store sensitive information? Why did the Vikings even use codes when writing runes?
Runologist Jonas Nordby of the University of Oslo hopes to decipher the Jotunvillur code to find answers to these questions. Jonas Nordby believes that the secret of the Jotunvillur code lies in the fact that the written characters of the runes correspond to the last sound of the name of the rune. All runes have a name, and the Jötunvillur code replaces the runic symbol with the last sound of the runic name. For example, if you need to write the rune of the letter U - the sound "urr", in writing it is encoded by the rune R.
The problem is that several runic symbols have names that end with the same sound. This makes it difficult to determine which character the code is referring to.
“It's like solving a riddle. After a while, I began to see meaning in a seemingly meaningless combination of runes,”says Jonas Nordby.
Many runes end with the same sound, which means that researchers have yet to decide which rune letter was used, as a code in one case or another.
Jonas Nordby notes: “We have little reason to believe that rune codes should hide secret messages, people often made short daily notes. I think the secret codes were used as a game in the study of runes, and not for communication."
On a 1200 year old wooden tablet found in Bergen, two men named Sigurd and Lavran wrote their names in both the code and the common runes. This helped runologist Jonas Nordby solve the Jotunvillur code. For the first time, the Jötunvillur rune code was hacked. This will help solve the mystery of the Viking secret codes and understand the purpose of the codes.
The use of runic codes was very common in Scandinavia, and a significant part of the population knew how to use them. Jonas Nordby believes that having studied the runes, having learned to read and write runes, a person also recognized codes.
Runologist Jonas Nordby researched and studied about 80 runic inscriptions dating back to 800 AD during his travels to the countries of Northern Europe. and later.
The runic message reads “kiss me” in the Jötunvillur code.
“Many people think that the Vikings used cryptography to hide secret messages, but I think the codes were used for play and learning, not for communication,” says Jonas Nordby.
One of the reasons he can make this assertion is that Jötunvillur's code is written in a way that can be interpreted in many ways.
“Jötunvillur can be written, not read, it was not used to convey messages,” says Jonas Nordby.
This is why Jonas Nordby is trying to figure out other ways his code is used. Jonas Nordby believes that the Vikings memorized the names of the rune characters using the Jötunvillur code.
The runic inscription within the Stone Age burial chamber on Orkney. (Bengt A. Lundberg).
A runic inscription was found in a Stone Age burial in the Orkney Islands, which was made around 1100. It says: "These runes were carved by the most rune-literate person west of the sea." Anyone who could write and decipher the runic codes boasted of their abilities.
Cryptography. Branched runes.
Shigir idol - 11,000 years ago
Henrik Williams, a Swedish rune expert and professor at the Department of Scandinavian Languages at Uppsala University, explains why Nordby's discovery is so important.
First of all, it helps us understand that there were more secret codes than we knew until now. Each runic inscription is waiting for its decoding and reading. This is purely detective work, and each new method improves our chances. We are getting closer to the thoughts of people living at that time, understanding their secret codes.
Professor Terje Spurkland of the Faculty of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo believes that Jonas Nordby is the only one who confirmed that the rune codes were used as a kind of game during his studies.
In the 11th century, Christianity and the Latin alphabet arrived in Norway, but it would have taken several hundred years before people began to use the new Latin alphabet for them. The main reason was the writing tools. If you had a knife and a piece of wood or bone, you could start writing, namely, the advantage of the runic alphabet was in the cheapness, ease and accessibility. The letters of the Latin alphabet had a shape that was difficult to cut with a knife on hard material. The letters of the Latin alphabet are easy to write on parchment, which is expensive and impractical for poor Norwegian farmers.
In the later years of the Middle Ages, the runes slowly fell out of use and the Latin alphabet became dominant in many countries of western Europe.