Introduction
Vikings are remembered as raiders and destroyers with an oral culture. Their
legends were only written down after the Christian church brought the Latin alphabet.
However, when the church arrived, the Vikings already had a writing system - runes.
This paper will introduce the Viking Age and the runic alphabet. It will then explore the
uses for runes through the few examples we have of Viking Age inscriptions as well as
through what can be extrapolated from medieval runic writing. It will briefly address the
speculations that have be made about Viking literacy and close with the transition to the
Latin alphabet and a question for future researchers.
Introduction to the Viking Age
The Viking Age is traditionally recognized as beginning with the raid on
Lindisfarne, a monastery in the British Isles, in 793 CE. The word Viking tends to be
used rather loosely to describe the peoples of Scandinavia during the ninth through the
eleventh centuries and will be used as such in this paper. Contemporaries, however, used
the term Viking as a synonym for pirate. They distinguished between raiders and other
Norsemen, with whom they had begun trading a century before and with whom they
continued to trade throughout the Viking Age.
“Throughout these three centuries of Viking adventure, there remained at home in
Scandinavia farmers, hunters, fishermen and trappers who led the same lives as
their forebears. It was those who stayed at home who provided the resources that
made the voyages practicable. The ships had to be built, equipped and
provisioned. Supplies had to be accumulated for the winter months, and so had
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the commodities required to make up the cargoes of the traders” (GrahamCampbell, “Viking World” 1).
It was this trading relationship that paved the way for the raiders.
The most pertinent relationship between the developing trade system and the
Viking raiders in terms of its affect on writing is the political link. Viking Age
Scandinavia was ruled locally by various levels of kings and chieftains. Control of
trading centers and routes allowed some rulers to gain wealth and power and to begin to
control much larger areas than before. Displaced rulers who refused to submit could
choose exile with the hope of gaining wealth and fame abroad by leading or participating
in Viking raids. The consolidation of power throughout the Viking Age may have been a
significant factor in the carving of rune stones, our strongest and most numerous
examples of runic writing. Also, while the era is named after the raiders, it is the traders
and their kinsmen left at home that provide us with the extant scraps of writing that are
the focus of this paper.
Introduction to Runes and Runic Writing
The exact origins of runic writing are enshrouded in guesswork and speculation. It
is generally thought that the runic alphabet, called the fuþark (þ=th) after its first six
letters, was invented sometime in the first centuries CE, perhaps as early as the first
century BCE. Arguments have been made for either Greek or Latin as the model
alphabet. A combination of models has also been suggested.
A rather profound knowledge of not just Roman or Greek or another alphabet by
the originator, but of two or more writing systems, may explain, not only the
difficulty today to point out one source model, but above all how a German got
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the idea to invent a new writing, different, in several respects, to the known ones
(Ohlsson, 80).
The biggest obstacle to naming the predecessor to the fuþark is its order, which is “not at
all similar to the order of letters in Mediterranean alphabets, even though runes derive
from one or more of them, and no convincing explanation has as yet been proposed for
this divergence” (Knirk, 174).
Whatever its origin, around 800 CE, at the beginning of the Viking Age, the
fuþark underwent a reform, consisting of a reduction in characters from 24 to 16.
Scholars debate whether this was an evolutionary development or a conscious reform.
There may have been a goal of making the fuþark conform more closely to the spoken
language, though many of the new letters had to represent more than one sound. This has
made translation especially difficult for scholars.
With all the unknown aspects surrounding runes, one thing that scholars do seem
to agree upon is that the fuþark was likely designed for cutting in grained wood. The
letters consist almost exclusively of vertical lines, or staves, with branches coming off the
staves on the diagonal. Horizontal lines would get lost in the grain and curved lines
would be more difficult with only a crude knife on a branch. The new 16 sign fuþark,
also called the younger fuþark, was “even more orthodox in avoiding rounded curves or
horizontal lines, which might be difficult or unsuitable for cutting on wood” (Ohlsson,
88).
This form of writing was highly practical for the Viking Age. Any Viking would
carry a knife. To write then simply required picking up one of the twigs that could be
found in abundance in the surroundings. Recent archaeological evidence shows that the
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Vikings found this method so convenient that they continued it beyond the introduction
of Latin. This method was obviously not conducive to lengthy texts, but for short
messages or reminders, it was ideal.
The younger fuþark had two variants. Once thought to be regional, they are now
thought to represent functional differences. “The short twig forms were probably
designed as a cursive script for the practical business of everyday communication,
whereas the fuller forms of the long-branch runes were more decorative and thus better
suited for epigraphic use on stone monuments” (Pulsiano, “Runes and Runic
Inscriptions” 550).
The fuþark shares many characteristics with early writing systems. Each rune had
a name, which was also a meaningful word. “The principle behind the rune names was
acrophonic, that is, the first sound of the word indicated the basic sound value of the sign.
The rune-carver had to learn the names so that they could remind him of the sound the
sign represented” (Knirk, 178). The carver could also use the single runes as shorthand
for a whole word or use a series of words to cryptically represent a single word. Runic
texts also show variation among writing left to right, right to left, or boustrophedon
(alternate lines in opposite directions). Individual runes were sometimes reversed as well.
There is some speculation as to whether these reversals represent a type of punctuation, a
change in meaning or are simply carving errors, but as with much else surrounding runes,
nothing has been established concretely. There is no distinction between capital and
lower case letters and little to no punctuation or word separation.
I would be remiss in completely omitting the magical element of runes. Norse
mythology explained that knowledge of the runes was won by Odin through great
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sacrifice and there is evidence of alphabet magic both in Viking Age Scandinavian and in
many other cultures. The early studies of runes emphasized the magic component almost
exclusively and later scholars have refuted it, perhaps excessively so. “Modern runology,
however, stresses that runes were a functional tool to write down spoken language and
were used for everyday messages as well as for religious incantations” (Fitzhugh and
Ward, 67). It is the functional aspect of runes that I will discuss further in this paper.
Study of runic inscriptions from the Viking Age is extremely difficult because
scholars know that wood was the primary writing material, but few wooden objects have
survived. Most of what has been discovered and deciphered comes from more durable
materials or from more recent times and thus may not actually be representative. “In total,
between five thousand and six thousand runic inscriptions are known today, and more
than three thousand of these are found in Sweden, mostly on rune stones from the late
Viking Age” (Fitzhugh and Ward, 67).
Uses of Runes
These rune stones provide us with a wealth of information about the end of the
Viking age. “Although we are still in the Viking Age with these Swedish stones, it is very
much the late Viking Age, the moment of transition to Christian, medieval Scandinavia,
and many of the stones have obviously Christian characteristics” (Jesch, 45). The stones
can also help us speculate on the uses and knowledge of writing at that time, and perhaps
earlier.
Rune stones tend to follow a common formula, first naming the sponsor or
sponsors of the stone, followed by the person or persons being memorialized. Typically,
stones were put up in honor of the dead by their surviving relatives, business partners, or
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comrades. However, there are examples of people memorializing themselves in their own
lifetime. Inscriptions could also contain a description of the deceased and a curse or a
Christian prayer. Some named the rune carver (Sawyer, “Property” 5).
Birgit Sawyer has studied these inscriptions extensively and proposes that these
rune stones were as much claims to property rights as memorials to the dead. She argues
that most medieval gravestones name only the dead. The mention of the sponsors on the
Viking stones shows a need to recognize who was paying for the stone. “To erect a stone
was obviously a prestigious act, and these monuments can, therefore, be considered as
status symbols that were fashionable among the upper classes at that time. But that
naturally raises the question, why this fashion developed and spread as it did” (Sawyer,
“Property” 6).
Sawyer offers a number of intertwined political, economic, and religious factors
to account for the development of this practice, arguing that the rune stones “can be seen
as a symptom of crisis, as a response to comprehensive transformation of Viking Age
society at that time” (Sawyer, “Sigtuna” 170). The first example of this is the Jelling
stone raised by Harald Gormsson around 960 CE. It reads, “King Harald ordered these
monuments to be made after his father Gorm and his mother Thyra. It was this Harald
who won for himself all Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians” (GrahamCampbell, “Cultural Atlas” 118.)
Harald’s stone symbolizes both the transition from paganism to Christianity and
the transition from one form of kingship to another. Harald’s predecessors had
been content to have indirect control over many parts of their kingdom, but he and
his son Sven began to bring the whole of Denmark under a more direct form of
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royal control. I suggest that the great social and economic changes caused by
these religious and political developments in effect detonated the explosion of
runic inscriptions on stones in many parts of Scandinavia. In areas that were most
heavily affected there must have been a need either to resist the changes or to
acknowledge the acceptance of the new situation, to claim old or new rights, to
land, titles and power” (Sawyer, “Sigtuna” 170).
These rune stones provide a wealth of knowledge about the Viking Age: “development of
the language and poetry; genealogy, inheritance, and habits of name giving; settlement,
government, and communication; Viking raids and peaceful trading expeditions; and the
spread of Christianity and pilgrimages” (Pulsiano, “Runes and Runic Inscriptions” 550).
It is important to remember, however, that the majority of these rune stones are dated to
the period 960-1000 CE and are found within a limited geographical vicinity. This
practice was a temporary and local fashion and while informative, may not be expressive
of the period as a whole. For example, Norwegian rune stones often carried “inscriptions
recording boundaries or other legal matters” (Jesch, 70).
From well preserved but perhaps not indicative, we move to what seems more
likely though with fewer examples to support the theory. That Scandinavians inscribed
runes onto wood we are certain. We have the term for the wooden sticks – runakefli.
There are even a few inscriptions on wood using the Elder fuþark. Of course, these are
few and far between. Even the Viking Age runakefli are scarce. Wood is problematic as a
primary carrier of text. First, there is the simple fact that wood does not preserve well
over hundreds of years. Perhaps more importantly, these wooden inscriptions were not
meant to. Runakefli was the scratch paper of its day. The note was made, and when it was
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no longer of any use the runakefli was discarded or repurposed. For example, there is
evidence of runakefli being carved down to a point at one end. Kindling seems another
likely end for a no longer needed memo carved on wood.
With so many possibly manners of destruction it is a wonder we have any
examples of runakefli at all. Indeed, it was a fortuitous discovery of over 800 inscriptions
on wood from the Bryggen harbor that has provided most of the evidence. These
runakefli are dated to the twelfth century, but many argue that they represent a practice
that may well have gone back to the Viking Age. “It is no longer too daring a thought to
consider the majority of the known runic literature, stone inscriptions commemorating
dead persons, as about as representative for runic literacy as it would be to use stone
inscriptions from the last 900 years as the basis for describing literacy for this period”
(Ohlsson, 82).
The runakefli from Bryggen show a flourishing trade town. Forms of runic
inscriptions include ownership markers to be tied to goods, accounting records, packing
slips, declarations of love, instructions from a wife telling her husband to come home,
graffiti, and more extensive letters representing both political and business transactions.
Two examples will suffice:
‘Sigurðr Lavarðr sends God’s greeting and his own. The king would like to have
your ship. For arms and equipment [here a passage is lost] a spear from the
?eighteen ells of iron that I sent you by Johan Øre. Now it is my request to ask
you to be compliant in this present matter. And if you do as I ask, you shall have
in return our true friendship, now and forever’ (Page, 8).
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Eindriði, you must let me have these: two measures and three casks, and
otherwise (if you cannot?) sixteen measures. And Eindriði, you shall take that
corn which Bergþorr owes me. No less than sixteen measures must you take; if
not, then take nothing. And I ask my father if he will let me have three casks
(Liestøl, “Correspondence” 23).
We see from the Bryggen finds that runes were an important device for
communication, even after the introduction of the Latin alphabet and parchment.
Furthermore, runes were used by members of a range of social classes and inscriptions
are occasionally found that date to the Viking Age, suggesting a continuation of tradition
that seems more logical than purposefully beginning to use a form different from the
English and European standard of the time. Liestøl argues that if runakefli exist from the
ninth century (and indeed at least some have been found in Hedeby) then “there must
have been a group of people who could make use of such letters, people who considered
it worth their while to learn runes and to apply their knowledge. And such a group must
have formed a stable social element, well able to keep a literary tradition alive” (Liestøl,
“Literate” 74).
Runic inscriptions are found on other objects as well. Weapons, ornaments, coins,
boxes, bracteates, bowls, combs, and even wax writing tablets all carry runic inscriptions.
These often consist solely of a name or an expression of ownership and sometimes the
name or use of the object. These expressions usually take the form “NAME owns me.”
Gradually the “owns me” is dropped and the name stands alone as the mark of ownership.
A rare exception comes from a weaving tablet from Lund. It reads, “‘Sigvor’s Ingemar
shall have my weeping – aallatti!’” (Jesch, 46). Jesch suggests that Ingemar has left the
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writer for another woman, Sigvor. “Ingemar’s rejected love took the nearest object to
hand, one of her weaving tablets, and inscribed it with a curse, triggered by the final
magic word” (Jesch, 46). If Jesch is correct, we have proof of a woman who knew how to
write in runes.
Runic Literacy
This brings us to the question of literacy in the Viking Age. How many Vikings
could read and write with runes? While it is hard to say for certain, there is a growing
argument for rather widespread literacy. Rune stones were erected in public places,
especially along roads and at bridges. This public display implies a public audience.
There is also the evidence of the short twig and long branch variants of the runic
alphabet. The need for a shorthand implies a certain level of use.
Viking Age runic inscriptions were used for “memorials, boundary posts, markerstones for bridges and roads, owner’s or maker’s marks, as well as for casual graffiti by
Vikings whiling away the time” (Graham-Campbell, “Viking World” 158). We also find
“harsh adjurations and pious prayers for delivery from sickness and peril, we find poems
written in the ancient, alliterative style, and prosaic communications from one person to
another” (Liestøl, “Literate” 77). Certainly, this range of uses also implies that runes were
a useful and common part of life. By the medieval period, “The fixed order of the runes
allowed them to be used for ordering by carpenters or construction workers, as can be
seen in their use for numbering roof beams in churches like those at Hviding and Brøns”
(Pulsiano, “Runes and Runic Inscriptions” 552).
Returning to the Bryggen artifacts, we can begin to ask how the Vikings may
have learned to write with runes. Within this set of inscriptions, we find a number that
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consist of the runic alphabet or fragments of it. Some are found in conjunction with
personal names, a possible indication that they are examples of practice alphabets since
one’s name is often on of the first things one learns to write. James Knirk has done a
study of these inscriptions and has listed five categories of inscriptions that may be
evidence of the process of learning to write with runes. They are:
1. fuþark -inscriptions, that is, inscriptions consisting of the runic alphabet in
more or less complete form;
2. runic syllabaries, that is, inscriptions consisting of or including repetitions of
similar syllables with regular variations;
3. inscriptions clearly showing the copying of text, often in two or more hands
and this representing a model and a copy;
4. inscriptions having no linguistic meaning but consisting of, for example,
repeated runes or rune-like signs, and thus perhaps representing practice carving;
5. inscriptions that in their texts mention or discuss learning to write with runes.
(173-4)
Especially illuminating are inscriptions where several fuþarks appear on the same
object in different hands. We can postulate a teacher and student, but it is unclear whether
this teacher was a professional in any sense, or if this was simply passed down among
family members. We also can only speculate on the level of literacy reached. “Personal
names account for a large portion of the total corpus of runic texts” (Knirk, 189). It could
be that most of the population could read and write their names, but only classes such as
merchants and the very wealthy needed runes for business and property claims.
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The Transition to Latin
Through the merchants, the nobility and, of course, the raiders, Europe finally
took notice of its neighbors to the north. “Once the Scandinavians were better known, the
Church would want to convert them, rulers would want to establish diplomatic contact
and merchants would want to trade with them” (Jesch, 84). With these new interactions
came Latin and the Latin alphabet. However, the adoption of the Latin alphabet was a
slow process. It was initially used only in connection with the Church and only for
writing the Latin language. Additionally, “throughout the Middle Ages, writing with the
Latin alphabet was mastered only by a small elite, mainly clerics and nobility” (Pulsiano,
“Runes and Runic Inscriptions” 551). Runes continued to be used for business and
personal purposes at least through 1350 CE, the end of the date range of the Bryggen
finds. Eventually the Latin alphabet was adapted to write the vernacular languages of
Scandinavia and runic inscriptions disappear. There is only one known runic manuscript,
the Codex Runicus, and this seems to be the result of an antiquarian interest rather than a
continuation of tradition.
Conclusion
It struck me during the course of my research how often I ran into the example
“so and so owns me.” Ownership tags were a recurring theme and one of the primary
surviving artifacts. Add to that the number of items that simply had a person’s name on
them, and the theory that over time the “owns me” was dropped and the name stood alone
as an ownership mark, then the number of owned items takes up an even larger
percentage of known runic inscriptions. In readings on other early scripts, there is often
discussion of business transactions being the primary focus of writing. I wonder, if in a
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culture where raiding was the norm, claiming ownership of an item was of primary
importance. This thought was reinforced when I read that Vikings were Vikings, even at
home:
Viking activity also took place inside Scandinavia, and, in fact, it differed little
from what was going on all over Europe in the “Dark Ages.” The plundering of
neighbors, the exaction of tribute from them, and their submission, to a large
extent interchangeable notions, were familiar facts in western Europe as well as in
Russia. (Pulsiano, “Viking Age” 693).
While it was shocking to Europeans that Vikings would venture so far afield, could it be
that this constant raiding would be a motivation to learn to write your name and then to
inscribe it on your belongings, either before you are raided, or on to newly acquired
goods? Were other cultures so diligent in labeling their belongings?
The question also remains as to how widespread the use of runes really was. We
can see that runic literacy had no wealth barriers like those associated with acquiring
parchment or reading materials from which to learn. A Viking only needed his knife and
a twig to write. The variety of inscriptions also implies that writing was not limited to the
upper classes. “The monumental inscriptions, which tend to be better preserved, larger,
and more imposing than others, can give the misleading impression that the script was
prestigious and particularly associated with people of high status” (Sawyer and Sawyer,
10). Scholars today generally agree with the Sawyers that, “There is therefore no reason
to doubt that they were used in daily life at an early stage” (10). However, until more
runic inscriptions are unearthed from the Viking Age “no reason to doubt” is not the
same as “evidence suggests.”
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Bibliographic Essay
Knowing little about the Vikings besides the general stereotype of marauding
destroyer, I began my research with background works. These included Vikings: The
North Atlantic Saga (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000) edited by William
W. Fitzhugh and Elisabeth I. Ward, James Graham-Campbell’s Cultural Atlas of the
Viking World (New York: Facts on File, 1994) and The Viking World (London: Frances
Lincoln, 2001), Phillip Pulsiano et al.’s Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia (New
York: Garland, 1993), and Birgit and Peter Sawyers’s Medieval Scandinavia: From
Conversion to Reformation circa 800-1500 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1993). I found all of the works to be useful overviews, each providing an extra piece of
the puzzle. Pulsiano had the interesting information that beams were labeled with the
runic alphabet to aid in the order of construction. Medieval Scandinavia: An
Encyclopedia was especially thought provoking, as it was here that I found the fact that
Vikings raided each other, which lead to my question regarding the importance of
ownership marks.
Stig Ohlsson’s "Why didn't the vikings just go on writing as their ancestors did?
A survey of the runic tradition, with emphasis on the break between older and younger
futhark" (Runica et mediævalia. Opuscula 2. Stockholm, 1994) and R.I. Page’s Runes
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987) provided me with in depth information
on the variations of the runic alphabet and its use. Ohlsson’s article in particular dealt
with the change from the elder to the younger fuþark, while Page’s book provided me
with examples of runic inscriptions.
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Birgit Sawyer’s works Property and Inheritance in Viking Scandinavia : The
Runic Evidence (Alingsås, Sweden: Viktoria Bokförlag, 1988) and “Sigtuna – A Border
Town” (Grindaheim, Norway, 8-12 August. 1990) introduced me to the idea that rune
stones were a local phenomenon and provided several insightful reasons for the tradition.
These sentiments were echoed in many of the other works. Her works also offered
copious examples of rune stone inscriptions as well as some very interesting statistical
analysis that was out of the scope of this paper.
I looked to Judith Jesch’s Women in the Viking Age (Rochester, NY: Boydell &
Brewer, 1991) to see if I could gain any sense of whether writing was limited to men only
to find that this seemed not to be the case. Though there is always the possibility that men
could have done the inscriptions for the women, this seems not to be the conclusion
drawn.
For a more in depth study of Viking Age literacy, I was lucky enough to be
pointed towards James E. Knirk’s "Learning to Write with Runes in Medieval Norway"
(Runica et mediævalia. Opuscula 2. Stockholm, 1994) and Aslak Liestøl’s "The Literate
Vikings" (Proceedings of the Sixth Viking Congress. Uppsala, 1971). These two articles
in particular provided much of the serious analysis that was missing from the easy to find
general information as well as a large number of attempted and partial translations of
runic inscriptions that helped inform my summaries of the various types extant.
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Works Cited
Fitzhugh, William W. and Elisabeth I. Ward, eds. Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga.
Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.
Graham-Campbell, James. Cultural Atlas of the Viking World. New York: Facts on File,
1994.
- - -. The Viking World. London: Frances Lincoln, 2001.
Jesch, Judith. Women in the Viking Age. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 1991.
Knirk, James E. "Learning to Write with Runes in Medieval Norway" Medeltida skriftoch språkkultur. Nordisk medeltidsliteracy i ett diglossiskt och digrafiskt
perspektiv II. Nio föreläsningar från ett symposium i Stockholm våren 1992. Red.
I. Lindell. Runica et mediævalia. Opuscula 2. Stockholm 1994: 169-212.
Liestøl, Aslak. "The Literate Vikings" Proceedings of the Sixth Viking Congress.
Uppsala 3-10 August. Bonäs, Dalarna 10-12 August 1969, Red. P. Foote & D.
Strömbäck. Uppsala 1971: 69-78.
Ohlsson Stig. "Why didn't the vikings just go on writing as their ancestors did? A survey
of the runic tradition, with emphasis on the break between older and younger
futhark" Medeltida skrift- och språkkultur. Nordisk medeltidsliteracy i ett
diglossiskt och digrafiskt perspektiv II. Nio föreläsningar från ett symposium i
Stockholm våren 1992. Red. I. Lindell. Runica et mediævalia. Opuscula 2.
Stockholm 1994: 79-102.
Page, R. I. Runes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
Pulsiano, Phillip et al., eds. Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. New York:
Garland, 1993.
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Sawyer, Birgit. Property and Inheritance in Viking Scandinavia : The Runic Evidence.
Alingsås, Sweden: Viktoria Bokförlag, 1988.
- - -. “Sigtuna – A Border Town” Proceedings of the third international symposium on
runes and runic inscriptions. Grindaheim, Norway, 8-12 August. 1990: 163-178.
Sawyer, Birgit, and Peter Sawyer. Medieval Scandinavia: From Conversion to
Reformation circa 800-1500. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.