RUNA. — This name (r. = secret) designates the alphabetic signs used among the Germanic tribes before Christianity. They consist of vertical strokes to which other straight, very rarely curved, strokes are joined: they were scratched or incised on stones or various objects; later they were also painted (“barbara fraxineis pingatur runa tabellis”: Venantius Fortunatus, Carmina, VII, 1, 8). They remained in use, at least in part, until the 14th century.
The r. are distributed in 3 groups of 8, 24 in all, corresponding to the number of letters in the Germanic alphabet, and later increased to 33: they also serve as numerals.
| f | u | th | a | r | k | g | w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| h | n | i | j | e | p | z | s |
| t | b | e | m | l | ng | d | o |
This grouping is called Juthark, from the first six letters of the first row; an apotropaic value was attributed to II. Among the Anglo-Saxons, on the other hand, the letters are grouped according to the Latin alphabet.
The Nordic tradition attributes a magical origin to the r., in relation to the magical-mystical significance of the names and numbers they represent.
The tradition is recounted in the Edda. The god Odin is said to have come into possession of the science of the r. and consequently to have gained dominion over all nature by drinking a potion into which, together with honey and the blood of the wise Kvasir, the powder resulting from the abrasion of the signs scratched on all the objects of nature itself had been poured.
The most probable hypothesis concerning the graphic origin of the r. (apart from the Greek origin through the Goths, and the Latin origin) is that these signs reached northern Europe with the alphabetic writing used among the North-Etruscan populations settled around the great lakes of northern Italy, from where they could have reached the basin of the Rhine (Marstrander).