Origin of runes

Runes, early alphabet, phonetic alphabet, syllable alphabet, Kylverstone, futhark, Venetico-alphabet, rune magic, fortune-teller, sibyl, oracle, augur, giant, World Tree, Yggdrasil, Audhumbla

We have to learn the spoken language in the early age before around 15 years of age, since the entire apparatus of speech must be shape by training and more training. Still language is a living thing that is altering all the time. We develop new words and import others so next generation will have a slightly different language.

My written language has been much simplified through the years and I write more like spoken language. In my childhood there was a spoken language and "a high language" especially when one should communicate with those "higher people" … but the giants have disappeared at least in Scandinavia.

We often forget that there was a prehistory and in this case all Indo-European languages and perhaps even The Egyptian language was based on the syllable alphabet with morphemes as tiles with individual meaning. Some of the letters has their origin in such syllable symbols. They think the Phoenicians invented the phonetic script around 1300 BC and since they were traders all over the known Old World it also became known at least among traders and nobility.

At least in my province with our more than 4000 year old syllable and symbol script I recognise immediately that U, K, G, H, I, J, T and L can we find in the rock-carvings. However we can not prove that they have been used after the heydays of the early laws. Maybe they have been used for personal message and memory keeping.

If we compare the futhark with the alphabets from the south only N, P, E and M But the Celtic languages above the Alps developed by isolation a little different so they need NG, J, G and W plus the need for more vowels in the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian languages. We can note that U occurs also in the Venetico alphabet. But that is not enough evidence that we could say only the Venetico alphabet influenced or was base for the futhark.

The symbol for U was in the syllable script used for UN and alludes to UNI the Underworld goddess with lofty symbol asterism Libra. T as TI is one of the most spread and by shape it shows "flow"

Roman R was not developed to present and look more like P but was pronounce R. However it looks like a bust or the symbol/ picture stone for the settlement RAS.

In the futhark TH = D and K = C have usually several variants and in L the toe can point in four directions.

It would naturally be interesting to know how old are the runes and from where did they get them. Above presentation suggests that they have been influenced from Italy as well as from Greece and from the Azowska Sea and other eastern places. Even in the Roman script we meet texts like that on the Broholm bract opposite to the text Constans … se early rune texts. Maybe roman texts also were influenced from Greece and other provinces

We have the futhark from the Kylver stone and from the bract Vadstena and Grumpan in Scandinavia, but also nearly full futharks from Breza, Bosnien … Aquncum, Ungarn …Charnay, Frankrike. Furthermore there are a few signs of part of the futhark on some items. But they are not all alike like a standard. Still they tell about the same "language" and users of this script

WE get small signs of their practical use since they use the words write, make, paint and cut that could indicate that they "wrote" them on various material. The Nordic climate does not spare eroding material for long time. We are fortunate that they also made them in gold so we have at least fragments of texts from their heydays..

Rune magic

I wonder if any other script has been made so magic as the runes? The Romans tells that the Scandinavians "toss sticks" and that should be magic and primitive of course. I know from the Greek history that they also used some kind of "toss lots" and surely they did the same in Egypt and Sumer when they used lots to share the fields and maybe in other connecting share the harvest. We see signs of that also in rock carvings.

There are also signs and finds of games. Some were surely just for fun, but they could also put some meaning in the game. It is just a method of stimulating the thinking when solving problems. In the end only rational solutions could be used. The rest is just idle pastime. There is no need for us to make ancient life more mystical than necessary. The main thing is that they managed to solve their problems.

Still today fortune-tellers all over the world use some kind of "stick or stones" to fire their imagination when they try to see into the future. But if we look at it are not too difficult because ordinary people have the same problems with love, money and future in all times everywhere. The trick is to be patient and wait and see what future brings … I have seen Tarot card but do not know anything about it … maybe it is magic?

It is always that when we look from aside on something we do not know about our imagination try to fill the holes and expect the worse … I think the frog dance at midsummer in Sweden looks very magic and primitive. Maybe the Swedes remember the days when they popped up from the soil when the icy glacier left Sweden?

We know about sibyls from Malta around 4000 years ago and the Greeks would prefer we mention the Oracle in Delphi … however her wisdom usually was that she do not know!!!. Augurs and sibyls practised also in Rome and surely Nordic people tried to get some hints how it worked in Rome. On the medal from Lilla Jored we se the augur on the reverse so the augurs were not unknown in Scandinavia.

Maybe a lot of people would like me to believe in the myths. However I see the Edda myths mostly created in Christian time is much like that virtual reality where you get a helmet and look into the virtual world you crated by yourself.

I do not believe in a god hanging in a tree inventing runes. Gods cannot do anything and they do not exist in the real world since they are only fiction. We cannot just buy one detail of the mythology. I look out of my window searching for a giant from the mythology such creatures should be visible on long distance. And how about the World Tree Yggdrasil? Especially here in North it should be visible and also the giant cow Audhumbla

I try to interpret the motifs and images our ancestors left us as poetry. Then I should be able to see some reality behind it sometimes. Now I am writing about the first half of first millennium AD. I do not see much of the so-called Edda gods. And not that noble world they introduce in the Edda mixed with pure fairy tales for children. They could not make living by using such myths anywhere in practical life.

I see no reason to believe that our ancestors were dumber than we are, neither that they needed magic to make a living. I try to stay on earth.