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RUNES
The word runes means 'god given secret', and this the can be related to the Norse myth where Odin hang for nine days in a tree, and overheard mysterious creatures discussing the secret of the runes.

Runes are known to have been used by Germanic tribes since the first century A.D. The origins are debated, but most historians agree that they are based on Greek, Etruscan or Roman lower case or italicised writing.

From approximately 400-700 A.D. the runic alphabet consisted of 24 letters, but by the time of the Viking Era this had been reduced to 16. While there were two different sets of runes I will here only cover one. At the end of the 10th century, the number of runes had again started to grow, probably to accommodate the more diversified dialects in Scandinavia, and perhaps also because of influences from the continent. The runes also reached the British Isles were they evolved into what are known as the Anglo-Saxon runes. The Anglo-Saxon runes consisted of 28 letters. Runes were used in Norway and Sweden for a long time, in Sweden examples have been found from as late as 1750 A.D.

Thehe elder Runes has some special qualities. They were made so that they could be turned both up-side down, mirrored or up-side down and mirrored and still be easily recognisable. This is not totally true with the Viking era runes. True runes usually consist of a vertical line, the main 'staff', and diagonal sub-staves. The reason for this is that they were developed to be carved into wood. Carving across the grain this would minimise the risk of the wood grain becoming a part of the rune, making it difficult to read. This can still be found in the Swedish word for letter, bokstav, meaning staff (carved into) beech wood.

Today a rune alphabet is called a futhark after the six first runes of the elder and Viking era runes.

Follow the link at the bottom and print out the Runes, and it will make it easier to follow the rest.

As said earlier the elder futhark consisted of 24 letters; f, u, th, a, r, k, g, w, h, n, i, j, a, p, ï, R, s, t, b, e, m, l, ng, d and o.

The Viking era futhark's 16 letters were; f, u, th, a, r, k, h, n, i, a, s, t, b, m, l and R.

They are very similar. The sound values of the runes are usually agreed upon by the historians, but the names and mystic meaning are under debate. The common view among historians today are that while the early Germanic tribes used runes for divination and thus used them as magic symbols, by the time of the Vikings the runes had become nothing more than symbols for writing.

Meaning of the Elder runes
f - fehu, meaning cattle or wealth, worldly riches.
u - uruR, meaning prime ordial or aurochs.
th - thurisaR, meaning thurs or giant or troll. This is a very bad rune used for curses.
a - ansur, meaning Aesir god.
r - raidho, meaning (horse) ride, wagon or trip. This is also Tors rune.
k - kauna, meaning boil or wound.
g - gebo, meaning gift.
w - wunjo, meaning joy.
h - hagalaR, meaning hail.
n - naudhiR, meaning suffering or duress.
i - isaR, meaning ice. Some put the meaning as the cold of death. Another bad rune used for curses and such.
j - jara or jera, meaning year or year's crops.
ï - ihwar, meaning yew.
p - perdh, meaning is unsure but perhaps connected to the Latin Pert meaning rock.
R- algiR, meaning moose or elk.
s - sowilo, meaning sun.
t - tiwaR, meaning Tyr. This is of course Tyr's rune.
b - berkana, meaning birch wood.
e - ehwaR, meaning horse. Odin's rune.
m - mannaR, meaning man or human.
l - laukar or laguR, meaning leek, fertility or water.
ng - ingwaR, meaning the Vanir god Ing (aka. Frey)
d - dagaR, meaning day.
o - othila, meaning odal (unsure of the English word for it) or inherited land.

Meaning of the Viking Era runes
f - fe, meaning cattle, goods and wealth. This rune could also be read as v.
u - ur, meaning aurochs or drizzle. This rune could also be read as o, w, y or ö.
th - thurs, meaning giant or troll. This rune could also be read as ð.
ã - ass, meaning Aesir. This rune could also be read as ä.
r - reið, meaning wagon, trip or thunder.
k - kaun, meaning boil or wound. This rune could also be read as g or ng.
h - hagal, meaning hail. This rune could also be read as gh.
n - nauðr, meaning suffering or duress.
i - is, meaning ice. This rune could also be read as j, e or ä.
a - ar, meaning year's growth or fertility. This rune could as read as ä.
s - sol, meaning sun.
t - Tyr. This rune could also be read as d or nd.
b - biarkan, meaning birch tree. This rune could also be read as p or mb.
m - maðr or manr, meaning man or human.
l - laukr or laugr, meaning leek, fertility or water.
R - yr, meaning. Yew or bow.

The R rune
The R rune is something of a special case. Its pronunciation is a rolling R with the tongue against the palate, which sounds like tonal a s or a z. In fact in the Anglo-Saxon futhark the names of u, R and d are uruz, alghiz and dagaz, instead of uruR, alghiR and dagaR.

Download your own Rune fonts here - http://www.rune-fonts.co.uk/ - they have both free fonts and those you'll have to pay for. Take a look at the short twig runes, the one version I didn't cover here.

VIKING WAR GEAR
Most of you already know that I'm something of a stickler for historical correctness about Vikings, so here are some more facts this time about Viking war gear.

Let's start from the top shall we. There's preciously little known about Viking era helmets, and only a few has been found. Those that have been found are usually from the time before the Viking Era. Take a look at this page - http://www.viking-shield.com/helmets.h tm l - while the helmets are beautifully made the only true Viking helmets are the Gjermundbu helmets (A1028, A1039 and A1037), while the leather helmet (A1018) may give the answer to why so few Viking helmets have been found. They were made out of a less durable material than steel. Chances are that the head protection Vikings used were made out of leather or heavy cloth.

Then onto the body. While the common picture of a Viking is of a warrior in a chainmail, the truth is that only the wealthy could afford such a thing. Most Vikings would wear a hauberk (covering from elbow to neck to knee - http://histvarld.historiska.se/histvar ld /draekter/vkrigare/ringbrynja.html - ) of heavy cloth, perhaps with rings, studs or small metal plates added for extra protection. This is substantiated by the fact that while Viking infantry fought like heavy infantry because of skill and ferocity, they were treated strategically like light infantry because of its speed and mobility. There are several myths about chain hauberks, and one common thing is that they are so heavy that only this or that hero or king can wear it, and also that they were named, implying that chain hauberks were very few and expensive. And like the helmets there are few archaeological finds of Viking era chain hauberks. On this page - http://histvarld.historiska.se/histvar ld /draekter/vkrigare/ringbrynja.html - you can se how a Viking leader might have looked, except for perhaps the boots. Here's another picture of a Viking in full battle gear - http://hem.bredband.net/pixel/sida1-5-
1_
sve.htm.

The Vikings doesn't seem to have put to much effort into protecting their feet. They wore simple leather shoes with no sole, and no leg guards. My guess is that they relied on their shields to protect the legs, and again it is in line with mobility.

The Viking round shield was a little special compared to their contemporary European counterparts in that they were very light. While being quite large, approximately one metre or so across, they were thin. And with only a central grip, protected by a metal boss, this gave the Viking warriors a very mobile defensive weapon. The Viking style of shield combat was to deflect the blow with the shield, not let the shield absorb the blow. Of course the shields were destroyed after a while but it was common practise to carry more than one shield into battle, the reserve was then carried on the back. The metal boss were often adorned, and would be moved from shield to shield. Read a lot more about shields here - http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisan dp eter/shield/shield.html.

And now to the fun part - weaponry. The most common arms of the Viking were axe, spear and bow. Why so you might ask? Well the answer is quite simply that when they weren't fighting they were farmers, hunters and woodsmen. The axe was not the axe for cutting down trees, but the axe for cutting planks and the like. A bit lighter and with a narrower head. Look at XH2043 here - http://www.gavelins.com/sword/me1-51.h tm l. But the Vikings also developed a fearsome bearded battle (skäggyxa in Swedish) - http://www.gavelins.com/sword/me1-41.h tm l - which came to become the symbol of Vikings for many of their opponents. On this picture - http://www.scanglas.se/www/img/s041.jp g - the left axe is a bearded axe and the middle is a so called "frakka", a heavy throwing axe the Vikings adopted from the Franks (the people of France). The fighting style with the frakka was to throw it at the opponents shield, and while he recovered from the impact you could rush in close and finish him off with your main weapon.

Viking spears were quite heavy, with long and broad heads, and were used both to thrust and to throw. Here you can see a short variant - http://www.gavelins.com/sword/me1-71.h tm l - and here a longer one - http://www.gavelins.com/sword/me1-40.h tm l.

The bows the Vikings favoured were long yew bows, quite strong bows that require a strong arm to draw, but simple in construction. Arrow heads came in many variants, including short and strong ones designed to punch through heavy armour and barbed ones designed to make them difficult to remove from the wound, to long and thin ones designed for use against light armour or chain.

Swords were expensive, and thus only owned and handled by the rich, or those who were warriors only. Many sagas and myths have been written about swords, and it seems that it was quite common to give your sword a name. The sword that is most associated with Vikings is the long sword, approximately a yard long, double edged and with a strong point for thrusting.

Below a few links to nice looking swords.
http://www.viking.se/productimages.php ?i ProductId=1355&iImageId=
http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/swords/2100.jp g
http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/swords/2101.jp g
http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/swords/2102.jp g
http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/swords/2103.jp g
http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/swords/2104.jp g
http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/swords/2105.jp g

Another not uncommon sword type was the sax or seax - http://www.albion-swords.com/images/sc ab bards/ams0030-001a.jpg - which was single edged and of a much simpler and older design than the long sword. For one thing they were usually hammered into shape cold, and were developed during the elder iron age (500 B.C. -550 A.D.). While the sax shape was replaced by the more modern double edged sword, it was still popular as a knife or dagger shape. A picture of how a Viking knife might have looked - www.vikingakniv.lods.net/gallery/004b.
jp g. The sax/seax got it's name from the Saxons.

A few hints on how to find good pictures of Viking weapons.
1. Use Swedish - i.e. sword = svärd, axe = yxa, spear = spjut, helmet = hjälm, shield = sköld.
Of course the internet cares nothing about dots above letters, so just use the undotted form.

2. Use Swedish grammar. In Swedish we write the words together as one. So for example a search for a Viking sword would in Swedish be "vikingasvard". But a search with the words separated, i.e. "vikinga svard" can also give good hits.

THE NG VIKING ARMY (NGVA)
The NG Viking Army is a club for those who are interested about the Viking era, circa 793-1066 A.D.
It started with the Viking raid of the monastery Lindisfarne on Holy Island, and ended with the Battle of Hastings.

The club's purpose is to promote knowledge and understanding about the Vikings, their myths and their culture, as well as how they affected, and were affected, by the cultures they encountered while travelling across the known world.

The Rules of the NG Viking Army
1 - Do not be rude, use a civil language, even if you disagree with other peoples views
2 - Show respect towards other members
3 - Be friendly and helpful towards newcomers
4 - Try to use proper grammar, it is so much easier to read and understand what you're writing if you do
5 - Sirtom93 is the founder of the NGVA, do not mock his name
6 - Respect and venerate the Aesir Gods, especially Odin, Thor and Frey

The organisation of the NGVA
The NG Viking Army is ruled by a Jarl. The second in command of the NGVA is called Stallari, and by his side stands one or two Stambo, and they all have authority to act in the Jarl's name should he be absent, but the Stallari's word weighs heavier than the Stambos. No ruler's hall would be complete without a sage, in the Viking Army's case he is called Thul who with knowledge and wisdom is there to help all of the Viking Army. The Thul in his turn can have a few helpers called Blotgodi, those are members who have proved themselves to be knowledgeable and helpful.

When someone is first entering the NGVA he receives the title of Svein. When he has proved to be a serious and returning member he will be upgraded to House Carl. House Carls who stay a long time in the NGVA can be raised to the rank of Degn, a rank of honour and a reward for long service in the NGVA. Any member who shows an artistic talent and creates music, stories or drawings with Viking motifs may at the Jarl's judgement be made a Skald.

Anyone who is treating the Viking Army or one of its members with disrespect can at the Jarl's call be judged a Niding and should be totally ignored by all members of the Viking Army.

Current Organisation of the NG Viking Army
Jarl - DeathNoteetoNhtaeD
Stallari - HeavyTank
Stambo -
Thul - vdviking
Blotgodi - Leidolfr

Degns

House Carls
TiberiumCrystalKutu

Sveins
HaveUbeenFooFighting
jew193
Aleks55
EchoRun
Wrothgar-the-best
vitleysingur
Soapbubble

Non-Active
RainGod
CrypticPoptart
corando

Niding
Me-Patch
GuitarrMaster92

The NG Viking Army