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.