All runic alphabets compared
Thirteen centuries of runic writing in one table: which alphabet, when, where, how many runes, and what each one could and could not write.
The short answer
Runic writing lasted roughly thirteen centuries, from the second century AD into the later Middle Ages. Over that span it was not one system but several, each adapted to a particular language at a particular time.
Popular writing tends to flatten all of this into "the runes", usually illustrated with the Elder Futhark and captioned as Viking. The table below sets the systems apart: four of them, each with its own dates and its own answer to how many runes there are.
The medieval system is the one almost nobody mentions, and it is the one that produced the most surviving material. The Bergen wharf alone yielded hundreds of runic messages on wood. Runes did not end with the Vikings; they carried on as an ordinary everyday script for another four hundred years.
Side by side
The complete rune rows. Click any rune for its dictionary entry.
Point by point
- Number of runes
- Elder Futhark: 24
- Younger Futhark: 16
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: 29–33+
- Medieval runes: No fixed count: the sixteen plus dotted and borrowed additions, varying by region and century; 27 on our chart
- In use
- Elder Futhark: c. AD 150–800
- Younger Futhark: c. AD 800–1100
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: c. AD 400–1100
- Medieval runes: c. AD 1100–1500
- Region
- Elder Futhark: Northern and central Europe
- Younger Futhark: Scandinavia and the Viking world
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: England and Frisia
- Medieval runes: Scandinavia
- Language
- Elder Futhark: Proto-Norse, early Germanic
- Younger Futhark: Old Norse
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: Old English, Old Frisian
- Medieval runes: Old Norse and Latin
- Direction of change
- Elder Futhark: The original
- Younger Futhark: Reduced
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: Expanded
- Medieval runes: Expanded again, with dots
- Rune-name evidence
- Elder Futhark: Reconstructed only
- Younger Futhark: Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: Old English Rune Poem
- Medieval runes: Inherited from the Younger Futhark
- Surviving inscriptions
- Elder Futhark: Fewer than about 400
- Younger Futhark: Several thousand
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: Fewer than about 200, plus several hundred runic coins counted separately
- Medieval runes: Several thousand
- Distinguishes /t/ from /d/
- Elder Futhark: Yes
- Younger Futhark: No
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: Yes
- Medieval runes: Yes
- Distinguishes /k/ from /g/
- Elder Futhark: Yes
- Younger Futhark: No
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: Yes
- Medieval runes: Yes
- Religious context
- Elder Futhark: Pre-Christian
- Younger Futhark: Spans the conversion
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: Largely Christian
- Medieval runes: Christian
- Commonly called "Viking runes"
- Elder Futhark: Frequently, and wrongly
- Younger Futhark: Correctly
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: No
- Medieval runes: No
- Used in modern divination
- Elder Futhark: Almost exclusively
- Younger Futhark: Rarely
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: Occasionally
- Medieval runes: No
Common questions
- How many runic alphabets are there?
- Four main ones are usually distinguished: the Elder Futhark, the Younger Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc and the medieval Scandinavian runes. There are also regional and specialised systems, including cipher runes, that sit alongside these.
- Which runic alphabet is the oldest?
- The Elder Futhark. The earliest securely runic inscriptions date to around the middle of the 2nd century AD, and every later runic alphabet descends from it.
- When did people stop using runes?
- Much later than most people assume. Medieval runes were in everyday use in Scandinavia until roughly 1500, and Dalecarlian runes were still being cut in Dalarna in Sweden into the 20th century, some four hundred years after runes had died out everywhere else.