Cryptic and cipher runes
Runic ciphers were real, systematic and surprisingly common. They work because the alphabet is divided into numbered groups.
Runic writing includes one feature that genuinely is esoteric, and it is not the one people expect. Carvers used ciphers, systematic and decodable ones, and the mechanism is elegant.
The principle
The runic alphabet divides into groups called ættir. In the Elder Futhark there are three groups of eight; in the Younger Futhark, groups of six, five and five. That means any rune can be identified by two numbers: which group it is in, and its position within that group.
A cipher rune encodes those two numbers as marks: typically a set of strokes on the left of a stave for the group and a set on the right for the position, or as branching twigs. The reader counts the twigs and looks the rune up.
| Cipher type | How it encodes | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Branch runes (kvistrunir) | Twigs on either side of a stave: one side gives the ætt, the other the position | Rök stone, various Norwegian and Swedish inscriptions |
| Hahalrunir | The same two counts, carried on hooked strokes rather than plain twigs | Scattered Scandinavian inscriptions and the continental ísruna tract |
| Tent runes (tjaldrunir) | The counts arranged around an X or tent shape | Scattered Scandinavian inscriptions |
| Ice runes (ísrunir) | Counts written as groups of i-runes of differing heights | The commonest medieval Scandinavian code; also continental manuscripts |
Counting backwards
There is a complication that defeated readers for a long time: the ættir are often numbered in reverse. The group listed third in the alphabet is counted as group one. K. Jonas Nordby's work on the corpus established the systems in detail and decoded inscriptions that had resisted reading.
What the decoded texts say
Jötunvillur: the code that cannot be read
The branch runes above are one family. Nordby also identified substitution systems that work quite differently, and the most striking is jötunvillur: instead of counting positions, you replace each rune with the rune for the last sound of its name. The u-rune, called úr, is written with an r. The system had defeated readers for a century.
It was cracked with a 13th-century stick from the Bergen wharf on which two men, Sigurd and Lavrans, wrote their names twice, once in ordinary runes and once in code, leaving a crib. The reason it had resisted decoding is that it is barely decodable: many rune names end in the same sound, so a coded string maps back to several possible readings.
That jötunvillur can be written but not reliably read is a property of the system rather than a gap in our understanding of it. The conclusion usually drawn from that (that these codes were a way of drilling rune names and futhark order rather than a way of keeping secrets) is an argument about purpose, and a well-supported one, but it is an argument rather than something any inscription states.
The Rök stone
The Rök stone is the showpiece. Its roughly 760 runes include ordinary Younger Futhark, older Elder Futhark forms used deliberately as an archaism, and several cipher systems, all in one monument. Whatever else it is, it is a demonstration that its carver knew every trick available.
What the text actually means remains argued over, with readings ranging from a memorial invoking heroic legend to a father's response to the death of his son framed in riddles.
Why this matters for how we read runes generally
Cipher runes show that carvers thought about the structure of their alphabet: that the ættir were not an antiquarian curiosity but a working part of runic literacy. That in turn is decent evidence that the division into groups was meaningful to the people using the script, not just to modern scholars describing it.
Questions this guide answers
- Were runic ciphers used to hide secrets?
- Probably not, mostly. Decoded cipher inscriptions tend to contain names or ordinary words, often with an invitation to the reader to work them out. They read more like puzzles or displays of skill than concealment.
- How do you decode branch runes?
- Count the twigs on each side of the stave. One side gives the ætt number, the other the position within that ætt. The complication is that the ættir are frequently counted in reverse order.
- Is the Rök stone a cipher?
- Partly. It uses several cipher systems alongside ordinary runes, and deliberately archaic Elder Futhark forms as well. Its overall meaning is still debated.
Sources
Full references on the sources page. Our methodology explains the evidence labels used throughout.