Runes: A Concise History

With their distinctive and other-worldly appearance, runes—an ancient alphabet used to write Germanic languages—provide our only first-hand record of the customs and beliefs of peoples living on the northern fringe of the Roman Empire during a period of mass migration and momentous social upheaval. Emerging from obscure origins early in the first millennium, the runic script found new roles in Early Medieval England and Viking-Age Scandinavia, bearing witness to changing faiths, documenting...