Language

=The runes and language of the Vikings=

The Vikings had a language very similar to the languages spoken in Germany and the Netherlands. Many words in English, German, Irish, French and Dutch come directly from words in the Viking language. When the Vikings landed in Britain they had no trouble in understanding their Anglo-Saxon cousins. Different Viking languages include Elder Futhark, younger Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon-Futhork, the Old Norse and many others.

Writing, along with wrestling, swimming and fighting was a special skill to the Vikings. Their alphabet was invented by their Norse ancestors around the time 200 B.C. The letters making up the alphabet may have been based on the Latin or Greek alphabets or on stone-age characters found on rocks throughout Northern Europe but the Norse did change it slightly.

Not all the sounds we use in English are covered by runes. Vikings did not have runes for the sounds ‘qu’, ‘v’ or ‘x’, and they used ‘k’ or‘s’ for our ‘c’. Individual characters of the Viking rune alphabet have more than one meaning. The letter ‘f’ meant cattle and was associated with wealth. The letter ‘r’ meant wagon and was associated with travel, movement, progress and the wheels of time. It was also the sacred symbol for Thor, the oak tree and the eagle.

Viking runes were also written on thumb sized rocks and placed into a bag and taken out one by one by fortune tellers and magicians. The rocks were used to predict the future, heal anyone who was sick, banish evil spirits and bless people, places or things.

In Viking mythology, the runes ere a gift from their god Odin. Odin hung himself upside down in order to learn the magical powers they held. He hung for nine days. When he saw the runes he carved them into a tree. In return for learning the runes, Odin gave up his left eye. Because of this the Vikings consider runes to be sacred.

Runes were used for every day life objects and also special items. Common Vikings used runes to label household items and personal belongings such as fishing sinkers. Viking merchants recorded items that were bought and sold using runes. Warriors decorated their swords with runes to identify which weapons belong to whom. The runes were also used for amulets and jewellery worn by the dead.

The Vikings used runes for memorial stones which were used for fallen heroes and loved ones. 3000 rune stones have been discovered across Scandinavia, a smaller number have been under the earth in other parts of Europe. The rune stones were made by boulders that had at least one flat surface. Anywhere that the Vikings went they carved runes on statues, buildings and rocks. A lot of what we know about the Vikings came from the runes that they carved.