Скачать или смотреть From Younger Futhark to Medieval Runes: Dotted Runes, Bind Runes, and Latin (Modern Erilar Ep. 17)

How did Viking Age runes evolve into the more complex writing systems of the medieval world? In this episode, we trace the transition from the Younger Futhark to medieval runic practice, exploring how rune carvers adapted their scripts to meet changing linguistic and cultural needs across Scandinavia.

This episode examines the following developments that define medieval runic writing:
1. The rise of dotted (stung) runes to distinguish voiced and voiceless sounds,
2. The emergence of the “star” h-rune to represent fricative g sounds,
3. New vowel differentiation between short-twig and long-branch forms,
4. The return of bind runes and complex ligatures, and
5. The adoption of doubled consonants to mark long sounds.

Using examples from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Scotland, and Greenland, we compare how these innovations spread unevenly across Nordic regions. Some areas retained conservative Viking Age conventions, while others—especially in Norway and Västergötland—show early experimentation with new runic forms influenced by changing phonology and growing contact with Latin literacy.

We also explore medieval rune rows that abandon traditional futhark order in favor of alphabetic sequences, demonstrating direct engagement with the Latin alphabet. Manuscripts such as the Praxapostolus reveal that runes and Latin letters were not rivals, but parallel systems used side by side in medieval Scandinavia.

This episode is designed for viewers interested in runology, Old Norse language, medieval literacy, and the cultural history of writing systems—bridging academic research with accessible explanation for curious, non-specialist audiences.

0:36 What were the major changes in how runes were used between the Viking and Middle Ages?
12:07 What did a medieval rune row look like? Did it contain extra runes?
16:05 Further reading

I use the Gullhornet and Gullskoen runic fonts made by Odd Einar Haugen of the Universitet i Bergen, which are free to download at https://folk.uib.no/hnooh/runefont/.