Runic inscriptions

A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories.^[1] The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of Elder Futhark (some 350 items, dating to between the 2nd and 8th centuries AD), Anglo-Frisian Futhorc (some 100 items, 5th to 11th centuries) and Younger Futhark (close to 6,000 items, 8th to 12th centuries).^[2][3]

The total 350 known inscriptions in the Elder Futhark script^[4] fall into two main geographical categories, North Germanic (Scandinavian, c. 267 items) and Continental or South Germanic ("German" and Gothic, c. 81 items).^[5] These inscriptions are on many types of loose objects, but the North Germanic tradition shows a preference for bracteates, while the South Germanic one has a preference for fibulae. The precise figures are debatable because some inscriptions are very short and/or illegible so that it is uncertain whether they qualify as inscriptions at all.

The division into Scandinavian, North Sea (Anglo-Frisian), and South Germanic inscriptions makes sense from the 5th century. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, the Elder Futhark script was still in its early phase of development, with inscriptions concentrated in what is now Denmark and Northern Germany.

The tradition of runic literacy continued in Scandinavia into the Viking Age, developing into the Younger Futhark script. Close to 6,000 Younger Futhark inscriptions are known, many of them on runestones.^[6]