A runestone is a large stone carved with runic inscriptions — usually in the early Germanic alphabet known as the futhark.

The runic alphabet, or Futhark, gets its name from its first six sounds (f, u, th, a, r, k), much like the word 'alphabet' derives from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta.

The ancient runic alphabet, used by Germanic peoples centuries ago prior to the adoption of the Latin alphabet, remains one of the most enigmatic early writing systems. Chief among its mysteries is ...

The inscription measures roughly four by five feet. Within its chiseled border lie 255 runic symbols — characters from ...

In addition to communicating language, some runes also had a mythological connection, being linked with deities in Germanic paganism. The runic alphabet eventually evolved to reflect the transition ...

Archaeologists remain baffled by a surprising, seemingly ahistorical find located deep in the Canadian wilderness. But after years of research, analysis, and historical corroboration, an ...

During the fall of 2021, archaeologists excavating a grave in eastern Norway unearthed a block of red-tinged sandstone etched with spidery runes, an ancient system of writing used by Germanic ...

In German, W is simply called veh, and pronounced like an English V. Most European languages that use the Latin source alphabet, Barrett notes, “have the W only because they borrowed English ...

The world’s oldest dated rune stone, a landmark discovery revealed in 2023, is just one piece of a larger, nearly 2,000-year-old slab, new research has found.Now, scientists in Norway are ...