Pseudo-runes are letters that look like Germanic

rune Runes are the letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, a ...

s but are not true ancient runes. The term is mostly used of incised characters that are intended to imitate runes. Pseudo-runes in this sense are difficult to distinguish from

cipher runes Cipher runes, or cryptic runes, are the cryptographical replacement of the letters of the runic alphabet. Preservation The knowledge of cipher runes was best preserved in Iceland, and during the 17th–18th centuries, Icelandic scholars produce ...

, which are characters used as a replacement of standard runes but which do have an intended reading, while pseudo-runes have no linguistic content. The term "pseudo-runes" has also been used for runes "invented" after the end of the period of runic epigraphy, used only in medieval manuscripts but not in inscriptions. It has also been used for unrelated historical scripts with an appearance similar to runes, and of modern Latin alphabet variants intended to be reminiscent of runic script.

Imitation runes

The main use of the term pseudo-rune is in reference to epigraphic inscriptions using letters that imitate the appearance of runes, but which cannot be read as runes. These are different from cryptic or magical runic inscriptions comprising a seemingly random jumble of runic letters, which cannot be interpreted by modern scholars, but can at least be read. In contrast, pseudo-runic inscriptions consist mostly of false letters (some pseudo-runes within a pseudo-runic inscription may coincidentally appear similar or identical to true runes), and so cannot be read at all, even nonsensically. It has been suggested that pseudo-runic inscriptions were not made by specialist 'rune masters' as is thought to have been the case when carving traditional runic inscriptions, but were made by artisans who were largely ignorant of runes. According to

Nowell Myres John Nowell Linton Myres (27 December 1902 – 25 September 1989) was a British archaeologist and Bodley's Librarian at the Bodleian Library in Oxford from 1948 until his resignation in 1965; and librarian of Christ Church before his Bodleian a ...

, pseudo-runes may have been "intended to impress the illiterate as having some arcane significance".

Manuscript-only runes

The term pseudo-rune has also been used by

R. I. Page Raymond Ian Page (25 September 1924 – 10 March 2012) was a British historian of Anglo-Saxon England and the Viking Age. As a renowned runologist, he specialised in the study of Anglo-Saxon runes. Biography Page was born in Sheffield in 1924, ...

to refer to runic letters that only occur in manuscripts and are not attested in any extant runic inscription. Such runes include ''cweorð'' ᛢ, ''stan'' ᛥ, and ''ior'' ᛡ. The main variant shape of the rune ''gér'' is identical to ᛡ (with ᛄ being a secondary variant of ger), and should not be confused for ior when found epigraphically. The age of these "manuscript-only" runes overlaps with the period of runic inscriptions, e.g. ''cweorth'' and ''stan'' are both found in the 9th-century

Codex Vindobonensis 795 The Codex Vindobonensis 795 (Vienna Austrian National Library Codex) is a 9th-century manuscript, most likely compiled in 798 or shortly thereafter (after Arno of Salzburg returned from Rome to become archbishop). It contains letters and treatises ...

Unhistorical runes

Of a different type are the pseudo-runes invented in the modern period, such as the unhistorical runes in the

Armanen Futharkh Armanen runes (or ''Armanen Futharkh'') are 18 pseudo-runes, inspired by the historic Younger Futhark runes, invented by Austrian mysticist and Germanic revivalist Guido von List during a state of temporary blindness in 1902, and described in hi ...

(or Armanen runes) created by

Guido von List Guido Karl Anton List, better known as Guido von List (5 October 1848 – 17 May 1919), was an Austrians, Austrian occultism, occultist, journalist, playwright, and novelist. He expounded a Modern Paganism, modern Pagan new religious movement kno ...

in 1902 and later authors of

Germanic mysticism Armanism and Ariosophy are esoteric ideological systems that were developed largely by Guido von List and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels respectively, in Austria between 1890 and 1930. The term 'Ariosophy', which means the wisdom of the Aryans, was in ...

(e.g. ''

Gibor Armanen runes (or ''Armanen Futharkh'') are 18 pseudo-runes, inspired by the historic Younger Futhark runes, invented by Austrian mysticist and Germanic revivalist Guido von List during a state of temporary blindness in 1902, and described in hi ...

'', '' Hagal,

Wendehorn Wendehorn is a pseudo-runic symbol resembling the Tvimadur symbol. It is allegedly a bindrune of the ''Man'' and '' Yr'' runes, symbolizing 'life' and 'death' respectively. The term is due to Guido von List's '' Das Geheimnis der Runen'', wher ...

'').

Other rune-like scripts

The historical

Old Turkic Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic language, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested form of the Turkic languages, found in Göktürks, Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganate inscriptions dating from about the eighth to the 13th century. It ...

and Old Hungarian scripts, unrelated with the runes but similar in application (inscriptions etched in stone), have sometimes been referred to as pseudo-runes or pseudo-runic, or alternatively as "runiform".

Footnotes

References