Runology is the study of the

Runic alphabet Runes are the 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, and for specialised ...

s, Runic inscriptions and their history. Runology forms a specialized branch of

Germanic linguistics Germanic philology is the philological study of the Germanic languages, particularly from a comparative or historical perspective. The beginnings of research into the Germanic languages began in the 16th century, with the discovery of literary tex ...

History

Runology was initiated by

Johannes Bureus Johannes Thomae Bureus Agrivillensis (born Johan Bure; 1568–1652) was a Swedish polymath, antiquarian, mystic, royal librarian, poet, and tutor and adviser of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. He is a well-known exponent of Gothicism. Life an ...

(1568–1652), who was very interested in the linguistics of the ''

Geat The Geats ( ; ang, gēatas ; non, gautar ; sv, götar ), sometimes called ''Goths'', were a large North Germanic tribe who inhabited ("land of the Geats") in modern southern Sweden from antiquity until the late Middle Ages. They are one of th ...

ish language'' (''Götiska språket''), i.e.

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

. However, he did not look at the runes as merely an alphabet, but rather something holy or magical. The study of runes was continued by Olof Rudbeck the Elder (1630–1702) and presented in his collection ''Atlantica''. The

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

Anders Celsius Anders Celsius (; 27 November 170125 April 1744) was a Swedish astronomer, physicist and mathematician. He was professor of astronomy at Uppsala University from 1730 to 1744, but traveled from 1732 to 1735 visiting notable observatories in Germ ...

(1701–1744) further extended the science of runes and traveled around the whole of Sweden to examine the ''bautastenar'' (

megaliths A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

, today termed

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...

s). Another early treatise is the 1732 ''Runologia'' by

Jón Ólafsson of Grunnavík Jón Ólafsson of Grunnavík (''Jón Ólafsson frá Grunnavík'', also known as ''Jón Grunnvíkingur'' or ''Grunnavíkur-Jón'', 1705–1779) was an Icelandic scholar. Originally from Grunnavík, Westfjords, northwestern Iceland, he was active in ...

. The sundry runic scripts were well understood by the 19th century, when their analysis became an integral part of the

Germanic philology Germanic philology is the philological study of the Germanic languages, particularly from a comparative or historical perspective. The beginnings of research into the Germanic languages began in the 16th century, with the discovery of literary tex ...

and

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...

Wilhelm Grimm Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl; 24 February 178616 December 1859) was a German author and anthropologist, and the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm. Life and work Wilhelm was born in February 1786 in Hanau, ...

published his ''Über deutsche Runen'' in 1821, where among other things he dwelt upon the "

Marcomannic runes Runes are the 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, and for specialised ...

" (chapter 18, pp. 149–159). In 1828 he published a supplement, titled ''Zur Literatur der Runen'', where he discusses the '' Abecedarium Nordmannicum''. Sveriges runinskrifter was published from 1900. The dedicated journal ''Nytt om runer'' has been published by the "Runic Archives" of the Museum of Cultural History at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

from 1985. The

Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base ( sv, Samnordisk runtextdatabas) is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way f ...

project, aiming at a machine-readable catalogue of runic inscriptions, was initiated in 1993.

References

Germanic studies {{philology-stub

History

See also

References