The History of Runes

I was asked: I have a question about the Viking Runes - was it the Serpent families who created them and how old are they? 

Runes are more than ancient letters. They are a bridge to the minds and spirits of our ancestors. Carved in stone, wood, bone and metal, runes carry a history of writing, magic, mystery and wisdom that stretches back over 2,000 years.

We are told that Runes were born among the Germanic peoples of Northern Europe.  And that the earliest known runic inscriptions date to around 150 CE. But in truth they were used much further back than this. The Serpent Bloodline used them primarily as magic talisman's but also each family were given one to represent their clan, and they were used as markers to identify that tribe, worn on jewellery, carved into stones etc. Each family saw they Rune as protective and magical.

The word “rune” comes from the Old Norse rún, meaning “secret” or “whisper”.

In more modern times the runes became known as Elder Futhark  and consisted of 24 characters.

The Elder Futhark was used across much of Northern Europe for several centuries.

Runes were carved onto stone monuments, weapons, tools, jewellery and everyday items.

They could mark ownership, record events, invoke protection or carry magical intent.

Each rune had a name, a sound, and a meaning.

Runes were not only for writing, they were also used in magic and spiritual practices.

People carved runes for protection, healing, success in battle, fertility, safe travel and more.

Runic poems and charms, like the Merseburg Charms, show how powerful and sacred they were considered.

Around the 8th century, the runic alphabet was simplified to 16 characters - the Younger Futhark.

This version was used mainly in Scandinavia and is the futhark most people know today.

Runes continued to be used for inscriptions in Scandinavia long after Latin letters became common.

They were carved on church walls, grave stones, wooden objects and household items.

In some places, they remained in use into the 20th century.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, interest in runes was revived through folklore, archaeology, occult traditions and Norse mythology.

Today, runes are used for divination, meditation, magic and personal growth by people all over the world.

Runes are not just letters from the past.

They are symbols of a living ancient wisdom - a connection to nature, the divine and the deeper mysteries of existence.

To learn runes is to open a door to the past, and even, to a deeper understanding of yourself.

Why the true history and timeline of Runes, like most things, is distorted.

Before 0 CE, there were simply years that we now label as BCE - “Before Common Era”. But there is an important detail that often surprises people:

There is no year 0 in the traditional BCE/CE calendar.

The sequence goes:

2 BCE → 1 BCE → 1 CE → 2 CE → 3 CE

So the calendar jumps directly from 1 BCE to 1 CE.

Why did this happen? I can hear you saying.

The dating system we commonly use today developed from a Christian calendar created many centuries after the period it was trying to date.

In the 6th century CE, a Christian monk and scholar called Dionysius Exiguus was asked to calculate dates for Easter. He proposed numbering years according to the presumed birth of Jesus Christ.

He called the years after Christ's birth Anno Domini, meaning “in the year of our Lord”. This eventually became the AD system.

The intention was essentially:

Before Christ → BC

After Christ → AD

Later, historians began using the more religiously neutral terms:

Before Common Era → BCE

Common Era → CE

But Dionysius did not include a year zero.

Why not? You might ask.

The concept of zero as a number was not being used in the same way in European mathematical and calendar systems at the time. Roman numerals, which were widely used in Europe, didn't have a standard numeral for zero.

So instead of:

2 BCE → 1 BCE → 0 → 1 CE → 2 CE

the system became:

2 BCE → 1 BCE → 1 CE → 2 CE

This can make calculations involving ancient dates surprisingly awkward.

But there is another fascinating problem.

Dionysius was trying to determine the year of Jesus's birth, but modern historians believe his calculation was probably wrong.

Most historical estimates place Jesus's birth somewhere around 6-4 BCE.

That means, rather strangely, Jesus may have been born several years “before Christ” according to the calendar that was later created to date his birth!

This wasn't because people at the time thought they were living in the wrong year. The calendar system simply didn't exist yet.

And this is an important point:

The year did not actually “restart”.

Nothing happened in history where everyone suddenly reached a particular day and declared, “This is now year 1.”

Different civilisations had their own calendars and systems of counting years.

The Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Jews, Chinese and many other cultures all had their own ways of recording time.

For example, Romans might identify a year by naming the consuls who held office. Other cultures counted years according to the reign of a king or emperor.

The Christian AD system gradually spread through medieval Europe and eventually became the international civil calendar we use today.

So when we say something happened in “500 BCE”, we're applying our modern dating system retrospectively.

The people living in 500 BCE wouldn't have thought:

“I am currently living in 500 BCE.”

They would have had their own way of identifying the year.

This becomes particularly interesting when we go back to the question about runes.

The earliest known runic inscriptions date to around the 2nd century CE, although the origins of the runic writing system was developed much earlier.

So when we say the Elder Futhark was used from approximately 150–800 CE, we're translating ancient history into our modern calendar system.

And there is an even deeper point here.

Human beings didn't suddenly begin measuring time at the beginning of the Common Era.

People had already been watching the cycles of the Moon, Sun and seasons for thousands of years.

They had been recording eclipses, solstices, equinoxes, harvests, reigns, migrations and religious festivals long before the CE calendar existed.

In fact, some of humanity's oldest monuments appear to have been connected in some way with observing the heavens.

So the “beginning” of the Common Era is simply the point from which one particular dating system eventually began counting.

And that distinction is important.

Time itself didn't restart.

Our numbering system did.

If you want to know more about the cycles of time, I have various other videos covering this topic.