Frequently we see arguments being made by academics that the origin of the runic Futharks lies in alien alphabetic systems such the Etruscan, Old Italic or Greek. However there is no doubting that the runes are intimately related to the culture of the Germanic peoples and have a distinctive look which makes them readily identifiable like no other writing system. Now it is certainly true that some of the rune staves do closely resemble the letters of the Roman alphabet but the more honest of scholars at least admit that there is great uncertainty. Indeed I would call this uncertainty a mystery which is at the heart of the meaning of the Old Saxon word runa.
R.I. Page in Runes (1987) points out the "obvious similarities with the Roman alphabet" and also discusses the Eastern European origins thesis and the involvement of the Goths in their creation. He also brings to our attention a theory from the 1920s regarding the runes being created by "Romanised Germani" from the "Alpine valleys of southern Switzerland and northern Italy." He also reminds us that an alternative theory put forward by the Danish scholar Erik Moltke that the runes were "the creation of one of the Germanic tribes of Denmark." He find the latter theory the "most attractive" but concludes that "the matter still remains unproven".
Clearly there is no concensus in the academic world to account for the origins of the Futhark and whatever explanation they may tender it is without doubt a system which has been derived by and derived for the Germanic peoples for the various Rune Poems make clear that within the Futhark there is a clear outline of a cosmology which is unique to the Germanic peoples.
Our mythological texts, most clearly in the Eddas give a spiritual and divine explanation for the origin of the runes:
"139. I ween that I hung | on the windy tree,
Hung there for nights full nine;
With the spear I was wounded, | and offered I was
To Othin, myself to myself,
On the tree that none | may ever know
What root beneath it runs.
140. None made me happy | with loaf or horn,
And there below I looked;
I took up the runes, | shrieking I took them,
And forthwith back I fell." (Havamal, Elder Edda, Translation by H.A. Bellows)
The Elder Edda thus makes it clear that the runes were discovered by Odin. It does not however state that they were invented by Him and this is an important distinction that my readers must bear in mind. Whilst Odin did not invent the runes I have come to the conclusion that He gave them order! He and He alone created the Futhark, the order in which they fall. I came to this conclusion following my reading of Jan Fries' Helrunar. A Manual of Rune Magick (1993) over 10 years ago. Fries is not a folkish author but his book is worthy of reading for it contains much useful information. There are numerous illustrations of pre-runic symbols from caves in Norway. These Bronze Age carvings are known as Hällristningar and are quite clearly the inspiration for the later runes of the various rune rows. There are literally hundreds of these pre-runic symbols and their study is worthy of merit, something which has been neglected for a very long time. Is it not time that this was rectified?
Somewhere in antiquity there appears to have been a synthesis between Germanic pre-runic symbols and possibly European alphabetical letters and this synthesis has as its product the Futhark. Most students of the runes will be familiar with the Common Germanic/Elder Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon, Frisian and Northumbrian Futhorcs, the Younger Futhark and the Armanen Futhorkh/Futharkh but few will realise that there are many more rune rows than these. The standardised Younger Futhark which we are familiar with today has regional variations such as the Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Orkney and the Gothenburg Futharks. Furthermore there is a late mediaeval Latin Futhark, twig runes and dot runes. Outside of the known rune rows we also have the Mediaeval or Healing Runes referred to in Nigel Pennick's The Complete Illustrated Guide to the Runes (1999). I believe that there is a case for including these 9 runes with the Northumbrian Futhorc as a 5th aett. This is a project of mine which I will continue with in a few months time once I have retired and have more time to devote to this.
One of the main reasons why we have so many different rune rows is due to dialect changes amongst the various Germanic peoples once the rune staves became used as alphabetical symbols although their original useage was magical. The original rune hoard however is to be found in the Hällristningar. Odin as Lord of the Runes, the great High Lord of magic through a shamanic experience caused the synthesis of some of these pre-runic symbols with alphabetical symbols to form the Futhark and so structured the Futhark that it presents a complete cosmological picture of the Germanic peoples. In this moment of inspiration Odin caused a connection to occur in the left and right hemispheres of the human mind, represented by His ravens Hugin and Munin. Hugin representing analytical thought or the 'left brain' and Munin representing the subjective mind, the Unconscious or the 'right brain'. The fusion of the two parts of the mind caused the Futhark to come into being, order came from chaos. Indeed in Odin Himself we have the unique synthesis of order and chaos, light and darkness which makes Him a deity which is representative of the Germanic mind and soul.
Nigel Pennick writing in his Secret Games of the Gods sums up the experience of Odin's torment upon the world tree in the Havamal perfectly when he says "the two sides of the brain were linked by a unified response to a single sign." Awakening and inspiration is surely the synthesis of rational thought and memory. Indeed Edred Thorsson states "This kind of knowledge (vissa or mannvit) is ultimately facilitated by the spiritual faculty of wode (ON odr: 'inspiration')." (Gildisbok, 1994)
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