Decipherment of Runic Script
◈Key Scholars
Danish scholar who produced the first systematic runic study and catalogued the Futhark alphabet.
Swedish scholar who laid the foundations of modern runology.
◈How Was It Deciphered?
Runic script never fully disappeared — it was used in Scandinavia through the Middle Ages, and in Iceland until the 18th century. Two keys enabled decipherment: first, the names of runes (fehu=cattle, uruz=aurochs, etc.) were preserved in Norse languages. Second, bilingual inscriptions with Latin survived. The phonetic value was the initial consonant of each rune's name — F(fehu), U(uruz), Þ(thurisaz).
◈Decoded Characters
ᛖᚲ ᚺᛚᛖᚹᚨᛉ = ek hlēwagastiz = "I, Hlewagastiz" — runic inscription on the Golden Horns of Gallehus (c. AD 400). One of the oldest Germanic sentences in the "I am [name]" format.
◈The Full Story
Medieval European churches banned runic script as pagan magic. Outside Scandinavia, the meaning of runes was completely forgotten. 17th-century European scholars viewed runic inscriptions as mysterious ciphers.
In 1636, Ole Worm published the first systematic runic study. Comparison with Norse language records confirmed the name and phonetic value of each rune.
Runic decipherment revealed early Germanic history, Norse mythology, and Migration Period records. Today about 6,000 runic inscriptions are known and form core sources for Scandinavian history.