ANCR-301 Lessons

Hello. Welcome to your second year in the Room of Runes. I hope you all had a relaxing break and are ready for another year studying the fascinating world of ancient magical scripts. Today, we will briefly review what you learned last year, look at an interesting phenomenon that will guide our studies this year – change –  and take a look into topics of research in ancient runes.

Review
In your first year of studying Ancient Runes, we focused on the Elder Futhark. The Elder Futhark is an alphabetic script used by communities in Scandinavia from circa the 2nd century C.E. onwards. It is the oldest of the scripts we usually think of as “runes.” They are the origin of the name of this class, although they are not the only magical writing system we will study over the years, nor the only script that falls under the broader category of runes.

The label “runes” refers to two things. First, a specific writing system common to Germanic traditions in Scandinavia, modern Germany, and the British Isles. Additionally, in a much more general sense, it can mean simply “a mark or letter of mysterious or magical significance.” Of course, as you might have guessed, our studies this year will focus on the former definition.

The word “rune” is considered to derive from a Germanic word that, in the language of the time, meant something akin to “whisper,” “mystery,” or “secret.” The Elder Futhark is a phonetic script with 24 individual symbols that represent individual sounds. However, in contrast to our own Latin alphabet, the runic alphabets also attribute a specific concept or idea to each individual runic symbol. This means that the individual runes are not just phonetic symbols but also ideograms (meaning that they represent an idea). This association with ideas gives the runes their mystery, and indeed their magical nature.

Throughout your first year studying Ancient Runes, you learned in detail about the 24 runes that make up the three aettir (singular aett), or sets, of eight runes each, which together form the Elder Futhark. This included learning about the various forms each rune can take: standard, merkstave (inverted), and their variations. You studied both their phonetic and symbolic meanings, and their magical uses and effects.

In addition to studying the runes, you also studied the practical aspects of this knowledge, particularly reading and translation. It is important to remember that each rune can be translated in two ways: phonetically and symbolically. These two meanings of the runes can often be found simultaneously in runic texts, so it is important to keep this in mind. Proper names of individuals and places are often spelled phonetically, so knowing about the culture and geography related to the text you were reading was created is crucial. We call this the context. It will help you recognise common names and places in the texts you work with and thus speed up your transcribing, as you won’t have to puzzle over the symbolic meaning of a rune that is used phonetically. The symbolic meanings of runes can be divided again into two categories. The simpler symbolic meaning is the mundane or basic meaning of the runes, which is usually derived from the rune’s name and its meaning. The second level of symbolic meaning is based on Schreiber’s corrections and includes the magical meaning of the runes, as well as their effects.

In the final lessons of the first year of this course, you also studied runes used in enchantments and their effects, and put this knowledge into practice by creating your own new runic enchantments.

Change
Change is inevitable, and nothing, not even the hardest substance on Earth, can resist it. As the ancient philosopher and wise wizard Heraclitus is reported to have said: “All things flow.” As you learned last year, the Elder Futhark was in use between approximately the 2nd and 8th century C.E. This means that after the 8th century, something happened to it. Did it die? Did people just stop using it and forget about it? In a way, yes. Yet, somehow, we’re able to read these runes now.

This is where our discussion of change comes in. By the 8th century, Scandinavian communities had started to travel far and wide (some as far as the Middle East) and they had come into contact with other communities who spoke different dialects, or even completely different languages, and used different writing systems. These contacts had effects on both the Nordic culture and the cultures they encountered. The exact details are lost in time, but the runic writing system was adopted by cultures across the northwestern Germanic language region (more commonly referred to as “Scandinavia”), and we have inscriptions in runes from not just Scandinavia but also modern Germany and the British Isles from as early as the 4th or 5th century C.E.

As those of you who have studied Shakespeare’s plays will know, language is not a fixed thing. Meanings, pronunciation and spelling change slowly over centuries. It may not be noticed from one year to the next, but from one century to the next, these changes start to build; and after several centuries, the new language may become all but unintelligible to the original speakers. The exact mechanisms behind these changes are still not entirely understood, but contact with other languages and dialects as well as encounters with new ideas and objects are considered to be some of the most important factors.

This happened to the Nordic language(s) and script. The original Nordic language changed and adapted to new circumstances, ideas and cultures, and with this came changes in the meaning and composition of the runic script. As the language changed symbols acquired new pronunciations (phonetic values), some shapes fell out of use and some new ones were introduced to represent new sounds or ideas. From the 7th century onward, the Elder Futhark was replaced by two new, geographically distinct forms: the Younger Futhark (in Scandinavia) and the Anglo-Saxon Futhork (in the British Isles). The Elder Futhark had transformed so much under the influence of the changing languages and cultures that it had become something new and distinct – or indeed two distinct new alphabets. Fortunately, the original script from which these two were born was preserved through old artefacts.

Controversy and the Unknown
As you are aware, our understanding of the Elder Futhark -- and in fact, all of the futharks we will cover later on this year -- is wholly based on various artefacts and writings that historians, magianthropologists, and magiarchaeologists have unearthed and analyzed. Our knowledge, then, is far from categorical; there is much we still do not know about runes and their original uses. This is particularly true about the uses of the scripts we will study this year: the Anglo-Saxon Futhork and the Younger Futhark. What we understand about the magical uses of the Elder Futhark, we owe mostly to the efforts of Sofia Schreiber, as you well know. However, this knowledge came from decades of effort, research (both practical and sifting through documents), and intensive study. It was, more or less, her life’s work. This same amount of research has not been applied to the other two futharks, for various reasons which we will discuss shortly. What this means is that those in the academic world of ancient scripts are forced to rely on a fair amount of guesswork and consider competing theories.

One of the reasons that there has been little exploration into the topic of the potential magical usage of the other futharks is due to the established belief by many that the younger runes were inherently non-magical. This theory is one of quite a few, but it  was popularized early on and remains strong due to backing from some more influential -- and some would say loud -- scholars. More, it is helped by the fact that, to date, many of the relics which use either the Anglo-Saxon Futhork or the Younger Futhark simply do not seem to be magical.

However, there are some that hold strongly to the belief that there is magic to be found in these younger runes, at least, if researchers had the right tools or approaches. Many in this camp maintain that we simply have not found the right relics, and that the magical ones are still out there waiting for discovery. Others propose that the magic did not “stick” as well when using younger runes and, for one reason or another, has deteriorated. Still others suggest that perhaps the magic contained in these relics is inherently more subtle or have somehow become dormant and we do not know the key to unlocking it.  Whatever the case, there is no denying the fact that very few artefacts and fragments of writing show any signs of magic. There are some pieces that are up for debate that continue to fuel those believers’ theories. In the coming lessons when we discuss individual artefacts of note, I will provide you with information from both sides of the issue and let you make your own decision.

For now, though, let us take a look at the year ahead.

 Course Overview

This year, we will look at the writing systems that developed from the Elder Futhark, first looking at the Younger Futhark, and then in more detail at the Anglo-Saxon Futhork. We will discuss the changes in the runic alphabet and discuss how this affected the magical uses of the runes. We will also look at why the runic alphabet continued to be used by wizarding folk and Muggles alike after the Latin alphabet began to dominate written communication, and discuss some of the outstanding runic artefacts from this era that have survived. We will look at the use of runes in literature and written texts, and you will have a chance to be creative with runes in their use as a writing system. Similar to last year, there will be a companion textbook that supplements the lessons. It is the same textbook as last year, but we will finally be exploring the various chapters regarding the Anglo-Saxon Futhork and the Younger Futhark. Finally, you will be given the chance to discuss a runic artefact of your choice.

Research Project 
Now, before we wrap up our class, there is one more thing to discuss with you. Some of you may have picked up on the word “project” mentioned in the syllabus, as part of the title for the last class. Firstly, I want to stress that this project is completely optional. There is no need to complete it or rush through it and do a poor job simply for the sake of getting it done. It asks above and beyond what I expect from most of you. Some of you, however, may be interested in things not covered during this course and may wish to do outside research. That is where this assignment comes in.

If you choose to do this project, pick a topic of interest to you that has to do with any or all of the countries in which runes were commonly used (particularly, Northern Germanic or Scandinavian countries). You may research the scripts and languages used there, the history of those countries, the myths of those countries, famous figures in those countries, other magic use in those countries, etc. If you are not sure if your topic is satisfactory, you may owl me. Present your information on your topic to me (in any form you desire) assuming that I do not have any background knowledge outside of what is covered in Ancient Runes and its corresponding textbook, the Rune Dictionary.

Lastly, we must discuss the word count. As this is intended to be a course-long project and is completely optional, the word count is considerably higher than any other essay assignment in this class. A minimum word count of 600 and a maximum word count of 1,200 will apply. With this in mind, it is worth noting that this project, while due at the end of the year, should not be started then. Again, if you have questions about this assignment, my owl is available.

Conclusion
For your assignment today, you will have a quiz to review information from last year, your knowledge of the Elder Futhark, and the new material on changes. This will be a combination of true or false (T/F) and multiple choice (MC) questions. You will likely want to go over your notes from last year, particularly the meanings and phonetic values of the runes, and the list of names and places.

Vocabulary
Language: A system of communication. In this course, this word indicates spoken communication.
Runes (in the Northern Germanic sense): A series of runic scripts used in Scandinavia, specifically Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark and the Anglo-Saxon Futhork
Runes (in the loosest sense of the word):  A mark or letter of mysterious or magical significance.
Script: A system of communication. In this course, this word indicates written communication.

 Original lesson written by Professor Mathilda Stevens
Additional portions written by Professor Venita Wessex
Image credits here, here, and here