The Viking Age Younger Futhark used sixteen runes for a language with many more sounds. From around the end of the 10th century carvers began to make the script more precise. They did not invent new runes. They added a dot or short bar, a "sting", to an existing rune, and the result is called a stunginn ("stung" or dotted) rune. The first dotted runes were i for e (ᛂ), k for g (ᚵ) and u for y (ᚤ). Around the end of the 11th and the start of the 12th century dotted t for d (ᛑ) and dotted b for p (ᛔ) followed. At about the same time the old ʀ rune, which no longer had a sound of its own, was used for y, and the old ą rune for o. Short-twig and long-branch variants were also given separate jobs: ᛆ for a and ᛅ for æ, ᚮ for o and ᚯ for ø. By the early 13th century the system was complete enough that most sounds of the spoken language had their own rune.
Medieval runes coexisted with the Latin alphabet for several centuries, and each influenced the other. Runic writers began to double consonants and to arrange runes in the order of the Latin alphabet. Latin texts, especially prayers, were written in runes. That is why this site lists medieval runes by Latin letter below rather than by the old futhark order.
The most important finds are everyday ones. Since 1955 excavations at Bryggen, the medieval harbor of Bergen in Norway, have produced some 670 inscriptions on wood and bone: owners' tags, trade letters, love messages, verse and Latin prayers. Some date from the 14th century. Before Bryggen many scholars doubted that runes had been used for ordinary writing at all. Gotland has a dense medieval corpus on church fittings, bells, grave slabs and church walls. The Codex Runicus (Copenhagen, AM 28 8vo), written about 1300, contains the Scanian Law and other texts entirely in runes on parchment. Most scholars see it as a deliberate antiquarian or revivalist choice, not normal book practice.
In the 12th century Norse visitors broke into the Neolithic tomb of Maeshowe on Orkney and left about thirty runic graffiti, including boasts about their own rune-skill. The Kensington stone, found in Minnesota in 1898 and dated in its own text to 1362, uses a mixture of medieval and later forms. The scholarly consensus is that it is a 19th-century carving.
Runes never fully died out in Sweden. Runic calendars stayed in use into the 19th century. In the province of Dalarna a mixed alphabet of runes and Latin letters, the Dalecarlian runes, was used from the 16th century into the 20th for names, dates and ownership marks on wood. Linnaeus noted its use in Älvdalen in 1734.
Letter by letter
| Latin | Rune | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| a | ᛆ | Short-twig ár (ᛆ) for a; the long-branch form ᛅ was reserved for æ. |
| b | ᛒ | Bjarkan, unchanged; now only for b once p had its own rune. |
| c | ᛍ | Mostly in Latin words and names. Often written with ᚴ (k) or ᛋ (s) instead; ᛍ is the variant encoded in Unicode as RUNIC LETTER C. |
| d | ᛑ | Dotted týr, late 11th or early 12th century onward. ᚦ (þ) continued to write the fricative ð. |
| e | ᛂ | Dotted íss; one of the first dotted runes (late 10th or early 11th century). |
| f | ᚠ | Fé, unchanged. |
| g | ᚵ | Dotted kaun; one of the first dotted runes. Undotted ᚴ continued to be used for g by some writers. |
| h | ᚼ | Long-branch hagall, unchanged; the short-twig ᚽ is also found. |
| i | ᛁ | Íss, unchanged; also used for the consonant j. |
| j | ᛁ | No standard rune of its own; written with ᛁ (i). |
| k | ᚴ | Kaun, unchanged; also commonly used for Latin c. |
| l | ᛚ | Lǫgr, unchanged. A dotted ᛛ occurs rarely; its function is unclear. |
| m | ᛘ | Long-branch maðr; the short-twig ᛙ also occurs. |
| n | ᚿ | The short-twig form ᚿ is the common medieval n; long-branch ᚾ is also found. |
| o | ᚮ | Óss with both branches on one side (ᚮ), or the short-twig ᚭ. Developed from the Viking Age ą rune once the nasal vowel had become o. |
| p | ᛔ | Dotted bjarkan, late 11th or early 12th century. An 'open' variant ᛕ (Icelandic plástr) appears from about the 13th century. |
| q | ᛩ | Rare; found only in some late or learned inscriptions and alphabet lists. Normally written with ᚴ (k). |
| r | ᚱ | Reið, unchanged; after the merger of r and ʀ it is the only r-rune. |
| s | ᛋ | Long-branch sól ᛋ, or the short-twig ᛌ, which is common in Norway. |
| t | ᛏ | Týr, now only for t once d had its own rune; the short-twig ᛐ also occurs. |
| u | ᚢ | Úr, unchanged; also used for v and w. |
| v | ᚡ | Dotted fé is rare and late; most writers used ᚢ (u) or ᚠ (f) for v. |
| w | ᚢ | No standard medieval rune; written with ᚢ (u). Unicode encodes a RUNIC LETTER W (ᚥ), but it is not part of the ordinary medieval inventory. |
| x | ᛪ | Rare, mainly in Latin words; called harðsól 'hard s' in later rune lists. Otherwise written ᚴᛋ (ks). |
| y | ᛦ | Ýr, the old ʀ rune, took the value y from its name; dotted úr ᚤ was also used for y (and ø). |
| z | ᛎ | Rare; used for Latin z in learned texts. In Norse words z is normally written ᛋ (s). |
| æ | ᛅ | Long-branch ár; the medieval alphabet kept it for æ, distinct from ᛆ for a. |
| ø | ᚯ | Descended from the long-branch óss form; distinct from ᚮ for o. Dotted ᚤ was also used. |
| þ | ᚦ | Þurs, unchanged, for both þ and ð (a dotted ᚧ for ð is rare). The Latin alphabet borrowed this rune as the letter þ. |