Norse literature is dense with references to runes, which may have served as magical signs to be used in charms. The ancient stone with the runes highlighted. Photo: National Museum of Denmark.

Write Your Name in Runes. By Nicole Sanderson; Posted 04.28.11; NOVA; Runes are the characters of the alphabet used by the Vikings and other Germanic peoples from about the second to the 15th ...

Known as Runriket, or Rune Kingdom, this collection of more than 100 Viking age runestones – ancient lichen-crusted slabs of Old Norse inscriptions – are beautiful relics that shine a light on ...

The five runes spell the name “hirila,” which translates to “little sword” in Old Norse, the museum said in a news release. Archaeologists are unsure whether “little sword” referred to ...

The zodiac signs link to ancient scripts: Aries with Linear A, Taurus with cuneiform, Gemini with Linear B, Cancer with Ogham, Leo in hieroglyphs, Virgo in Sanskrit, Libra with Classical Greek ...

Write Your Name in Runes. The runic alphabet, or Futhark, gets its name from its first six letters (f, u, th, a, r, k), much like the word "alphabet" derives from the first two letters of the ...

The five runes spell the name “hirila,” which translates to “little sword” in Old Norse, the museum said in a news release. Archaeologists are unsure whether “little sword” referred to ...