What Is the Futhark?

One of the first new words that you will hear when starting to explore runes is "Futhark".  Simply stated, Futhark is the English transliteration for the first six letters of the runic alphabet.  (Transliteration means converting words written with one writing system into another writing system, while keeping the pronunciation and meaning the same.)

In modern English, we use the word alphabet to refer to the twenty-six letters that compose our system of writing.  Alphabet is a contraction of the Greek names for the first two letters - alpha and beta - which are transliterated from Greek into English as "a" and "b".  In the same way, those who use runes name their "alphabet" using the first few rune symbols - six to be exact.  Those first six runes are represented by seven letters in the English alphabet:

F – is used for the ‘F’ phonetic sound

U – is used for the “U” phonetic sounds

T – is used for the “TH” phonetic sound

a – is used for the “A” phonetic sound

R – is used for the “R” phonetic sound

K – is used for the “K” phonetic sound

These first six runes can be formed in different ways.  The forms that I use most often are called the "Elder Futhark".  There are several Futharks, and there are several different names for each rune.  These differences come from the different places where runes were developed and used in ancient times.  Even within the Elder Futhark, there are different ways to form certain runes.  In handwriting, I use slightly different rune forms from what I have available as a type font in my word processing software.  In future blog posts, I'll illustrate some of these different shapes.

In the Elder Futhark, runes represent phonetic sounds differently from our English alphabet.  For example:

In the English alphabet, “a” is used for the short ‘a’ vowel sound (as in cat) and the long ‘a’ vowel sound (as in came).  Using runes, the short ‘a’ vowel sound is represented by a, while the long ‘a’ vowel sound is represented by e. e also represents the short ‘e’ vowel sound (as in bet).

The important point to remember is this:  There is no 'one-to-one' relationship between all of the letters in the English alphabet and the runes used to transliterate modern English words into runic script.

Differences in opinions exist about which rune(s) should be used to represent each English word or letter.  Both rune experts and rune amateurs have their favorite systems and methods for transliteration.  Some of the differences are minor disagreements, while others are hotly contested points of view.  There will certainly be some who disagree with the system and method that I use.  And that's okay.  Even our long forgotten Norse and Germanic ancestors were inconsistent in how they used runes and spelled words.

One source of differences among those who enjoy working with runes is our many and various regional and national accents.  For example, in the Southern States, many words are pronounced more similar to the way the earliest Scotch, Irish, and English immigrants spoke.  In the Upper Midwest English is spoken with an accent that reflects how Scandinavian immigrants learned to speak English in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  To the extent practical, I will try to smooth out these differences.  Nevertheless, they will pose a challenge for some readers.

I work most with the Elder Futhark similar to the way it was used by the Norse.  I use the Norse names for the runes.  In coming posts I will spend more time on each rune.