The name stems from a Proto-Germanic form reconstructed as * rūnō, which may be translated as 'secret, mystery secret conversation rune'. The inscription on the Einang stone (AD 350–400), reading ðagastiz runo faihido ('dguest painted/wrote this runic inscription'), is the earliest Germanic epigraphic attestation of the term. Runes continue to be used in a wide variety of ways in modern popular culture. A 'West Germanic hypothesis' suggests transmission via Elbe Germanic groups, while a ' Gothic hypothesis' presumes transmission via East Germanic expansion.

The oldest clear inscriptions are found in Denmark and northern Germany. The process of transmission of the script is unknown. At the time, all of these scripts had the same angular letter shapes suited for epigraphy, which would become characteristic of the runes and related scripts in the region. Early runes may have developed from the Raetic, Venetic, Etruscan, or Old Latin as candidates. The exact development of the early runic alphabet remains unclear but the script ultimately stems from the Phoenician alphabet. The Younger Futhark developed further into the medieval runes (1100–1500), and the Dalecarlian runes ( c. The Younger Futhark is divided further into the long-branch runes (also called Danish, although they were also used in Norway, Sweden, and Frisia) short-branch or Rök runes (also called Swedish-Norwegian, although they were also used in Denmark) and the stavlösa or Hälsinge runes ( staveless runes). The three best-known runic alphabets are the Elder Futhark (ca. Up until the early 20th century, runes were still used in rural Sweden for decorative purposes in Dalarna and on runic calendars. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes beyond this period. Runes were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianisation, by approximately AD 700 in central Europe and 1100 in northern Europe.

The Svingerud Runestone dates from between AD 1 to 250. The earliest secure runic inscriptions date from around AD 150, with a potentially earlier inscription dating to AD 50 and Roman senator Tacitus's potential description of rune use from around AD 98.

Runology forms a specialised branch of Germanic philology. Runology is the academic study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runestones, and their history. The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark or fuþark (derived from their first six letters of the script: F, U, Þ, A, R, and K) the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc or fuþorc (due to sound-changes undergone in Old English by the names of those six letters). Scholars refer to instances of the latter as Begriffsrunen ('concept runes'). In addition to representing a sound value (a phoneme), runes can be used to represent the concepts after which they are named ( ideographs). Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised purposes thereafter. 18 CE (derived from Eastern Arabic numerals and Brahmi numerals)Ī rune is a letter in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. BCEĪdlam (slight influence from Arabic) 1989 CE

Caucasian Albanian (origin uncertain) c.

Cherokee (syllabary letter forms only) c.

Viking runes