Some of the symbols treated in this article may be interpreted as pointing to Nazi ideology in certain contexts. Their use in the present article has nothing to do with it. Any such connotations are a recent development as compared to the long history of the most of these signs. Below both their original meaning [...]

Last fall an area near a church outside Stockholm, Sweden was excavated in order to lay some cables. The workers dug out some rocks, which were left on the plot. One of these rocks covered with mud and earth was thought to be quite fitting for use as a church parking lot border. Week after [...]

The Jelling stones are two massive runestones standing in a churchyard in Jelling, Denmark, between two large mounds. Both date to the 10th century. The older and the smaller of the two was erected by Gorm the Old in memory of his wife Thyra. The Larger stone was erected by Harald Bluetooth in memory of [...]

Just added a page with a new feature: the Rune Converter. One can input a word or phrase, press the “convert” button and get the same sequence of signs in runes. So the converter transforms the letters of the Roman alphabet into runic writing. What distinguishes it among similar scripts is its extended functionality: there [...]

Three interlocked drinking horns is an important Norse Viking symbol. It seems to be closely related the Valknut and Triquetra and is often referred to as the Horn Triskelion. A triskelion (or triskele) is a symbol with threefold rotational symmetry (such symmetry means that a figure, which has it, looks the same after a certain [...]

Countless “introductions to runes” each represent the Germanic Elder Futhark in a standardized form, both as for the appearance of the individual runes and the order in which they are arranged (my earlier post on the Elder Futhark is no exception). However, we should be aware of the fact that getting the real picture implies [...]