Runes and Writing: Futhark and Futhorc and Roman Letters | The History with Hilbert Podcast

You might know runes as the "Viking" alphabet. And you'd be partially right. During the Viking Age in Scandinavia before the popularisation of Roman letters like this, the Younger Futhark was the alphabet that appears on inscriptions on coins, weapons and stones. But that's only part of the story. In Anglo-Saxon England and Frisia, a related but different Anglo-Frisian Futhorc was used, though both this and that being used in Scandinavia from around 700 AD was ultimately descended from the Elder Futhark first designed and adapted by Germanic peoples probably in the first century AD.
Hi everyone this is the second episode of a new feature on the channel, the History with Hilbert Podcast where I'll be taking a more long-form approach to look at different subjects from history. I'll be inviting some guests on in future and hopefully making it a regular, perhaps weekly or biweekly feature. Let me know what you think!
Timestamps are in the pinned comment!
Further Reading:
The Runes of Bergen - Aslak Liefstol:
collections.mnh...
Chronicles of the Vikings - R. I. Page
An Introduction to English Runes - R. I. Page
Reading the Past - R. I. Page
Mentioned Videos:
Why Is Mongolia Changing Its Alphabet:
• Why Is Mongolia Changi...
Other Related Videos:
When Did the Elder Futhark Become the Younger Futhark:
• Elder to Younger Futha...
Old English Sound Change In Strong Verbs of Class III:
• Old English Sound Chan...
Could the Vikings Understand the Anglo-Saxons?
• Could the Vikings Unde...
West-Saxon Coin From Lindisfarne Archaeological Dig:
• Finding A Coin of Æthe...
Is Sweden Banning Runes?
• Is Sweden Banning Runes?
Why Is the Greek Alphabet so Different?
• Why is the Greek Alpha...
What Is Norse Mythology?
• What is Norse Mytholog...
The Kengsington Runestone - Runes in North America?
• Does the Kensington Ru...
How the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings Used Money Differently:
• Why Did the Vikings an...
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#Rune #Viking #History

[@historywithhilbert146]

Thanks for listening everyone, hope yous enjoyed the podcast! Be sure to check out the description for my other videos on the Viking Age and for articles if you'd like to find out more! If you found it interesting give me a thumbs up or considering subscribbling if you're new! I've listed timestamps below: 00:00: Introduction & Bluetooth bind rune. 1:56: How runes work and how they came into being. 7:28: Where were runes invented? 9:17: When were runes invented? 11:30: Who could read runes? 12:18: Runes on wood. 15:01: Where and when did runes and Roman writing meet? 22:56: The difference between writing in runes and writing in the Roman alphabet. 23:31: Runes and Roman letters on coins from Frisia, Anglo-Saxon England and Viking Age Scandinavia. 26:23: How runes changed Roman writing. 29:31: How Roman writing changed runes. 30:14: Different runic scripts and alphabets. 33:42: Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark and Anglo-Frisian Futhorc. 37:24: Anglo-Frisian sound change tangent. 40:23: How the Anglo-Frisian Futhorc developed new runes. 43:21: Why the Scandinavian Younger Futhark did not develop new runes. 49:51: Examples of runes and Roman letters in the same context. 54:53: Post-amble. 58:05: That's it. Fin. Klaar. Gear. Also let me know which podcast topic you'd like to see next? -The Viking Age and Medieval Walrus Ivory Trade -More Runes! -How Did the Anglo-Saxons Learn To Write

[@melaniescarlet01]

Damn! I missed the podcast :( didn't wake up at my alarm ☹

[@itrollunoob]

Yo, Ericsson is swedish not danish :) They used the kings name because he united the danish tribes, just as bluetooth connects diffrent products or something like that.

[@marcocapelle]

Not only did I learn about runes, but also about my bad Dutch accent when speaking English (hat=het). Very interesting!

[@DawaLhamo]

Interestingly this hat=het pronunciation is present in Wisconsin accents on the US. If you stop at a store in WI, the cashier might ask ”you wanna beg?” (a bag).

[@hexapodc.1973]

@@DawaLhamo Thats kinda interesting because a lot of the midwest, at least around minnesota, wisconson, western michigan were where a lot of german immigrants moved to. So its possible that pronounciation was a leftover from that original german accent, since dutch and german are pretty close iirc

[@HYDROCARBON_XD]

@@hexapodc.1973not really phonetically,yes,more close than English to Dutch or English to German,but for example the R in German sounds more French while the Dutch R sounds more Icelandic

[@girv98]

5:18 surely the "speak quietly/whisper" meaning can be explained as writing being seen as "quiet" or "silent" speech i.e. non-vocal

[@nevets2371]

In my opinion, when it comes to the old letters you talked about, I personally miss "Thorn" or Þ, and "Eth", or ð, but i don't miss the Rune "Wynn", or however it's spelled out, but I do think "Wynn" is a better name for the letter W than Double-U.

[@jamesestrella5911]

Wyn, or by its older Germanic name, Wunyo.

[@StarsBarsAndCheese]

Use Icelandic keyboard

[@ghayes220]

You're educating me both historically and linguistically. At my age, I'll forget a lot but, I'm learning and grateful for it. Thanks.

[@PauloGarcia-sp5ws]

haha, I remember thinking the Bluetooth symbol looked like a rune, but I never really thought about it that much. Great podcast.

[@Killer12345656]

Been following your channel for awhile and have yet to dislike a video you've made. Really happy to see experimentation with the new format, and the longer deeper dives are always appreciate. Good luck, and keep up the great work!

[@christopherellis2663]

Þór rune have more in common with the earlier Italian scripts, including Etruscan. Þorn and Theta, for example. GOTHIC is obviously influenced by Rune, Latin and Greek. Fuþark Fuþorc

[@OleOlson]

You should consider having one of your grad students add graphics to your podcast videos. Visuals (like showing the runes, maps, portraits, etc.) would make a good accompaniment

[@fellowcat967]

first time i see a premiere around, hype!

[@historywithhilbert146]

Glad you could join us!

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Other podcasts tremble in fear when they see this powerful podcast

[@historywithhilbert146]

Other commenters tremble in fear when they see this powerful Cuban-American.

[@michaelbell3952]

Why are you everywhere

[@RM-qn3ro]

Hello Hilbert! I Love your Podcast! 1 : Could you make a video about the creation of the Rus state by vikings and it transformation into nowdays Russia. If you do so I will make sure my girlfriend traduce it in Russian. 2 : Sustainable agriculture and permaculture becoming more more fashionable, are you planning on doing videos on the ancient way of living of the land? Can you suggest me some interesting readings about it ? Thank you and keep on the good work :)

[@GegoXaren]

*Ericsson IS NOT Danish, it is Swedish.* Sony Ericsson is no longer a thing, Ericsson gave away their half of the joint venture to Sony. Ericsson is still in business as a major telecoms technology company.

[@stormiewutzke4190]

I don't know why I never saw those show up on my feed before. It's usually just your shorter stuff. I got some good content to catch up on.

[@eleanorsopwith9806]

I getting to understand why Tolkien loved the Anglo Saxon Futhorc so much. Thank you 🙏🏻

[@SgtMcpancake]

Thank you for doing this! I'm really liking the podcasts! I hope that one day Runic writing would be back in popular use among the Germanic peoples again

[@ladyliberty417]

So much info! Thank you Hilbert for sharing your knowledge- it IS complicated! Love it❣️

[@Retromotel]

Dr. Jackson Crawford would’ve been RAD on this podcast

[@amazinggrace5692]

Commented the same before I saw yours. 💕🐝

[@BluuurghAg9]

Zowel de korte filmpjes als de lange podcasts zijn zeer interessant. Met veel plezier naar geluisterd. Keep 'm coming!

[@8bitgubben]

please keep this podcast going, i much prefer this to the shorter powerpoint videos

[@fionaottley4976]

Yes, definitely in depth is the way to go.

[@igneous061]

do more of those podcasts..not gona be able to watch live but gona watch every time when i can

[@patricknorton5788]

Very interesting. Thanks very much.

[@activate2010]

Great talk, learned a lot. Only makes me more interested in runes. Especially the Anglo-Frisian runes and the remnants of them in the Frisian history.

[@mindyschaper]

Thanks for all this info!

[@remonstrant]

I was looking for a detailed video on this and voila !

[@trojanette8345]

Another intriguing video. Although, I will admit that given the subject matter your audience would have benefitted from BOTH an audio and visual presentation. Not a criticism. Just a comment. Perhaps at some point in 2021 you can treat your audiences to a re-uploaded edit with visual examples of what you're explaining. I still love your content either way. Cheers. Stay safe.

[@FaustsKanaal]

Enorme capaciteit om geschiedenis los te zien van het heden en politieke consequenties.

[@MilanM33]

Did runic inscriptions also appear in the Baltics? since there were close amber trading relations to Scandinavia and the use of geometric symbology in baltic traditions and religion.

[@amazinggrace5692]

Love the podcasts, but this one so much harder without the video. If only I had known rune-ologist was a profession. Damn! 💕🐝

[@veel60]

King Penda the killer of kings! love that you referenced him with your little comment.

[@LS-sp5hr]

Can we bring back ð and þ?

[@davidtucker1644]

Let's just start using it again!

[@Brabour]

Great stuff as always!

[@defaultmesh]

42:24 that's surprisingly similar to how indonesians speak english. perhaps our 'a' isn't as far back as in dutch but a lot of us do tend to overcompensate the 'a' sound. you hear a lot of people say epple (apple), peth (path), and fet (fat).

[@firelpaul4074]

Maybe trade with others in the north sea meant that, instead of spreading many symbols, it may have been easier to think of the sound if they were simpler for everyone.

[@claywolf8878]

Nice vid, I saw on twitter you were also doing a sort of cultural thing with other people on the podcast, I send you an email, because I was interested,(being french) just wondering if you'd seen it or not, not asking that you do, just wondering

[@themattpack9063]

I wish the Norse/Danish people wrote history from their perspective with their perfectly serviceable writing system.

[@Mothinabox]

Excellent!

[@shlimlop9619]

where is the podcast found? just youtube uploads or what?

[@GegoXaren]

I was a bit eager to write this.... I did not listen to the whole thing. Sorry about that. A variant of the Futhark was used well into the 20:th century in parts of Sweden. Especially in the area of Älvdalen where they speak a language that is very very old... It is impossible to understand. Anyway, they mostly wrote on flat sticks, they wrote everything from shopping lists to love letters on these sticks. And sticks from the early middle ages found in bogs/swamps and they were basically the same. And thusly we can conclude that knowlage of how to read and write was common among most northerners in the Viking age. And on the Latin alphabet you are a bit wrong... The thing is that in the past "being able to read and write" was measured on how well they could read and write Latin... Nothing else. It is now assumed that most people know how to read and write, as learning to read and write is beneficial to everyone, but becouse they did not understand Latin they were classified as illiterate. One more thing to understand is that you did not have a standard for how to spell words, so words were written as they were pronounced, thus it is easy to assume that they did not know how to read and write when they "could not spell".

[@dooitzeyidejong]

Dyn wurdgrapke op it ein wie dochs wol in hichtepunt 😌 Ynteressante ûnderwerpen, oan't sjen Hilbert!

[@HYDROCARBON_XD]

What language are u writing?

[@dooitzeyidejong]

I’m writing Western Frisian!

[@dafyddthomas6897]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curmsun_Disc Curmsun disc is a Viking gold medallion inscribed in Latin "Harald Curmsun Rex ad Taner ..." Harald Gormsson King to the Danes. Younger Futhatk uses the same glyph for K and G, the same Glyph for T and D, the same glyph for U and O. Even when they were writing oi Latin, Vikings applied younger futhark spelling conventions.

[@MrJarl66]

The word "rune" is pretty similar to the celtic word "runa", also meaning secret, hidden, so it could be that runes are derived from early contacts with the celtic tribes..maybe

[@jamesestrella5911]

To be fair, they had the exact same art style, when it comes to their knots and stone and woodwork. It’s quite weird that they diverged in speech, but remained joined by their art styles.

[@jamesestrella5911]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/op6xZZyfi7CZl5Y

[@Rynewulf]

@@jamesestrella5911 its easier to adopt an art style than an entire language, and sharing art can go over language barriers in a words cant as easily

[@bjornsvalling1066]

As mentioned in a previous comment, Ericsson is a Swedish company, not a Danish one. Otherwise a great episode!

[@KarnodAldhorn]

Very interesting

[@wiskeeamazingdancer4964]

Ericsson is/was a Swedish company....

[@ovs8691]

I've always imagined that the Bluetooth symbol is just a really bad attempt at a Chir-rho. But thanks nonetheless!

[@jondoealoe]

The other day I had on a video about the Kabbalah. It said, The source of the Hebrew alphabet is "The runic alphabet."

[@cebenify]

Love it.

[@angela_merkeI]

Let's make runes common again. At least Germanic speaking countries. Europe would be much funnier with Cyrillic, Greek, runic, turkic (bring them back too Turks!) and ogham (and the others that I surely forgot)!!

[@maximilianolimamoreira5002]

but the Greek alphabet is still being used,dude.

[@angela_merkeI]

@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 And Cyrillic too. How exactly does that invalidate my statement?

[@maximilianolimamoreira5002]

@@angela_merkeI I'm not invalidating what you said,it's just that,the way you said it sounded like the Greek alphabet is no longer used,at least to me.

[@maximilianolimamoreira5002]

Ogham alphabet would be cool though,a celtic alphabet from Ireland.

[@madmasseur6422]

Too bad ogham would barely be used cause the celtic languages are barely used and the turkic runes would be used only in the middle east. Bringing back germanic runes, old hungarian runes, vithakuqi script (for albanian) and glagolitic (for serbo-croatian as the unifying writing system that all ex-yugoslav ethnicities feel a cultural connection to) would be cooler imo

[@ninetyZeven]

WHAT RELEVANCE DOES IT HAVE !

[@aricrib424]

Runasimi was a language spoken by Mayas in the Andes of South America before the the great flood and after it 11000 years ago. They spread it to the world their language, astronomy, agriculture etc eg to the Vedas, Sumerian Egyptians Iberia China and so on. Doesn't it sound similar to Runes.

[@cebenify]

Just wait till you get the Hungarian runes.

[@StarsBarsAndCheese]

Runes are much more similar to Greek þan Latin. Eg. Œþel ᛟ and Omega Ω

[@SvAwesomeness94]

"Ericsson, a Danish company" ummm...

[@Bollen2]

Sweden might oppose to that

[@Shinji_Dai]

I tried voicing the th in thick and it sounded so weird

[@ieuanpugh-jones5284]

Your forgetting the Celtic christian influence in Deira and Bernicia and early Northumbria. That is the influence of Columbine monastries who use Ogham alphabets.

[@ethanthom4977]

Agg man ek het nie die premier

[@HYDROCARBON_XD]

þanks bro,And I’m using the þ letter cuz I þink “th” is pretty boring lol

[@jakekarr9733]

Heimdallr gave the knowledge of runes to mankind not Odin. Odin first obtained them however.

[@Hadrada.]

That’s right my friend Heimdallr was the father of the first Danish Yarls or something like that

[@jakekarr9733]

Correct Karl or Jarl otherwise know as “Freeman” - there’s a lot of implications there as far as stone workers go. I would challenge this channel to do a video on Heimdallr and his relation towards occult Christianity and pagan converts.

[@gordbolton27]

The "Gothic" language was Avestian = Slavic/Russian = Sanskrit = Persian = Hindi. Germans will tell you that the German language came from Sanskrit but they won't say that it is Russian spoken poorly with some loan worlds from "no one knows where." Gothic is from the Gathas which are a collection of songs the Zoroastrians sang around the fire (which incidentally contain a complete culture that spread across the Steppes & deep into what is now China, India, Persia & Europe. The Gathas contained both knowledge & prayers AND the prayers had to be pronounced very precisely or the Lord would not listen to them. The language, culture & religion were all wrapped up together. The Mongolian script is derived from the Avestian script which was made from the Aremaic script along with what is best described as a musical score for great precision in writing the Gathas. The Avestian script was called "religious writing." Both Aramaic & the Greek script are derived from the Phoenician alphabet which looks very runic to me. The Phoenician alphabet is an abjad of 22 consonantal letters. The absence of vowels may indicate that the Phoenicians used vowel harmony as in Turkic & Hungarian so everyone would know what vowels are associated with each word. In fact both Hungarians & Turkish speakers say they would do just fine in ancient Sumeria without an interpreter.

[@gaborjuhasz5610]

Interesting fact:The Etrusc people where Scythians, therefore use they own alfabeth .... Interesting part :you read Etrusc use Hungarian rovas .... So actually the Latin itself based on Etrusc on a rovàs ,rúnàs,also Türkish version ....? Support this Türkish, Hungarian, Etrusc, Latin all aglunativ languages, Have own alfabeth ,similar, Therefore must have a common origin..... There is must be!! some kind of wowell harmony, ,. Latin and Hungarian have perfect wowell harmony! Im sure Etrusc and Türkish also Close to it.... they use etymons They "fill" the gap with ,wowells between the signs...... So your rúnàs should work that way🤔 So the in the old Viking must be Well more harmonious and melodious... And mybe was agglunatív once? 🤔

[@apassionforlace]

Already a lot of info, I had expected a bit (more?) visual support.

[@Hadrada.]

Your not a runester Hilbert