runinskriptioner

Runinskriptioner, or runic inscriptions, are texts carved in runes by Germanic-speaking peoples in northern Europe from antiquity into the late Middle Ages. They appear on stones, metal objects, wood, and bone and served diverse purposes: commemorating individuals, marking ownership, or conveying religious or magical content. The scripts belong mainly to the Elder Futhark (2nd–8th centuries) and the Younger Futhark (9th–12th centuries), with regional variants that reflect Old Norse, Old Swedish, and Danish languages; later medieval inscriptions increasingly show Latin influence.

Geographically, runinskriptioner are most common in Scandinavia, Iceland, and Norse settlements abroad. The best known are runestones erected to memorialize the dead, but inscriptions also occur on weapons, jewelry, ships, and boundary markers. Christian symbols begin to appear from the 11th century alongside older motifs, signaling religious transition in the region.

Scholars who study runinskriptioner, known as runologists, analyze the inscriptions to recover language, genealogy, legal practices, and historical events. The texts preserve vernacular forms of Old Norse and related languages and illuminate social structures, religious change, and exchange networks in the Viking Age and medieval north. Notable examples include the Jelling stones in Denmark and the Rök Runestone in Sweden, among many others on Gotland and throughout Scandinavia.