Norse runes were used for a variety of purposes, both formal and mundane. As a system of writing though, they had no consistent spelling, nor style, although people from various backgrounds could easily acquire literacy, in a way that was not possible for Latin.

The Hemdrup stick was found in a peat bog in Denmark, where it might have had a ritual purpose and was thrown into the water as part of a ceremony. Religious locations for the Norse were often in nature, such as lakes or forests. The stick itself is decorated in diamond fields, and other shapes, while the writing on the stick might be some sort of spell. The writing roughly translates to: “the storming one never won you over Ása”.¹

Runes were carved vertically, and most often slashed with a knife. Such a system of writing avoided the horizontal grain of the wood, which would have made the runes significantly harder to read. Neither spelling, nor even the direction of text was standardized, and so anyone could essentially write so long as he could connect the sounds of the language to specific runes. Most runes that survive are on stone or metal because objects of such material tend to survive better. However, most inscriptions would have actually been made on wood, which defined how the alphabet was written.

As physical renderings of everyday life for the Norse, runes offer a glimpse into their priorities, and methods of communication. Surviving wood carvings, though rare, are better representations of the mundane for the Norse, though other artifacts made of stone highlight more extraordinary events.

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