-Well, I could make this easy or I can make this hard...
First - the light part:
If you want to use these old signs for writing English of today, then take a look here, where you can find every letter matching a rune.
It is then up to yourself to choose which one of the alphabets you would like to use, but my suggestion would be the one used during the Medieval Age or why not the Anglo-Saxon fuþorc - adapted to the English tongue already?
The most common runic alphabet is the Normal fuþark and there is a going through of it at the bottom of this page, how to use and pronunce the different runes, but that "lesson" is more advanced...
GO TO LESSON!
If you are interested in having Runic fonts for your computer, there are a lot on the Internet, but my absolute favourite is called The Elder Futhark, and the reason why I think it is the best is because it has thin runes, no "feet" or anything else unreal, these are simpel and beautiful - just like the original ones. You can download them by pressing the picture below.
Now, for those of you who were hoping to find some deeper information, I can teach some spelling rules when you use runes.
I will also teach you different difficulties that one could have to face when trying to interpret (TRANSLITTERATE) the runes, like different spellings of the same word depending on dialects. and it was not only the runes themselves that changed shape during the ages, but also the grammar and the words, the entire Scandinavian language developed, and with it the spellings...
-But first some spelling advices...
To demonstrate the different points below, I will show each example in three ways, like this:
First the translitteration of the runic inscription - the the inscription - and at last the translation.
Let us get started with some spelling runes:
One shall never use double consonants!
If one word ends with the same rune as the following word starts with, the words can be united, and as we follow the rule above, no double-spelling of consonants, not even when two words are put together!
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rað ðu
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Read you (YOU READ)
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The punctuation marks between words can be excluded...
On the other hand, punctuation marks can be used inside a word, if it is a name of a person or a place, to divide the syllabels, perhaps to give a more poetical form of the text?
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særklandi
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Särkland (PRESENT IRAQ)
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Exampels of different punctuation marks, these generally are used to seperate words or phrases:
Some runes can be excluded in front of some other runes, exampels below:
The n-rune can be excluded in front of the t- or k-runes.
The m-rune can be excluded in front of the b-rune.
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kumbl
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Kummel = cairn, memory-mark, runic stone
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The þ-rune(TH) or the t-rune can be excluded in front of the s-rune.
Sometimes shortenings of words are used.
This is different spellings of the word above - æftiR - without being shorted.
The explanation to this is very simpel, the runic carvers did not pronunce the words and phrases in the exact same way - and besides there were no school for learning how to spell in those days, neither a national language, but only dialects of the same tongue.
During the Viking Age (800 AD - 1050 AD) - many of the digraphs changed into monographs, just like U.S.A. changed Brittish spellings with digraphs into monographs, like colour into "color".
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stæin
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sten
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Stone
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auk
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ok
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And
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At last, for the few people out there, who are adicted to this subject and want to devote a big part of your lives with rune-reading and understanding, because still - many inscriptions remains unsolved, I might have some advices for too...
The best of all, to start with, would of course be if you had a sense of any of the Scandinavian languages, or rather knew how to speak any of them. If you don't, search for courses near where you live, and I would advice all to start with Icelandic - as this is the only one of the Scandinavian laguages that are almost unchanged since the runic days. It is very close in words and grammar to the ancient tongue of ours - Norröna. If you want to read more about that before we go on, why not take a look at my friend Rob Burgess' Old Norse page - here! He is actively learning both Norröna and Icelandic and if you are nice - he might even help you out.
;-)
The reason why one should have to learn a Nordic Tongue is obvious - the runic inscriptions are almost all written in it, and it might be a little bit hard to translate without any clue of Scandinavian words, wouldn't it?
Rob Burgess is also in charge of this Old Norse Webring, and in time, perhaps a little Internet-society will grow from it, for joy and pleasure to us all...
Next is a lesson in how to use, pronunce and read the different normal runes, the foremost common ones used during the entire Viking Age. The darkred text to the left is how the word sounded in the Old Norse tongue.
The darkred painted rune-pictures below are different variations of the rune, how it could look during different times, but the "main" look can be found in the different tables on the fuþark-page.
1. fé
This rune represents f in the first or in the beginning of words.
It represents v in the last syllable or in the end.
Exampels:
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af
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Of (SAME HERE WITH PRESENT ENGLISH)
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2. úr
This rune represents many different sounds: u - o - y - ø.
It can also represent w or v in the beginning or middle of words and syllabels.
Exampels:
3. þurs
This rune represents þ (TH - As in "thing") and ð (DH - As in "that").
If it begins the word - then it is always þ - never ð, but inside a word - it can be both!
Exampels:
4. óss
This rune represents ã (LIKE IN FRENCH "en" - NASAL a) or it could represent the sound æ.
In the middle of the 11:th century, its sound changed into an o.
Exampels:
5. reið
This rune represents r, but from the middle of the 11:th century is starts to take over the sound former represented by the R-rune, the soft r-sound which were used in the end of words and which no longer exists in any Scandinavian language.
Exampels:
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farin
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Traveled away / Gone away
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6. kaun
This rune is k or g, and also ng.
Exampels:
7. hagl
This rune represents h.
Exampels:
8. nauðr
This rune represents n.
Exampels:
9. ís
This rune represents i, j, e or æ.
Exampels:
10. ár
This rune represents a or æ.
Exampels:
11. sól
This rune represents s.
Exampels:
12. týr
This rune represents t or d.
Exampels:
13. biarkan
This rune represents b or p.
Exampels:
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biargi
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(the) Mountain / Hill
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14. maðr
This rune represents m.
Exampels:
15. laugr
This rune represents l.
Exampel:
16. ýR
This rune represented a r-sound that no longer exists in the Scandinavian language, made as a rolling tongue-r but with the lower side of the tongue against the palate - which makes a palate-r, translitterated as R.
Later, from the end of the 11:th century, the rune started to represent y instead, so that it could keep its name (ýr), and the old R-sound disappaered from the language and was replaced by a normal rolling r, and was now represented by the normal r-rune.
This rune might also represent e or æ instead of y.
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