But rune letters were not only used for writing, they were also used to tell fortunes, cast spells, provide protection and spiritual purposes. Rune writing was a very important skill for the Vikings, and runic inscriptions are found on artifacts including jewelry, amulets, tools, weapons, calendars and stones. Each rune letter has an association, meaning, or several meanings, connecting a variety of things including: objects, creatures and archetypal processes, feelings, experiences, and spirits. The rune poems and old texts, give sets of associations for the runes, but the meanings of the runes are quite fluid. The Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems list 16 Younger rune-row runes, but the Old English rune poem has 29 Anglo-Saxon runes. Each poem differs in poetic verse, but they contain numerous parallels between one another. The Old English rune poem is dated to the 8th or 9th century. This has been called the most systemized of the rune poems (including the Abecedarium Nordmannicum) and has been compared to the ljóðaháttr verse form. The Icelandic Rune Poem is recorded in four Arnamagnæan manuscripts, the oldest of the four dating from the late 15th century. These poems list the rune letters and provide an explanatory poetic stanza for each rune letter/word. There are three different poems that have been preserved: The Norwegian Rune Poem is a 17th-century copy of a destroyed 13th-century manuscript. THE SECRET OF THE RUNES We know of the meaning of Viking rune letters from Viking Rune Poems. There is much discussion about who or what Hagall is regarding the rune-row. Each Ætt had 8 runes, and each Ætt were ruled over by their own particular spirit or Norse God.

At some point in time the Elder rune-row was arranged into three groups of eight runes called an Ætt, meaning clan. These were the runes used by the Norse people from the 2nd to 9th century.

The first collection of 'Viking runes' is called Eldri rúnaröð, the Elder rune-row, which had 24 runes. These chants, or rune-songs, are known as Galdr, which means spell and incantation in Old Norse, and any serious use of runes would include them. These sounds could be used singularly as a chant, or together as a chant. Each letter, called a rune, had its own unique sound that was said, or sung, to represent them. What was carved in these hard materials were enigmatic letters made up of straight lines. These documents were based on the earlier Viking oral tradition and information Vikings had carved in stone, wood, bone and metal. The Vikings left behind a great culture recorded in a number of manuscripts written on vellum, which are both rich in wisdom and artistic achievement. The Vikings are often portrayed as illiterate and uncultured barbarians who were more interested in plunder than in wisdom. Belief in the divine origin of the runes meant that runes possessed magical powers. Since the Vikings believed the runic letters to be a gift from Odin, they treated them with great reverence. Hávamál - verse 139 (as told by Odin) No bread was I given nor drink from a horn,

At the end of his ‘shamanistic journey’, hanging suspended for nine windy nights, Odin learned the mysteries of the runes, which he then passed on to his people. Þá hefir hann bazt ef hann þegir Over the meaning According to legend, the Norse god Odin speared himself to a tree, in a self-sacrificial attempt to receive sacred knowledge. The Old Norse word Rún means 'secret', and runes were thought of by Vikings as sacred secrets, and a way of interacting with both the living and the spirit world.

9th rune elder futhark