De äldre runornas bildning

Abstract

In this article an attempt is made to outline the principles underlying the for­ma­tion of the runes of the 24-type futhark – based on the assumption that the Latin alphabet was the sole model for the creation of the runes. The starting point is the five rules for the construction of runes that were formulated by Henrik Williams in 2004 – rules that remain valid but call for certain additions and exceptions. The principles of this article are tendential rather than absolute and sometimes competing or even contradictory. Basic formation principles include the replacement of horizontal lines by diagonal ones, the hasta + coda rule, the replacement of bows by angles, and the replacement of angles by bows. New explanations are offered for certain runes, notably ᛈ and ᛗ.