The Elder Futhark

The full row is first attested carved on a single stone from around 400 CE. No source from the Viking age at all describes casting runes for divination as a formal procedure — the historical writing system and the popular modern fortune-telling practice built on it are two genuinely different things, separated by well over a thousand years.

The Kylver stone, Gotland (c. 400 CE), the earliest complete Elder Futhark inscription

The original twenty-four-character runic alphabet, ancestor of every later runic writing system.

Sources and verificationThe reading is attributed above

No formal citations for this entry yet. The reading above carries its own attribution.