Elder Futhark - The runic alphabet with illustrations

A visual presentation of The Elder Futhark - The runic alphabet with illustrations, names in proto-Germanic, Swedish and English. Also some wild mumblings and interpretations of what the runes actually symbolizes and looks like. Hopefully it helps you to learn the runes!

[@Godobrosto]

Really liked your video. Thank you. Hope you well.

[@tloudah]

Thanks. Just the angle i needed to understand them better. Makes totally sense.

[@jayjay8120]

This is the best video I have seen explaining the elder futhark. Greetings from Norway.

[@brucemah609]

Thank you for helping us out with pronunciation and knowledge! May blessings! Hope Freyja showers you in wealth of all kinds❤️🙏🏽

[@kahnakuhl2009]

Thanks for the video, Johan. At around 1:19 you say feijo in Swedish means fair. I don't speak Swedish at all but can't find this meaning when googling (including Google translate). Did I get the spelling wrong?
I'm interested because my wife's family name is Feher, which means fair or white in Hungarian - it seems these words might be related, but I'm always told that Hungarian has very little connection with any other languages.

[@johanfalk6331]

The Swedish word I was refering to is "fä". From Old Norse fé, from Proto-Germanic *fehu, from Proto-Indo-European *peḱu- meaning “livestock”. When used today it is a degrading word for cattle. So I don't think that is the word that the family name comes from, but who knows.
The information I could find on the name Feher is that it is of "uncertain origin", but perhaps comes from the Proto-Finno-Ugric word called *päjɜ, meaning “white”, like you said. The english word "pale" sounds close to this one though it might be a coincident. We have the word "fager" in Swedish wich also means fair & beautiful.

[@johanfalk6331]

The more I think of it, the more I land in the conclusion that the þurisaz rune (nr 3) is actually better translated into Thurs, meaning giant. Why? Because this would make the four first runes turn into a part of the creation myth in Norse mythology! In the dawn of time there was the cow Audhumbla (rune F or U rune), from her teats the first giant, a thurs (rune þ) - Ymer drink milk. After that Audhumbla licked a salt stone and the god Bure appeared. He was to become the progenitor of all the Asirs (A rune). How does that sound? Perhaps someone has thought of this before?
(The translation of the þ rune into "thorne" might be a later mixup, since it resembles of a thorn...) Thoughts?
Speqking of mythology... also interesting that there are two "cows" in the start of the runic alphabet since many indo-european myths has divine twins in them... What story could theese two originate from?

[@lumiere-fontaine]

Just want to let people know that the elder fuþark was used to write proto-Norse while the younger fuþark was used to write old Norse
Edit: And the elder fuþark is also a reconstructed writing system, so it is different from the original

[@FrozenMermaid666]

I am the only Freya / Goddess / God, and my protectors are the only ones reflecting Tyr / Frey / Zeus / gods / demigods etc and other mythological characters, and we are in fact anti btg, so big terms / special names etc should never be associated with ‘vertiIity’ or other unsuitable terms that are about btg!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Runes look so good tho! I’m studying runes and old Germanic languages, and trying to learn all Germanic languages! I wonder of runes were invented before or after normal letters tho!

[@savagedonut]

Hello, just a quick question please, do you know why the runes were dropped in favor of the latin alphabet? Alphabet evolution: Egyptian hieroglyphs -> Proto Sinai (Egypt writing system) -> Phoenician(modern Lebanon) -> Greek alphabet (added vowels - Cyrillic alphabet ) -> Latin -> Modern European languages but it started in Egypt it seems. Europe is linked to Egypt. Why were runes dropped in nordic countries/Germany in favor of Egyptian writing, do you know?

[@johanfalk6331]

The runes were becoming far less common by the introduction of Christianity, brought to Scandinavia by German and English monks. Many of the moks knew how to write. Latin was more suitable whe writing books and letters, taking Christian writing traditions with them. The baptations of the Scandinavian kings probably determined this outcome, and the monks helped them write matters of state. But the common people still used Runes for serveral centuries, especially in remote areas (such as norhern Dala-region in Sweden for instance). Runes were better used when carving wood (or when doing rock carvings), traditional markings, house markings (bomärken) and stuff.
I would not call Latin a "Egyptian writing" though. It's not constructed that way.

[@savagedonut]

@@johanfalk6331 Hello thank you for the explanation, i meant that the idea to write on paper(papyrus) came from Egypt + a proto Alphabet traveled into Phoenicia then it travelled into Greece and from Greece(which made an european alphabet) into the Latin World -> Europe, so some Egyptian ADN/inspiration is in the european languages, they are constructed differently yes, we write from left to right, the arabs from right to left etc. I also think religiously, Egypt had a huge cult of the dead compared to us, you can see that in the huge pyramids/valley of kings. So maybe this respect for the dead was also an inspiration from Egypt/eternal life/preserve the body of the dead etc. I think Egypt was the America of that time and a lot of inspiration/systems came intro Europe. I also think the nordic countries/Germany etc already were developing a writing system on runes, so i think they would have been ok anyway, like China has their own system because they were isolated.

[@johanfalk6331]

@@savagedonut As Indo-Europeans the religious and lingvistic practises of northern Europe are much more influented by the migration and religious beliefs in the axis of central-east Europe, combining Scandinavia and India. Much more than that of Egypt. One of the reasons Egypt prevailed for so long and flourished its unique culture was its (at the time, with current technologies) isolated location; with the desert to West and East, marshes in the South and the huge Mediteranian sea in the north. The people who spred things in the Mediteranian were the later sailing Greek city states. The Greeks even made up many of the pharao dynasties of later Egypt, like greek Cleopatra, city of Alexandria and so on.

[@savagedonut]

@@johanfalk6331 Ah ok thank you for the explanations, so the Greeks were the rabid spreaders of the innovations + pharaoes in Egypt, good points yes. Yes Greeks are really bad azz, i think Greeks are like Nordic people but with the sun/warmth instead of the snow/cold. If you look at Greece its a country that had to take to the water because of the locations of its biggest allies, the same can be said for nordic countries, they had to take to the water. Also Greeks have a cool somewhat unique pantheon that matches with the Nordic Pantheon (Thor = Zeus, Hel = Hades). On the military side you have Spartans = Vikings, pretty similar civilizations. Both really cool. I also love Egypt, they too have a pantheon but that one is really unique + super crazy religious/huge cult of the dead + inventing the first writing system. From what i've read Egypt developed writing hieroglyphs for religious prayers/acts which later in the Sinai region developed into the first type of writing system, which is huge because you can start the transmision of complicated ideas/systems like science to the next generations. I also read that at the same time writing was developed in Sumer (Modern Iraq) and i think the summerians evolved into Babylon with the god Marduk - thunder god. So also modern Iraq is super interesting as they are Summerians/Babylonians/Marduk Thunder God.

[@samhaine6804]

ive often wondered whether the runes we know of today (the various futharcs) are the same as the runes of odin, or whether all these alphabets were descended from an older, now lost, system.

[@LearnRunes]

Did you create these illustrations yourself?

[@johanfalk6331]

I researched the runes meaning on the web and then gathered each suitable illustration separatelly, and put it together as a whole, with colour adaptation to match their group. This chart was produced for my kids initially, to learn the runes by form and name. But my friends said they liked it and wanted me to share, so that's what I did.

[@rustytygart405]

@@johanfalk6331well thank you for doing so
I very much appreciate it

[@saadselmani435]

مامعني هذا الرمز المكتوب E ihwaz لأن عندي رمز مثله قياسه 10سم

[@saadselmani435]

لأي حضارة هذه الحروف

[@toqith-sw3rq]

الحضاره الاسكندنافيه القديمه

[@saadselmani435]

مامعني هذا الرمز المكتوب تحته eihwaz لأن عندي رمز مثله قياسه 10سم

[@toqith-sw3rq]

@@saadselmani435 غصن الزيتون يرمز للقوه

[@saadselmani435]

وهل الحضارة الاسكندنافية القديمة وصلت إلى المغرب العربي لأن رمز غصن الزيتون موجود في مكان أثري

[@MonkeyDLuffy-gd6se]

With the dagaz rune, its similar to the sowulo rune