We know the rune symbols have been around from ancient times, some scholars believe they began thousands of years before the start of the Christian era, rune like symbols have been found in stone-age cave drawings but these can not be directly linked by any real evidence nor can a direct relationship between the runic alphabet and the drawings be drawn. It is known from ancient historians that symbols were carved on pieces of wood and stone and used for magic and divination when cast down by priests, this links the association with the mysterious Celtic priests, it is known that the druids chose to record their past and traditions orally and therefore communicated with other nations only by word-of-mouth, but towards the end of Celtic independence a form of writing called Ogham may have been used by certain members of Celtic society and even by some druid sects, this is an age that only gives up its secrets reluctantly and the use of runes by druids can not be collaborated nor dismissed. The only written records available from those times are from the Romans and Greeks who give a biased and culturally misconceived version of the Celts and Druids, but they knew these powerful sects and that they had strong beliefs and from modern perspectives some strange and even gruesome religious ceremonies. If they used rune stones in their religious practices or for magical charms and divination we may never find solid evidence, but these mysterious peoples and their ceremonial activities have strong associations with the use of runes and rune stones and this is enough to tell us that it is most likely factual.

The name rune is comes from the archaic such as Old English rūn or roun meaning whisper or secret talk the fact that something is hidden, it seems to indicate that the knowledge of the runes was originally considered esoteric. The modern new age view is that the rune carved on stone is solely for divination or magical use and this may be true. Some forms of writing were used purely for magical or religious reason as the hieroglyphs and this could be the true for of runes.

When Christianity was still in its infancy the main language spreading through the known world was Latin, the ever expanding Roman Empire began to engulf many lands and civilisations across Europe and Asia, many languages were lost or absorbed, the Germanic languages however managed to survive this onslaught.

The Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters that are known as runes, these were used for the written form of the Germanic languages before and after the spread of Christianity through the Germanic speaking lands and the British Isles. There are different variants of the alphabets named after the first few letters such as Futhark or fuþark.

The Latin alphabet that spread with Christianity eventually replaced the runic alphabet but it did not wipe it out, the earliest runic inscriptions that have been found date from approximately 150CE. Although many think the Christian influence may have been an end to the use of runes it is not so and in Scandinavia runes persisted as late as the twentieth century.

The earliest runic inscriptions found were not coherent texts of any specific length, but rather just simple markings on bracteates, combs and other articles like these, the runes were usually the name of the craftsman or the owner of the item but sometimes the meaning is not clear and cannot be determined, this gives rise to a mystery which also makes it is possible that the early runes were not so much used as a simple writing system, but rather (similar to the Egyptian hieroglyphs) as magical signs to be used for charms and for divination.

Cornelius Tacitus a Roman historian recorded a Germanic tribal Runemal in some detail when he was Consul to the region he wrote "To divination they pay much attention. Their method is a simple one: they cut a branch from a fruit-bearing tree and divide it into small pieces which they mark with certain distinctive signs and scatter at random onto a white cloth. Then the priest of the community (if it is done publicly) or the father of the family (if it is done privately) after invoking the gods and with eyes raised to heaven, picks up three pieces one at a time and interprets them in accordance with the signs previously marked on them." This shows that rune casting for divination was present in early roman times.

There are many runic stones that show the different forms of alphabets and give us an account of certain myths and magic's from those ancient times.

The three main runic alphabets are: the Elder Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc and the Younger Futhark, there are other versions but these are the most common.

Before the Germanic-speaking peoples possessed a true alphabet, they used pictorial symbols that they carved into stones, these were their ideas, dreams and thoughts and religious symbolism. Some of these symbols are readily identifiable when crossed referenced with the later runic alphabets but there are others that represent ideas and concepts that were incorporated into the names of the runes. The exact meaning of all these early pictorial runes or petroglyphs is not really known and it can only be speculated to there use and meaning, it is however probable that they had their roots in symbolic magic and ritual.

As the Germanic languages evolved the words assigned to the runes and the sounds represented by them also evolved and began to diverge, each culture would either create new runes for sounds and meanings or rename the rune to accommodate the changes in cultural needs.

In mythology there are different accounts of how the runes appeared including one that a mortal man had stolen three rune staffs from the god Odin or Ódhinn and learned the runes and their magic from these staffs, there is an ancient Viking myth that the Runes were the gift of Ódhinn who discovered them after hanging nine days on the Tree of Life, another is that Ódhinn received the Runes in a vision, Ódhinn drank from the cauldron of wisdom and learned the Runes is also another version.

They have been used for charms and magic for centuries and even possibly millennia and there are rune stones that actually carry curses, the Björketorp rune stone from the 6^th century translates: I master of the runes conceal here runes of power. Incessantly plagued by maleficence doomed to insidious death is he who breaks this monument I prophesy destruction/prophecy of destruction.

Certain runes today hold negative symbolism due to their use by the Nazi third Reich, the swastika is one and the sig adopted as the symbol of the Schutzstaffel or SS is the other.

Although we associate runes and rune stones with northern Europe and the British Isles they have been found in some unusual places, the Kensington Stone was found in Minnesota and this begs the re-think of the discovery of this continent by Europeans.

Language has no definite beginning and there is no evidence to tell us where it began, we do know why we use it, to communicate our thoughts, feelings, dreams and fears, it has evolved into the many different tongues we speak today but some ancient languages still carry a sense of magic and the runes and rune symbols are a fine example of how a writing system embraces the myth and mysticism associated with symbolic.

Humans over the ages have always attached a certain mystical and magical to certain objects and languages to search for ways to help them with their daily lives and to try and glimpse the future, the past lays the foundations for the future so by examining what's has been we try to see through the mist that is our future. The rune we see them all around us in pictures on charms and n

Below are the runes used for both the alphabet and for divination, the magical properties and mystical meanings are open to interpretation so I have included the rune its pronunciation and phonetic spelling its main association or meaning and a few of the interpreted meanings, the rune Perth the meaning is unknown so has the attribute of mystery and secrets.