When Vikings sailed the North Sea in the 10th century, they recorded their exploits in runes, but that ancient alphabet is ...

A runestone is a large stone carved with runic inscriptions — usually in the early Germanic alphabet known as the futhark.

Between 500 A.D, and the start of the Viking Age proper in 800 A.D., the elder futhark (alphabet) of 24 runes gradually evolved into a leaner 16-character futhark.

Viking inscription or offensive graffiti? Carving thought to be 1,300 years old seems to spell out modern swear word. ... Plus, the early futhark alphabet does not have the letter C.

The runic alphabet, or Futhark, gets its name from its first six sounds (f, u, th, a, r, k), much like the word 'alphabet' derives from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta.

Before this, Scandinavians spoke an older northern Germanic language often referred to as Ancient Nordic or Proto-Norse. This was the first language written in runic inscriptions, or the ancient ...

The Vikings left all of these wonderful runestones — they had erected stones with carved letters in the Elder Futhark alphabet, which is the 1000-year-old alphabet from Sweden,” she explained ...