The History of Runes
There have been many theories about who can claim the origin of Runes. Some
of these theories seem more valid than others (and there are many outrageous
theories out there, as happens with everything that humanity discovers about
its past), but they all have one thing in common. None of these theories can be
proved 100%. No runic inscriptions, as far as we know today, can be dated
with certainty to before 200 AD. There is more information on the History of
Runes on Runes.txt.
The soundest theory which exists today regarding the origin of runes is that
they were created about 100 - 200 AD among the Goths or other Germanic
tribes located in an area north of the Black Sea. The runes may have been
influenced by the Greek and Latin alphabets. There are many arguments for
this theory. Later on the runes were spread all over middle and northern
Europe by the migration of these tribes. The runes were used by the Goths,
the Herulians, the Germans and the Frisisans in south and middle Europe and
the Angles and Saxons in the west. In the north they were used by the
Norwegian, Swedish and Danish people, their counterparts in Iceland and
Greenland and the Sami of Lapland (northwest Russia and northern Sweden,
Norway, and Finland) as well.
By 300 AD the runic alphabet was the only alphabet used in Scandinavia.
However, it went out of use in middle Europe as the Latin alphabet spread,
mainly due to the expansion of Christianity.
There were no limits to the format the runes were written in. The runes
could be written in all kinds of directions and upon almost any kind of
common material. When runes were carved in stone, the runes were created by
sculpting many points close to each other, until the rune master had a
complete line. The runes could be written from left to right or right to
left. They also could be written with the first sentence proceeding right to
left and the second sentence proceeding left to right (boustrophedon).
Additionally, runes were sometimes written as a mirror image (venderuner),
which we know was also a common linguistic practice in ancient Greek times,
upside down (stupruner) or bound together (bindrunes) like the
Norwegian or Latin Æ (A+E). A single rune could also signify two runes. For
example, the rune "FE" could signify "FE + FE". The
runes were often written as a continuous link of text, without spaces
between the words or sentences. If the rune master wanted to separate words
or sentences from each other, he used notation similar to the letter X, or
perhaps one, two or three points placed one over the other. For example, if
he used two points in this manner he might write:
"I:MAKE:SPACE:WITH:TWO:POINTS".
There are no lowercase runes, only uppercase runes.
Other Theories About the Origin of Runes
1. The runes were introduced to Scandinavia during the same period that the well known spiral-ornaments were introduced from Crete, somewhere between 1800-400 BC. According to this theory, the Goths were already familiar with the art of runes before they left Scandinavia between 200 BC and 200 AD. However, this theory is not so widespread.
2. The runes created in South-Scandinavia in the 300's AD were inspired by the Latin alphabet, but put in a Scandinavian cultural relation. South-Scandinavia was a center of runes in ancient times. This is a sound argument, but we know for certain that runes existed before that time, fact which makes this theory unable to explain their actual origin.
As you can imagine, most people claim Runes to be something of their own origin, which is innately a false fact. The facts are that we are still uncertain as to where they originated. However, I choose to believe that Runes are much older than 200 AD and they were introduced, or created, under the influence of Greek and Latin-speaking peoples. I must make clear that supporting this theory doesn't mean I hold that Runes are either Greek of Roman in origin. They are likely to have been influenced, but it is certain, at least for me, that they were created by the Germanic tribes originally.