Runology

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This article is about the philological discipline, not to be confused with occultist concepts like runosophy.

Runology is the study of the Runic alphabets, Runic inscriptions and their history. Runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics.

History

Runology was initiated by Johannes Bureus (1568-1652) who was very interested in the linguistics of the Geatish language (Götiska språket), i.e. Old Norse. But he also viewed runes as holy or magical in a kabbalistic sense.

The study of runes was continued by Olof Rudbeck Sr (1630-1702) and presented in his collection Atlantica. The physicist Anders Celsius (1701-44) further extended the science of runes and travelled around the whole of Sweden to examine the bautastenar (megaliths, today termed runestones). Most of the rune stones are found in Southern Scandinavia, with the highest concentration found in the Mälar basin.

See also

• Rundata
• Sveriges runinskrifter

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Last updated on Tuesday July 15, 2008 at 02:32:43 PDT (GMT -0700)
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