The line at the top of every page is my name, Gauti B. Eggertsson, written in runes. Runes were the letters of Scandinavia before the Latin alphabet arrived with Christianity. They were carved rather than written, on stone, bone, and wood, which is why nearly every rune is built from straight strokes that cut easily across the grain.
When Iceland was settled by Norse men and women in the 870s, the alphabet in use across Scandinavia was the Younger Futhark, a compact set of sixteen runes that had taken shape around the year 800. Sixteen signs were not enough for every sound. One rune served for both k and g, one for i and e, one for u and o. Around the eleventh and twelfth centuries scribes began adding a small dot to a rune to mark the second sound, and these dotted runes became the standard medieval alphabet in Iceland and Norway. They survive on Icelandic gravestones and church objects well into the fifteenth century. The header uses this medieval form, because it is the one that can spell my name in full.
Rune by rune
| Letter | Rune | Name | About |
|---|---|---|---|
| G | ᚵ | dotted kaun | The k-rune kaun with a dot added to mark the voiced sound g. Dotted runes are a medieval addition. |
| a | ᛅ | ár | Ár means "year" or "harvest". |
| u | ᚢ | úr | Úr, "drizzle" in the Icelandic rune poem, aurochs in the older tradition. |
| t | ᛏ | Týr | Named for the god Týr. |
| i | ᛁ | íss | Íss means "ice". |
| ᛬ | word divider | Runic inscriptions rarely used spaces; dots separated words. | |
| B | ᛒ | bjarkan | Bjarkan, the birch. |
| ᛬ | word divider | ||
| E | ᛂ | dotted íss | The i-rune with a dot to mark e. Without the dot, e and i shared one rune. |
| g | ᚵ | dotted kaun | Same rune as above. |
| g | ᚵ | dotted kaun | Same rune as above. |
| e | ᛂ | dotted íss | Same rune as above. |
| r | ᚱ | reið | Reið means "ride" or "wagon". |
| t | ᛏ | Týr | Same rune as above. |
| s | ᛋ | sól | Sól, the sun. |
| s | ᛋ | sól | Same rune as above. |
| o | ᚮ | óss | Óss, "river mouth" in the Icelandic rune poem; the medieval form marks o. |
| n | ᚾ | nauð | Nauð means "need" or "distress". |
Two small liberties: runic writing usually dropped doubled letters, so a carver would have written Egertson, and the dot on a stone would be punched into the stem rather than drawn beside it. I kept the doubled letters so that the name stays readable.
A reading key
The sixteen runes of the Younger Futhark, in their traditional order, are fé, úr, þurs, óss, reið, kaun, hagall, nauð, íss, ár, sól, Týr, bjarkan, maðr, lögr, ýr. The Icelandic rune poem, preserved in manuscripts from the fifteenth century, gives each rune a short verse. The rune for wealth, fé, opens with the line “wealth is a source of discord among kinsmen.” An economist could hardly ask for a better epigraph.