Runes: The origin and purpose behind the ancient symbols and alphabet

Ask six rune experts ' Where did the runes originate from ?' and you will probably get 6 different answers. There are different versions of runes for each culture and era they seemed to come from. One person told me they came from the vikings, another said they originated from the druids, yet another said they came from aliens, each person was serious and thought they had the correct origins of the runes, how can everyone have a different answer about them ?The answer appears to be ' time ', over the years folks have made up so many tales about the runes that nobody knows the true origin of them. The very name ' rune ', is a word derived from the Gothic word ' runa ', which means"mystery."One of the oldest and first recorded uses of runes came from German tribes in central and Eastern Europe, these early uses of runes show that they were not even meant to be a language for everyday speech, but were used as a symbolic alphabet system. Each rune letter or shape had it's own sound, and meaning, in fact each rune represented a deity or so called God, that gave it it's special power. People of old believed that by carving runes into their personal property or other items, the God or deity over that rune would protect the item, they even believed that a sword could be made more powerful for use in battle by carving runes into it. There are at least 6 different types of runes or rune alphabets that folks use or dabble with today, and each rune alphabet is supposedly the correct set to use, if you ask theperson that uses them.

Runes hold no more special meaning than any symbols, drawings or sigils do, unless you have a belief that they are magical and will it, they are nothing more then drawing a circle or a square and giving them special meanings. For instance if I was around hundreds of years ago, I might of looked towards the sun in the sky and then drawn or carved a circle on a stone or piece of wood, to me it meant the power of the mighty glowing circle of fire in the sky, to someone else years later that discovered my circle carved into the stone, they may think that circle represented a wheel, eye, moon, or just a plain circle. Each person uses runes for their own purposes and each person seems to give them their own meanings. In ancient Europe a lot of adults seemed to do wood carvings, in fact it was a prized skill handed down from one family member to another. Analphabet was needed ......