Teacher resources Viking Runes Worksheet

The Viking FUTHARK or Elder Runes are found on Jellingstenen or Jelling stones in memory of people, like a modern-day monument or a gravestone nowhere near a grave.

On the Jellingstenene was an engraved history of the person, written in nordic letters or FUTHARK. It was believed that Óðinn discovered the alphabet after hanging upside down from the tree of Yggdrasil for nine days. On the ninth day he discovered the runes, which were not just for writing, but also for magic. There are 24 phonemes in the FUÞARK and it gets its name from the first six F-U-Þ(th)-A-R-K.

As a quick aside you will have seen two letters already you may not recognise they are Þ(þ) and Ð(ð) these are both a TH sound. Properly Thor is written Þórr and Odin is really Óðinn (Oh-thin).  Find a full worksheet for your pupil here.