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Oct 23, 2026
Runes
A Concise History
Summary
Tom Birkett, University College, Cork, joins Jana Byars to discuss his new book, Runes: A Concise History (Oxford UP, 2025) An accessible and illuminating introduction to the history of the runic script, a writing system in use in the medieval North from the Roman Iron Age until the Reformation and beyond. Runes were the only writing system known to Germanic tribes, including those who migrated to England, and they provide a first-hand account of huge social change in the medieval North, including the Viking expansion in Europe and the adoption of Christianity. Often endowed with magical or prophetic properties--the keys to Middle Earth--runes were in fact a workaday script. As this book demonstrates, however, when the myths are stripped away the stories they tell us are no less fascinating.
Join the fun! The iViking app discussed on the podcast is available for Apple or PC.
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