Runes, the primary script of the Germanic peoples, retain in our minds a sense of mystery and excitement. They still sometimes resist all best efforts to decipher them. For all that, they are the only records of the earliest stages of our own language, an echo of a dark unremembered past. They continue to set puzzles for those who study them, among whom few are better known than R.I. Page, whose selected essays on Anglo-Saxon and Viking runic materials are brought together in this book.

Aligning himself with the sceptical rather than the romantic school of runologists, he draws fascinating conclusions about how, where and why runes were used. His scrutiny of the evidence extends from Anglo-Saxon runic coins to Manx inscribed stones; it includes examinations of many of the known Anglo-Saxon runic inscriptions and manuscripts, and looks in passing at some Scandinavian material, both in Great Britain and elsewhere.

In addition to these detailed studies of inscriptions, and of the runic fuporc, or alphabet, on which they are based, Page also considers wider issues on which runes throw light: magic, paganism and literacy. Archaeologists, historians and others will find this a uniquely useful and authoritative volume on Anglo-Saxon runes, presenting them in a clear and commonsense light and establishing new principles for their further study.