Anglo-Saxons Today

Anglo-Saxon Runes - England's First Alphabet.


The Anglo-Saxon Runic Alphabet was the first English alphabet, but it's origins go back hundreds of years before coming to Brittania and comes from mainland Europe. Our version of runes come from the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians as well as the Franks, when they first came to Britannia. When they started to integrate to become Anglo-Saxons so did the various runic alphabets to eventually create an early form of Old English.

The letters of the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet had, apart from the use as letters, a special Pagan meaning associated with the Anglo-Saxon pagan religion. Each letter had a name which in turn had a specific meaning in relation to pagan worship, and sometimes refers to a pagan god like Wodan, which gives the name (Wodenesdaeg), to Wednesday.

In general, the runes would have been used as an alphabet to mark things with, like initials. They would have been used to send secret messages, write poetry or love letters, putting special names on swords, words on jewellery etc.

This is the first English alphabet. We should re-learn it, it's origins and it's usages. It belongs to the English people, it is part of our identity, culture, history and should be more formally taught in our schools from an early age.

The example given below, that you can download for personal use only, is the Anglo-Saxon English Alphabet as shown in the book, "An Introduction to English Runes, 2nd edition, 1999, R. I. Page, by The Boydell Press, (ISBN 0 85115 946 X (paperback-reprinted 2006)). The Anglo-Saxon Runes link below, goes to my page for Anglo-Saxon first alphabet on my website Being Positive About England. You will have to download the free font there to see the runes properly on screen.


http://www.beingpositiveaboutengland.yolasite.com/englands-first-alphabet.php


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