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The ancient alphabet of runes was used all over Northern Europe for over a thousand years. Carved into stone, wood and bone, this spiky, straight-edged alphabet evokes the humour, mystery, love, and everyday lives of those who wrote with it. From Vikings to school children, housekeepers to mercenaries, and earls, priests, and traders, runes were accessible to many. These letters conjure the whole gamut of humanity in some of the most remote landscapes of the North, if we can just interpret them.

On the ocean-battered shores of Orkney, historian of Mediaeval Norse, Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, brings these charismatic letters to life. What are runes and why were they so widespread? And what is it about them that so fascinates us today?

Eleanor goes under the earth at Maeshowe, the Neolithic burial chamber in Orkney, to discover some rather bawdy graffiti and crawls into a lesser-known chamber to uncover a mystery. There are memorial rune stones looming large, runic riddles to decipher, and a stolen lion in Venice makes an appearance. Einar Selvik, of the band Wardruna, serenades us with a lute and Judith Glue takes us to the back of her shop to weave runes into jumpers fit for arctic explorers. We pour over new finds and old stone, searching for a glimpse of the people who carved them several centuries ago.

In their accessibility and mystery, runes are an ancient alphabet, and maybe an ancient algorithm for solving life’s everyday concerns.

With contributions from Joanne Harris, Professor Judith Jesch, Dr Andrea Freund, Dr Ragnhild Ljosland, Judith Glue, Dr Jonas Norby, and Einar Selvik of Wardruna. Thanks also to the Orkney Museum and Scottish Heritage.

Presenter: Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough
Producer: Leonie Thomas
Executive Producer: Mark Rickards
A Whistledown Scotland Production