Framed Friday 6

One more week and today the letter is R. And this is for Runes. The ancient Viking alphabet and divinatory tool is my favorite one. I have already used tarot, still have a tarot set at home, but the runes attracts me like magnet to metal. For those not familiarized with it: according to the cool site Sunnyway, "Runes are an ancient Germanic alphabet, used for writing, divination and magick. They were used throughout northern Europe, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Iceland from about 100 B.C.E. to 1600 C.E. Runic inscriptions of great age have even been found in North America, supporting stories that the Vikings arrived in the Americas long before Columbus. Runic alphabets first appeared among German tribes in central and eastern Europe. Some runes symbols are likely to have been acquired from other alphabets, such as the Greek, Etruscan, and the Early Roman. The runes were made of straight lines to make the characters suitable for cutting into wood or stone. The earliest runic inscriptions on stone are dated to the late 3rd century AD, although it is probable that runic alphabets had been in use for some centuries before.

The Old Germanic Runic alphabet, or "Elder Futhark", contains 24 runes. The first six runes of the alphabet spell out the word "FUTHARK". As the runes spread northwards into Scandinavia, some rune symbols were dropped and the alphabet was reduced to only 16 runes. Between 400 and 600 AD, three Germanic tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, invaded Britain. They brought the runes with them. The forms of several of the runes changed, notably the runes for A/O, C/K, H, J, S, and Ng. Also, changes in the language led to nine runes being added to the alphabet to compensate for the extra sounds, and several runes were given different corresponding letters. This alphabet, expanded to 33 symbols, has become known as the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc. The rune names themselves have been passed down relatively intact. Although no manuscript exists listing the names of the older, Germanic runes, the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian rune poems agree to such an extent that their common origin can be deduced."

While I think that homemade runes are more powerful for obvious reasons, it's also obvious to me that in the end of the day what really counts is the power you charge on the pieces, being them homemade or purchased at a local esoteric shop. With this in mind, I stumbled upon a great UK online shop called Spirit of Old. They offer several Rune sets made of different kinds of wood - actually they have a large range of really beautiful products. I specially liked the Oak rune sets (my first surname is "Carvalho", that means Oak, so...):

The Spirit of Old claims that they only use woods from large areas to prevent damage to habitats, and that they have cultivated tree seedlings and planted them at suitable locations for the future generations. Being this true, I feel comfortable posting about their products!

For more cool product reviews, visit Marcia at Learning Mama. She posted today about such surprising roses you can't miss it! ;)