Chapter Ten: The Study of Ancient Runes

As defined academically, runes were symbols representing various sound values, belonging to a particular runic alphabet. The runes themselves could be used both as an alphabet or as stand-in for whole words (as the case of lolograms). Runes appeared to be very common during the Middle Ages.

Runes were also widely used by the modern magical community, and it was part of the elective subjects included in the rigorous curriculum of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry under the separate discipline of "Study of Ancient Runes." Before that distinction was made, runes were simply an integral part of the History of Magic syllabus of fifth year students.

During the Early Middle Ages, many famous wizards and witches (such as Merlin, the Peverell brothers and the founders of Hogwarts) very likely used runes to write better in Old English. As such, runes were wildly used by both the Early Middle Ages magical community as well as the Muggle community in Great Britain. Many ancient magical objects like the Hogwarts Pensieve and the Elder Wand both contained more complex runic inscriptions.

An abundant amount of mathematical puzzles that featured runes, for example, were present within Hogwarts Castle during the 1890 to 1891 school year. Professor Albus Dumbledore's old published copy of the Tales of Beedle the Bard, also required translation before mass-production for the appreciation of the general public. The esoteric The Quibbler magazine had been known to publish runic texts, as well (including instructions for a spell to turn another's ear into kumquats).

Runes were still widely used for administration purposes by the British Ministry of Magic. In fact, the teachers at Hogwarts had to provide their magic rune on an evaluation form given by Under Secretary Dolores Umbridge. There was also a magical rune of Professor Alistor Moody's that was seen on the file in Umbridge's office in 1998. It is possible that these features were of particular importance to the Study of Ancient Runes, and served as a form of identification or a similar functionality like a social security account number for employees.

In its alphabetical application, the runes represented that were used to write words in an alphabetic manner all belonged to Old English runic alphabet (also known as Elder Futhark). Although the Old English was known for using this alphabet, the Old Norse people also used it in the Old Norse language, in fact, way before the people of the British Isles did. The Anglo-Saxons eventually developed Elder Futhark into a new, modified runic alphabet named Futhorc.

Meanwhile, in personal runes, various wizards were known to have their own magic rune that they used in a manner similar to a form of signature used to sign documents or to indicate their possession of certain materials. Possibly, these personal runes were either normal runes from the Elder Futhark alphabet that spelled out initials, or a composed symbol combining several runes into a new symbol. An example of such composed runes could be seen on the cover of the Rune Dictionary. It is also possible that these composed runes that were prominently displayed on the cover of the Rune Dictionary stood for whole words or an often used expression in various texts.

Runes are also widely used in many numerical applications.

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