In Orkney, Shetland and the Scottish islands, in Ireland, the Isle of Man and above all in Scandinavia, travellers still come upon great memorial stones, inscribed with the curious angular alphabet called runes. Rune-masters also cut their letters on other objects, including swords, brooches, pendants and rings. They even wrote letters in runes on sticks of wood. This book tells the story of runes from the earliest Continental inscriptions of the late second century AD through to the Viking Age and to the related script used for the English language in Anglo-Saxon times. The author shows what wealth of material about our early civilisations has been recorded in runes and suggests to the reader where he may discover them for himself.