American Association for Runic Studies

09/23/2026

Want to learn more about rune stones?

If so, be in Grand Junction, Colorado, on October 1 for an Armchair Travel presentation at the Mesa County Libraries. The event is in partnership with the Grand Junction Newcomers Club where domestic and foreign travel stories are shared.

Presenting is Loraine Jensen, AARS Executive Director and Founding President.

Those attending will hear about runes and runic inscriptions from primarily Scandinavia, but with some notable examples in North America, including the latest find in Wawa, Ontario. Seating is first come, first served, and no registration is required.

Jensen has just returned from studies in Denmark and Sweden after completing her most recent of several Fulbright Specialist appointments to Uppsala University in Sweden to collaborate on runic research. She has received numerous awards for sharing research-based knowledge of runic inscriptions. She is retired and travels annually to Sweden.

09/23/2026

Since 2014, the American Association for Runic Studies has been proud to maintain a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Uppsala University, a partnership built on shared scholarly interests, mutual respect, and a strong commitment to advancing the study of runes and runic inscriptions.

It was a genuine pleasure to meet with our Uppsala University partners, celebrate the year’s accomplishments, exchange ideas, and reflect on the many ways this relationship has enriched both organizations. We deeply value the expertise, generosity, and collegial spirit that Uppsala University brings to our shared work, and we are grateful for the trust and friendship that have developed over the years. Together, we look forward to building on this strong foundation, pursuing new opportunities for scholarship and exchange, and continuing a collaboration that benefits our institutions and the wider community of runic studies.

From left to right are Henrik Williams, Marco Bianchi, Loraine Jensen and David Håkansson.

Dr. Williams, now Emeriti, was installed as the first Professor of Runology in 2021 by Uppsala University. He was a frequent visitor to the United States during 2010-2019 to explore reputed rune stones in situ and lecture at dozens of venues, from the Smithsonian Institution to the University of California.

09/14/2026

An announcment during the 10th International Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions.

In the works:

Runebrevet: The Runic Newsletter

New discoveries of runic inscriptions are now shared in many different places, such as academic databases, social media groups, and local newspapers. Because of this, it can be difficult for researchers and interested readers to keep track of new finds.

The proposed Runebrevet would be a digital newsletter that brings this information together in one place. It would be inspired by the earlier newsletter Nytt om runer (“News about Runes”). Researchers working with runes would contribute short, standardized updates about new discoveries, research projects, and publications.

The goal is to make news about runes easier to find and share, and to improve communication between runologists and related specialists around the world in a quick, reliable, and professional way.

Here are the individuals and institutions coordinating this effort:

--Frederikke Reimer, Aarhus University/The National Museum of Denmark, Denmark
--Jasmin Higgs, Independent Researcher, United Kingdom
--Kerstin Majewski Ruhr, University of Bochum, Germany
--Elisabeth Maria Magin, The University of Oslo, Norway
--Julia-Sophie Heier, Ludwig-Maximillians-University Munich, Germany

09/08/2026

Runes continue to captivate academics and “runatics” alike, who seek to understand and appreciate the contemporaneous meaning of these messages in stone.
Thus, the Tenth International Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions was recently held at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark in August.
The American Association of Runic Studies was represented by Fulbright Scholar Loraine Jensen, AARS Executive Director and its founding president. The five-day event focused on past, present and future perspectives in runology.
Some of the key themes and topics were:
• Presentations of new runic finds from the Netherlands, England and Gotland.
• Transition from Elder to Younger Futhark, with new clues.
• Modern uses of runes in cultural, literary, and digital contexts.
• The role of women, social status and self-representation in runic inscriptions.
• Digital projects such as the Scandinavian Runic Database, AI application and 3D digital editions.
Symposium participants crossed the border to Sweden with a day-long excursion taking place in Skåne, where several runic objects and runestones were inspected and observed.
Overall, the symposium fostered interdisciplinary dialogue, emphasizing technological advances and cultural significance of runes across history and modernity.
Stay tuned to our AARS page for upcoming posts on notable presentations and poster sessions.

Photo of Copenhagen.

09/02/2026

Here are two intriguing, related stories about what may be the world's oldest rune stone--perhaps some 2,000 years old. Found in Norway, scholars are attempting to interpret the wording, and whether some carvings were "practice," and why the stone was split apart and its pieces buried in differing locations.

Enjoy the reads:

https://www.ancientpages.com/2023/01/17/mystery-of-the-svingerud-stone-worlds-oldest-rune-stone-with-enigmatic-inscriptions-investigated-by-experts-what-does-it-say/

https://www.ancientpages.com/2025/02/03/worlds-oldest-known-rune-stone-svingerud-grave/

The Svingerud grave field, located in Hole municipality, Buskerud County, about 40 kilometers northwest of Oslo, Norway, has emerged as a significant site for archaeological research. This interest is driven by the discovery of several sandstone fragments inscribed with runes.

08/15/2026

Do runes have magical properties? A quick search on Amazon will certainly provide collections of runes and publications that claim their magical powers.

Another take on this is an interesting online explanation of how Vikings associated magic to runes. Its posted by the National Museum of Denmark. You can explore the post at:

chttps://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/religion-magic-death-and-rituals/runic-magic/

08/08/2026

Should you be in the Midwest and are near Milwaukee it could be worthwhile to stop by the Milwaukee Public Museum. It houses six replica rune stones from Scandinavia. Some interesting background on each stone can be found online at:

https://www.mpm.edu/research-collections/anthropology/online-collections-research/scandinavian-archaeology/rune-stones #:~:text=Viking%20Age%20Rune%20Stones&text=The%20original%20rune%20stones%20are,rune%20stones%20known%20across%20Scandinavia

08/01/2026

The Kensington Runestone is the most famous and controversial runic carving in the world. Interestingly, the Minnesota History Bulletin has carried 43 articles on the stone between 1917 and 2019.

The first article, "A Lawyer's View of the Kensington Rune Stone," published in 1917, takes an extensive look at the practicality of carving the stone by assessing the veracity of its narrative story.
The attorney brings some direct knowledge of the stone's extremely challenging regional geography, having explored its pristine territory extensively by covered wagon as he plotted out land parcels for sale.

Enjoy the read:

Willson, Charles C. “A Lawyer’s View of the Kensington Rune Stone.” Minnesota History Bulletin, vol. 2, no. 1, 1917, pp. 13–19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20160208. Accessed 1 Aug. 2026.

07/13/2026

Few people are fans of taxes. In Medieval times Europeans were especially vexed by the Viking Dane-geld: a tax to buy them off not to attack; or a tax to go away after they had defeated you. Some episodes of this are found in Swedish rune stones or runes on coins minted from Dane-geld b***y.

During the height of the Viking Age, when raiders from the north were wreaking havoc on their European neighbors, rather than fight, sometimes communities would pay the Vikings to leave them alone, though the relief was only ever temporary. The practice seems to have begun in France, and happy with....

07/03/2026

Here’s an interesting take on the provenance of Runes by a digital professional.

They look like scratches on stone, but Viking runes are far more than angular letters carved by long-dead hands. Hidden in those lines is a record of magnetic storms, social upheaval, coded insults, …