American Association for Runic Studies

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, …

06/20/2026

What was Scandinavia like before the Vikings? How about their ancestors teaming up with the Saxons to raid the Roman Empire in the Third Century. Learn about this and more, with numerous additional links to historical insights, at the World History Encyclopedia:

In the Merovingian period, Scandinavia was only just emerging from its prehistoric Iron Age. A process of political centralization that had begun in the Migration Period led to the emergence of the...

06/16/2026

For those seeking an opportunity to learn more about their Scandinavian heritage, "Vikingmania" is the place to visit through April 23, 2027. You can find the display in the Kramme Gallery in the Museum Building of the Museum of Danish America in Elk Horn, Iowa.
Here are some photos taken by AARS Executive Director and Founding President Loraine Jensen. Accompanying her is Adam Bierstadt, curator of the Museum of Danish America in New York City.

05/21/2026

Care to explore a couple of thousand runic transcriptions, without having to conduct an in situ field visit to Scandinavian countries? Well then, here's the perfect online source.
Enjoy Christer Hamp's online data site to learn more either in Swedish or English.

411.7

05/08/2026

Medieval archeologist Rachel Morgan recently authored an interesting article on nine aspects of Rune Stones. It's worth a read.

The Vikings erected thousands of monumental runestones around the Viking world. What can they tell us about life in the Viking Age?

04/28/2026

Which language has the greatest influence on English structure? The often overlooked Norse, according to this writer.

English has so much influence from Old Norse that the beliefs about its evolution have been called into question.