Anatomy of Design

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ANATOMY OF DESIGN

The runic alphabet (rune means “letter” or “inscription” in ancient Norse and

implies a mysterious and spiritualist language), which emerged in the first

century A.D., was originally fashioned from twigs, accounting for its rigid

angularity. Around the eleventh century, runes cropped up in stone inscriptions

throughout Northern Europe. Although they never became as widespread as the

Latin alphabet, runes were frequently carved into gravestones and used in

mystical tracts. In the nineteenth century, some racialist and nationalist

Germanic cults adopted the runes, and in the twentieth century the Nazis made

this alphabet central to ...