Runology

[1][2][3] Runology was initiated by Johannes Bureus (1568–1652), who was interested in the linguistics of the Geatish language (Götiska språket), i.e. Old Norse.

The physicist Anders Celsius (1701–1744) further extended the science of runes and traveled around Sweden to examine the bautastenar (megaliths, today termed runestones).

The sundry runic scripts were well understood by the 19th century, when their analysis became an integral part of the Germanic philology and historical linguistics.

Wilhelm Grimm published his Über deutsche Runen in 1821, where among other things he dwelt upon the "Marcomannic runes" (chapter 18, pp. 149–159).

The dedicated journal Nytt om runer has been published by the "Runic Archives" of the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo from 1985.