The Old Norse word Rún means "secret", and runes were thought of by Vikings as sacred secrets, and a way of interacting with both the living and the spirit world.
Hávamál - verse 80
When searching for
Answers in the runes
Which were created by the gods
And written by Odin
It is best to reflect
Over the meaning
According to legend, the Norse god Odin speared himself to a tree, in a self-sacrificial attempt to receive sacred knowledge. At the end of his ‘shamanistic journey’, hanging suspended for nine windy nights, Odin learned the mysteries of the runes, which he then passed on to his people.
Hávamál - verse 139 (as told by Odin)
No bread was I given nor drink from a horn,
downwards I peered,
I took up the runes,
screaming I took them,
then I fell back.
Since the Vikings believed the runic letters to be a gift from Odin, they treated them with great reverence. Belief in the divine origin of the runes meant that runes possessed magical powers.
The Vikings are often portrayed as illiterate and uncultured barbarians who were more interested in plunder than in wisdom. This is very far from the truth. The Vikings left behind a great culture recorded in a number of manuscripts written on vellum, which are both rich in wisdom and artistic achievement. These documents were based on the earlier Viking oral tradition and information Vikings had carved in stone, wood, bone and metal.
What was carved in these hard materials were enigmatic letters made up of straight lines. Each letter, called a rune, had its own unique sound that was said, or sung, to represent them. These sounds could be used singularly as a chant, or together as a chant. These chants, or rune-songs, are known as Galdr, which means spell and incantation in Old Norse, and any serious use of runes would include them.
The first collection of 'Viking runes' is called Eldri rúnaröð, the Elder rune-row, which had 24 runes. These were the runes used by the Norse people from the 2nd to 9th century. At some point in time the Elder rune-row was arranged into three groups of eight runes called an Ætt, meaning clan. Each Ætt had 8 runes, and each Ætt were ruled over by their own particular spirit or Norse God. Freya is the Norse goddess of fertility. Tyr is the Norse god of war and justice. There is much discussion about who or what Hagall is regarding the rune-row.