Version 0.1, 19 October 2020
Version history:
0.1, 19 October 2020: preliminary
The Runic script(s)
The Runic script known as fuþark (futhark, after the first letters of the script: f-u-þ(th)-a-r-k) was used by various Germanic peoples from the 1st century CE for well over a millennium (in a few isolated cases even until 1800). Runic inscriptions have been found in various parts of Europe, but the majority are concentrated in Western and Northern Europe. The Germanic Runic script should not be confused with either the Old Hungarian Rovásirás script, or the Central Asian Orkhon script.
‘Runic’ is not one monolithic entity. Rather, it is a collection of letters sharing a common origin (most letters can be traced back to a Latin letter), but diverse as to graphemic repertoire due to changes of glyph shapes over time and geographical distribution. The meaning of certain characters changed because of language change. And for some languages, such as Old English and Old Frisian, the character repertoire was extended, while for others it shrank.
[Note that the Unicode Runic range contains three so-called “Tolkienian extensions” at U+16F1..16F3. These three characters were invented by J.R.R. Tolkien for his own fictional writings and they do not belong to the historical Runic script.]
Writing direction
Writing direction varies. At times Runes are written from left to right. But right-to-left inscriptions (with reversed glyph shapes) occur, too, as do boustrophedon inscriptions, in which the writing direction reverses from one line to the next (with reversed glyph shapes in right-to-left lines). Sometimes the writing just follows wherever the shape of the object on which the runes are written leads.
Modern representation of Runic is usually from left to right. Right-to-left as well as boustrophedon writing (with reversed glyph shapes where applicable) does occur in scholarly editions of specific inscriptions.
Punctuation
The Unicode Standard states (version 14, 8.7 Runic, p. 354): “The wide variety of Runic punctuation marks has been reduced to three distinct characters based on simple aspects of their graphical form, as very little is known about any difference in intended meaning between marks that look different. Any other punctuation marks have been unified with shared punctuation marks elsewhere in the Unicode Standard.” See the Runic range in Unicode, characters U+16EB.16EC.16ED.
Fonts
Typeface
A definitive choice of the default typeface for the Runic script has not yet been made. For the time being, Noto Sans Runic is used; download freely from the Google Noto Fonts site, searching for ‘Noto Sans Runic’.
Other font candidates tested proved unsuitable for various reasons. Microsoft’s Segoe UI Hist has badly proportioned Runic punctuation marks, and Junicode lacks those marks altogether.
Font sizes
Noto Sans Runic font sizes:
Brill 11 pt: ~ Noto Sans Runic 9 pt, tracking +25/1000
Brill 10 pt: ~ Noto Sans Runic 7.9 pt, tracking +25/1000
Brill 9 pt: ~ Noto Sans Runic 7.1 pt, tracking +25/1000
Typefaces for special applications
Sometimes a publication needs a typeface different from Noto Sans Runic, for instance because the inscription(s) under discussion exhibit(s) glyph shapes that are not present in that font (and their shape is important in some way). To quote from the Unicode Standard again (version 13, 8.6 Runic, p. 347):
“Representative Glyphs. The known inscriptions can include considerable variations of shape for a given rune, sometimes to the point where the nonspecialist will mistake the shape for a different rune. There is no dominant main form for some runes, particularly for many runes added in the Anglo-Friesian and medieval Nordic systems. When transcribing a Runic inscription into its Unicode-encoded form, one cannot rely on the idealized representative glyph shape in the character charts alone. One must take into account to which of the four Runic systems an inscription belongs and be knowledgeable about the permitted form variations within each system. The representative glyphs were chosen to provide an image that distinguishes each rune visually from all other runes in the same system. For actual use, it might be advisable to use a separate font for each Runic system. Of particular note is the fact that the glyph for U+16C4 ᛄ RUNIC LETTER GER is actually a rare form, as the more common form is already used for U+16E1 ᛡ RUNIC LETTER IOR.”
Note that Noto Sans Runic, which follows the Unicode Runic range glyph shapes and does not provide any alternates, also lacks right-to-left (reversed) glyphs of the characters. Noto Sans Runic therefore provides an abstract glyph set which may be adequate for non-specific transcriptions of Runic texts, but certainly not for all Runic texts.
For rendering specific texts, one of the large range of Andrew West’s runic fonts (which include right-to-left, reversed glyph shapes, and ligature glyphs which are triggered by ZWJ) are preferable to a runic font of more ‘general’ application, such as Noto Sans Runic.
At this time of this writing (October of 2020) we have not yet encountered such a need, so no specific instructions are given here. When the need arises, editors or publishers or editorial assistants should contact scripts@brill.com for advice.
Windows and macOS
Windows fonts, as long as they are TrueType fonts (.ttf) or TrueType Collections (.ttc) can also be used on macOS.
