Elder Futhark

The Elder Futhark is the oldest known runic alphabet, used by the Germanic peoples from around the second century to the eighth century. It has twenty-four runes, traditionally divided into three groups of eight called ættir. Its name comes from its first six letters: f, u, th, a, r, k. Most of the divinatory rune sets sold today are based on it, each of the twenty-four runes receiving a symbolic meaning drawn from its name and from the medieval rune poems.