Whispers of Ancient Signs: Runes in Modern Life

The modern city is imperceptibly permeated with runic symbolism.

Sharp, wind-broken signs stare at us from book covers and

vinyl sleeves, flashing neon lights on video game screens,

they gleam with cold silver in the windows of jewelry shops and lie down

dark pigment under the skin in tattoo shops. Even a tiny blue symbol

Bluetooth wireless communication, which has become a familiar part of our smartphones,

this is nothing other than an ancient monogram: the interweaving of two runes of the Younger Futhark,

Hagall and Bjarkan, the initials of the Danish king Harald Bluetooth. Symbols,

born almost two thousand years ago on the harsh, fog-shrouded outskirts

of the ancient world, did not disappear into the oblivion of centuries. They returned, having found

new flesh in digital reality. However, in the meantime, what the runes appear to be

the imagination of our contemporary, and what they served for the Germans of the era

The Great Migration of Peoples or the Scandinavian bonds of the Viking Age,

there is a deep conceptual gap.