Runes were the earliest alphabets in use among the Teutonic and Gothic nations of Northern Europe. The exact period of their origin is not known. The name is derived from the Teutonic _rûn_, a mystery; whence _runa_, a whisper, and _helrûn_, divination; and the original use of these characters seems to have been for purposes of secrecy and divination. Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon tradition agree in ascribing the invention of runic writing to Odin or Wodin. The countries in which traces of the use of runes exist include Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Germany, Britain, France, and Spain; and they are found engraved on rocks, crosses, monumental stones, coins, medals, rings, brooches, and the hilts and blades of swords. Runic letters were also often cut on smooth sticks called _rûn-stafas_, or mysterious staves, and used for purposes of divination. But there is no reason to believe that they were at any time in the familiar use in which we find the characters of a written language in modern times, nor have we any traces of their being used in books or on parchment. We have an explanation of the runic alphabet in various MSS. of the early middle ages, prior to the time when runes had altogether ceased to be understood. The systems of runes in use among the different branches of the Teutonic stock were not identical, though they have a strong general family likeness, showing their community of origin. The letters are arranged in an order altogether distinct from that of any other alphabetical system, and have a purely Teutonic nomenclature. Each letter is, as in the Hebrew-Phœnician, derived from the name of some well-known familiar object, with whose initial letter it corresponds. Runes, being associated in the popular belief with augury and divination, were to a considerable extent discouraged by the early Christian priests and missionaries, whose efforts were directed to the supplanting of them by Greek and Roman characters. But it was not easy suddenly to put a stop to their use, and we find runes continuing to be employed in early Christian inscriptions. This was to a remarkable extent the case in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia, where we have traces of runic writing of dates varying from the middle of the seventh to the middle of the tenth century. Runes are said to have been laid aside in Sweden by the year 1001, and in Spain they were officially condemned by the Council of Toledo in 1115.