Hands-on: Rune stick

Make your own rune stick

One way of sending a message to another person in the Viking Age was by using a rune stick (rúnakefli). It was a kind of rune letter, but since the Vikings had neither paper nor pen, they carved the message into a stick instead. Quite a number of rune sticks from the Viking Age have been found.

To make the rune stick truly authentic, the message must of course be written in runes, which the Vikings believed to be magical. We have made sure you get the rune row along with the instructions, which you can download here: