Histories of Scandinavian languages: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese

About 125 inscriptions dated from ad 200 to 600, carved in the older runic alphabet (futhark), are chronologically and linguistically the oldest evidence of any Germanic language. Most are from Scandinavia, but enough have been found in southeastern Europe to suggest that the use of runes was also familiar to other Germanic tribes. Most inscriptions are brief, marking ownership or manufacture, as on the Gallehus Horns (Denmark; c. ad 400): Ek Hlewagastiz Holtijaz horna tawido ‘I, Hlewagastiz, son of Holti, made [this] horn.’ A number of inscriptions are memorials to the dead, while others are magical in content.