Runes are essentially the letters of an ancient alphabet called futhark that was used by Germanic peoples of northern Europe, Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland beginning around the 3rd century, AD. Although it seems to bear a striking similarity to Mediterranean writing systems (such as Etruscan, Greek or Latin), scholars have had little success in firmly establishing a link.

The ancient derivation of runes is further complicated by the fact that there are multiple varieties of rune alphabets: Germanic (used in northern Europe), Anglo-Saxon (used in Britain), and Nordic (used in Scandanavia and Iceland). The Germanic version had 24 letters, divided into three groups of eight. It is the sounds of the first six letters of this early alphabet, f, u, th, a, r, and k, that give this alphabet the name with which most people are familiar: futhark.

The Anglo-Saxon version added a few letters (bringing the total to 28) in order to create sounds that were used in Old English that weren't present in Germanic languages. Like the Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavians were anxious to adapt futhark to their language as well. But instead of adding new letters to accomplish that task, they combined letters in order to achieve different sounds, actually shrinking the number of letters to 16.

For the purposes of divination, however, it is the futhark that is of most interest since this is the most ancient and most used of the different runic alphabets. Each of the 24 runes, as one would expect from letters in an early alphabet, have their own sound and also their own meaning.

Fehu	Eihwaz	Ehwaz	Algiz	Gego	Hagalaz
Dagaz	Ansuz	Inguz	Isa	Jera	Berkana
Kenaz	Laguz	Mannaz	Nauthiz	Othala	Perthro
Raido	Sowulo	Teiwaz	Thurisaz	Uruz	Wunjo

Their use as divination tools can likely be traced to their early uses as magical signs used for charms and curses. In fact, the name "rune" itself means something secret or hidden. Also, various vague references appear in early literature that talk about the "signs" chosen in groups of three, or "chips" being cast, or "drawing lots."

Today, the practice of divining with runes uses 24 stones, as above, each carved with a single rune. They are randomly drawn from a bag and often spread out in patterns, like those used for Tarot, where each position in the spread has a certain meaning. Combined with the meaning of the particular rune that lands in the position, an interpretation for each position can be created. The different position meanings are then combined into an overall interpretation of the spread.