How many runes are there?
There are 24 runes in the Ancient Pagan Futhark also known as the Anglo-Freisian Futhark. My rune sets also include a blank rune because some folks like to have a rune representing Destiny or Fate. I don’t use it myself. This idea is quite modern and was advocated by Ralph Blum with his “Book of Runes” but, contrary to common belief, he was not the originator of the blank rune which is referenced in research materials in my possession as early as the 16th Century. The earliest documented rune set is the Elder Futhark, also known as the Norse or Viking Futhark. This rune set originally had the same 24 runes, but with slightly different shapes. Over the centuries Scandinavian users reduced the Norse Futhark to just 16 runes – presumably to simplify the task of writing – so that some of the runes had to do double-duty for two or three sounds. This later adaptation (7th-8th Century) became known as the Younger Futhark. The runes brought to Britain by Angles, Saxons and Jutes migrating from
