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How Many Runes are There?

Like many questions involving the runes this is more complex than it may seem. Generally when we refer to "the runes" on this site we will mean the Elder Futhark, an ancient Northern alphabet which consisted of 24 runes. This is the set most widely used for divination today. However many modern sets include the controversial Blank Rune which brings the number to 25.

Historically however the runes have varied between 16 and 33 with different societies having different needs and therefore adapting the runes as they saw fit. Some authors even write of runes which are not used in divination but which are used for magic, increasing the number to a fifth rune row and about 40 runes.