Collection: Rune Sticks

My Recreation of The Bryggn Rune Sticks

A fire in 1955 destroyed part of Bryggen, the old quarter of Bergen, Norway. This made possible a large scale excavation of this medieval town. Archeologists brought to light over 550 objects with runic inscriptions, dating to 1150-1350. The most of them are on wooden sticks with flattened sides. At a time when everyone had a knife, such sticks, called in Icelandic rúnakefli, served as a way to record important events, and a way to send  short messages. Bergen inscriptions reveal much about everyday life in a society in time when writing was rare.

I use Pyrography to recreate these messages on Driftwood gathered from the beaches of the Puget Sound in Washington.