Runology is the study of the Runic alphabets and inscriptions. It was initiated by Johannes Bureus (1568-1652) who was very interested in the linguistics of the Geatish language (Götiska språket), i.e. Old Norse. But he also viewed runes as holy or magical in a kabbalistic sense.
The study of runes was continued by Olof Rudbeck Sr (1630-1702) and presented in his collection Atlantica. The physicist Anders Celsius (1701-44) further extended the science of runes and travelled around the whole of Sweden to examine the bautastenar (megaliths, today termed runestones). Most of the runestones are found in Southern Scandinavia, with the highest concentration found in the Mälar basin.
Today, Runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics. The early runic inscriptions are important as the earliest attestations of Germanic languages, but their importance can be over-estimated, because most have similar messages (for example: "X had this stone raised over Y, who was an excellent person, Z carved the runes"). Others are very short or are simple personal names, and a few are completely incomprehensible. Medieval runestones are not so much of linguistic as of historical interest in documenting Viking Age Scandinavia.
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