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However, it seems that the second runic character is a short-twig “A” from the “Younger Futhark.”

Runes carved on the stone belong to a runic alphabet known as the “Elder Futhark,” a variant out of use long before the Viking voyages to North America, a fact apparently unknown to the person who carved them in Oklahoma.

Inscribed on the bone are six of the last eight runes from a 24-letter alphabet known as Old Futhark, the oldest runic alphabet used by Germanic tribes during the first half of the first millennium.

“Just writing out the ‘futhark,’ all sixteen Viking runes in order like an alphabet, was a good-luck charm.”

Pic by English Heritage This week's events within Lindisfarne's "ancient monastery's halls" include Uruz, a replica Viking longship, complete with carved wooden figurehead, which arrived on Monday and will be displayed all week. , named after the second character of the futhark, or runic alphabet, is 30 foot long and would have held a reasonable-sized raiding party.