OSLO, NORWAY—Live Science reports that Viking runes have been found engraved on a whetstone unearthed in Oslo. According to archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU), the stone was used to sharpen knives in the Middle Ages, some 1,000 years ago. Runes were used as symbols to represent letters or signs, and may even have been used to cast spells, but it is not known how many people were capable of reading or writing them. The runes carved on the whetstone may have been intended to spell a person’s name, or the words “scared,” “ugly,” or “pain.” Researcher Karen Holmqist said the quality of the writing on the whetstone is poor, and it may have been engraved by someone who was learning to spell. To read more, go to "The First Vikings."
