Tides of History · Audible / Patrick Wyman

Interview with Professor Tom Birkett on "Runes: A Concise History"

January 1, 2026·43 min·3 clips

Beneath the picturesque medieval wharf in Bergen, waterlogged layers preserve thousands of wooden slips with runic writing — including pub banter, business correspondence, curses, and Latin poetry quotes.

Sharp lines are the first image. Wyman starts with the familiar Viking association, then slows the subject down into stone, metal, and the broken trail of early medieval literacy. Runes are not just decoration here. They are evidence for speakers of Germanic languages across the North Sea, the Baltic, and places beyond that core world. Professor Burkett brings the specialist grounding. The introduction identifies him as Professor of Old Norse and Old English at University College Cork, connected with the Norse Map Project and several books. From there, the problem gets bigger. The exchange moves from runes to the strange way a writing system can appear in the record already looking mature. Wyman reaches outside the subject, comparing the puzzle to Chinese oracle bone script from the Shang dynasty, where thousands of texts appear around 1250 BC. The comparison does not try to solve anything neatly. It points to a basic problem: evidence survives unevenly. Ordinary materials may have disappeared. A script may have circulated for centuries before the surviving record made it visible. Or it may have spread quickly because people found a clear use for it. The conversation leaves both possibilities on the table. That is the best part. Wyman keeps the tone conversational, while the argument stays close to evidence, caveat, and the odd pleasure of reaching the edge of what can be known.

As heard by us

A careful runes discussion that favors evidence, uncertainty, and historical texture over myth.

This episode treats runes less as fantasy decoration than as a historical problem: who used them, where they show up, and what their sharp lines can still tell us about early medieval life.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play for a careful, readable tour of runes and what they can actually tell us.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Tides of History