People In This Place Still Used Runes in the 20th Century

In Scandinavia, people seized using runes in the 13th century. Älvdalen, an isolated place in Sweden, was inhabited by those who not only continued to use runes but also developed their own language with the Norse elements. 

People in Älvdalen (English meaning: The River Valley) were not the first to use runes. In fact, they started using runes when they were used as late as the 20th century. It was called the Dalecarlian runes. The valley rested in a very isolated position in Dalarna County in Central Sweden. This area had its own language Elfdalian which the locals still spoke. 

The alphabet of Elfdalian 

In the Nordic nations, runes once were the main system of language and also the dominant written language prior to the introduction of Christianity and the Latin alphabet around 800-900s.

Henrik Rosenkvist a linguist from Forskning no said that the case of the Elfdalian was very exceptional. Some people believe that places in Gotland and Iceland still used runes until the 1600s.

Many places in Älvdalen showed the traces of runes on their houses, furniture, and so on. People even carved into the wooden sticks that the people here sent from farms to farms. In Älvdalen, people introduced some other characters that borrowed from the from the Latin alphabet.

Elfdalian language is also a source that could easily evoke the interest. Because this language provided them with a source of knowledge from which they could understand how the ancestors once spoke. About 2,500 people are talking Elfdalian that has long been under the pressure of Swedish.