Runic calendar - Definition and Overview

The Runic calendar (or Rune staff) appears to have been a medieval Swedish invention, whereas clog almanacs appear in several European countries.

The Runic calendar was a perpetual calendar where the names of the weekdays and the golden numbers were written with the seven first runes of the futhark (repeated 52 times) and the 16 runes of the futhark with three additional runes (placed at the dates where where the new moon is calculated to appear in the 19 year long moon cycle). Christian holidays could also be marked with runes.

The runic calendars have appeared in several fashions, such as written on parchment, on wood, on bone, or on horn.

The oldest found Runic alamanac has been dated to the 13th century (the Nyköping staff), but most of the several thousand known wooden calendars date from the 16th and the 17th centuries. During the 18th century, the Runic calendars had a rennaissance and around 1800, such calendars were made in the form of tobacco boxes in brass.

Source: Nationalencyklopedin