You all remember Thor and his mighty hammer. Thor's father Odin, who was the leader of the Norse gods, hung himself upside down in a tree in an effort to gain wisdom one day. Upon doing this he thought up the rune system.
Runes are sort of a combination between phonetic alphabet and hieroglyphs.
Runes were not only used as a means of recording events and communication, but also as a way of foretelling the future and a means of seeking out advise. The runes are used by many not unlike the use of tarot cards. A question is brought up, and then a rune is drawn from a pile, the meaning of the rune is supposed to be used to form an answer to the question that was put before it.