As one Viking poet put it ... when the medieval church banned runes in an attempt to drive out all vestiges of superstition, paganism, and magic. Runes fell out of widespread use but did not ...

All around me are remnants of over a thousand ... NEIL OLIVER:These dark lines, etched into the marble, are Viking runes ancient Viking writing. They're almost indecipherable.

The pieces dated to around 900 A.D. or the Viking Age. The hoard “was buried ... three of them are inscribed with Anglo-Saxon runes with Old English name elements, officials said.