Runes are ancient characters used in Teutonic, Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian inscriptions, probably first used by the early German group called Ostrogoths. They may have gotten them from Hellenic-Italian writing. Adapted to carving,they consisted of perpendicular, oblique, and a few curved lines. They were used extensively in Northern Europe, Iceland, and the British Isles before Christianity. Runes were used consistently in Scandinavia and well into the Middle Ages.