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Medieval runes became increasingly casual, varied, eventually evolving into highly simplified forms. These served practical purposes—marking ownership, sending messages, keeping records. They were working alphabet used by semi-literate people for whom Latin was foreign but runes were familiar.
In remote rural areas, runes persisted into modern era—used for calendars, casual messages, decorative elements. The knowledge became folk tradition rather than living literacy, but it endured long enough that scholars could document it before extinction.
The final rune users maintained thread of transmission spanning centuries. When they died, the knowledge died with them, ending tradition that began before Christ and survived into age of printing and universal literacy.
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