The one hundred language puzzles in this book are rendered in an assortment of runic alphabets--some in the traditional Norse runes & many in beautiful new runic characters. Some puzzles are simple, others very difficult, & their encrypted messages swing from silly to curious to profound. But Cryptorunes is much more than a book of puzzles. You'll also find engaging notes on runic alphabets & the ancient cultures from which they arose, a brief history of cryptography, guidelines for creating & solving many kinds of codes, & a wildly imaginative (but disturbingly plausible) story about the first extraterrestrial message to reach Earth. In addition to the answers, the book offers a Clues section for those who are almost able to solve a given cryptogram.