The rune Íss will be used for many different Old Norse sounds. In
this post we will introduce the 4 most simple and common of these
sounds. Draw a basic Íss-rune. This should consist of a single line
drawn from top to bottom between the bars - that is to say, between
the long horizontal lines between which the runes are written. Your
character should consist of a single line between 2 bars. It should
have the appearance of a Latin letter 'I', but with both of the 2
capital bars extending indefinately to the right and left. These are
the 'bars' between which runes are written. Remember to space your
bars widely enough apart to draw tall and skiny runes. The character
thus draw = short I, as in 'þistill'. Now place a dot 1/4 of the way
down the vertical line from the top. This dot should be immeadiately
to the LEFT side of the vertical line. It must not be on the line,
but beside it. This character = long I (Í), as in 'Ísland'. Notice
this dot, which elongates the vowel-grade, is placed toward the top,
as was also the case with when we elongated characters based on the
Ár- and ÚrR-runes. The difference is that the dot is placed to the
LEFT of the vertical line (which forms the Íss-rune). Modifications
of the Íss-rune will always occur to the LEFT side of the rune. The
reason is one of elegance and clarity. When characters based on the
Íss-rune are combined with a following Á or Ú, we do NOT want to see
any dots belonging to the Íss-rune on the right side of the rune.
This would be confusing and unattractive, as both Á and Ú can occur
with dots to the LEFT of their vertical lines. Writing IU could be
especially confusing, as there might be dots in a common space which
belong to either rune and occur outside of parameters of the runes
proper. Thus, the Íss-rune takes dots only to the LEFT of the strait
vertical line. We have now learned how to write I and Í, which are
both inherited from Proto-Norse. Now draw a new Íss-rune. Now place
a dot 1/2 of the way down the vertical line from the top and on the
LEFT side, which is the only side we will be using. This character =
natural Proto-Norse E, as in 'ek' (I). This character will NOT be
used where E is a mutation from Proto-Norse A (see previous posts
about the Ár-rune). In the Proto-Norse period, this sound and its
elongated grade were both represented by the 'M'-rune, which stood
for the Latin letter 'E'. To form the long grade of this vowel, we
will be placing a 2nd dot directly above the 1st one and 1/4 of the
way down from the top of the vertical line - that is to say, in the
same position as when writing 'Í' (the long of 'I'). Thus, both the
long of 'I' and 'E' take a dot in the same position: 1/4 of the way
down from the top of the vertical line on the LEFT side. Remember,
the dot forming the character for short 'E' is placed 1/2 of the way
down from the top. The reason we are drawing tall runes should be
clear by now. Interestingly enough, the oldest inscriptions in our
16-letter alphabet feature tall and skiny runes, despite the fact
that no dots were used this early to modify their phonological
values. We have now learned how to draw 4 characters: I, Í, E, É. In
posts to come, we will introduce further characters based on the Íss-
rune, including some additional simple diphthongs (see previous post
for basic diphthongs based on A + U). We will also discuss a group
of characters base on the ÚrR-rune.

Regards,
Konrad.