The Irminsul – our ancestors' greatest holy relic – symbol of eternal life! In Anglo-Saxon mythology the Irminsul is the pillar in the stylised form of a tree that carries the world. At the same time, it symbolised the axis upon which the cosmos turns.

Runes are characters in the ancient alphabet used by Anglo-Saxon peoples. Runic inscriptions have been found all over western Europe, on stone monuments and on such objects as metal spear points and amulets; the greatest concentrations are in England and Scandinavia. The runic alphabet, called futhorc after the sounds of the initial letters, is composed of a number of 'glyphs', each with its own meaning, both exoteric and esoteric. 

Generally speaking most Runic practitioners use the 24 runes of the Germanic, or elder Futhark. 
However, the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc is made up of more.
Whilst the A-S Futhorc contains the original 24 Germanic Runes, albeit in a slightly different order,  
the A-S Futhorc has been recorded as having up to 9 additional Runes, bring the total up to 33 
However I believe that some of these 'additional' Runes do not belong within the A-S Futhorc. 
I have therefore chosen to work with the 30 Runes that appear engraved on the 
'The Thames Scramasax' and as listed in the 'Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem'  

Dating from the first half of the eighth century AD, about the same time that Beowulf may have been written down, the Franks Casket is carved in relief from whale's bone (the runes on the front panel speak of a whale stranded on the shingle). There, too, is depicted the Germanic legend of Weland the Smith and the Adoration of the Magi. A portion of the lid is missing and one end-panel has been detached, which now is in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.The other panels were purchased from a dealer in Paris and presented to the British Museum in 1867 by the collector whose name they bear. How the casket came from the north of England to Frankish Gaul is not known, but it may have been taken there in the middle of the tenth century and looted from a church during the French Revolution