This article discusses the use of runic inscriptions on fibulas from the period 0–700, exploring how they enhance the jewellery, investigating them as sources of information on Germanic literacy and viewing them from a social semiotic per spective. First the inscriptions which contain a verb are dis cussed and then those lack ing a verb are fitted into the same patterns. For this Martin H. Graf’s concept of Kleinst schriftlichkeit ‘minimal literacy’ is em ployed whereby isolated words, such as names, can imply more complex mes sages. The article discusses sixty-four runic fibulas from Germanic regions and identifies three different uses: (1) reveal ing the name of the maker of the fibula or the inscription (usually a man, the donor?), (2) invoking prosperity (usually a woman wishing happiness or love for a man), and (3) indicating the owner (always a female name and no verb). Chronological differences are evident. The oldest ones usually contain a male name (maker or donor). Owner in scrip tions and prosperity inscriptions are found, in addition to maker inscrip tions, on fibulas from the period after the year 500 and from this point, female participants become more prominent. The earliest inscriptions are mostly from Scandinavia while those from the southern area become more numerous from the 500s. In the southern area, there are many non-lexical inscrip tions, whereas those from the northern area are more linguistically advanced. The significance of a fibula bearing a runic inscription, whether legible or not, was probably greater than that of a non-runic one.