The wonders of the wild alphabet, come in many shapes and sizes. Such as the curly caterpillar letters. They start by looping from the top, before curling out the bottom. They really are that simple.

They relied on these symbols not only for writing but also to tell ... date to the second and third centuries A.D., some surmise that the runic alphabet arose during the first century A.D ...

This means to order them as they appear in the alphabet. When sorting words in to alphabetical order, we look at the first letter of the word. That is because 'c' comes before 'd' in the alphabet.