Runes and Runestones (Wikipedia Compilation)

Runes
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Contents
Articles
Algiz Anglo-Saxon runes Anglo-Saxon runic rings Ansuz (rune) Berkanan Bewcastle Cross Bind rune Bryggen inscriptions Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus Cipher runes Dagaz Ear (rune) Ehwaz Eihwaz Elder Futhark Erilaz Fehu Franks Casket Germanic philology Gyfu Haglaz Hunterston Brooch Isaz Jran Kaunan Kvinneby amulet Laguz List of runestones Maeshowe Mannaz Manx runestones Medieval runes Naudiz North Germanic languages 1 6 12 15 17 18 22 24 27 28 31 32 33 34 35 44 46 47 57 58 59 60 63 64 67 68 73 74 76 81 82 98 102 103
Odal (rune) Old English Old English rune poem Old Frisian Old Norse Peor Proto-Norse language Raido Runa ABC Runamo Rundata Rune Poems Runes Runestone Runestone styles Runic calendar Runic inscription N 351 Runic inscriptions Runic inscriptions in Hagia Sophia Runic magic Runic transliteration and transcription Runology Ruthwell Cross Schretzheim sword Scythe sword Seax of Beagnoth Setre Comb Sigtuna box Sowil St Cuthbert's coffin Sveriges runinskrifter Sb sword Thurisaz Tiwaz rune Torpo stave church Undley bracteate Ur (rune) Vang stave church
114 116 131 134 136 155 157 161 162 163 166 168 170 186 200 204 206 207 213 214 220 221 222 228 234 235 243 244 246 249 252 254 256 258 261 263 265 266
Westeremden yew-stick Wynn Yngvi Younger Futhark
269 271 272 275
References
Article Sources and Contributors Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 279 283
Article Licenses
License 290
Algiz
Algiz
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse Yr "yew" Futhorc Younger Futhark
Name
*Algiz(?) "elk"(?) Elder Futhark
Eolh(?)
Shape
Unicode Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row
U+16C9

U+16E6 U+16E7
z z
x x
15

16
[z]
[ks](?) [], [r]
Algiz (also Elhaz) is the name conventionally given to the "z-rune" of the Elder Futhark runic alphabet. Its transliteration is z, understood as a phoneme of the Proto-Germanic language, the terminal *z continuing Proto-Indo-European terminal *s. It is one of two runes which express a phoneme that does not occur word-initially, and thus could not be named acrophonically, the other being the -rune Ingwaz . As the terminal *-z phoneme marks the nominative singular desinence of masculine nouns, the rune occurs comparatively frequently in early epigraphy. Because this specific phoneme was lost at an early time, the Elder Futhark rune underwent changes in the medieval runic alphabets. In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc it retained its shape, but it was given the sound value of Latin x. This is a secondary development, possibly due to runic manuscript tradition, and there is no known instance of the rune being used in an Old English inscription. In Proto-Norse and Old Norse, the Germanic *z phoneme developed into an R sound, perhaps realized as a retroflex approximant [], which is usually transcribed as . This sound was written in the Younger Futhark using the Yr rune , the Algiz rune turned upside down, from about the 7th century. This phoneme eventually became indistinguishable from the regular R sound in the later stages of Old Norse, at about the 11th or 12th century. The shape of the rune may be derived from that a letter expressing /x/ in certain Old Italic alphabets (), which was in turn derived from the Greek letter which had the value of /k/ (rather than /ps/) in the Western Greek alphabet.
Name
The Elder Futhark rune is conventionally called Algiz or Elhaz, from the Common Germanic word for "elk". There is wide agreement that this is most likely not the historical name of the rune, but in the absence of any positive evidence of what the historical name may have been, the conventional name is simply based on a reading of the rune name in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, first suggested by Wilhelm Grimm (ber deutsche Runen, 1821), as eolh or eolug "elk". Like the ng-rune, the z-rune is a special case inasmuch as it could not have been named acrophonically, since the sound it represents did not occur in word-initial position. Choosing a name that terminates in -z would have been
Algiz more or less arbitrary, as this was the nominative singular desinence of every masculine noun of the language. Since the name eolh, or more accurately eolh-secg "elk-sedge" in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem represents not the rune's original sound value, but rather the sound of Latin x (/ks/), it becomes highly arbitrary to suggest that the original rune should have been named after the elk. There are a number of speculative suggestions surrounding the history of the rune's name. The difficulty lies in the circumstance that the Youger Futhark rune did not inherit this name at all, but acquired the name of the obsolete Eihwaz rune, as yr. The only independent evidence of the Elder Futhark rune's name would be the name of the corresponding Gothic letter, ezec. The Gothic letter was an adoption of Greek Zeta, and while it did express the /z/ phoneme, this Gothic sound did not occur terminally, but in positions where West and North Germanic have r, e.g. Gothic miza "greater" (Old Norse meira, English more). The name of the Anglo-Saxon rune is variously recorded as eolx, eolhx, ilcs, ilx, iolx, ilix, elux.[1] Manuscript tradition gives its sound value as Latin x, i.e. /ks/, or alternatively as il, or yet again as "l and x". The reading of this opaque name as eolh "elk" is entirely due to the reading of the Anglo-Saxon rune poem's secg as eolh-secg (eolx-secg, eolug-secg, eolxecg) "elk-sedge", apparently the name of a species of sedge (carex). This reading of the poem is due to Wilhelm Grimm (1821), and remains standard. . The suggestion is that this compound is realized as eolk-secg, thus containing the Latin x (/ks/) phoneme. The manuscript testimony that the rune is to be read as il would then be simply a mistaken assumption that its name must be acrophonic. The name of the corresponding Gothic letter ezec, however, suggests that the old name of this rune was not just eolx, but the full eolh-secg. This is puzzling, because the sound value of the rune was clearly not /ks/ in the Elder Futhark period (2nd to 4th centuries). Furthermore, the name of the sedge in question is recorded in the older Epinal-Erfurt glossary as ilugsegg (glossing papiluus, probably for papyrus), which cannot be derived from the word for elk.[2] A suggestion by Warren and Elliott takes the Old English eolh at face value, and reconstructs a Common Germanic form of either *algiz or *alhiz. They cite a "more fanciful school" which assumes an original meaning of "elk" based on a theonym Alcis recorded by Tacitus (suggesting that the name would have been theophoric in origin, referring to an "elk-god"). The authors dismiss the Old English "elk-sedge" as a late attempt to give the then-obsolete rune a value of Latin x. Instead, they suggest that the original name of the rune could have been Common Germanic *algiz, meaning not "elk" but "protection, defence".[3] Redbond (1936) suggested that the eolhx (etc.) may have been a corruption of helix. Seebold (1991) took this up to suggest that the name of the rune may be connected to the use of elux for helix by Notker to describe the constellation of Ursa major (as turning around the celestial pole).[1] An earlier suggestion is that of Zacher (1855), who concluded with the speculative suggestion that the earliest value of this rune was not even /z/ but the labiovelar /hw/, and its name may have been hweol "wheel".[4]
Elder Futhark
In the Elder Futhark, Algiz represents the Germanic phoneme *z, which occurs only terminally. It is attested in that position in the earliest inscriptions, e.g. in ansuz (Vimose buckle), ewaz (Thorsberg chape). It was presumably present in the Ovre Stabu spearhead inscription (ca. AD 180), reading raunija[z], The varying forms of the rune in the Elder futhark during the centuries. but is hardly legible now. The Nydam axe-handle (4th century) has the name wagagastiz. The Golden Horns of Gallehus (early 5th century) had the personal name hlewagastiz holtijaz.
Algiz In the earliest inscriptions, the rune invariably has its standard -shape. From the 5th century or so, the rune appears optionally in its upside-down variant which would become the standard Younger Futhark yr shape. There are also other graphical variants; for example, the Charnay Fibula has a superposition of these two variants, resulting in an "asterisk" shape ().
Anglo-Saxon futhorc
The name of the Anglo-Saxon rune is variously recorded as eolx, ilcs, ilix, elux, eolhx. Manuscript tradition gives its sound value as Latin x, i.e. /ks/, or alternatively as il, or yet again as "l and x". The relevant stanza of the Anglo-Saxon rune poem reads: seccard hf oftust on fenne wexe on wature, wunda grimme blode brene beorna gehwylcne e him nigne onfeng gede. Reading the rune as eolhx (as discussed above), and with the emendation of seccard to secg eard due to Grimm (1821), the stanza becomes about a kind of sedge (carex) called "elk-sedge" but note that the plant currently known as elk-sedge is native to the New World). In the translation of Page (1999):[5] The Elk-sedge usually lives in the fen, growing in the water. It wounds severely, staining with blood any man who makes a grab at it. The 9th-century abecedarium anguliscum in Codex Sangallensis 878 shows eolh as a peculiar shape, as it were a bindrune of the older with the Younger Futhark , resulting in an "asterisk" shape similar to ior . The only known instance where the rune does take the value of Latin x in epigraphy is the spelling of rex "king" on the interlace coin dies of king Beonna (mid 8th century). Furthermore, it appears in the inscription on St Cuthbert's coffin (late 7th century) in the abbreviation of the name Christ, where Greek C is taken as Latin xps and rendered as runic .
Younger Futhark
In the 6th and 7th centuries, the Elder Futhark began to be replaced by the Younger Futhark in Scandinavia. By the 8th century, the Elder Futhark was extinct, and Scandinavian runic inscriptions were exclusively written in Younger Futhark. The Yr rune is a rune of the Younger Futhark. The name yr means "yew" in Old Norse. Its common transliteration is a small capitals r. The shape of the Yr rune in the Younger Futhark is the inverted shape of the Elder Futhark rune, . Its name yr translates to "yew". It is taken from the name of the Elder Futhark Eihwaz rune. Its phonological value is the continuation of the phoneme represented by Algiz, the word-final *-z in Proto Germanic, In Proto-Norse pronounced closer to /r/, perhaps //. Within later Old Norse, the Proto-Norse phoneme collapses with /r/ by the 12th century. Unicode has "Latin Small Capital Letter R" at codepoint U+0280 . A corresponding capital letter is at U+01A6 , called "Latin Letter Yr". The rune itself is encoded at U+16E6 "Long Branch Yr". Variants are "Short Twig Yr" at U+16E7 and "Icelandic Yr" at U+16E8 . [6] Note that the unrelated Anglo-Saxon calc rune has exactly the same shape as Younger Futhark yr. Independently, the shape of the Elder Futhark Algiz rune reappears in the Younger Futhark Mar rune , continuing the Elder Futhark rune *Mannaz.
Algiz
Modern usage
In Germanic mysticism
The Man and Yr runes in Guido von List's Armanen Futharkh were based on the Younger Futhark. List's runes were later adopted and modified by Karl Maria Wiligut who was responsible for their adoptions by the NSDAP. Both List and Wiligut have an "Yr" rune of the same shape as the Younger Futhark Yr rune. In this context, the Man rune (identical in shape to the Elder Futhark Algiz) came to be understood as symbolizing "life" and called the "life rune" (German Lebensrune). This term occurs as early as the 1920s in the literature of Germanic mysticism,[7] and it came to be widely used within the NSDAPand Nazi Germany, e.g. in official prescriptions for the various uniforms of the Sturmabteilung.[8] The Yr rune came to be seen as the "life rune" inverted and interpreted as "death rune" (Todesrune) During the World War II era, these two runes ( for "born", for "died") came to be used in obituaries and on tomb stones as marking birth and death dates, replacing asterisk and cross symbols (* for "born", for "died") conventionally used in this context in Germany. Runic scholars pointed out that this association was in no way based on the historical sources concerning this rune even during the World War II era.[9] After 1945, the "life rune" continued to be used by various neo-Nazi or white nationalist groups including the US National Alliance,[10] and the Flemish nationalist Voorpost. Deathrune Records, formerly Die Todesrune Records is the name of a minor Black Metalrecord label.[11]
Modern runic divination

Based on the suggestion by Warren and Elliot (1980) discussed above, the Algiz rune is given a sense of "protection" in some modern systems of runic divination.[12]
Notes
[1] Alan Griffiths, 'Rune-names: the Irish connexion' in: Stoklund et al. (eds.), Runes and their secrets: studies in runology, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006, pp. 93-101. [2] Bruce Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples, Cambridge, 1915, p. 17, note 41. [3] Ralph Warren, Victor Elliott, Runes: an introduction, Manchester University Press ND, 1980, 51-53. [4] Julius Zacher, "Die rune eolh" in: Das gothische Alphabet Vulfilas und das Runenalphabet, Brockhaus, 1855, 72-120. [5] Page (1999:71). [6] Unicode Character 'LATIN LETTER YR' (U+01A6) at Fileformat.info (http:/ / www. fileformat. info/ info/ unicode/ char/ 01a6/ index. htm). Unicode Character 'LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL R' (U+0280) (http:/ / www. fileformat. info/ info/ unicode/ char/ 0280/ index. htm) [7] Hermann Schwarz, Gott jenseits von theismus und pantheismus, Junker und Dnnhaupt, 1928. (http:/ / books. google. ch/ books?id=TX5CAAAAIAAJ& q=lebensrune& dq=lebensrune& hl=en& sa=X& ei=9yAgT-2ELo_Y4QSm2NyADw& redir_esc=y) [8] Robert Ley, Organisationsbuch der NSDAP (1943) (http:/ / books. google. ch/ books?ei=0iAgT_TjMY6K4gTtjd2JDw& id=dCwMAQAAIAAJ& dq=lebensrune& q=lebensrune#search_anchor). [9] Stimmen der Zeit, vol. 137, Abtei Maria Laach, Herder, 1940 (http:/ / books. google. ch/ books?id=6BEJAQAAIAAJ& q=lebensrune& dq=lebensrune& hl=en& sa=X& ei=0iAgT_TjMY6K4gTtjd2JDw& redir_esc=y) [10] From the official National Alliance website: "The Life Rune signifies life, creation, birth, rebirth, and renewal. It expresses in a single symbol the raison detre of the National Alliance and of the movement of Aryan renewal." "The Life Rune: an ancient symbol used by the National Alliance" (http:/ / www. natall. com/ rune. html) (natall.com). [11] Die Todesrune Records (http:/ / www. metal-archives. com/ labels/ Die_Todesrune_Records/ 905), Encyclopaedia Metallum (2011). [12] e.g. "Protection, a shield. The protective urge to shelter oneself or others. Defense, warding off of evil, shield, guardian" Meanings of the Runes (http:/ / sunnyway. com/ runes/ meanings. html) (sunnyway.com). "It is a powerful rune of protection and, spiritually, it symbolizes reaching up to the divine." ALGIZ - The Rune of Protection and Opportunity (http:/ / www. runemaker. com/ futhark/ algiz. shtml) (runemaker.com). "protection, assistance, defense, warning, support, a mentor, an ethical dilemma" The Meanings of the Runes (http:/ / www. runestones. com/ RuneMeaning. htm) (runestones.com).
Algiz
References
Dobbie, Elliott Van Kirk (1942). The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08770-5. Page, R. I. (1999). An Introduction to English Runes (http://books.google.com/books?id=SgpriZdKin0C). Boydell Press, page 71. ISBN 0-85115-946-X.
Anglo-Saxon runes
Anglo-Saxon runes
Anglo-Saxon Futhorc
Type Languages Alphabet Old English and Old Frisian, sometimes Latin
Parent systems Phoenician alphabet Greek alphabet (Cumae variant) Old Italic alphabet Elder Futhark Sister systems Anglo-Saxon Futhorc
Younger Futhark
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols.
The Anglo-Saxon runes (also Anglo-Frisian), also known as futhorc (or fuorc), is a runic alphabet, extended from the Elder Futhark from 24 to between 26 and 33 characters. They were used probably from the 5th century onward, recording Old English and Old Frisian. They remained in use in Anglo-Saxon England throughout the 6th to 10th centuries, although runic script became increasingly confined to manuscript tradition as a topic of antiquarian interest after the 9th century, and it disappeared even as a learned curiosity soon after the Norman conquest.
History
There are competing theories as to the origins of the Anglo-Saxon futhorc. One theory proposes that it was developed in Frisia and from there spread later to England. Another holds that runes were first introduced to England from Scandinavia where the futhorc was modified and then exported to Frisia. Both theories have their inherent weaknesses, and a definitive answer likely awaits more archaeological evidence. The early futhorc was identical to the Elder Futhark except for the split of a into three variants c, sc and s, resulting in 26 runes. This was necessary to account for the new phoneme produced by the Ingvaeonic split of allophones of long and short a. The earliest s rune is found on the 5th century Undley bracteate. c was introduced later, in the 6th century. The double-barred hgl characteristic for continental inscriptions is first attested as late as 698, on St Cuthbert's coffin; before that, the single-barred Scandinavian variant was used. In England the futhorc was further extended to 28 and finally to 33 runes, and runic writing in England became closely associated with the Latin scriptoria from the time of Anglo-Saxon Christianization in the 7th century. The futhorc started to be replaced by the Latin alphabet from around the 7th century, although the futhorc was still sometimes used up to the 10th or 11th century. In some cases, texts would be written in the Latin alphabet but runes would be used in place of the word it represented, and the orn and wynn came to be used as extensions of the Latin alphabet. By the Norman Conquest of 1066 it was very rare and disappeared altogether shortly thereafter. From at least five centuries of use, fewer than 200 artifacts bearing futhorc inscriptions have survived. Several famous English examples mix runes and Roman script, and/or Old English and Latin, on the same object, including the Franks Casket and St Cuthbert's coffin; in the latter three of the names of the Four Evangelists are
The left half of the front panel of the 7th century Franks Casket, depicting the Germanic legend of Weyland Smith and containing a riddle in Anglo-Saxon runes.
Anglo-Saxon runes given in Latin written in runes but "LUKAS" (Saint Luke) is in Roman script. The coffin is also an example of an object created at the heart of the Anglo-Saxon church that uses runes. A leading expert, R. I. Page, rejects the assumption often made in non-scholarly literature that runes were especially associated in post-conversion Anglo-Saxon England with Anglo-Saxon paganism or magic.[1]
Letters
The Anglo-Saxon rune poem (Cotton Otho B.x.165) has the following runes, listed with their Unicode glyphs, their names, their transliteration and their approximate phonetic value in IPA notation where different from the transliteration:
The futhorc.
Rune Image UCS Old English name feoh ur orn s rad cen gyfu wynn hgl nyd is ger eoh peor eolh sigel
Name meaning "wealth" "aurochs" "thorn" "[a] god" "ride" "torch" "gift" "joy"
Transliteration f u , , th r c w,
IPA [f], [v] [u], [u] [], []
[k], [k] [], [j] [w] [h], [x] [n]
"hail (precipitation)" h "need, distress" "ice" "year, harvest" "yew" (Unknown) "elk-sedge" "Sun" n i j eo p x s
[p]
[s], [z]
Anglo-Saxon runes
8
Tiw beorc eh mann lagu ing el dg ac sc yr ior ear "Tiw" "birch" "horse" "man" "lake" "Ing (a hero)" "estate" "day" "oak" "ash-tree" "bow" "eel" "grave" t b e m l [d] a y ia, io ea [] [m] [l] [t] [b]
The first 24 of these directly continue the Elder Futhark letters, extended by five additional runes, representing long vowels and diphthongs (, , , ia, ea), comparable to the five forfeda of the Ogham alphabet. Thorn and Wynn were introduced into the Latin English alphabet to represent [] and [w], but then they were replaced with th and w in Middle English. The letter sequence, and indeed the letter inventory is not fixed. Compared to the letters of the rune poem given above, f u o r c w h n i j eo p x s t b e m l d a y io ea the Thames scramasax has 28 letters, with a slightly different order, and edhel missing: f u o r c w h n i io eo p x s t b e d l m j a y ea The Vienna Codex has also 28 letters; the Ruthwell Cross inscription has 31 letters; Cotton Domitian A.ix (11th century) has another four additional runes: 30. 31. 32. cweor kw, a modification of peor calc "chalice" k (when doubled appearing as stan "stone" st kk)
33. gar "spear" g (as opposed to palatalized ) Of these four additional letters, only the cweor rune fails to appear epigraphically. The stan shape is found on the Westeremden yew-stick, but likely as a Spiegelrune. The calc rune is found on the Bramham Moor Ring, Kingmoor Ring, the Ruthwell Cross, and Bewcastle Cross inscriptions. The gar rune is found on the Bewcastle Cross inscription, along with the doubled calc rune in select locations [2]. Cotton Domitian A.ix reaches thus a total of 33 letters, according to the transliteration introduced above arranged in the order f u o r c w h n i j eo p x s t b e m l d a y ea io cw k st g In the manuscript, the runes are arranged in three rows, glossed with Latin equivalents below (in the third row above) and with their names above (in the third row below). The manuscript has traces of corrections by a 16th century hand, inverting the position of m and d. Eolh is mistakenly labelled as sigel, and in place of sigel, there is a kaun like letter , corrected to proper sigel above it. Eoh is mis-labelled as eel. Apart from ing and ear, all rune names are due to the later scribe, identified as Robert Talbot (died 1558).
Anglo-Saxon runes
feoh f tir t
ur u berc b
orn eel e
os o deg m{d}
ra r
cen c
gifu g
wen hegel nea inc geu{a}r sigel peor uu pro h ac a n lc i yr y ear ge eo p x
sig s
lagu mann l ing {m}
{orent.} {cur.} {iolx} {z} {&} io q k sc{st} g ior cweor calc stan ear
Another futhorc row is found in Cotton Galba A.ii. The 9th-century Codex Sangallensis 878 (attributed to Walahfrid Strabo) records an abecedarium anguliscum in three lines. The first two lines list the standard 29 runes, i.e. the 24 derived from Elder Futhark, and the five standard additional ones (, , , io, ea). The listing order of the final two of the "elder" 24 runes is dg, el. A peculiarity is the "asterisk" shape of eolh. The third line lists gar and kalc(?) before a doodling repetition of other runes.
The Anglo-Saxon futhorc (abecedarium anguliscum) as presented in Codex Sangallensis 878 (9th century).
Inscription corpus
The Old English and Old Frisian Runic Inscriptions database project at the Katholische Universitt Futhorc series on the Seax of Beagnoth (9th century). The series has 28 runes, omitting io. The shapes of j, s, d, and y deviate from the standard forms shown above; eo appears Eichsttt-Ingolstadt, Germany aims at mirrored. collecting the genuine corpus of Old English inscriptions containing more than two runes in its paper edition, while the electronic edition aims at including both genuine and doubtful inscriptions down to single-rune inscriptions. The corpus of the paper edition encompasses about one hundred objects (including stone slabs, stone crosses, bones, rings, brooches, weapons, urns, a writing tablet, tweezers, a sun-dial, comb, bracteates, caskets, a font, dishes, and graffiti). The database includes, in addition, 16 inscriptions containing a single rune, several runic coins, and 8 cases of dubious runic characters (runelike signs, possible Latin characters, weathered characters). Comprising fewer than 200 inscriptions, the corpus is slightly larger than that of Continental Elder Futhark (about 80 inscriptions, ca. 400700), but slightly smaller than that of the Scandinavian Elder Futhark (about 260 inscriptions, ca. 200800). Runic finds in England cluster along the east coast with a few finds scattered further inland in Southern England. Frisian finds cluster in West Frisia. Looijenga (1997) lists 23 English (including two 7th c. Christian inscriptions) and 21 Frisian inscriptions predating the 9th century.
Anglo-Saxon runes
10
Inscriptions
Currently known inscriptions include: Anglo-Saxon runic
Frisian
Ferwerd combcase, 6th c.; me ur Amay comb, ca. 600; eda Oostyn comb, 8th c.; aib ka[m]bu / deda habuku (with a triple-barred h) Toornwerd comb, 8th c.; kabu Skanomody solidus, 575610; skanomodu Harlingen solidus, 575625, hada (two ac runes, double-barred h) Schweindorf solidus, 575625, wela[n]du "Weyland" (or eladu; running right to left) Folkestone tremissis, ca. 650; niwulufu Midlum sceat, ca. 750; pa
The Thames zoomorphic silver-gilt (knife?) mount (late 8th century).
Rasquert swordhandle (whalebone handle of a symbolic sword), late 8th c.; ekumditoka, perhaps "I, Oka, not mad" (compare ek unwodz from the Danish corpus) Arum sword, a yew-wood miniature sword, late 8th c.; edboda Westeremden A, a yew weaving-slay; adujislume[]jisuhidu Westeremden B, a yew-stick, 8th c.; oph?nmuji?adaamlu / :wim?ahu?? / iwio?u?du?ale Britsum yew-stick; kniaberetdud / ]n:bsrsdnu; the k has Younger Futhark shape and probably represents a vowel. Hantum whalebone plate; [.]:aha:k[; the reverse side is inscribed with Roman ABA. Bernsterburen whalebone staff, ca. 800; tuda wudu kius u tuda Hamwick horse knucklebone, dated to between 650 and 1025; kat (categorised as Frisian on linguistic grounds, from *kautn "knucklebone") Wijnaldum B gold pendant, ca. 600; hiwi Kantens combcase, early 5th c.; li Hoogebeintum comb, ca. 700; []nlu / ded Wijnaldum A antler piece; zwfuwizw[]
English
Ash Gilton (Kent) gilt silver sword pommel, 6th c.; []emsigimer[][3] Chessel Down I (Isle of Wight), 6th c.; []bwseeekkkaaa Chessel Down II (Isle of Wight) silver plate (attached to the scabbard mouthpiece of a ring-sword), early 6th c.; ko:?ori Boarley (Kent) copper disc-brooch, ca. 600; rsil Harford (Norfolk) brooch, ca. 650; luda:gibtsigil "Luda repaired the brooch" West Heslerton (North Yorkshire) copper cruciform brooch, early 6th c.; neim Loveden Hill (Lincolnshire) urn; 5th to 6th c.; reading uncertain, maybe sbd iuw hlaw "the grave of Sibd the maid" Spong Hill (Norfolk), three cremation urns, 5th c.; decorated with identical runic stamps, reading alu (in Spiegelrunen). Kent II coins (some 30 items), 7th century; reading pada Kent III, IV silver sceattas, ca. 600; reading pa and epa Suffolk gold shillings (three items), ca. 660; stamped with desaiona
Anglo-Saxon runes Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus, 5th c.; possibly a Scandinavian import, in Elder Futhark transliteration reading rahan "roe" Watchfield (Oxfordshire) copper fittings, 6th c.; Elder Futhark reading hariboki:wusa (with a probably already fronted to ) Wakerley (Northamptonshire) copper brooch, 6th c.; buhui Dover (Kent) brooch, ca. 600; d bli / bkk Upper Thames Valley gold coins (four items), 620s; benu:tigoii; benu:+:tidi Willoughby-on-the-Wolds (Nottinghamshire) copper bowl, ca. 600; a Cleatham (South Humbershire) copper bowl, ca. 600; []edih Sandwich/Richborough (Kent) stone, 650 or earlier; []ahabu[]i, perhaps *rhbul "stag" Whitby I (Yorkshire) jet spindle whorl; ueu Selsey (West Sussex) gold plates, 6th to 8th c.; brnrn / anmu St. Cuthbert's coffin (Durham), dated to 698 Whitby II (Yorkshire) bone comb, 7th c.; [d]us mus godaluwalu dohelip cy[ i.e. deus meus, god aluwaldo, help Cy "my god, almighty god, help Cy" (Cynewulf or a similar personal name; compare also names of God in Old English poetry.) the Franks casket; 7th c. zoomorphic silver-gilt knife mount, discovered in the River Thames near Westminster Bridge (late 8th c.): .[4] the Ruthwell Cross; 8th c., the inscription may be partly a modern reconstruction the Brandon antler piece, wohs wildum deor an "[this] grew on a wild animal"; 9th century.[5] Kingmoor Ring the Seax of Beagnoth; 9th c. (also known as the Thames scramasax); the only complete alphabet
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Related manuscript texts

Codex Vindobonensis 795 (9th c.) the Anglo-Saxon rune poem (Cotton Otho B.x.165) Solomon and Saturn (Nowell Codex)
Notes
[1] Page, R. I., "Roman and Runic on St Cuthbert's Coffin", pp. 257-263 in: Bonner, Gerald, Rollason, David & Stancliffe, Clare, eds., St. Cuthbert, his Cult and his Community to AD 1200. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1989 ISBN 0-85115-610-X ISBN 9780851156101, google books (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=3jPRV2hUGE8C& pg=PA257& dq=St+ Cuthbert's+ coffin& hl=en& sa=X& ei=d2EdT-abG4uWswa4osFI& ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage& q=St Cuthbert's coffin& f=false) [2] http:/ / commons. wikimedia. org/ wiki/ File:Bewcastle_Cross,_Haigh%27s_Runes_II. jpg [3] http:/ / www. flickr. com/ photos/ 39052215@N08/ 3585227155/ [4] British Museum, Silver knife mount with runic inscription (http:/ / www. britishmuseum. org/ explore/ highlights/ highlight_objects/ pe_mla/ s/ silver_knife_mount_with_runic. aspx); R.I. Page, An introduction to English runes, 2nd ed. (Woodbridge, Boydell, 1999), p. 182. [5] Bammesberger, Alfred. "The Brandon Antler Runic Inscription." Neophilologus 86 (2002), 12931. (http:/ / www. ingentaconnect. com/ content/ klu/ neop/ 2002/ 00000086/ 00000001/ 00352925;jsessionid=3c7d05171lao9. alice)
References
A. Bammesberger (ed.), Old English Runes and their Continental Background, Anglistische Forschungen 217, Heidelberg (1991). A. Bammesberger, 'Das Futhark und seine Weiterentwicklung in der anglo-friesischen berlieferung', in Bammesberger and Waxenberger (eds.), Das fuark und seine einzelsprachlichen Weiterentwicklungen, Walter de Gruyter (2006), ISBN 3-11-019008-7, 171187. J. Hines, 'The Runic Inscriptions of Early Anglo-Saxon England' in: A. Bammesberger (ed.), Britain 400-600: Language and History, Heidelberg (1990), 437456.
Anglo-Saxon runes J. H. Looijenga, Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150700 (http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/ faculties/arts/1997/j.h.looijenga/), dissertation, Groningen University (1997). Odenstedt, Bengt, On the Origin and Early History of the Runic Script, Uppsala (1990), ISBN 91-85352-20-9; chapter 20: 'The position of continental and Anglo-Frisian runic forms in the history of the older futhark ' R. I. Page (1999). An Introduction to English Runes (http://books.google.com/books?id=SgpriZdKin0C& printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Boydell Press, Woodbridge. ISBN0-85115-768-8. Orrin W. Robinson (1992). Old English and its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages. Stanford University Press. ISBN0-8047-1454-1. Frisian runes and neighbouring traditions, Amsterdamer Beitrge zur lteren Germanistik 45 (1996). H. Marquardt, Die Runeninschriften der Britischen Inseln (Bibliographie der Runeninschriften nach Fundorten, Bd. I), Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gttingen, Phil.-hist. Klasse, dritte Folge, Nr. 48, Gttingen 1961, pp.1016.
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External links
Anglo-Saxon Runic Texts at Georgetown Univ (http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/ runic-index.html) Nytt om runer (http://ariadne.uio.no/runenews/nor_1997/engl96p2.htm) Early Runic Inscriptions in England (http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/FILES/faculties/arts/1997/j.h.looijenga/ c8.pdf) Futhorc: Anglo-Saxon Runes (http://ansax.com/futhorc-anglo-saxon-runes/)
Anglo-Saxon runic rings

There are seven known rings of the Anglo-Saxon period (9th or 10th century)bearing runicinscriptions.
The most notable of these are the Bramham Moor Ring, found in the 18th century, and the Kingmoor Ring, found 1817, inscribed with a nearly identical magical formula read as rkriufltkriurionglstpontol
Drawing of the Bramham Moor Ring inscription as published in 1736 in Drake's Eboracum.
A third ring, found before 1824 (perhaps identical with a ring found in 1773 at Linstock castle in Carlisle), has a magical inscription of a similar type, ery.ri.uf.dol.yri.ol.wles.te.pote.nol. The remaining four rings have much shorter inscriptions. Wheatley Hill, Durham, found 1993, now in the British Museum. Late 8th century. Inscription: [h]ring ic hatt[], "I am called a ring". Coquet Island, Northumberland, found before 1866, now lost. Inscription: + is is - "this is". Cramond, Edinburgh, found 1869-70, now in the National Museum of Scotland. 9th-10th century. Inscription: [.]ewor[.]el[.]u. Thames Exchange, London, found 1989, now in the Museum of London. Inscription: [.]funi ine.
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Bramham Moor Ring

The Bramham Moor Ring, dated to the 9th century, was found in Bramham cum Oglethorpe, West Yorkshire before 1736 (now in the Danish National Museum, no. 8545). It is made from electrum (gold with niello), with a diameter of ca. 29 mm. The inscription reads[1] rkriuflt | kriurion | glstpontol Where k is the late Futhorc calc rune of the same shape as Younger Futhark Yr. he nt is written as a bindrune.
Kingmoor Ring
The Kingmoor Ring (also Greymoor Hill Ring) dates to the 9th or 10th century. It is of gold, with a diameter ca. 27 mm. It was discovered in June 1817 at Greymoor Hill, Kingmoor, near Carlisle (54550N 25830W). By 1859, the ring was in the possession of the British Museum (ring catalogue no. 184) who has received it from the Earl of Aberdeen. A replica is on exhibit in the Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle. The inscription reads[1] / rkriufltkriurionglstpon/tol The final tol is written on the inside of the ring. The inscription amounts to a total of 30 signs. Where k is the late Futhorc calc rune of the same shape as Younger Futhark Yr, and the s is the so-called "bookhand s" looking similar to a Younger Futhark k, .
Linstock Castle Ring

A ring made of agate, perhaps dating to the 9th century, found before 1824. Now British Museum ring catalogue no. 186. The inscription reads ery.ri.uf.dol.yri.ol.?les.te.pote.nol. Page (1999) takes this to be a corrupt version of the inscription of the Kingmoor and Bramham Moor rings. The location where this ring was found is unrecorded, but Page (1999) suggests that it is identical to a ring found at Linstock Castle in 1773. A note found among Thorkelin's archive documenting his travels to England between 1785 and 1791. The paper records an obscure inscription, "ERY.RI.VF.MOL / YRI.VRI.NOL / GLES.TE.SOTE.THOL", identified as "found in 1773 at Lynstock Castle near Carlisle, & not far from the Picts Wall in Cumberland". Page adduces a note from a sale catalogue of 1778 which lists "An antient Runic ring, found near the Picts Well, 1773".[2]
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Interpretation of the rkriu charm

The sequence rkriu found on both the Kingmoor and Bramham Moor Rings is interpreted as a spell for staunching blood, based on comparison with a charm containing the sequence rcrio found in Bald's Leechbook (i.vii, fol. 20v). For this reason, the entire inscription is likely a protective or healing charm or spell with the ring serving as an amulet.[1][3] The charm in Leechbook s also found in Bodley MS:
Leechbook i.vii [4] Bodley MS [5]
X|. mro cron. r grim struht fola. rcrio. ermio. aeR. leNO. r grenn tart strut onntria enn piathu Morfona onnhel. ara carn leow gruth ueron .lll. fil cron diw .X. inro cron aer crio r mio ar leno.
The Leech book has the instruction: "to stop blood, poke into the ear with a whole ear of barley, in such a way that he [the patient] be unaware of it. Some write this:", followed by "either for horse or men, a blood-stauncher". While the charm is "magical gibberish", there are a number of elements that can clearly be identified as Irish: struth fola corresponds to Old Irish sruth fola "stream of blood". arrenn, r grim etc. may be for r greann "for irritation". Other parts sound clearly Anglo-Saxon such as onnhel, on hl for unhl "unhealthy". The .lll. has been taken as a corruption of the ogham letter (w) "alder", the ffil. crondi. . following it as the gloss fil crand .i. w[eorn] "it is a tree, i.e. 'alder'" In the interpretation of Meroney (1945), the original text gave a list of ingredients for staunching blood, alder (weorn), curds (roth), etc., with a gloss explaining one of them having slipped into the text. cron aer crio is taken as Irish for "prohibition against bleeding", r leno as "against afflictions" (Old Irish ar lunu).[6]
Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] Page (1999), 112-114. Page (1999), 291f. Bruce Dickins, Runic Rings and Old English Charms ASNSL 167 (1935), 252. ed. Thomas Oswald Cockayne (1865, reprint 1965), II:54; Felix Grendon, The Anglo-Saxon Charms The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 22, No. 84 (1909), 105-237 (201f.). [5] ed. Arthur Napier, Herrig's Archiv 74 (1890), 323. [6] Howard Meroney, Irish in the Old English Charms Speculum, Vol. 20, No. 2 (1945), 172-182
References
Page, Raymond I. (1999). An Introduction to English Runes (http://books.google.com/ books?id=SgpriZdKin0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) (2nd ed.). Boydell Press. ISBN0-85115-768-8. Page, Raymond I. 'The Inscriptions,' Appendix A in Wilson, D. M. Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork 700-1100 in the British Museum. London:Trustees of the British Museum. pp. 67-90. Page, Raymond I. (1999), "Two Runic Notes," Anglo-Saxon England, Volume 27, ISBN 978-0-521-62243-1. Okasha, Elisabeth (2003). "Anglo-Saxon Inscribed Rings." Leeds Studies in English, n.s. 34, pp. 2945. McLeod, Mindy (2002). "Bind-Runes in Numerological Rune-Magic" (http://books.google.com/ books?id=W91nBn0l96wC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q& f=false). In Vennemann, Theo. Amsterdamer Beitrge zur lteren Germanistik. 56. Rodopi. pp.2740. ISBN90-420-1579-9. p. 32.
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External links
Anglo-Saxon Runic Rings (http://ansax.com/anglo-saxon-runic-rings/) (ansax.com February 2010)
Ansuz (rune)
Proto-Germanic Old English s; c; sc "god"; "oak"; "ash" Futhorc Old Norse ss "god" Younger Futhark
Name
*Ansuz "god" Elder Futhark
Shape
Unicode
U+16A8

U+16A9 U+16AC U+16AD U+16AA U+16AB
Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row
a a
[a()]
4
o; a; o; a;
[o()]; [()]; [()]
4; 25; 26
o , o
[], [o()]
4
Ansuz is the conventional name given to the a-rune of the Elder Futhark, . The name is based on Common Germanic *ansuz "a god, one of the main deities in Germanic paganism". The Younger Futhark corresponding to the Elder Futhark Ansuz rune is , called ss. It is transliterated as . The Anglo-Saxon futhorc split the Elder Futhark a rune into three independent runes due to the development of the vowel system in Anglo-Frisian. These three runes are s (transliterated o), sc "ash" (transliterated ) and ac "oak" (transliterated a). The shape of the rune is likely from Neo-Etruscan a ( ), like Latin A ultimately from Phoenician aleph.
Name
In the Norwegian rune poem, ss is given a meaning of "estuary" while in the Anglo-Saxon one, s takes the Latin meaning of "mouth". The Younger Futhark rune is transliterated as to distinguish it from the new r rune (), which continues the jran rune after loss of prevocalic *j- in Proto-Norse *jr (Old Saxon jr). Since the name of a is attested in the Gothic alphabet as ahsa or aza, the common Germanic name of the rune may thus either have been *ansuz "god", or *ahsam "ear (of corn)".
Ansuz (rune)
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Rune poems
In the Icelandic rune poem, the name ss refers to Odin, identified with Jupiter: ss er algingautr ok sgars jfurr, ok valhallar vsi. Jupiter oddviti. ss is aged Gautr and prince of sgardr and lord of Vallhalla. chief Jupiter
Variations of the rune in Younger Futhark.
Berkanan
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Berkanan
Proto-Germanic Old English Beorc "birch"/"poplar"? Futhorc Old Norse Bjarken "birch" Younger Futhark
Name
*Berkanan "birch" Elder Futhark
Shape
U+16D2
U+16D3
b b
[]
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[b]
[b], [p]
13
*Berkanan is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the b rune , meaning "birch". In the Younger Futhark it is called Bjarken in the Icelandic rune poem and Bjarkan in the Norwegian rune poem. In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem it is called beorc ("birch" or "poplar"). The corresponding Gothic letter is b, named bairkan. The letter shape is likely directly based on Old Italic The rune is recorded in all three rune poems:
Rune Poem: [1] English Translation: Birch has the greenest leaves of any shrub; Loki was fortunate in his deceit.
, whence also the Latin letter B.
Old Norwegian Bjarkan er laufgrnstr lma; Loki bar flra tma. Old Icelandic Bjarkan er laufgat lim ok ltit tr ok ungsamligr vir. abies bulungr. Anglo-Saxon Beorc by bleda leas, bere efne swa eah tanas butan tudder, bi on telgum wlitig, heah on helme hrysted fgere, geloden leafum, lyfte getenge.
Birch is a leafy twig and little tree and fresh young shrub.
The poplar bears no fruit; yet without seed it brings forth suckers, for it is generated from its leaves. Splendid are its branches and gloriously adorned its lofty crown which reaches to the skies.
Berkanan
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References
[1] Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page (http:/ / www. ragweedforge. com/ poems. html).
Bewcastle Cross
The Bewcastle Cross is an Anglo-Saxon cross still in its original position in the churchyard of St Cuthbert's church Bewcastle, near Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The cross probably dates from the 7th or early 8th century (see below) and features reliefs and inscriptions in the runic alphabet. The head of the cross is missing but the remains are 14.5 feet (4.4 metres) high, and almost square in section (56 x 54cm at the base). It has been described by Nikolaus Pevsner thus; "The crosses of Bewcastle and Ruthwell....are the greatest achievement of their date in the whole of Europe."[1]
Date
The cross is similar in many respects to the Ruthwell Cross, though the inscriptions are simpler, and seem to have a memorial function; together they are the largest and most elaborately decorated Anglo-Saxon crosses to have survived mostly intact, and they are generally discussed together. The dating of both remains controversial, though Bewcastle cross - west face amonn Carragain, writing in 2007, says that "although there is lively discussion about the dates of these monuments, there is a growing consensus that both are to be dated to the first half of the eighth century: as it were, to the Age of Bede (who died in 735) or to the generation after his death"[2] There have been suggestions that neither cross was originally a single piece of stone completed in one phase of work, and both have been proposed as the earlier.[3] The theory that the cross is probably the work of the team of masons and sculptors brought in by Benedict Biscop from the 670s to expand the monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey, then one of the leading centres of culture in the Kingdom of Northumbria is still supported by the Bewcastle website;[4] this reflects the dating of scholars such as Meyer Schapiro.
Bewcastle Cross
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Reliefs
Each of the four sides of the cross is intricately decorated with reliefs divided into panels depicting figures (west side only), animals, chequers, vine scrolls, interlace knots, as well as a sundial. The north, west, and south sides of the cross feature runic inscriptions. The largest relief on the side with figures is, as at Ruthwell, Christ treading on the beasts, below Saint John the Baptist. At the bottom, below a panel of runes, is a much-discussed figure of a falconer, who is possibly St. John the Evangelist with his eagle in an unusual depiction, possibly misunderstood from a Syrian model of John with an oil-lamp.[5]
Bewcastle: the south and east faces of the cross
The sundial on its surface "is by far earliest English sundial to survive",[6] divided into the four 'tides' which governed the working day in medieval times.
Runic inscriptions
Scholars have contended that only the name Cyneburh is definitely decipherable on the cross. Cyneburh was a wife of Aldfrith but this was a common name at the time and might not refer to Aldfrith's wife. Alfredir was king of Northumbria, and died around 664. The north side contains runes that are not easily decipherable, but may refer to Wulfere, among others, who was a son of Penda, and king of Mercia. The inscription on the west side has been read as: "This slender pillar Hwtred, Wthgar, and Alwfwold set up in memory of Alefrid, a king and son of Oswy. Pray for them, their sins, their souls".
Bewcastle Cross Inscription
Referring to Egfrid son of Oswy and brother of Alefrid, who ascended to the throne in 670, the south side inscription has been read as: "In the first year (of the reign) of Egfrid, king of this kingdom [Northumbria]".
Bewcastle Cross
20
Replica
A replica of the cross, including a guess at the missing part, is in the churchyard of the neo-Romanesque Church at Wreay near Carlisle.[7]
The four faces of the cross: west, south, east and north
Gallery
Christ treading on the beasts
The falconer/St John figure
Bewcastle cross south perspective view
Bewcastle Cross - east and north faces
Bewcastle Cross
21
Bewcastle cross and church
North and west faces
Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Nikolaus Pevsner - introduction Carragain, screen 1. Carragain, screens 1, 3. Thompson Thompson Carragain, screen 1 For images, see Wikimedia Commons (http:/ / commons. wikimedia. org/ wiki/ Category:St_Mary's,_Wreay_(churchyard))
References
Cook, Albert Stanburrough, ed. (1914). Some Accounts of the Bewcastle Cross Between the Years 1607 and 1861 (http://books.google.com/books?id=7KhAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false) H. Holt and Company. Cook, Albert Stanburrough (1912) The Date of the Ruthwell and Bewcastle Crosses (http://books.google.com/ books?id=K7EKAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q& f=false). Yale University Press. Carragain, amonn, Christian Inculturation in Eighth-Century Northumbria: The Bewcastle and Ruthwell Crosses, Colloquium Magazine, Vol 4, Autumn 2007, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, online text, with many photographs (http://www.yale.edu/ism/colloq_journal/vol4/carragain1.html) Page, Raymond I. (1960) "William Nicolson, F.R.S., and the Runes of the Bewcastle Cross", Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 14, pp.18490 Pevsner, Nikolaus (1967) The buildings of England - Cumberland and Westmorland. Penguin Books. Schapiro, Meyer, Selected Papers, volume 3, Late Antique, Early Christian and Mediaeval Art, 1980, Chatto & Windus, London, ISBN 0-7011-2514-4 (includes The Religious Meaning of the Ruthwell Cross (1944), etc.) Thompson, David, Bewcastle information page (http://www.bewcastle.com/cross.htm) Wilson, David M. (1984). Anglo-Saxon Art: From The Seventh Century To The Norman Conquest, Thames and Hudson (US edn. Overlook Press).
Bind rune
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Bind rune
A bind rune is a ligature of two or more runes. They are extremely rare in Viking Age inscriptions, but are common in pre-Viking Age (Proto-Norse) and in post-Viking Age (medieval) inscriptions.[1] In some names on runestones, such as the name of the carver of the runes, bind runes may have been ornamental and used to highlight the name.[2]
Description
There are two types of bind runes. Normal bind runes are formed A boat of which the mast is formed with the bind runes of two (or rarely three) adjacent runes which are joined together to =r=u=t=a=R= ==i=a=k=n, on the runestone S 158 at rsta, Sdermanland. The bind runes tell that form a single conjoined glyph, usually sharing a common vertical the deceased was a strong thegn. stroke (see Hadda example below).[3] Another type of bind rune called a same-stave rune, which is common in Scandinavian runic inscriptions but does not occur at all in Anglo-Saxon runic inscriptions, is formed by several runic letters written sequentially along a long common stemline (see =r=u=t=a=R= ==i=a=k=n example shown above).[4] In the latter cases the long bind rune stemline may be incorporated into an image on the rune stone, for example as a ship's mast on runestones S 158 at rsta and S 352 in Linga, Sdermanland, or as the waves under a ship on DR 220 in Snder Kirkeby, Denmark.[4]
Examples
Elder futhark
Examples found in Elder Futhark inscriptions include: Stacked Tiwaz runes: Kylver Stone, Seeland-II-C Geb runes combined with vowels: Kragehul I
Anglo-Saxon Futhorc
Bind runes are not common in Anglo-Saxon inscriptions, but double ligatures do sometimes occur, and triple ligatures may rarely occur. The following are examples of bind-runes that have been identified in Anglo-Saxon runic inscriptions:[3][5] The word gebidda is written with a ligatured double (dd) on the Thornhill III rune-stone The name Hadda is written with a ligatured double (dd) on the Derbyshire bone plate The word broer is written with a ligatured and (er) on some Northumbrian stycas
Cryptic runic inscription on a silver knife mount, with several bind runes
Bind rune The Latin word meus is written as mus with a ligatured and (m) on the Whitby comb The inscription [h]ring ic hatt[] ("ring I am called") is written with a ligatured and (ha) on the Wheatley Hill finger-ring
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The "Derbyshire bone plate", showing the name Hadda with ligatured double
The names of the evangelists, Mat(t)[h](eus) and Marcus are both written with a ligatured and (ma) on St Cuthbert's coffin The name Dering may be written with a triple ligatured , and (der') on the Thornhill III rune-stone (this reading is not certain) The word sefa is written with a ligatured and (fa) on the right side of the Franks Casket Ligatured ligatured runes (er), (ha) and (d) occur in the cryptic runic inscription on a silver knife mount at the British Museum The word ggog on the Undley bracteate is written with ligatured and (g) and and (go) A ligatured and (nt) occurs in the word glstpontol on a cryptic inscription on a silver ring from Bramham Moor in West Yorkshire
Modern use
The Bluetooth logo merges the runes analogous to the modern Latin alphabet letters h and b; (Hagall) and (Berkanan) together, forming a bind rune. The two letters form the initials 'H B', alluding to the Danish king and viking raider Harald Bluetooth.
Gallery
The a and the runes in ligature on the Rk Runestone
The s and k runes in ligature in the Old Norse word skipari ("sailor") on the Tuna Runestone in Smland
A bind rune for the word runaR on the Snder Kirkeby Runestone in Denmark
Bluetooth logo (21st-century bind rune of and (Hagall) (Berkanan) )
References
[1] Enoksen, Lars Magnar (1998). Runor: historia, tydning, tolkning, p. 84. Historiska Media, Falun. ISBN 91-88930-32-7 [2] MacLeod, Mindy (2006), "Ligatures in Early Runic and Roman Inscriptions" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=USIpSluLe10C& pg=PA385#v=onepage& q=& f=false), in Stocklund, Marie et al., Runes and Their Secrets: Studies in Runology, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, p.194, ISBN87-635-0428-6, [3] Elliott, R. W. V. (1980). Runes. Manchester University Press. p.22. ISBN0-7190-0787-9. [4] MacLeod, Mindy (2002). Bind-Runes: An Investigation of Ligatures in Runic Epigraphy. Uppsala Universitet. pp.1618, 15859, 162163. ISBN91-506-1534-3. [5] Page, Raymond I. (2006). An Introduction to English Runes (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=SgpriZdKin0C& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage& q& f=false). Boydell Press. pp.48, 163, 169, 172. ISBN0-85115-946-X. .
Bryggen inscriptions
24
The Bryggen inscriptions are a find of some 670 medieval runic inscriptions on wood (mostly pine) and bone found from 1955 and forth at Bryggen (and its surroundings) in Bergen, Norway. It has been called the most important runic find in the twentieth century. Before the find of these inscriptions, there was doubt whether the runes were ever used for anything else than inscriptions of names and solemn phrases. The Bryggen find showed the everyday use that runes had in this area, and presumably in other parts of Scandinavia as well. Another important aspect of the find was that many of the inscriptions were obviously at least as young as the 14th century. Previously it was believed that the use of runes in Norway had died out long before. Since these findings, many more runic inscriptions of this type have been found in Norway. The inscriptions have numbers for Bergen finds, mostly "B" followed by three figures. Many of the inscriptions follow the formula Eysteinn mik, (Eysteinn owns me, B001), and were most likely used as markers of property - like modern day name tags. Some contain short messages of different types, such as st min, kyss mik (my darling, kiss me, B017) and others have longer messages such as business letters and orders. Yet others contain short religious inscriptions, often in Latin, such as Rex Judorum In nomine Patris Nazarenus (B005) and may have been intended as amulets. The inscriptions are currently kept at Bryggens Museum in Bergen. A small number of them are on display.
Examples found at Bryggen or nearby

B# Transcribed Text Normalized Text English translation Object inscribed External image links [1] Image [2] Image [3] Image [4] Image [5] Image [6] Image Image [7]
B001 ystein:ami hrmar harmr hrmar maria B003 auema
Eysteinn mi[k] Herrmar Herrmar Herrmar Maria. Ave Maria
Eystein owns me warrior warrior warrior Maria Hail Mary (Latin text)
Runekjevle
Wooden plate Skull of walrus Part of a small wooden cross Wooden cross
B004 io(an)a
Jhann
Johan owns
B005 rexiudeorum innomini patrisnazarenus
Rex Judorum In nomine Patris Nazarenus
King of the Jews in the name of the Father of Nazareth (in Latin)
B006 benatit a g l a la lagla [.](ln)bastii marhret. a g la ag l a ba. flkarel bar(a)olis B007 a(ue)m(ar)ia Ave Maria Hail Mary (in Latin)
Image
[8]
Bottom piece of a wooden bowl Shoe
Image
[9]
B008 ly(an)kat(af)mn(un)rukit B009 3/1 3/2 3/3 3/4 3/5 = fuor biss B010 tar B011 felleg er fu sin bylli fuorglbasm Fligr er fu sinn byrli [12] Fuorglbasm. Lovely is the pussy, may the [13] prick fill it up! Fuor Fuor
Image Image
[10] [11]
Cane
Flat wooden stick
[14] Image [15] Image
[16]
25
...inr ...in owns Flat wooden stick Flat wooden stick, with a hole at the end.
B012 inra
Image
B013 mikl petr ioanes andres lafranz tomas olafr klemet nikulas allerhlger mengitaimin notouk dahilfsminsouk salokusemikoksihni =kukifiosbyrokkafomarih[..[lbemer ethialbemerallegzhlkarh[...]
Mikjll, Ptr, Janes, Andreas, Lafranz, Thomas, lafr, Klemetr, Nikuls. Allir helgir menn, gti mn ntt ok dag, lfs mns ok slu. Gu s mik ok signi. Gu gefi oss byr ok gfu Mariu. H{j}lpi mr Klemetr, hjalpi mr allir Gus helgir (menn) deus
Michael, Peter, John, Andrew, Lawrence, Thomas, Olaf, Clement, Nicholas. All saints, guard me night and day, my life and soul. God see me and bless. God give us ... and Mary's gifts. Help me Clement, help me all God's saints. god (in Latin)
Image
[17]
B014 d(el)us
Piece of wood, shaped into a narrow cross. Wood stick. Piece of wood
[18] Image [19] Image
B015 iuairfuo B016 a
.....fuo
...fuo
Image
[20]
[21] Image [22] Image [23] Image [24] Image [25] Image [26] Image [27] Image [28] Image
B017 ost min kis mik fuorkhniastbmly
st min, kyss mik Fuorkhniastbmly
My love, kiss me Fuorkhniastbmly (Younger futhark alphabet)
Wooden stick
B018 r:inliossa:log:rostirriatbia:(a) ynut[-]nuka:ldirisu(an)ahiar: s(au)dlakumlynhuit(an)ha[--]klko lotak(ol)ahbohas(ol)ar:fiartar:tahs[--] [...]kuii kanukabkiiar B019 yakyrfiar rakyrfiar
Piece of wood
[29] Squared Image broken wood piece blm[- Fuorkhniastblmy Fuorkhniastblmy (Younger futhark alphabet) Smoothed piece of wood Wooden stick [30] Image [31] Image [32]
B020 blm[- fuorkhniastblmy
B149 kya: shir : atu: kakhim: (an)sak: (ab)akist(an): ris
Gya segir at gakk heim
Gya tells you to go home
Image
External links
Database with the runes from Bryggen [33] Report on computerizing the Bryggen runes [34]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b001a. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b001b. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b003-detalj. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b003. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b004-detalj. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b004. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b005. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b006. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b007. jpg
[10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b008. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b009. jpg Spurkland (2005: 194-195) Spurkland (2005: 194-195) http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b011a. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b011b. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b012. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b013. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b014a. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b014b. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b015. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b016a. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b016b. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b017a. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b017b. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b018a. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b018b. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b018c. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b018d. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b019. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b020a. jpg http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b020b. jpg
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[32] http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ runebilder/ b149a. jpg [33] http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ eindex. html [34] http:/ / www. nb. no/ baser/ runer/ ribwww/ english/ runeindex. html
Bibliography
Spurkland, Terje (2005): Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions, Translated by Betsy van der Hoek, Boydell Press, Woodbridge
Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus
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Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus
The Caistor-by-Norwich astralagus is a roe deer astragalus found in an urn at Caistor St. Edmund, Norfolk, England. The astralagus is inscribed with a 5th-century Elder Futhark inscription,[1] reading rahan "roe". The inscription is the earliest found in England, and predates the evolution of the specifically Anglo-Frisian Futhorc. As the urn was found in a cemetery that indicated some Scandinavian influence, it has been suggested that the astralagus may be an import, perhaps brought from Denmark in the earliest phase of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.[2] The inscription is an important testimony for the Eihwaz rune and the treatment of Proto-Germanic *ai. The h rune has the Nordic single-bar shape , not the Continental double-bar which was later adopted in the Anglo-Frisian runes.
References
[1] dated AD 425-475 by Hines 1990:442. [2] Waxenberger, Gaby (2006). "The Yew-Rune and the Runes [[File:Runic letter haglaz variant.svg|6px (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=USIpSluLe10C& printsec=frontcover#v=onepage& q& f=false)], , , and in the Old English Corpus"]. In Stoklund, Marie; Nielsen, Michael Lerche et al.. Runes and their secrets: Studies in Runology. Museum Tusculanum Press. pp.385-414. ISBN87-635-0428-6. . pp. 389-91.
Bammesberger, A. 'Das Futhark und seine Weiterentwicklung in der anglo-friesischen berlieferung', in Bammesberger and Waxenberger (eds.), Das fuark und seine einzelsprachlichen Weiterentwicklungen, Walter de Gruyter (2006), ISBN 3-11-019008-7, 171187. Hines, J. 'The Runic Inscriptions of Early Anglo-Saxon England' in: A. Bammesberger (ed.), Britain 400-600: Language and History, Heidelberg (1990), 437456.
Cipher runes
28
Cipher runes
Cipher runes, or cryptic runes, are the cryptographical replacement of the letters of the runic alphabet.
Preservation
The knowledge of cipher runes was best preserved in Iceland, and during the 17th and the 18th centuries, Icelandic scholars produced several treatises on the subject. The most notable of these is the manuscript Runologia by Jn lafsson (17051779), which he wrote in Copenhagen (17321752). It thoroughly treats numerous cipher runes and runic ciphers, and it is nowadays preserved in the Arnamagnan Collection in Copenhagen.[1] Jn lafsson's treatise presents the Younger Futhark in the Viking Age order which means that the m-rune precedes the l-rune. This small detail was of paramount importance for the interpretation of Viking Age cipher runes because in the 13th century the two runes had changed places through the influence of the Latin alphabet where l precedes m. Since the medieval runic calendar used the post-13th-century order, the early runologists of the 17th and the 18th centuries believed that the l-m order was the original one, and the order of the runes is of vital importance for the interpretation of cipher runes.[1]
The Rk Runestone features 'tent runes' in its uppermost row. Centered in the bottom row is a hook rune.
Cipher runes
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Structure of the ciphers

In the runic alphabet, the runes have their special order and are divided into groups. In the Younger Futhark, which has 16 letters, they are divided into three groups. The Icelandic tradition calls the first group (f, u, , , r and k) "Freyr's tt", the second group (h, n, i, a and s) "Hagal's tt" and the third group (t, b, m, l and R) Tyr's tt". However, in order to make the inscription even harder to decipher, Freyr's tt and Tyr's tt change places so that group one is group three and vice versa. There are numerous forms of cipher runes, but they are all based on the principle of giving the number of the tt and the number of the rune within the tt.[2]
A page from the 18th c. manuscript by the Icelander Jn lafsson, which deciphered the cryptic runes for Continental Scandinavian scholars. This page shows different types.
Tent runes for the name Thorvald
Branch runes for ek witki "I, Magician"
The tent runes are based on strokes added to the four arms of an X shape: Each X represents two runes and is read clockwise, the strokes on the first arm representing the tt (row of eight runes: (1) fuarkgw, (2) hnijpzs, (3) tbemlod), the strokes on the second arm the order within that tt. The branch runes are similar, the strokes being attached to a vertical stem and branching upwards. Strokes on the left indicate the tt, and strokes on the right the order within the tt.
Cipher runes There are variants of these two schemes, such as inverting the numbers (counting backwards the tts, and the runes within the tts). Tree runes and hook runes are like branch runes, with the strokes pointing downward diagonally and curving downward, respectively. These may be mixed: in the phrase ek vitki at left, ek is written in straightforward branch runes, but vitki is written with the tts as hooks and the order as branches. There are several runestones using such devices of obscuring the inscription, especially found on Orkney. A comparable system of letter modification is that of the Ogham "scales" recorded in the Ogam Tract.
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Notes
[1] Enoksen 1998:84 [2] Enoksen 1998:85
References
Enoksen, Lars Magnar. (1998). Runor : historia, tydning, tolkning. Historiska Media, Falun. ISBN 91-88930-32-7
Dagaz
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Dagaz
Proto-Germanic Old English
Name
*Dagaz "day" Elder Futhark
Dg
Futhorc
Shape
U+16DE
d d
[]
23 or 24
[d]
The d rune () is called Daeg "day" in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem. The corresponding letter of the Gothic alphabet d is called dags. This rune stave is also part of the Elder Futhark, with a reconstructed Proto-Germanic name *dagaz. Its "butterfly" shape is possibly derived from Lepontic san.
Rune poems
The name is only recorded in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, since the rune was lost in the Younger Futhark:
Rune Poem: [1] English Translation: Day, the glorious light of the Creator, is sent by the Lord; it is beloved of men, a source of hope and happiness to rich and poor, and of service to all.
Anglo-Saxon Dg by drihtnes sond, deore mannum, mre metodes leoht, myrg and tohiht eadgum and earmum, eallum brice.
Inscriptions
On runic inscription g 43 in Ingelstad, one Dagaz rune is translated using the Old Norse word for "day" as the personal name Dagr.[2]
References
[1] Original poem and translation from the Rune Poem Page (http:/ / www. ragweedforge. com/ poems. html). [2] Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk (http:/ / www. nordiska. uu. se/ forskn/ samnord. htm) - Rundata entry for g 43.
Ear (rune)
32
Ear (rune)
Old English
Name
Ear Futhorc
Shape
Unicode Transliteration IPA Position in rune-row
U+16E0
ea
[ea]
28 or 29
The Ear rune of the Anglo-Saxon futhorc is a late addition to the alphabet. It is, however, still attested from epigraphical evidence, notably the Thames scramasax, and its introduction thus cannot postdate the 9th century. It is transliterated as ea, and the Anglo-Saxon rune poem glosses it as [ear] by egle eorla gehwylcun, / onn[e] fstlice flsc onginne, / hraw colian, hrusan ceosan / blac to gebeddan; bleda gedreosa,/ wynna gewita, wera geswica. " [ear] is horrible to every knight, / when the corpse quickly begins to cool / and is laid in the bosom of the dark earth. / Prosperity declines, happiness passes away / and covenants are broken." Jacob Grimm in his 1835 Teutonic Mythology (ch. 9 [1])attached a deeper significance to the name. He interprets the Old English poem as describing "death personified", connected to the death-bringing god of war, Ares. He notes that the ear rune is simply a Tyr rune with two barbs attached to it and suggests that Tir and Ear, Old High German Zio and Eor, were two names of the same god. He finds the name in the toponym of Eresburg (*Eresberc) in Westphalia, in Latin Mons martis. Grimm thus suggests that the Germans had adopted the name of Greek Ares as an epithet of their god of war, and Eresberc was literally an Areopagus. Grimm further notes that in the Bavarian (Marcomannic) area, Tuesday (dies Martis) was known as Ertag, Iertag, Irtag, Eritag, Erchtag, Erichtag as opposed to the Swabian and Swiss (Alemannic region where the same day is Ziestag as in Anglo-Saxon. Grimm concludes that Ziu was known by the alternative name Eor, derived from Greek Ares, and also as Saxnot among the Saxons, identified as a god of the sword.[2] </ref>
References
[1] http:/ / www. northvegr. org/ lore/ grimmst/ 009_03. php [2] Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie (1935), trans. Stallybrass (1888), chapter 9 (http:/ / www. northvegr. org/ secondary sources/ mythology/ grimms teutonic mythology/ 00904. html): "As Zio is identical with Zeus as directors of wars, we see at a glance that Eor, Er, Ear, is one withAres the son of Zeus; and as the Germans had given the rank of Zeus to their Wuotan, Tr and consequently Eor appears as the son of the highest god. [...] Ares itself is used abstractly by the Greeks for destruction, murder, pestilence, just as our Wuotan is for furor and belli impetus, and the Latin Mars for bellum, exitus pugnae, furor bellicus [...] we may fairly bring in the Goth. harus, AS. heor, OS. heru, ON. hirr sword, ensis, cardo, although the names of the rune and the day of the week always appear without the aspirate. For in Greek we already have the two unaspirated words Ares and Aor, sword, weapon, to compare with one another, and these point to a god of the sword. Then again the famous Abrenuntiatio names three heathen gods, Thunar, Wden, Saxnt, of whom the third can have been but little inferior to the other two in power and holiness. Sahsnt is word for word gladii consors, ensifer [...] I think we may also bring in the Gallic war-god Hesus or Esus (Lucan 1, 440), and state, that the metal iron is indicated by the planetary sign of Mars, the AS. tres tcen, and consequently that the rune of Zio and Eor may be the picture of a sword with its handle , or of a spear. The Scythian and Alanic legends dwell still more
Ear (rune)
emphatically on the god's sword, and their agreement with Teutonic ways of thinking may safely be assumed, as Mars was equally prominent in the faith of the Scythians and that of the Goths. The impressive personification of the sword matches well with that of the hammer, and to my thinking each confirms the other. Both idea and name of two of the greatest gods pass over into the instrument by which they display their might."
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Ehwaz
Name
*Ehwaz "horse" Elder Futhark
E(o)h
Futhorc
Shape
U+16D6
e e
[e()]
19
*Ehwaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark e rune , meaning "horse" (cognate to Latin equus, Sanskrit ava, Avestan aspa and Old Irish ech). In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as eh (properly eoh, but spelled without the diphthong to avoid confusion with oh "yew"). The Proto-Germanic vowel system was asymmetric and unstable. The difference between the long vowels expressed by e and (sometimes transcribed as *1 and *2) were lost. The Younger Futhark continues neither, lacking a letter expressing e altogether. The Anglo-Saxon futhorc faithfully preserved all Elder futhorc staves, but assigned new sound values to the redundant ones, futhorc oh expressing a diphthong. In the case of the Gothic alphabet, where the names of the runes were re-applied to letters derived from the Greek alphabet, the letter e was named aus "horse" as well (note that in Gothic orthography, <a> represents monophthongic /e/).
Anglo-Saxon rune poem

The Anglo-Saxon rune poem has: Eh by for eorlum elinga wyn, hors hofum wlanc, r him hle ymb[e] welege on wicgum wrixla sprce and bi unstyllum fre frofur. "The horse is a joy to princes in the presence of warriors. A steed in the pride of its hoofs, when rich men on horseback bandy words about it;
Ehwaz and it is ever a source of comfort to the restless."
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Eihwaz
Proto-Germanic Old English oh
Name
*2haz / *2waz "yew" Elder Futhark
Futhorc
Shape
U+16C7
o o
[](?)
13
[eo]
Eiwaz or Eihaz (reconstructed *haz / *haz or *waz / *waz) was a Proto-Germanic word for "yew", and the reconstructed name of the rune . The rune survives in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc as oh "yew" (note that eoh "horse" has a short diphthong). It is commonly transliterated as or , or, in reconstructions of Proto-Germanic, 2. Its phonetic value at the time of the invention of the Futhark (2nd century) was not necessarily a diphthong, but possibly a long vowel somewhere between [i] and [e] or [], continuing Proto-Indo-European language *ei. Two variants of the word are reconstructed for Proto-Germanic, *haz (*2haz, PIE *eikos), continued in Old English as oh (also h), and *waz (*2waz, Proto-Indo-European *eiwos), continued in Old English as w (whence yew). The latter is possibly an early loan from the Celtic, compare Gaulish ivos, Old Irish o. The common spelling of the rune's name, "Eihwaz", combines the two variants; strictly based on the Old English evidence, a spelling "Eihaz" would be more proper. The Anglo-Saxon rune poem: Eoh by utan unsmee treow, heard hrusan fst, hyrde fyres, wyrtrumun underwreyd, wyn on ele. The yew is a tree with rough bark, hard and fast in the earth, supported by its roots, a guardian of flame and a joy upon an estate. The rune is sometimes associated with the World tree Yggdrasil, which, imagined as an ash in Norse mythology, may formerly have been a yew or an oak. The Proto-Germanic for "oak" was *aiks (PIE *aigs, likely cognate to Greek krat-aigon) is continued the name of another futhorc rune, ac, which has, however, no Elder Futhark predecessor.
Eihwaz The rune is not to be confused with the Sowilo rune, which has a somewhat similar shape, or with Ehwaz, the rune expressing short e or 1. In the Younger Futhark, there is the terminal -R rune Yr "yew", but neither its shape nor its sound is related to the Eihwaz rune: it is, rather, a continuation of Algiz.
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Elder Futhark
Elder Futhark
Type Languages Time period alphabet Proto-Germanic, Proto-Norse, Gothic, Alamannic 2nd to 8th centuries
Parent systems Phoenician alphabet Greek alphabet (Cumae variant) Old Italic alphabet Child systems Elder Futhark
Younger Futhark, Anglo-Saxon futhorc
The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones. In Scandinavia, the script was simplified to the Younger Futhark from the late 8th century, while the Anglo-Saxons and Frisians extended the Futhark which eventually became the Anglo-Saxon futhorc after Proto-English /a/ developed to /o/ in nasal environments. Unlike the Younger Futhark, which remained in use until modern times, the knowledge of how to read the Elder Futhark was forgotten, and it was not until 1865 that the Norwegian scholar Sophus Bugge managed to decipher it.[1]
A map of the distribution of the older (pre 6th century) Elder Futhark finds
Elder Futhark
36
The Futhark
The Elder Futhark (named after the initial phoneme of the first six rune names: F, U, Th, A, R and K) consist of twenty-four runes, often arranged in three groups of eight runes called an tt.[2] In the following table, each rune is given with its common transliteration:
f h t
u n b
i e
a j m
r l
k p
g z d
w s o
corresponds to []. is also trans-literated as , and may have been either a diphthong, or a vowel near [] or []. z was Proto-Germanic [z], and evolved into Proto-Norse [], and is also transliterated as R. The remaining transliterations correspond to the IPA symbol of their approximate value. The earliest known sequential listing of the alphabet dates to 400 and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland: [f]uarkg[w]hnijpzstbemldo Two instances of another early inscription were found on the two Vadstena and Mariedamm bracteates (6th century), showing the division in three tts, with the positions of , p and o, d inverted compared to the Kylver stone: fuarkgw; hnijpzs; tbemlod The Grumpan bracteate presents a listing from 500 which is identical to the one found on the previous bracteates but incomplete: fuarkgw ... hnijp(z) ... tbeml()(o)d
Origins
Derivation from Italic alphabets
The Elder Futhark runes are commonly believed to originate in the Old Italic alphabets: either a North Italic variant (Etruscan or Raetic alphabets), or the Latin alphabet itself. Derivation from the Greek the Northern Etruscan alphabet Negau helmet inscription (read from right to left) alphabet via Gothic contact to Byzantine Greek culture was a popular theory in the 19th century, but has been ruled out since the dating of the Vimose inscriptions to the 2nd century (while the Goths had been in contact with Greek culture only from the early 3rd century). Conversely, the Greek-derived 4th century Gothic alphabet does have two letters derived from runes, (from Jer) and (from Uruz). The angular shapes of the runes, presumably an adaptation to the incision in wood or metal, are not a Germanic innovation, but a property that is shared with other early alphabets, including the Old Italic ones (compare, for example, the Duenos inscription). The 1st century BC Negau helmet inscription features a Germanic name, Hariagastiz, in a North Etruscan alphabet, and may be a testimony of the earliest contact of Germanic speakers with alphabetic writing. Similarly, the Meldorf inscription of 50 may qualify as "proto-runic" use of the Latin alphabet by Germanic speakers. The Raetic "alphabet of Bolzano" in particular seems to fit the letter shapes well[3] The spearhead of Kovel, dated to 200 AD, sometimes advanced as evidence of a peculiar Gothic variant of the runic alphabet, bears an inscription tilarids that may in fact be in an Old Italic rather than a runic alphabet, running right to left with a T and a D closer to the Latin or Etruscan than to the Bolzano or runic alphabets. Perhaps an "eclectic"
Elder Futhark approach can yield the best results for the explanation of the origin of the runes: most shapes of the letters can be accounted for when deriving them from several distinct North Italic writing systems: the p rune has a parallel in the Camunic alphabet, while it has been argued that d derives from the shape of the letter san (= ) in Lepontic where it seems to represent the sound /d/[4]. The f, a, g, i, t, m and l runes show no variation, and are generally accepted as identical to Old Italic or Latin F, A, X, I, T, M and L. There is also wide agreement that the u, r, k, h, s, b and o runes correspond directly to V, R, C, H, S, B and O. The runes of uncertain derivation may either be original innovations, or adoptions of otherwise unneeded Latin letters. Odenstedt (1990:163) suggests that all 22 Latin letters of the classical Latin alphabet (1st century, ignoring marginalized K) were adopted ( from D, z from Y, from Q, w from P, j from G, from Z), with two runes (p and d) left over as original Germanic innovations, but there are conflicting scholarly opinions regarding the e (from E?), n (from N?), (D or Raetic ?), w (Q or P?), and z (both from either Z or Latin Y?), (Q?) and d runes.[5] Of the 24 runes in the classical futhark row attested from 400 (Kylver stone), , p[6] and [7] are unattested in the earliest inscriptions of ca. 175 to 400, while e in this early period mostly takes a -shape, its M-shape ( ) gaining prevalence only from the 5th century. Similarly, the s rune may have either three ( ) or four ( ) strokes (and more rarely five or more), and only from the 5th century does the variant with three strokes become prevalent. Note that the "mature" runes of the 6th to 8th centuries tend to have only three directions of strokes, the vertical and two diagonal directions. Early inscriptions also show horizontal strokes: in the case of e mentioned above, but also in t, l, and h.
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Date and purpose of invention

The general agreement dates the creation of the first runic alphabet to roughly the 1st century. Early estimates include the 1st century BC,[8] and late estimates push the date into the 2nd century. The question is one of estimating the "findless" period separating the script's creation from the Vimose finds of ca. 160. If either or z indeed derive from Latin Y or Z, as suggested by Odenstedt, the first century BC is ruled out, because these letters were only introduced into the Latin alphabet during the reign of Augustus. Other scholars are content to assume a findless period of a few decades, pushing the date into the early 2nd century (Askeberg 1944:77, c.f. Odenstedt 1990:168). Pedersen (and with him Odenstedt) suggests a period of development of about a century to account for their assumed derivation of the shapes of and j from Latin D and G. The invention of the script has been ascribed to a single person (Moltke 1976:53) or a group of people who had come into contact with Roman culture, maybe as mercenaries in the Roman army, or as merchants. The script was clearly designed for epigraphic purposes, but opinions differ in stressing either magical, practical or simply playful (graffiti) aspects. Bksted (1952:134) concludes that in its earliest stage, the runic script was an "artificial, playful, not really needed imitation of the Roman script", much like the Germanic bracteates were directly influenced by Roman currency, a view that is accepted by Odenstedt (1990:171) in the light of the very primitive nature of the earliest (2nd to 4th century) inscription corpus.
Rune names
Each rune most probably had a name, chosen to represent the sound of the rune itself. The Old English names of all 24 runes of the Elder Futhark, along with five names of runes unique to the Anglo-Saxon runes are preserved in the Old English rune poem, compiled in the 8th or 9th century. These names are in good agreement with medieval Scandinavian records of the names of the 16 Younger Futhark runes, and to some extent also with those of the letters of the Gothic alphabet (recorded by Alcuin in the 9th century). Therefore it is assumed that the names go back to the Elder Futharkperiod, at least to the 5th century. There is no positive evidence that the full row of 24 runes had been completed before the end of the 4th century, but it is likely that at least some
Elder Futhark runes had their name before that time. This concerns primarily the runes used magically, especially the Tiwazand Ansuzrunes which are taken to symbolize or invoke deities in sequences such as that on the Lindholm amulet (3rd or 4th century). Reconstructed names in Common Germanic can easily be given for most runes. Exceptions are the rune (which is given different names in Anglo-Saxon, Gothic and Scandinavian traditions) and the z rune (whose original name is unknown, and preserved only in corrupted form in Old English tradition). The 24 Elder Futhark runes are:[9]
Rune UCS Transliteration f u a r k g w h n i j (or ) p z s t b e m l o d IPA /f/ /u()/ Proto-Germanic name *fehu ?*ruz "wealth, cattle" "aurochs" (or *ram "water/slag"?) "the god Thor, giant" "one of the sir (gods)" "ride, journey" "ulcer"? (or *kenaz "torch"?) "gift" "joy" "hail" (the precipitation) "need" "ice" "year, good year, harvest" "yew-tree" meaning unclear, perhaps "pear-tree". unclear, possibly "elk". "Sun" "the god Tiwaz" "birch" "horse" "Man" "water, lake" (or possibly *laukaz "leek") "the god Ingwaz" "heritage, estate, possession" "day" Meaning
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//, // ?*urisaz /a()/ /r/ /k/ // /w/ /h/ /n/ /i()/ /j/ *ansuz *raid ?*kaunan *geb *wunj *hagalaz *naudiz *saz *jra-
//(?) *(h)waz/*ei(h)waz /p/ /z/ /s/ /t/ /b/ /e()/ /m/ /l/ // /o()/ /d/ ?*per?*algiz *swil *twaz/*teiwaz *berkanan *ehwaz *mannaz *laguz *ingwaz *ila-/*ala*dagaz
The rune names stood for their rune because of the first phoneme in the name (the principle of acrophony), with the exception of Ingwaz and Algiz: the Proto-Germanic z sound of the Algiz rune, never occurred in a word-initial position. The phoneme acquired an r-like quality in Proto-Norse, usually transliterated with R, and finally merged
Elder Futhark with r in Icelandic, rendering the rune superfluous as a letter. Similarly, the ng-sound of the Ingwaz rune does not occur word-initially. The names come from the vocabulary of daily life and mythology, some trivial, some beneficent and some inauspicious: Mythology: Tiwaz, Thurisaz, Ingwaz, God, Man, Sun. Nature and environment: Sun, day, year, hail, ice, lake, water, birch, yew, pear, elk, aurochs, ear (of grain). Daily life and human condition: Man, wealth/cattle, horse, estate/inheritance, slag, ride/journey, year/harvest, gift, joy, need, ulcer/illness.
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Inscription corpus
Old Futhark inscriptions were found on artefacts scattered between the Carpathians and Lappland, with the highest concentration in Denmark. They are usually short inscriptions on jewellery (bracteates, fibulae, belt buckles), utensils (combs, spinning whorls) or weapons (lance tips, seaxes) and were mostly found in graves or bogs.
[ek go]dagastir runo faihido inscription on the 4th century "Einang stone"
[10]
Scandinavian inscriptions
Words frequently appearing in inscriptions on bracteates with possibly magical significance are alu, lau and laukaz. Their meaning is unclear, although alu has been associated with "ale, intoxicating drink", in a context of ritual drinking, and laukaz with "leek, garlic", in a context of fertility and growth, although there is only one Christian and biased reference to the leek definition whereas all other historical evidence only Seeland-II-C bracteate, 500, hariuha haitika : farauisa points to water as the definition of Laukaz. : gibu auja : ttt An example of a longer early inscription is on a 4th century axe-handle found in Nydam, Jutland: wagagastiz / alu:??hgusikijaz:aialataz (wagagaztiz "wave-guest" could be a personal name, the rest has been read as alu:wihgu sikijaz:aialataz with a putative meaning "wave/flame-guest, from a bog, alu, I, oath-sayer consecrate/fight". The obscurity even of emended readings is typical for runic inscriptions that go beyond simple personal names). A term frequently found in early inscriptions is Erilaz, apparently describing a person with knowledge of runes. The oldest known runic inscription dates to 160 and is found on the Vimose Comb discovered in the bog of Vimose, Funen.[11] The inscription reads harja, either a personal name or an epithet, viz. Proto-Germanic *harjaz (PIE *koryos) "warrior", or simply the word for "comb" (*hrjaz). Another early inscription is found on the Thorsberg chape (200), probably containing the theonym Ullr. The typically Scandinavian runestones begin to show the transition to Younger Futhark from the 6th century, with transitional examples like the Bjrketorp or Stentoften stones. In the early 9th century, both the older and the younger futhark were known and used, which is shown on the Rk Runestone where the runemaster used both.
Elder Futhark The longest known inscription in the Elder Futhark, and one of the youngest, consists of some 200 characters and is found on the early 8th century Eggjum stone, and may even contain a stanza of Old Norse poetry. The Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus reading raihan "deer" is notable as the oldest inscription of the British Isles, dating to 400, the very end of Roman Britain and just predating the modifications leading to futhorc.
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Continental inscriptions
The oldest inscriptions (before 500) found on the Continent are divided into two groups, the area of the North Sea coast and Northern Germany (including parts of the Netherlands) associated with the Saxons and Frisians on one hand (part of the "North Germanic Koine"),[12] and loosely scattered finds from along the Oder to south-eastern Poland, as far as the Carpathian Mountains (e.g. the ring of Pietroassa in Romania), associated with East Germanic tribes. The latter group disappears during the 5th century, the time of contact of the Goths with the Roman Empire and their conversion to Christianity. In this early period, there is no specifically West Germanic runic tradition. This changes from the early 6th century, and for about one century (520 to 620), an Alamannic "runic province" (Martin 2004) emerges, with examples on fibulae, weapon parts and belt buckles. As in the East Germanic case, use of runes subsides with Christianization, in the case of the Alamanni in the course of the 7th century.
Distribution
There are some 350 known Elder Futhark inscriptions with a total of approximately 81 known inscriptions from the South (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and 267 from Scandinavia.[13] The precise numbers are debatable because of some suspected forgeries, and some disputed inscriptions (identification as "runes" vs. accidental scratches, simple ornaments or Latin letters). 133 Scandinavian inscriptions are on bracteates (compared to 2 from the South), and 65 are on runestones (no Southern example is extant). Southern inscriptions are predominantly on fibulae (43, compared to 15 in Scandinavia). The Scandinavian runestones belong to the later period of the Elder Futhark, and initiate the boom of medieval Younger Futhark stones (with some 6,000 surviving examples). Elder Futhark inscriptions were rare, with very few active literati, in relation to the total population, at any time, so that knowledge of the runes was probably an actual "secret" throughout the Migration period. Of 366 lances excavated at Illerup, only 2 bore inscriptions. A similar ratio is estimated for Alemannia, with an estimated 170 excavated graves to every inscription found.[14] Estimates of the total number of inscriptions produced are based on the "minimal runological estimate" of 40,000 (ten individuals making ten inscriptions per year for four centuries). The actual number was probably considerably higher. The 80 known Southern inscriptions are from some 100,000 known graves. With an estimated total of 50,000,000 graves (based on population density estimates), some 80,000 inscriptions would have been produced in total in the Merovingian South alone (and maybe close to 400,000 in total, so that of the order of 0.1% of the corpus has come down to us), and Fischer (2004:281) estimates a population of several hundred active literati throughout the period, with as many as 1,600 during the Alamannic "runic boom" of the 6th century.
Elder Futhark
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List of inscriptions
After Looijenga (1997), Lthi (2004). Scandinavia Period I (150 550) Vimose inscriptions (6 objects, 160300) Gotland spearhead (ca. 180), gaois vre Stabu spearhead (ca. 180), raunijaz Illerup inscriptions (9 objects) Golden horns of Gallehus (ca. 400) Einang stone (400) Kylver Stone (400) R Runestone (400 - 450) Kalleby Runestone (5th century) Mjbro Runestone (400 - 550) Jrsberg Runestone (500 - 550) Hogganvik runestone (5th century)
Bracteates: total 133 (see also Alu) Seeland-II-C (500) Vadstena bracteate Tjurk bracteate Period II (550 700) Skng Runestone (6th century?) Bjrketorp Runestone Gummarp Runestone Istaby Runestone Stentoften Runestone
South-Eastern Europe (200 550): 4 AD. Gothic runic inscriptions (200 350) Continental inscriptions (mainly Germany; 200 700): 50 legible, 15 illegible (39 brooches, 11 weapon parts, 4 fittings and belt buckles, 3 strap ends, 8 other) Thorsberg chape (200) Blach fibula Charnay fibula Nordendorf fibula Pforzen buckle English and Frisian (300 700): 44; see futhorc
Elder Futhark
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Unicode
Further information: Runic alphabet#Typesetting and encoding The Elder Futhark is encoded in Unicode within the unified Runic range, 16A016FF. Among the freely available True Type fonts that include this range are Junicode and FreeMono. The Kylver Stone row encoded in Unicode reads: Encoded separately is the "continental" double-barred h-rune, . A graphical variant of the ng-rune, , is also encoded separately. These two have separate codepoints because they become independent letters in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc. The numerous other graphical variants of Elder Futhark runes are considered glyph variants and not given Unicode codepoints. Similarly, bindrunes are considered ligatures and not given Unicode codepoints. The only bindrune that can arguably be rendered as a single Unicode glyph is the i bindrune or "lantern rune", as , the character intended as the Anglo-Saxon Gr rune.
Notes
[1] The article Forskning om runor och runstenar (http:/ / www. stockholmslansmuseum. se/ faktabanken/ forskning-om-runor-och-runstenar/ ), by Mats Vnehem at the site of Stockholm County Museum. [2] Elliott (1980:14). [3] Gippert, Jost. " The Development of Old Germanic Alphabets (http:/ / titus. uni-frankfurt. de/ didact/ idg/ germ/ runealph. htm)" [4] Stifter (2010: 374) [5] Odenstedt (1990:160ff.) [6] Speculated by Looijenga (1997) to be a variant of b [7] Westergaard (1981) postulates occurrence in 34 Vimose and 23 Letcani, rejected by Odenstedt (1990:118) [8] Moltke (1976:54): "the year 0100" [9] Page (2005:8, 15-16). The asterisk before the rune names means that they are unattested reconstructions. [10] Nordic-life.org (http:/ / www. nordic-life. org/ nmh/ runic. htm) [11] Ilkjr (1996a:74) in Looijenga (2003:78). [12] Martin (2004:173). [13] Fischer (2004:281) and Lthi (2004:321). [14] Lthi (2004:323).
References
Bksted, A. (1952). Mlruner og troldruner. Copenhagen. Elliott, Ralph Warren Victor (1980). Runes: An Introduction (http://books.google.com/ books?id=SDS8AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false). Manchester University Press. ISBN0-7190-0787-9. Fischer, Svante (2004). "Alemannia and the North Early Runic Contexts Apart (400800)" (http://books. google.com/books?id=QHLqfS7mI3YC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska et al. Alemannien und der Norden. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp.266317. ISBN3-11-017891-5. Ilkjr, Jrgen (1996a). "Runeindskrifter fra mosefund i Danmark - kontekst og oprindelse" in Frisian Runes and Neighbouring Traditions. Rodopi Looijenga, Jantina Helena (1997). Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150700 (http:// dissertations.ub.rug.nl/faculties/arts/1997/j.h.looijenga/), dissertation, Groningen University. Looijenga, Tineke (2004). Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions (http://books.google.com/ books?id=-edm1fMPbXwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Leiden: Brill. ISBN90-04-12396-2. Lthi, Katrin (2004). "Von ruhild und Hariso: Alemannische und ltere skandinavische Runenkultur im Vergleich" (http://books.google.com/books?id=QHLqfS7mI3YC&printsec=frontcover&
Elder Futhark source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska et al. Alemannien und der Norden. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp.318339. ISBN3-11-017891-5. Martin, Max (2004). "Kontinentalgermanische Runeninschriften und 'Alamannische Runenprovinz'" (http:// books.google.com/books?id=QHLqfS7mI3YC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska et al. Alemannien und der Norden. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp.165212. ISBN3-11-017891-5. Nowak, Sean (2003). Schrift auf den Goldbrakteaten der Vlkerwanderungszeit (http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ diss/2003/nowak/nowak.pdf), Diss. Gttingen. Odenstedt, Bengt (1990). On the Origin and Early History of the Runic Script, Typology and Graphic Variation in the Older Futhark. Uppsala. ISBN 91-85352-20-9 Page, Raymond I. (2005) Runes. The British Museum Press. ISBN 0-7141-8065-3 Rix, Hemlut (1997). "Germanische Runen und venetische Phonetik", in Vergleichende germanische Philologie und Skandinavistik, Festschrift fr Otmar Werner, ed. Birkmann et al., Tbingen, pp.231248. ISBN 3-484-73031-5 Robinson, Orrin W. (2004). Old English and its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages (http://books.google.com/books?id=47wOAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). Routledge. ISBN0-415-08169-6.
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Stifter, David (2010). "Lepontische Studien: Lexicon Leponticum und die Funktion von san im Lepontischen", in Akten des 5. Deutschsprachigen Keltologensymposiums. Zrich, 7.10. September 2009, ed. Karin Stber et al., Wien, 361-376.
External links
Runenprojekt (http://www.runenprojekt.uni-kiel.de/) inscription database at the University of Kiel Ancient Scripts: Futhark (http://ancientscripts.com/futhark.html) Omniglot.com Elder Futhark (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/runic.htm#elder)
Erilaz
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Erilaz
Erilaz is a Migration period Proto-Norse word attested on various Elder Futhark inscriptions, which has often been interpreted to mean "magician" or "rune master", viz. one who is capable of writing runes to magical effect. However, as Mees (2003) has shown, the word is an ablaut variant of earl, and is also thought to be linguistically related to the name of the tribe of the Heruli, so it is probably merely an old Germanic military title (see etymology below).
Etymology
This word is likeliest the Proto-Germanic ancestor of Anglo-Saxon eorl (Modern English earl) and its relatives, meaning "man, warrior, noble". The word erilaz is likely a derivative of *ern sb.f. "fight, battle", thus the interpretation "one who fights, warrior", though it has also been connected to *arn sb.m. "eagle".[1] Historical instances: Latin: Heruli (dating from around 250 AD onwards) Greek Eruloi (dating from around 250 AD onwards) Runic: Erilaz (dating from around 200 AD - 400 AD)
Inscriptions
Lindholm "amulet"
The Lindholm "amulet" (DR 261 $U) is a bone piece found in Skne, dated to the 2nd to 4th centuries. The inscription contains the word Erilaz.
The Jrsberg Runestone is from the 6th century and contains the statement: ek erilaz.
Funen shaft
The Kragehul I (DR 196 U) spear-shaft found in Funen[2] that bears the inscription: ekerilazasugisalasmuhahaitegagaga [] ek erilaz asugisalas muha haite, gagaga [] Which is interpreted as "I, the earl of sugsalaz, am called Muha," followed by some sort of battle cry or chant ("gagaga"). sugsalaz contains ansu-, "god", and gsalaz, "pledge". Muha may either be a personal name, or a word meaning "retainer" or similar. The runes of gagaga are displayed as a row of three bindrunes based on the X-shape of the g rune with side-twigs attached to its extremities for the a. A similar sequence ggog is found on the Undley bracteate.
Erilaz
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Other items
Bracteates Eskatorp-F and Vsby-F have e[k]erilaz = "I [am] a Herulian" Bratsberg clasp: ekerilaz Veblingsnes:ekerilaz Rosseland (N KJ69 U): ekwagigazerilaz Jrsberg Runestone (Vr 1): ekerilaz By (N KJ71 U): ekirilaz The Etelheim clasp has mkmrlawrta read as ek erla wrta "I, Erla, wrote this"; Runic 'E' and 'M' are similar to each other.
Notes
[1] Cf. Orel (2003:85). [2] Kiel Rune Project (http:/ / www. runenprojekt. uni-kiel. de/ abfragen/ standard/ deutung2. asp?findno=25& ort=Kragehul& objekt=Speer-/ Lanzenschaft)
References
Mees, B. (2003). "Runic 'erilaR'", North-Western European Language Evolution (NOWELE), 42:41-68. Orel, Vladimir (2003). A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. Leiden: Brill. pg. 205. ISBN 90-04-12875-1. Plowright, S. (2006). The Rune Primer, Lulu Press. ISBN 1-84728-246-6; book review (http://www. runewebvitki.com/The Rune Primer.html)
External links
Wortmaterial der Runeninschriften nach Wortklassen (http://www.runenprojekt.uni-kiel.de/abfragen/ standard/wortmaterial3.asp?wklasse=NAM&wordno=409)
Fehu
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Fehu
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse F
Name
*Fehu
Feoh "livestock, wealth"
Elder Futhark
Futhorc
Younger Futhark
Shape
U+16A0
f f
[f]
1
The Fe rune (Old Norse f; Old English feoh) represents the f-sound in the Younger Futhark and Futhorc alphabets. Its name means "(mobile) wealth", cognate to English fee with the original meaning of "sheep" or "cattle" (Dutch Vee, German Vieh, Latin pecum, Sanskrit pashu). The rune derives from the unattested but reconstructed Proto-Germanic *fehu in the Elder Futhark alphabet, with the original meaning of "money, cattle, wealth".[1] The corresponding letter of the Gothic alphabet is f, called faihu. Such correspondence between all rune poems and the Gothic letter name, as well, is uncommon, and gives the reconstructed name of the Old Futhark a high degree of certainty. The shape of the rune is likely based on Etruscan v Phoenician waw . , like Greek Digamma and Latin F ultimately from
Rune poems
The name is recorded in all three rune poems:
Rune Poem: [2] English Translation: Wealth is a source of discord amongst kin; the wolf lives in the forest.
Old Norwegian F vldr frnda rge; fesk ulfr skge. Old Icelandic F er frnda rg ok flar viti ok grafseis gata aurum fylkir.
Wealth is a source of discord amongst kin and fire of the sea and path of the serpent.
Fehu
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Anglo-Saxon Feoh by frofur fira gehwylcum; sceal eah manna gehwylc miclun hyt dlan gif he wile for drihtne domes hleotan. Wealth is a comfort to all; yet must everyone bestow it freely, if they wish to gain honour in the sight of the Lord.
References
[1] Page, Raymond I. (2005) Runes. The British Museum Press. p. 15. ISBN 0-7141-8065-3 [2] Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page (http:/ / www. ragweedforge. com/ poems. html).
Franks Casket
The Franks Casket (or the Auzon Casket) is a small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone (not baleen) chest from the early eighth century, now in the British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-relief and with inscriptions mostly in Anglo-Saxon runes. Generally reckoned to be of Northumbrian origin,[1] it is of unique importance for the insight it gives into early Anglo-Saxon art and culture. Both identifying the images and interpreting the runic inscriptions has generated a considerable amount of scholarship.[2]
Franks Casket; the back and lid
The imagery is very diverse in its subject matter and derivations, and includes a single Christian image, the Adoration of the Magi, along with images derived from Roman history (Emperor Titus) and Roman mythology (Romulus and Remus), as well as depictions of legends indigenous to the Germanic peoples: the Germanic legend of Weyland the Smith, an episode from the Sigurd legend, and a legend that is apparently an otherwise lost episode from the life of Weyland's brother Egil.[3] The inscriptions "display a deliberate linguistic and alphabetic virtuosity; though they are mostly
Franks Casket
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written in Old English and in runes, they shift into Latin and the Roman alphabet; then back into runes while still writing Latin".[4] Some are written upside down or back to front. The chest is clearly modelled on Late Antique ivory caskets such as one at Brescia;[5] the Veroli Casket in the V&A Museum is a Byzantine interpretation of the style, in revived classical style, from about 1000.[6]
From the front
History
A monastic origin is generally accepted for the casket, which was perhaps made for presentation to an important secular figure, and Wilfrid's foundation at Ripon has been specifically suggested,[7] The post-medieval history of the casket before the mid-19th century was unknown until relatively recently, when investigations by W.H.J. Weale revealed that the casket had belonged to the church of Saint-Julien, Brioude; it is possible that it was looted during the French Revolution.[8] It was then in the possession of a family in Auzon, a village in Haute Loire (upper Loire region) France. It served as a sewing box until the silver hinges and fittings joining the panels were traded for a silver ring. Without the support of these the casket fell apart. The parts were shown to a Professor Mathieu from nearby Clermont-Ferrand, who sold them to an antique shop in Paris, where they were bought in 1857 by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, who subsequently donated the panels in 1867 to the British Museum, where he was Keeper of the British and Medieval collections. The missing right end panel was later found in a drawer by the family in Auzon and sold to the Bargello Museum, Florence, where it was identified as part of the casket in 1890. The British Museum display includes a cast of it.[9]
Interpretations
Leslie Webster regards the casket as probably originating in a monastic context, where the maker "clearly possessed great learning and ingenuity, to construct an object which is so visually and intellectually complex. ... it is generally accepted that the scenes, drawn from contrasting traditions, were carefully chosen to counterpoint one another in the creation of an overarching set of Christian messages. What used to be seen as an eccentric, almost random, assemblage of pagan Germanic and Christian stories is now understood as a sophisticated programme perfectly in accord with the Church's concept of university history". It may have been intended to hold a book, perhaps a psalter, and intended to be presented to a "secular, probably royal, recipient"[10]
The left side
Franks Casket Becker (1973 and web site) interprets the casket as a whole, finding a programme documenting a warrior-king's life and after life, with each of the scenes emblematic of a certain period in life. The front (f and g) panel stands for "birth" and assistance by the Fylgja, the picture and inscription on the left panel (r) meant to protect the hero on his way to war, the back panel (t) documenting the peak of a warrior-king's life is glory won by victory over his enemies, the right panel (s) alluding to a heroic death in battle. Woden's Valknut (knot of death) and the presence of the Fylgja ensure his way to Valhalla. The lid () shows the Wayland brother Egil and his companion, a Valkyrie, defending Valhalla against the frost giants. Each scene corresponds with a certain rune in a definite position (f, g, r, t, s, , producing a value of 3 x 24). Becker also presents a numerological analysis of the inscriptions, counting a total of 288 or 12 x 24 signs (runes, Latin letters and punctuation). The number of runes refers to a ten-year solar calendar while their value produces a lunar calendar. The mainly Latin formula HIC FUGIANT HIERUSALIM produces a perfect Metonic cycle with all its leap years indicated by rune-like symbols. As the two alliterating runes 'f' (feoh) and 'g' (gift) on the front panel can be understood as Old English feogift (bounty, largesse) and as the pictures of the Magi (bringers of gift) and of the mythical goldsmith (maker of feoh i.e. trinkets etc.) express the same, the box may have served a king as his hoard box from which he handed out his gifts to his followers in the hall. As the magic intention points to pagan practice, this ruler may have been the Northumbrian King Edwin (586-633). Both the numerological analysis and the interpretation that pagan or royal practice is indicated are highly speculative and accepted by few scholars. Marijane Osborn in an article titled "The Seventy-Two Gentile Nations and the Theme of the Franks Casket" says that "several scholars have observed that the number of runes plus dots in the inscriptions on the front and the two sides of the casket in each case adds up to seventy-two, the number of the futhoric or rune-list multiplied by three. Whereas Alfred Becker sees this as indicating pagan magic, I see it as another example of the Franks Casket artist turning his pagan materials to a Christian evangelical purpose. As he is manipulating his runes very carefully, on the left side and front supplementing their numbers with dots and on the right side reducing their number with a Roman letter and a bindrune, so that each of the three inscriptions contains precisely seventy-two items, there can be no question here of us introducing a symbolism that was not intended. But it may be misinterpreted."[11]
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Description
The casket is 22.9 cm long, 19 cm wide and 10.9 cm high - 9 x 7 by 5 inches, and dateable from the language of its inscriptions and other features to the first half of the eighth century AD.[12] There are other inscriptions, "tituli" identifying some figures, that are not detailed below and appear The lid of the casket depicts an otherwise lost legend of Egil; Egil fends off an army with within the image field. The mounts in bow and arrow while the female behind him may be his wife Olrun. precious metal that were undoubtedly originally present are missing, and it is "likely" that it was originally painted in colour.[13]
Franks Casket
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Lid
The lid as it now survives is too small. Leslie Webster has suggested that there may have been relief panels in silver making up the missing areas. The empty round area in the centre probably housed the metal boss for a handle.[14] The lid shows a scene of an archer, labelled gili, single-handedly defending a fortress against a troop of attackers, who from their larger size may be giants. A lady who is probably his wife or lover is also shown within the fortress. In Norse mythology, Egil is named as a brother of Weyland, who is shown on the front panel of the casket. The irekssaga depicts Egil as a master archer and the Vlundarkvia tells that he was the husband of the swan maiden Olrun. The Pforzen buckle inscription, dating to about the same period as the casket, also makes reference to the couple Egil and Olrun (igil andi ilrun).
Front panel
The front panel, which originally had a lock fitted, depicts elements from the Germanic legend of Wayland the Smith in the left-hand scene, and the Adoration of the Magi on the right. Wayland stands at the extreme left in the forge where he is held as a slave by King Nihad, who has had his hamstrings cut to hobble him. Below the forge is the headless body of Nihad's son, who Wayland has killed, making a goblet from his skull; his head is probably the object held in the tongs in Wayland's hand. With his other hand Wayland offers the goblet, containing drugged beer, to Bodvild, Nihad's daughter, who he then rapes when she is unconscious. Another female figure is shown in the centre; perhaps Wayland's helper, or Bodvild again. To the right of the scene Wayland (or his brother) catches birds; he then makes wings from their feathers, with which he is able to escape.[15]
The front panel, depicting the Germanic legend of Wayland the Smith and the Christian adoration of the Magi.
In a sharp contrast, the right-hand scene shows one of the commonest Christian subjects depicted in the art of the Detail of the Wayland scene period; however here "the birth of a hero also makes good sin and suffering".[16] The Three Magi, identified by an inscription ("magi"), led by the large star, approach the enthroned Madonna and Child bearing the traditional gifts. A goose-like bird by the feet of the leading magus may represent the Holy Spirit, usually shown as a dove, or an angel. The human figures, at least, form a composition very comparable to those in other depictions of the period. Around the panel runs the following inscription, which does not relate to the scenes but is a riddle on the origin of the casket itself as whalebone:
Franks Casket hrons ban fisc . flodu . ahof on ferg (compound continued on next line) enberig war ga:sric grorn r he on greut giswom Which may be interpreted as: "whalebone fish flood hove on mountain The ghost-king was rueful when he swam onto the grit" The two alliterating lines constitute the oldest piece of Anglo-Saxon poetry: fisc flodu / ahof on fergenberig war gasric grorn / r he on greut giswom
51
Left panel
The left panel depicts the mythological twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, being suckled by a wolf lying on her back at the bottom of the scene. The same wolf, or another, stands above, and there are two men with spears approaching from each side. The inscription reads: ol unneg // Romwalus and Reumwalus // twgen gibror a // fdd hi wylif // in Romcstri:. Which may be interpreted as:
The left panel, depicting Romulus and Remus.
"far from home / Romulus and Remus, twain brothers / the she-wolf fed them in Rome-chester" Another Anglo-Saxon bone plaque, existing only in a fragment at the Castle Museum, Norwich, which was found at Larling, Norfolk, also shows Romulus and Remus being suckled, with other animal ornament.[17]
Franks Casket
52
Rear panel
The rear panel depicts the Taking of Jerusalem by Titus in the First Jewish-Roman War and contains the inscription: her fegta +titus end giueasu FUGIANT HIERUSALIM afitatores dom / gisl [below depictions of figures] Which may be interpreted as: "Here fight / Titus and the Jews here the inhabitants of Jerusalem flee / doom / hostage"
The rear panel, depicting a scene from the First Jewish-Roman War.
HIC
At left in the upper register the Romans, led by Titus(?) in a helm with a sword, attack a domed building, probably the Temple of Jerusalem, in the centre. At right ("HIC FUGIANT HIERUSALIM") the Jewish population flee, casting glances backwards. In the lower register at left, a throned figure, probably Titus, announces the "doom" or fate of the defeated Jews, which as recounted in Josephus was to be sold into slavery. In the right hand scene, the "gisl" or slaves/hostages are led away.
Right panel
This, the Bargello panel, has produced the most divergent readings of both text and images, and no reading of either has achieved general acceptance. At left an animal figure sits on a small rounded mound, confronted by an armed and helmeted warrior. In the centre a standing animal, usually seen as a horse, faces a figure, holding a stick or sword, who stands over something defined by a curved line. At right are three figures; the two outer ones perhaps hold fast the one in the middle. Interpretations of the central scene range from The Burial of Sigurd (D'Ardenne) to the Nativity of Jesus (Simmons), and of the right-hand scene from the three Norns (Becker) to the Arrest of Jesus (Simmons). The inscription contains three more alliterating lines: herh os sit on hrmberge agl(ac) drigi swa hir i erta e gisgraf srden sorg and sefa torn A definite translation of the lines has met with difficulty. Usually her hos sit is read, "here sits the horse". Becker reads herh os, "the god of the wood". srden has various interpretations.
Franks Casket Webster Leslie Webster translates the panels inscription as follows: "Here Hos sits on the sorrow mound" "She suffers distress as Ertae had imposed it upon her" "A wretched den (?wood) of sorrows and torments of mind". Becker Becker attempts the translation: "the wood-god sits on harm's mountain" "causing ill fortune, as Erta demanded" (W. Krause) "they cause sorrow and heartache". Which is dependent upon the translation of: risci / wudu / bita "twig / wood / biter" Risci means rush or elk sedge in the runic poem, the type of plant that marks the valkyrie and stands for the white swan (OED), one form of valkyrian appearance. - Wudu can be understood as a poetic name for spear. The Valkyrie flings a twig at her victim, a twig which turns into a spear. As a fatal weapon it turns into a bita (sting or wound), just like the staff of the lady at the grave blends into a spear, the spearhead formed by the rune for t. A similar event is reflected in the Gautreksaga: "Then Starkathr thrust at the king with the wand and said: 'Now I give thee to Othinn.' Then Starkathr let go the fir bough. The wand became a spear and pierced through the king." Simmons Austin Simmons (Jan. 2010) parses the frame inscription into the following segments: herh os-sit on hrm-berg agl drigi sw hiri er tae-gi-sgraf sr-den sorg and sefa-torn This he translates, "The idol sits far off on the dire hill, suffers abasement in sorrow and heart-rage as the den of pain had ordained for it." Linguistically, the segment os- represents the verbal prefix o- assimilated to the following sibilant, while in the b-verse of the second line er "before" is an independent word before a three-member verbal compound, tae-gi-sgraf. The first member tae- is a rare form of the particle-prefix to-.[18] The inscription refers specifically to the scene on the left end of the casket's right side. The 'idol' (herh) is Satan in the form of an ass, being tortured by a personified Hell in helmet. The scene is a reference to the apocryphon Decensus ad Inferos, a popular medieval text translated into Anglo-Saxon. In one version of the story, a personified Hell blames Satan for having brought about the Crucifixion, which has allowed Christ to descend to Hell's kingdom and free the imprisoned souls. Therefore, Hell tortures Satan in retribution. Simmons separates the other scenes on the right side and interprets them as depictions of the Nativity and the Passion.[19]
53
The right panel.
Franks Casket L. Peeters comments (translated): "The figure to the left of the crowded panel looks like a kind of monster. Scholars have voiced the opinion that its head is that of a horse. They are prepared to emendate the first word of the runic text, hos, into horse to fit the picture. Hos remains for them a mystery in an equally mysterious context of the panel's interpretation. Every step of this procedure is prone to be part of a vicious cycle. Others are convinced, that even without reference to the text, the monster's head belongs to a horse".[20] W. Krause separates herh (grove) and os (divinity) and interprets "Waldgottheit", meaning a goddess of the woods, the site where in pagan days the sir were worshipped. Here the hero meets his valkyrie in her petrifying appearance. She is the one who kills him, not his enemy. Becker follows this view, identifying her in her human shape at the grave of the warrior where she revives him with a draught from a chalice. The horse, probably Wodens Sleipnir, will take the hero to Valhalla. Significant marks are the two valknutr which denote the realm of death and can be found in similar constellation on Gotlands picture stones like the Tngelgrda stone and the Stora Hammars stones. Two other pictures of the Franks Casket show this symbol. On the front it marks the third of the Magi, who brings myrrh, and on the lid, where according to Becker Valhalla is depicted.
54
Notes
[1] Though Mercia, and a 7th century date, have also been proposed. The British Museum website (see external links) says Northumbria and "first half of the 8th century AD", as does Webster (2012), p. 92 "early part of the eighth century". The first considerable publication, by George Stephens, Old-Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England (1866-1901) I-II:470-76, 921-23, III:200-04, IV:40-44, placed it in Northumbria and dated it in the eighth century. [2] Vandersall summarises the previous scholarship as at 1972 in setting the casket into an art-historical, rather than linguistic context. Mrs Leslie Webster, former Keeper at the British Museum and the leading expert, is publishing a new short book on the casket in ?2012 - see the bibliography. [3] Vandersall 1972:9. [4] Webster (Blackwell) [5] Webster (1991); Webster (2012), p. 92 [6] Webster (Blackwell) [7] Webster (2012), 97; Ripon was suggested by Wood, who was able to connect Ripon with Brioude through the Frankish scholar Frithegod "active in both areas in the middle tenth century (Wood 1990, 4-5)" - Webster (1991) from BM collection database. [8] Vandersall 1972:24 note 1. [9] Webster (1991), from British Museum collection database [10] Webster (2012), 96-97 (both quoted, in that order) [11] Osborn, Marijane. "The Seventy-Two Gentiles and the Theme of the Franks Casket." Neuphilologische Mitteilungen: Bulletin de la Societe Neophilologique/ Bulletin of the Modern Language Society 92 (1991): 281-288. [12] For date see note to lead. Metric measurements from the British Museum, Imperial according to Vandersall [13] Webster (2012), 92 [14] MacGregor, Arthur. Bone, Antler, Ivory and Horn, Ashmolean Museum, 1984, ISBN 0-7099-3507-2, ISBN 978-0-7099-3507-0, Google books (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=o0MflvaPJ3MC& pg=PA201& dq=Franks+ Casket& hl=en& ei=UsejS6PXB9GF4QbCorCBCg& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=4& ved=0CEwQ6AEwAw#v=onepage& q=Franks Casket& f=false) [15] Henderson, 157 [16] Webster (1991) [17] Wilson,86 [18] Simmons [19] Simmons [20] Peeters, L."The Franks Casket: A Judeo-Christian Interpretation." Amsterdamer Beitr{uml}age zur {uml}alteren Germanstik 46 (1996) : 17-52
Franks Casket
55
References
Becker, Alfred, Franks Casket (http://www.franks-casket.de/) website; for his publications see below Henderson, George, Early Medieval Art, 1972, rev. 1977, Penguin, pp. 156-158 Peeters, L., "The Franks Casket: A Judeo-Christian Interpretation.", 1996, Amsterdamer Beitr{uml}age zur {uml}alteren Germanstik 46 Simmons, Austin, (October 24, 2009) "The Franks Casket and the Artist's Imagination". Texas Medieval Association Nineteenth Annual Conference (http://pages.towson.edu/duncan/tmaprog09.html). The University of Texas at Austin. Vandersall, A.L., "The Date and Provenance of the Franks Casket," Gesta 11, 2 (1972), pp. 9-26. "Webster (1991)": Webster, Leslie, "The Franks Casket," in L. Webster - J. Backhouse (eds), The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture, AD 600-900, London 1991, pp. 101-103 (text on British Museum collection database (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/ search_object_details.aspx?objectid=92560&partid=1). "Webster (2012)": Webster, Leslie, Anglo-Saxon Art, 2012, British Museum Press, ISBN 9780714128092 "Webster (Blackwell)": Webster, Leslie, The Franks Casket, pp. 194-195, The Blackwell encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Editors: Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes), Wiley-Blackwell, 2000, ISBN 0-631-22492-0, ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1 Wilson, David M.; Anglo-Saxon Art: From The Seventh Century To The Norman Conquest, Thames and Hudson (US edn. Overlook Press), 1984. Wood, Ian N., "Ripon, Francia and the Franks Casket in the Early Middle Ages", Northern History, 26 (1990), pp. 1-19
Literature
Alfred Becker: Franks Casket. Zu den Bildern und Inschriften des Runenkstchens von Auzon (Regensburg 1973) Alfred Becker, Franks Casket Revisited," Asterisk, A Quarterly Journal of Historical English Studies, 12/2 (2003), 83-128. Alfred Becker, The Virgin and the Vamp," Asterisk, A Quarterly Journal of Historical English Studies, 12/4 (2003), 201-209. Alfred Becker, A Magic Spell "powered by" a Lunisolar Calendar," Asterisk, A Quarterly Journal of Historical English Studies, 15 (2006), 55 -73. E.G. Clark, "The Right Side of the Franks Casket," PMLA, 45 (1930), pp. 339-353. M. Clunies Ross, A suggested Interpretation of the Scene depicted on the Right-Hand Side of the Franks Casket, Medieval Archaeology 14 (1970), pp. 148-152. S.T.R.O. D'Ardenne, "Does the right side of the Franks Casket represent the burial of Sigurd?" tudes Germaniques, 21 (1966), pp. 235-242. W. Krause, "Erta, ein anglischer Gott", Die Sprache 5; Festschrift Havers (1959), 46-54. W. Krogmann, "Die Verse vom Wal auf dem Runenkstchen von Auzon," Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, N.F. 9 (1959), pp. 88-94. J. Lang, "The Imagery of the Franks Casket: Another Approach," in J. Hawkes & S. Mills (ed.) Northumbrias Golden Age (1999) pp. 247 255 K. Malone, "The Franks Casket and the Date of Widsith," in A.H. Orrick (ed.), Nordica et Anglica, Studies in Honor of Stefn Einarsson, The Hague 1968, pp. 10-18. Th. Mller-Braband, Studien zum Runenkstchen von Auzon und zum Schiffsgrab von Sutton Hoo; Gppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik 728 (2005) Jane Hawkes and Susan Mills (editors), Northumbria's Golden Age (1999); with articles by L. Webster, James Lang, C. Neuman de Vegvar on various aspects of the casket.
Franks Casket M. Osborn, "The Grammar of the Inscription on the Franks Casket, right Side," Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 73 (1972), pp. 663-671. M. Osborn, The Picture-Poem on the Front of the Franks Casket, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 75 (1974), pp. 50-65. M. Osborn, "The Lid as Conclusion of the Syncretic Theme of the Franks Casket," in A. Bammesberger (ed.), Old English Runes and their Continental Background, Heidelberg 1991, pp. 249-268. K. Schneider, "Zu den Inschriften und Bildern des Franks Casket und einer ae. Version des Mythos von Balders Tod," in Festschrift fr Walther Fischer," Heidelberg 1959, pp. 4-20. Austin Simmons, The Cipherment of the Franks Casket (http://homeros.godsong.org/FRANKS_CASKET. pdf), Homeric Society of Texas, January 2010. P. W. Souers, "The Top of the Franks Casket," Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, 17 (1935), pp. 163-179. P. W. Souers, "The Franks Casket: Left Side," Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, 18 (1936), pp. 199-209. P. W. Souers, "The Magi on the Franks Casket," Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, 19 (1937), pp. 249-254. P. W. Souers, "The Wayland Scene on the Franks Casket," Speculum 18 (1943), pp. 104-111. K. Spiess, "Das angelschsische Runenkstchen (die Seite mit der Hos-Inschrift)," in Josef Strzygowski-Festschrift, Klagenfurt 1932, pp. 160-168. L. Webster, "The Iconographic Programme of the Franks Casket," in J. Hawkes & S. Mills (ed.) Northumbrias Golden Age (1999), pp. 227 - 246 L. Webster, "Stylistic Aspects of the Franks Casket," in R. Farrell (ed.), The Vikings, London 1982, pp. 20-31. L. Webster, The Franks Casket: Objects in Focus, British Museum Press, 2011, ISBN 0-7141-2818-X, 9780714128184 (forthcoming October 2012) A. Wolf, "Franks Casket in literarhistorischer Sicht," Frhmittelalterliche Studien 3 (1969), pp. 227-243.
56
External links
British Museum Collection database (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/ search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=92560&partid=1) The Franks Casket (http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/t/ the_franks_casket.aspx) (British Museum Highlights page) Alfred Becker, * Website on the Franks Casket (http://www.franks-casket.de) Austin Simmons, The Cipherment of the Franks Casket Simmons' theory, with the best images (http://homeros. godsong.org/FRANKS_CASKET.pdf) The Cipherment of the Franks Casket (http://poppy.nsms.ox.ac.uk/woruldhord/contributions/144) on Project Woruldhord, with abstract
Germanic philology
57
Germanic philology
This article is about the history of the discipline, for linguistic phenomena, see Germanic languages and the navigation template below. Germanic philology is the philological study of the Germanic languages particularly from a comparative or historical perspective. The beginnings of research into the Germanic languages began in the 16th century, with the discovery of literary texts in the earlier phases of the languages. Early modern publications dealing with Old Norse culture appeared in the 16th century, e.g. Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (Olaus Magnus, 1555) and the first edition of the 13th century Gesta Danorum (Saxo Grammaticus), in 1514. In 1603, Melchior Goldast made the first edition of Middle High German poetry, Tyrol and Winsbeck, including a commentary which focused on linguistic problems and set the tone for the approach to such works in the subsequent centuries. He later gave similar attention to the Old High German Benedictine Rule. In England, Cotton's studies of the manuscripts in his collection marks the beginnings of work on Old English language. The pace of publication increased during the 17th century with Latin translations of the Edda (notably Peder Resen's Edda Islandorum of 1665). Germanic philology together with linguistics as a whole emerged as a serious academic discipline in the early 19th century, pioneered particularly in Germany by such linguists as Jakob Grimm. Important 19th century scholars include Henry Sweet and Matthias Lexer. The structure of the modern university means that for the most part work on the field is focussed on medieval English studies, medieval German studies, etc. Only relatively few universities can afford to offer Comparative linguistics as a discrete field.
Subfields
English studies German studies Dutch studies Scandinavian studies Runology comparative linguistics (Common Germanic)
Gyfu
58
Gyfu
Proto-Germanic Old English Gyfu; Gar "gift"; "spear" Futhorc
Name
*Ge "gift" Elder Futhark
Shape
Unicode Transliteration Transcription IPA
U+16B7
U+16B7 U+16B8
g g
; g , g; g
[]
7
[g], [], [], [j]; [g]

7; 33
Position in rune-row
Gyfu is the name for the g-rune in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, meaning "gift" or "generosity":
Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem: [1] English Translation: Generosity brings credit and honour, which support one's dignity; it furnishes help and subsistence to all broken men who are devoid of aught else.
Gyfu gumena by gleng and herenys, wrau and wyrscype and wrcna gehwam ar and twist, e by ora leas.
The corresponding letter of the Gothic alphabet is g, called giba. The same rune also appears in the Elder Futhark, with a suggested Proto-Germanic name *geb "gift". J. H. Looijenga speculates[2] that the rune is directly derived from Latin , the pronunciation of which may have been similar to Germanic gs in the 1st century, e.g., Gothic reihs compared to Latin rex (as opposed to the Etruscan alphabet, where / had a value of [s]).
References
[1] Original poem and translation from the Rune Poem Page (http:/ / www. ragweedforge. com/ poems. html). [2] J.H. Looijenga, Runes Around The North Sea And On The Continent Ad 150-700, PhD diss. Groningen 1997, p. 56. Download PDF (http:/ / dissertations. ub. rug. nl/ FILES/ faculties/ arts/ 1997/ j. h. looijenga/ thesis. pdf)
External links
The Futhark on www.ancientscripts.com (http://ancientscripts.com/futhark.html)
Haglaz
59
Haglaz
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse Hagall
Name
*Ha(a)laz
Hgl "hail"
Elder Futhark
Futhorc
Younger Futhark
Shape
Unicode Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row *Haglaz or *Hagalaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the h-rune , meaning "hail" (the precipitation). In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as haegl and in the Younger Futhark as hagall The corresponding Gothic letter is h, named hagl.
U+16BA U+16BB

U+16BC U+16BD
h h
[h]
9 7
The Elder Futhark letter has two variants, Various forms of the haglaz rune in the elder futhark. single-barred and double-barred . The double-barred variant is found in continental inscriptions while Scandinavian inscriptions have exclusively the single-barred variant. The Anglo-Frisian futhorc in early inscriptions has the Scandinavian single-barred variant. From the 7th century, it is replaced by the continental double-barred variant, the first known instances being found on a Harlingen solidus (ca,. 575625), and in the Christogram on St. Cuthbert's coffin. Haglaz is recorded in all three rune poems:
Haglaz
60
Rune Poem:
[1]
English Translation: Hail is the coldest of grain; Christ created the world of old.
Old Norwegian Hagall er kaldastr korna; Kristr skp himenn forna. Old Icelandic Hagall er kaldakorn ok krapadrfa ok snka stt. Anglo-Saxon Hgl by hwitust corna; hwyrft hit of heofones lyfte, wealca hit windes scura; weore hit to wtere syan.
Hail is cold grain and shower of sleet and sickness of serpents.
Hail is the whitest of grain; it is whirled from the vault of heaven and is tossed about by gusts of wind and then it melts into water.
References
Hunterston Brooch
The Hunterston Brooch is a highly important Celtic brooch of "pseudo-penannular" type found near Hunterston, North Ayrshire, Scotland, in either, according to one account, 1826 by two men from West Kilbride, who were digging drains at the foot of Goldenberry Hill,[1] or in 1830.[2] It is now in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. Made within a few decades of 700 AD,[3] the Hunterston Brooch is cast in silver, gilt, and set with pieces of amber (most now missing), and decorated with interlaced animal bodies in gold filigree.[3] The diameter of the ring is 12.2cm, and in its centre there is a cross and a golden Glory representing the Risen Christ, surrounded by tiny bird heads. The pin, which is broken, can travel freely around the ring as far as the terminals, which was necessary for fastening; it is Front now 13.1cm long, but was probably originally 15cm or more.[4] The brooch may have been made at a royal site, such as Dunadd in Argyll,[3] though is more likely to have been made in Ireland, especially as its pseudo-penannular form is typical of Irish brooches, whereas the truly penannular form remained usual in Pictish brooches.[4] On the other hand, its style is closely comparable to a terminal fragment of a penannular brooch found in Dunbeath in 1860 which probably was made in Scotland; craftsmen may have travelled across the area using the locally popular forms.[5] Lloyd and Jennifer Laing feel it was probably made in Dalriada, and the Museum odf Scotland say "The style of the brooch has Irish parallels, while the filigree resembles metalwork from England. The brooch was probably made in western Scotland where the two traditions were joined, or perhaps in Ireland by a craftsman trained in foreign techniques."[6]
Hunterston Brooch
61
The brooch has a complex construction typical of the most elaborate Irish brooches. Panels of filigree work were created separately on gold trays, which were then fitted into the main silver-gilt body. On the reverse four panels of silver-gilt were also inserted; as in other examples like the Tara Brooch the decoration on the reverse uses older curvilinear "Celtic" motifs looking back to La Tne style Insular Celtic decoration, though on the Hunterston Brooch such motifs also appear on the front.[4] The back of the brooch has a scratched inscription in runes in the Old Norse language, probably 10th century, "Melbrigda owns this brooch"; Mal Brigda, "devotee of Bridgit" is a common Gaelic female name, though seen as male by other sources.[7] Much later ownership inscriptions are not uncommon on elaborate Celtic brooches, often from Norse-Gael contexts. The Hunterston Brooch is clearly an object of very high status, indicating the power and great prestige of its owner. With the Tara Brooch in Dublin, and the Londesborough Brooch in the British Museum, it is considered one of the finest of over 50 highly elaborate Irish Celtic brooches to survive,[8] and is "arguably the earliest of the ornate penannular brooches from Britain and Ireland".[9]
Rear view
Detail of pin-head
Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Lamb, page 92 Youngs, 92 NMS Youngs, 91 Youngs, 57 Laings, 148; NMS database (http:/ / nms. scran. ac. uk/ database/ record. php?usi=000-100-036-198-C& scache=1cnl3113a1& searchdb=scran) [7] Whitfield, Tara Brooch, 215; Youngs, 91-92, "an Irishman Melbrigda". [8] Youngs, 90 [9] Laings, 148
Hunterston Brooch
62
References
Lamb, Rev. John, BD, Annals of an Ayrshire Parish - West Kilbride, 1896, John J. Rae, Glasgow "Laings", Lloyd Laing and Jennifer Laing. Art of the Celts: From 700 BC to the Celtic Revival, 1992, Thames & Hudson (World of Art), ISBN 0-500-20256-7 "NMS"; Hunterston Brooch (http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_collections/highlights/hunterston_brooch.aspx) National Museums of Scotland Whitfield, Niamh (2001), The "Tara" Brooch, in Hourihane, Colum (ed), From Ireland coming: Irish art from the early Christian to the late Gothic period and its European context, Princeton University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-691-08825-X, 9780691088259 Susan Youngs (ed), "The Work of Angels", Masterpieces of Celtic Metalwork, 6th-9th centuries AD, 1989, British Museum Press, London, ISBN 0-7141-0554-6
External links
Hunterston Brooch (http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_collections/highlights/hunterston_brooch.aspx), National Museums of Scotland web feature Detailed photos of and information on the Brooch (http://virtual.hunterston.eu/brooch.htm)
Isaz
63
Isaz
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse Isa
Name
*Isaz
Is "ice"
Shape
Elder Futhark
Futhorc
Younger Futhark
Unicode Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row 11
U+16C1
i i
[i()]
9
*Isaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the i-rune , meaning "ice". In the Younger Futhark, it is called Iss in Icelandic and isa in Old Norse. As rune of the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is called is. The corresponding Gothic letter is i, named eis. The rune is recorded in all three rune poems:
Rune Poem: [1] English Translation: Ice is called the broad bridge; the blind man must be led.
Old Norwegian s kllum br bria; blindan arf at lia. Old Icelandic ss er rbrkr ok unnar ak ok feigra manna fr. glacies jfurr. Anglo-Saxon Is by ofereald, ungemetum slidor, glisna glshluttur gimmum gelicust, flor forste geworuht, fger ansyne.
Ice is bark of rivers and roof of the wave and destruction of the doomed.
Ice is very cold and immeasurably slippery; it glistens as clear as glass and most like to gems; it is a floor wrought by the frost, fair to look upon.
References
Jran
64
Jran
Proto-Germanic Old English Gr Ior "eel" Futhorc Old Norse r "harvest, plenty" Younger Futhark
Name
*Jra-
"year, harvest" Elder Futhark
Shape

U+16C3 U+16C4 U+16E1 U+16C5 U+16C6
j j
io io
a a
[j]
12
[jo]
28 or 29
[a]
10
Jera (also Jeran, Jeraz is the conventional name of the j-rune of the Elder Futhark, from a reconstructed Common Germanic stem *j2ra-[1] meaning "harvest, (good) year". The corresponding letter of the Gothic alphabet is Gothic , named jr, also expressing /j/. The Elder Futhark rune gives rise to the Anglo-Frisian runes /j/, named r /jr/, and {{IPAio, named ior, and to the Younger Futhark r rune , which stood for /a/ as the /j/ phoneme had disappeared in Old Norse.
Name
The reconstructed Common Germanic name *j2ran is the origin of English year (Old English ar). In contrast to the modern word, it had a meaning of "season" and specifically "harvest", and hence "plenty, prosperity". The Germanic word is cognate with Greek (horos) "year" (and (hora) "season", whence hour), Slavonic jar "spring" and with the -or- in Latin hornus "of this year" (from *ho-jrinus), as well as Avestan yre "year", all from a PIE stem *yer-o-.
Elder Futhark
The derivation of the rune is uncertain; some scholars see it as a modification of Latin G ("C () with stroke") while others consider it a Germanic innovation. The letter in any case appears from the very earliest runic inscriptions, figuring on the Vimose comb inscription, harja. As the only rune of the Elder Futhark which was not connected, its evolution was the most thorough transformation of all runes, and it was to have numerous graphical variants.[2] In the later period of the Elder Futhark, during the 5th to 6th centuries, connected variants appear, and these are the ones that give rise to the derivations in Anglo-Saxon (as ger and ior) and Scadinavian (as r) traditions.
Jran
65
Gothic jer
The corresponding Gothic letter is j, named jer, which is also based on the shape of the Elder Futhark rune. This is an exception, shared with urus, due to the fact that neither the Latin nor the Greek alphabets at the time of the introduction of the Gothic one had graphemes corresponding to the distinction of j and w from i and u.
Anglo-Saxon runes
The rune in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc is continued as Gr and Ior, the latter a bind rune of Gyfu and Is (compare also Ear). Gr is consistently written epigraphically and on artifacts, while the form for [j] appears only rarely in later manuscripts (as does a separate symbol for Ior).
Younger Futhark
During the 7th and 8th centuries, the initial j in *jara was lost in Old Norse, which also changed the sound value of the rune from /j/ to an /a/ phoneme. The rune was then written as a vertical staff with a horizontal stroke in the centre, and scholars transliterate this form of the rune as A, with majuscule, to distinguish it from the ansuz rune, a.
The evolution of the rune.
During the last phase of the Elder Futhark, the jra-rune came to be written as a vertical staff with two slanting strokes in the form of an X in its centre ( ). As the form of the rune had changed considerably, an older 7th century form of the rune ( ) was assumed by the s-rune.[2] When the n-rune had stabilized in its form during the 6th and 7th centuries, its vertical stroke slanted towards the right ( ), which made it possible to simplify the jra-rune by having only one vertical stroke that slanted towards the left, giving the r-rune of the Younger Futhark. Since a simpler form of the rune was available for the /a/ phoneme, the older cross form of the rune now came to be used for the /h/ phoneme.[3]
Gallehus horns
The development of the Jran rune from the earliest open form was not known before the discovery of the Kylver Stone in 1903, which has an entire elder futhark inscription on it. Therefore the interpretation of the golden horns of Gallehus was slightly wrong before 1903, as it was believed this rune form could be an early form of the Ingwaz rune. The second word on the horns was thus interpreted as holtingaz rather than holtijaz.[4]
Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] C.f. Page (2005:15). The word may have been either neuter or masculine in Common Germanic. Enoksen 1998:51 Enoksen 1998:52 Enoksen 1998:56
Jran
66
References
Enoksen, Lars Magnar (1998). Runor: Historia, Tydning, Tolkning. Historiska Media, Falun. ISBN 91-88930-32-7 Looijenga, J. H. (1997). Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150-700 (http://dissertations.ub. rug.nl/faculties/arts/1997/j.h.looijenga), page 76. Dissertation, Groningen University Page, Raymond I. (2005). Runes. The British Museum Press ISBN 0-7141-8065-3
Kaunan
67
Kaunan
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse Kaun "ulcer" Younger Futhark
Name
*Kaunan(?) ? Elder Futhark
Cen "torch" Futhorc
Shape
U+16B2
U+16B3
U+16B4
k k
c c
k k, g
[k]
[k], [t]
6
[k], [g]
Position in rune-row The k-rune (Younger Futhark , Anglo-Saxon futhorc ) is called Kaun in both the Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems, meaning "ulcer". The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is *Kaunan. It is also known as Kenaz ("torch"), based on its Anglo-Saxon name.
The Elder Futhark shape is likely directly The evolution of the rune in the elder futhark during the centuries. based on Old Italic c / Latin C. The Younger Futhark / Futhorc shapes have parallels in Old Italic shapes of k , Latin K (compare the Negau helmet inscription). The corresponding Gothic letter is k, called kusma. The shape of the Younger Futhark kaun rune () is identical to that of the "bookhand" s rune in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc. The rune also occurs in some continental runic inscriptions. It has been suggested that in these instances, it represents the ch // sound resulting from the Old High German sound shift (e.g. elch in Nordendorf II).[1]
Kaunan
68
Rune Poem:
[2]
English Translation: Ulcer is fatal to children; death makes a corpse pale.
Old Norwegian Kaun er barna blvan; bl grver nn flvan. Old Icelandic Kaun er barna bl ok bardaga [fr] ok holdfa hs. flagella konungr. Anglo-Saxon Cen by cwicera gehwam, cu on fyre blac ond beorhtlic, byrne oftust r hi elingas inne resta. Notes:
Disease fatal to children and painful spot and abode of mortification.
The torch is known to every living man by its pale, bright flame; it always burns where princes sit within.
The Icelandic poem is glossed with Latin flagella "whip". The Anglo-Saxon poem gives the name cen "torch".
References
[1] Tineke Looijenga, Texts & contexts of the oldest Runic inscriptions, BRILL, 2003, ISBN 978-90-04-12396-0, p. 129. [2] Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page (http:/ / www. ragweedforge. com/ poems. html).
Kvinneby amulet
The Kvinneby amulet (l SAS1989;43) is an 11th century runic amulet which was found in the mid-1950s in the soil of the village Sdra Kvinneby in land, Sweden. The amulet is a square copper object measuring approximately 5cm on each side. Near one edge there is a small hole, presumably used for hanging it around the neck.
Inscription
The inscription consists of some 143 runes, written boustrophedon, supplemented by an engraving of a fish. It is unclear what relevance the fish has to the text. The inscription is one of the longest and best preserved for its time but it has proven hard to interpret. The "official" Rundata interpretation is: Here I carve(d) protection for you, Bfi, with/... ... ... to you is certain. And may the lightning hold all evil away from Bfi. May rr protect him with that hammer which came from out of the sea. Flee from evilness! You/it get/gets nothing from Bfi. The gods are under him and over him.
The Kvinneby amulet invokes Thor to protect its wearer with his hammer.
Kvinneby amulet
69
Deciphering attempts
There have been five other serious attempts to decipher the text. This article treats each in turn.
Bruce E. Nilsson 1976

Bruce E. Nilsson was the first to offer an interpretation of the amulet. Ignoring what seem to be bind runes at the start of the inscription, he offered this transliteration: tiRiRbirk bufimiRfultihu riseRuisinbral tilufranbufaorketih ansmiRemhamrisamhuR hafikamflufraniluit feRekiafbufakuiRu untiRhanumaukyfiRhan um and the following translation into English: Glory to thee bear I, Bove. Help me! Who is wiser than thee? And bear all in (the form of) evil from Bove. May Thor protect him with that hammer which came from the sea, (and which) fled from evil. Wit fares not from Bove. The gods are under him and over him. Nilsson interprets: "[T]he amulet is an invocation to the gods to protect Bove, especially while he is at sea." This he bases on the carving of the fish, the mention of the sea in the text and the place where the amulet was found. Nilsson understands the mention of Thor and his hammer as a reference of the story of Thor's fishing; where he threw his hammer at the head of Jrmungandr, the Midgard serpent. Since Thor's hammer always returns to its thrower it might in this case be said that it 'fled from evil' and 'came from the sea'. Nilsson does not attempt to solve the first few runic symbols of the inscription. He ventures a guess that they might conceal the name or cognomen of a god. The fish looks more promising to Nilsson. He suggests that it might contain coded runes. The fins of the fish can, according to him, be represented graphically as: || | || || || | This might represent the runes 'nbh' in some order. Nilsson suggests that the meaning is based on the names of the runes; thus the amulet should give a bjrg from hagl and nau or a "deliverance" from "hail" and "need". He adds that this is "not at all certain". Unfortunately Nilsson's interpretation is not treated critically by later authors.
Sdra Kvinneby
Kvinneby amulet
70
Ivar Lindquist 1987 (a posthumous publication)

Ivar Lindquist took some 30 years to ponder the amulet - and it shows. He offers a plethora of interpretations - all, however, within the same central theme. According to Lindquist the amulet contains a solemn prayer to the Earth Goddess, referred to as 'Erka', 'Fold' and 'Undirgo' (:the god beneath) and her 'single son' Thor. Two of Lindquist's suggested interpretations are: Here I, in poetry am familiar with the god(dess) beneath, for me, Bfi, to save myself. Earth, I am known to thee! May the one son keep evil away from Bfi. May rr protect him with the hammer that smashes mr, the heavy mr. Flee, foul ill-wight! Get nothing from Bfi. Gods are under him and over him. Also: I here to Erka, the undergod of the world, for me, Bfi, to save myself. Earth, I am known to thee! And may the lightning raiser help evil from Bfi. May rr protect him with the hammer that smashes mr. Go the sea, mr! Flee, foul ill-wight! Get nothing from Bfi. Gods are under him and over him. On etymological grounds Lindquist reasons that mr is a demon of sickness.
Brje Westlund 1989

According to Westlund, Lindquist's attempts at deciphering the "bind runes" at the beginning of the inscription are misguided. In Westlund's opinion these are not complicated bind runes but elaborate forms of normal runes. To support his claim he compares the runes with an inscription found near Novgorod in 1983 and treated by the Russian runologist Elena Melnikova in 1987. This is material not available to Lindquist and Nilsson. Westlund reads the first runes as "hiristikirbirkbufi" and takes them to mean (in standardized West Norse) "Hr rsti ek r bjrg Bfi." which would come out in English as "Here I carve protection for you, Bfi." This is a major change from Lindquist's interpretation. Instead of Bfi being the carver talking about himself we have a separate carver that addresses Bfi in the inscription. Westlund goes on to refuse Lindquist's "prayer to Earth" in favor of a more magical interpretation. While he rejects Lindquist's interpretation of "meRfultihuis" ("with Earth in mind") and Nilsson's interpretation of "samhuRhafikam" ("that came from the sea") he does not offer alternative explanations. On the whole he suggests that Lindquist read too much into the inscription and tries to go for a more "mundane" solution to the problem. His transliteration and translation of the whole inscription follow: x hiristik iR birk / bufi meR fultihu / is eR uis in bral / tilu fran bufa or keti h / ans miR em hamri samhuR / hafikam fly fran iluit feR eki af bufa ku iRu / untiR hanum auk yfiR han / um Here I may carve (or: I carved) protection for you, Bfi, with ... is certain to you. And may the lightning keep evil (away) from Bfi. Thor Protect him with that hammer ... Flee from the evil being! It (?) gets nothing from Bfi. Gods are under him and over him. In his conclusion Westlund rejects Lindquist's view of the amulet as a solemn heathen prayer. In his opinion the mention of Thor and 'the gods' reflect a post-conversion magical view of the heathen gods. He even goes as far as suggesting that the wearer of the amulet was probably a baptised Christian.
Kvinneby amulet
71
Ottar Grnvik 1992

In 1992 Ottar Grnvik offered a new interpretation which is essentially an attempt to rehabilitate Lindquist's work. Lindquist's bind-runes are brought back into play. h(i)RiurkimsutiRkuiRbirk bufimeRfultihu iseRuisinbral tilufranbufaorketih ansmiRemhamrisamhyR hafikamflyfraniluit feRekiafbufakuiRu untiRhanumaukyfiRhan um
Jonna Louis-Jensen 2001

In 2001 Jonna Louis-Jensen continued in the same vein as Grnvik with an interpretation involving a sickness demon named mr. She offers the following normalized text and English translation.
H()R'k kri ()ms undiR gui, ()RR ber'k Bfi mR flt h es R vs in br <h>alt illu frn Bfa! rr gti hans mR m hamri (e)s m hyRR! Haf ekka, m! Fl frn, illvtt! FRR kki af Bfa; gu eRu undiR hnum auk yfiR hnum. I cower herein, under the god of soot; I, Bfi, carry a festering sore in my skin you know where the glistening one is keep evil from Bfi! May Thor guard him with the hammer with which he strikes mr. May you have the affliction, mr! Be gone, evil being! The affliction leaves Bfi, there are gods below him [1] and above him.
Notes
[1] Louis-Jensen (2005).
References
Grnvik, Ottar (1992). En hedensk bnn. Runeinnskriften p en liten kopperplate fra Kvinneby p land. In Finn Hdneb et al. (Eds.), Eyvindarbk. Festskrift til Eyvind Fjeld Halvorsen 4. mai 1992, pp.7185. Oslo: Institutt for nordistikk og litteraturvitenskap. Lindquist, Ivar (1987). Religisa runtexter III. Kvinneby-amuletten. Ett tydningsfrslag efter frfattarens efterlmnade manuskript utg. av Gsta Holm. Louis-Jensen, Jonna (2001). Halt illu frn Bfa! Til tolkningen af Kvinneby-amuletten fra land. In Samas Cathin (Ed.), Northern Lights: Following Folklore in North-Western Europe: Essays in honor of Bo Almqvist, pp.111126. Dublin: University College Dublin. ISBN 1-900621-63-0
Kvinneby amulet Louis-Jensen, Jonna (2005). "Sdra Kvinneby" (http://books.google.com/books?id=TKcc-27YYqMC& printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). In Hoops, Johannes; Beck, Heinrich. Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde. 29. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp.193196. ISBN3-11-018360-9. Nilsson, Bruce E. (1976). The Runic 'Fish-Amulet' from land: A Solution. In Mediaeval Scandinavia Vol. 9, Year 1976. Westlund, Brje (1989). Kvinneby - en runinskrift med hittills oknda gudanamn? In Studia anthroponymica Scandinavica : tidsskrift fr nordisk personnamnsforskning, Vol. 7, 1989, pp.2552. Uppsala: Lundequistska bokhandeln.
72
Laguz
73
Laguz
Proto-Germanic Old English Lagu Old Norse Lgr
Name
*Laguz/*Laukaz "lake"/"leek" Elder Futhark
"ocean, sea" "water, waterfall" Futhorc Younger Futhark
Shape
U+16DA
l l
[l]
13
*Laguz or *Laukaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the l-rune , *laguz meaning "water" or "lake" and *laukaz meaning "leek". In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, it is called lagu "ocean". In the Younger Futhark, the rune is called lgr "waterfall" in Icelandic and logr "water" in Norse. The corresponding Gothic letter is l, named lagus. The rune is identical in shape to the letter l in the Raetic alphabet. The "leek" hypothesis is based not on the rune poems, but rather on early inscriptions where the rune has been hypothesized to abbreviate *laukaz, a symbol of fertility, see the Blach fibula.
Rune Poem: [1] English Translation: A waterfall is a River which falls from a mountain-side; but ornaments are of gold. Water is eddying stream and broad geysir and land of the fish.
Old Norwegian Lgr er, fllr r fjalle foss; en gull ero nosser. Old Icelandic Lgr er vellanda vatn ok vir ketill ok glmmungr grund. lacus lofungr. Anglo-Saxon Lagu by leodum langsum geuht, gif hi sculun nean on nacan tealtum and hi sya swye brega and se brimhengest bridles ne gym[e].
The ocean seems interminable to men, if they venture on the rolling bark and the waves of the sea terrify them and the courser of the deep heed not its bridle.
Laguz
74
References
List of runestones
A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century but most of them date from the late Viking Age, and it lasted into the 12th century.
Image stones
The Ardre image stones The Stora Hammars stones and the Tngelgarda stone, Lrbro parish
By date
Elder Futhark runestones
Einang stone (4th century) Kylver Stone (5th century) Bjrketorp Runestone (transitional, 7th century) Stentoften (transitional, 7th century) Eggjum stone (8th century) Rk Runestone (transitional, ca. 800) Tune Runestone (250-400)
Younger Futhark runestones

England Runestones - a collection of 30 runestones that refer to Viking Age voyages to England, from Sweden, Norway and Germany.
By place
Denmark
Jelling stones Snoldelev Stone Hedeby stones (now Germany)
List of runestones
75
Greenland
Kingittorsuaq Runestone
Norway
Granavollen Runestone Vang stone Dynna stone
Sweden
Varangian Runestones - inscriptions that mention voyages to the East (Austr) or the Eastern route (Austrvegr). Ingvar Runestones - 26 Varangian runestones that were raised in commemoration of those who died in the Swedish Viking expedition to the Caspian Sea of Ingvar the Far-Travelled. Serkland Runestones - six or seven runestones which are Varangian Runestones that mention voyages to Serkland, the Old Norse name for the Muslim world in the south. Greece Runestones - 29 Varangian runestones that talk of voyages to Greece, i.e. the Byzantine Empire. Viking Runestones - Stones that mention Scandinavians who participated in Viking expeditions in western Europe, and stones that mention men who were Viking warriors and/or died while travelling in the West. Jarlabanke Runestones - a collection of 20 runestones written in Old Norse related to Jarlabanke Ingefastsson and his clan. Jrsberg Runestone - One of the oldest runestones in Sweden from 6th century located in Jrsberg, Kristinehamn Frsstenen The Ramsund carving Sparlsa Runestone Rkstenen - the longest runic inscription in the world, located in the province of stergtland in Sweden District of Hlsingland Hlsingland Rune Inscription 21 District of Medelpad Medelpad Rune Inscription 1 Medelpad Rune Inscription 18 District of Skne Sjrup Runestone District of Uppland Frentuna Runestones (U 20, U 21 and U 22) Broby bro Runestones (U 135, U 136 and U 137) Hagby Runestones (U 152, U 153, U 154 and U 155) Lingsberg Runestones (U 240, U 241 and U 242= Hargs bro runic inscriptions (U 309, U 310 and U 311) Snottsta and Vreta stones (U 329, U 330, U 331 and U 332) Granby Runestone (U 337) Vaksala Runestone (U 961)
List of runestones District stergtland Hgby Runestone Klvesten Runestone Ledberg stone
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Italy
Piraeus Lion, Venice
American rune stones

The following rune stones, found in the United States, are all surrounded by controversy regarding their originality: The Kensington Runestone is located at Alexandria, Minnesota. The Heavener Runestone and others associated with it, in and around Heavener, Oklahoma. The Vrendrye Runestone, found near Minot, North Dakota. The three Spirit Pond runestones, found in Phippsburg, Maine, in 1971. The Leif Eriksson Runestone found on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts in 1926.
Maeshowe
Maeshowe (or Maes Howe; Norse: Orkhaugr[1]) is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave situated on Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. It gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered cairn, which is limited to Orkney. Maeshowe is a magnificent example of Neolithic craftsmanship and is, in the words of the distinguished archaeologist Stuart Piggott, "a superlative monument that by its originality of execution is lifted out of its class into a unique position."[2] The monuments around Maeshowe, including Skara Brae, were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.
Maeshowe
Design and construction

Maeshowe is one of the largest tombs in Orkney; the mound encasing the tomb is 115 feet (unknown operator: u'strong'm) in diameter and rises to a height of 24 feet (unknown operator: u'strong'm).[3] Surrounding the mound, at a distance of 50 feet (unknown operator: u'strong'm) to 70 feet (unknown operator: u'strong'm) is a ditch up to 45 feet (unknown operator: u'strong'm) wide. The grass mound hides a complex of passages and chambers built of carefully crafted slabs of flagstone weighing up to 30 tons.[4] It is aligned so that the rear wall of its central chamber held up by a bracketed wall,[5] is illuminated on the winter solstice.[6] A similar display occurs in Newgrange.
Maeshowe Entrance
Maeshowe
77
This entrance passage is 36 feet (unknown operator: u'strong'm) long and leads to the central almost square chamber measuring about 15 feet (unknown operator: u'strong'm) on each side.[7] The current height of the chamber is 12.5 feet (unknown operator: u'strong'm), this reflects the height to which the original stonework is preserved and capped by a modern corbelled roof. The original roof may have risen to a height of 15 feet (unknown operator: u'strong'm) or more.[8] The entrance passage is only about 3 feet (unknown operator: u'strong'm) high, requiring visitors to stoop or crawl into the central chamber. That chamber is constructed largely of flat slabs of stone, many of which traverse nearly the entire length of the walls. In each corner lie huge angled buttresses that rise to the vaulting. At a height of about 3 feet (unknown operator: u'strong'm), the wall's construction changes from the use of flat to overlapping slabs creating a beehive-shaped vault.[9]
Cross Sections of Maeshowe
Estimates of the amount of effort required to build Maeshowe vary; a commonly suggested number is 39,000 man-hours,[10][11] although Colin Renfrew calculated that at least 100,000 hours would be required.[12] Dating of the construction of Maeshowe is difficult but dates derived from burials in similar tombs cluster around 3000 BC. Since Maeshowe is the largest and most sophisticated example of the Maeshowe "type" of tomb, archaeologists have suggested that it is the last of its class, built around 2800 BC.[13] The people who built Maeshowe were users of grooved ware,[14] a distinctive type of pottery that spread throughout the British Isles from about 3000 BC.
Siting
Maeshowe appears as a grassy mound rising from a flat plain near the south-east end of the Loch of Harray. The land around Maeshowe at its construction probably looked much as it does today- treeless with grasses representative of Pollen Assemblage Zone MNH-I reflecting "mixed agricultural practices, probably with a pastoral bias there is a substantial amount of ribwort pollen, but also that of cereals."[15] A Neolithic "low road" connects Maeshowe with the magnificently preserved village of Skara Brae, passing near the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar.[16] Low roads connect Neolithic ceremonial sites throughout Britain. Some archeologists believe that Maeshowe was originally surrounded by a large stone circle.[17] The complex including Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, the Standing Stones of Stenness, Skara Brae, as well as other tombs and standing stones represents a concentration of Neolithic sites that is rivalled in Britain only by the complexes associated with Stonehenge and Avebury.[18]
Style
The tomb gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered cairn, which is limited to Orkney.[19] Maeshowe is very similar to the famous Newgrange tomb in Ireland, suggesting a linkage between the two cultures.[20] Chambered tombs of the Maeshowe "type" are characterized by a long, low entrance passageway leading to a square or rectangular chamber from which there is access to a number of side cells. Although there are disagreements as to the attribution of tombs to tomb types, there are only seven definitely known Maeshowe type tombs.[21] On Mainland, there are, in addition to Maeshowe; the tombs of Cuween Hill, Wideford Hill, and Quanterness. The tomb of Quoyness is found on Sanday, while Vinquoy Hill is located on Eday. Finally, there is an unnamed tomb on the Holm of Papa Westray. Anna Ritchie reports that there are three more Maeshowe type tombs in Orkney but she doesn't name or locate them.[22]
Maeshowe
78
Excavation
The "modern" opening of the tomb was by James Farrer, an antiquarian and the Member of Parliament for South Durham, in July 1861.[23] Farrer, like many antiquarians of the day, was not noted for his careful excavation of sites. John Hedges describes him as possessing "a rapacious appetite for excavation matched only by his crude techniques, lack of inspiration, and general inability to publish."[24] Farrer and his workmen broke through the roof of the entrance passage and found it filled with debris. He then turned his attention to the top of the mound, broke through and, over a period of a few days, emptied the main chamber of material that had filled it completely. He and his workmen discovered the famous runic inscriptions carved on the walls, proof that Norsemen had broken into the tomb at least six centuries earlier.[25] As described in the Orkneyinga Saga, Maeshowe was looted by Maeshowe soon after opening in 1861 the famous Vikings Earl Harald Maddadarson and Ragnvald, Earl of Mre[1] in about the 12th century. The more than thirty runic inscriptions on the walls of the chamber represent the largest single collection of such carvings in the world.
Toponymy
The origin of the name Maeshowe is uncertain. While the second element is certainly from the Old Norse haugr usually meaning a mound, there have been several different theories postulated for the first element, maes. These include: Celtic origins. The Welsh word "Maes", meaning "field" or "area of activity"; it is typical for "maes" to be followed by an adjective, such as "fair field", "Maes teg". "Maeshowe" might then mean "the burial mound field", or "the area around the cairn". Due to the rarity of surviving pre-Norse elements in Orcadian placenames, this theory does not enjoy much support. A personal name. "Maeshowe" could simply be a corruption of "Tormis' Howe", meaning it was the burial mound of someone called Tormis. Some other cairns in the area do seem to be named after individuals, and "Tormiston" is immediately adjacent to the tomb. Old Norse for "The Maiden's Tomb"? This would be meyjarhaugr or maerhaugr. Old Norse for "The Great Tomb"? This would be mestrhaugr. Interestingly, Maeshowe is called Orkahaugr in the Orkneyinga Saga. The first element of that name, orka, signifies power or greatness.
World Heritage status
Maeshowe
79
Heart of Neolithic Orkney*

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Country Type Criteria Reference Region** United Kingdom Cultural i, ii, iii, iv 514 [26]
Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription 1999 (23rd Session) [27]
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List [28] ** Region as classified by UNESCO
"The Heart of Neolithic Orkney" was inscribed as a World Heritage site in December 1999. In addition to Maeshowe, the site includes Skara Brae, the Standing Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar and other nearby sites. It is managed by Historic Scotland, whose "Statement of Significance" for the site begins: The monuments at the heart of Neolithic Orkney and Skara Brae proclaim the triumphs of the human spirit in early ages and isolated places. They were approximately contemporary with the mastabas of the archaic period of Egypt (first and second dynasties), the brick temples of Sumeria, and the first cities of the Harappa culture in India, and a century or two earlier than the Golden Age of China. Unusually fine for their early date, and with a remarkably rich survival of evidence, these sites stand as a visible symbol of the achievements of early peoples away from the traditional centres of civilisation... Maes Howe is a masterpiece of Neolithic peoples. It is an exceptionally early architectural accomplishment. With its almost classical strength and simplicity it is a unique survival from 5000 years ago. It is an expression of genius within a group of people whose other tombs were claustrophobic chambers in smaller mounds.[29]
Footnotes
[1] "Maeshowe's runes - Viking graffiti" (http:/ / www. orkneyjar. com/ history/ maeshowe/ maeshrunes. htm) Orkneyjar. Retrieved 30 October 2008. [2] Pigott 1954 [3] Childe 1952, p. 18 [4] Lost Worlds: "The Pagans (of Britain)" History Channel series with contributions from historian Prof. Ronald Hutton, Archeologists Erika Guttmann and Martin Carruthers [5] Dargie 2007, p. 12. [6] Hedges 1984, p. 160 [7] Childe 1952, pp.18-19 [8] Ritchie 1995, p. 59 [9] Castleden 1987, pp. 176-177 [10] Hedges 1984, p. 113 [11] Castleden 1987, p. 212 [12] Renfrew 1979, p. 212-214 [13] Ritchie 1981, p. 29 [14] Renfrew 1985, p. 7 [15] Davidson & Jones 1985, pp. 27 [16] Castleden 1987, p. 117 [17] Lost Worlds: The Pagans (of Britain) History Channel series with contributions from historian Prof. Ronald Hutton, Archeologists Erika Guttmann and Martin Carruthers [18] Castleden 1987, p. 93
Maeshowe
[19] Ritchie 1981, p. 22 [20] Laing 1974, p. 42 [21] Hedges 1984, p. 80 [22] Ritchie 1995, p. 47 [23] Ritchie 1995, p. 9 [24] Hedges 1984, p. 22 [25] Ritchie 1995, p. 10 [26] http:/ / whc. unesco. org/ en/ list/ 514 [27] http:/ / whc. unesco. org/ en/ list [28] http:/ / whc. unesco. org/ en/ list/ ?search=& search_by_country=& type=& media=& region=& order=region [29] "The Heart of Neolithic Orkney" (http:/ / www. historic-scotland. gov. uk/ index/ policyandguidance/ world_heritage_scotland/ world_heritage_sites/ world-heritage-neolithic-orkney. htm). Historic Scotland. Retrieved on 5 September 2007
80
References
Castleden, Rodney (1987). The Stonehenge People. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.. ISBN0-7102-0968-1. Childe, V. Gordon; W. Douglas Simpson (1952). Illustrated History of Ancient Monuments: Vol. VI Scotland. Edinburgh: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Dargie, Richard (2007). A History of Britain: The Key Events That Have Shaped Britain from Neolithic Times to the 21st Century. Arcturus Foulsham. ISBN0-572-03342-7. Davidson, D.A.; Jones, D.L. (1985). The Environment of Orkney in The Prehistory of Orkney BC 4000-1000 AD (Colin Renfrew, editor). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN0-85224-456-8. Hedges, John W. (1984). Tomb of the Eagles: Death and Life in a Stone Age Tribe. New York: New Amsterdam. ISBN0-941533-05-0. Laing, Lloyd (1974). Orkney and Shetland: An Archaeological Guide. Newton Abbott: David and Charles Ltd.. ISBN0-7153-6305-0. Piggott, Stuart (1954). Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-07781-8. Renfrew, Colin (1979). Investigations in Orkney. London: Rep. Research Comm. Soc. Antiq. London #38. Renfrew, Colin (editor) (1985). The Prehistory of Orkney BC 4000-1000 AD. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN0-85224-456-8. Ritchie, Graham & Anna (1981). Scotland: Archaeology and Early History. New York: Thames and Hudson. ISBN0-500-27365-0. Ritchie, Anna (1995). Prehistoric Orkney. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd.. ISBN0-7134-7593-5.
External links
Maeshowe Chambered Cairn (http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/propertyresults/propertyoverview. htm?PropID=PL_205&PropName=Maeshowe Chambered Cairn) - official site at Historic Scotland Orkneyjar (http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/maeshowe/index.html) Winter Solstice Webcam (http://www.maeshowe.co.uk/index.html) Research around the reappearance of the sun (http://www.iol.ie/~geniet/maeshowe) Article about Maeshowe at Undiscovered Scotland (http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/westmainland/ maeshowe/index.html)
Mannaz
81
Mannaz
See Man (word)for the Germanic etymology. See Mannus for the mythological ancestor recorded by Tacitus.
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse Mar
Name
*Mannaz
Mann "man, human"
Elder Futhark
Futhorc
Younger Futhark
Shape
U+16D7

U+16D8 U+16D9
m m
[m]
20 14
*Mannaz is the conventional name of the m-rune of the Elder Futhark. It is derived from the reconstructed Common Germanic word for "man", *mannaz. Younger Futhark is mar ("man"). It took up the shape of the algiz rune , replacing Elder Futhark . As its sound value and form in the Elder Futhark indicate, it is derived from the letter M () in the Old Italic alphabets, ultimately from the Greek letter Mu ().
Two early forms of the m-rune of the Younger Futhark.
Rune poems
The rune is recorded in all three Rune Poems, in the Norwegian and Icelandic poems as mar, and in the Anglo-Saxon poem as man.
Rune Poem: Norwegian Mar er moldar auki; mikil er grip hauki. Icelandic Mar er manns gaman ok moldar auki ok skipa skreytir. homo mildingr. Man is delight of man and augmentation of the earth and adorner of ships. [1] English Translation: Man is an augmentation of the dust; great is the claw of the hawk.
Mannaz
82
Anglo-Saxon Man by on myrge his magan leof: sceal eah anra gehwylc orum swican, forum drihten wyle dome sine t earme flsc eoran betcan. The joyous man is dear to his kinsmen; yet every man is doomed to fail his fellow, since the Lord by his decree will commit the vile carrion to the earth.
Modern usage
For the "man" rune of the Armanen Futharkh as "life rune" in Germanic mysticism and Neo-Nazism, see Lebensrune.
References
[1] Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page (http:/ / www. ragweedforge. com/ poems. html) ("Ragnar's Ragweed Forge").
Manx runestones
The Manx runestones were made by the Norse population on the Isle of Man during the Viking Age, mostly in the 10th century. Despite its small size, the Isle of Man stands out with many Viking Age runestones, in 1983 numbering as many as 26 surviving stones, which can be compared to 33 in all of Norway.[1] The reason why there are so many of them on the Isle of Man may be due to the merging of the immigrant Norse runestone tradition with the local Celtic tradition of raising high crosses.[1] In addition, the church contributed by not condemning the runes as pagan, but instead it encouraged the recording of people for Christian purposes. Sixteen of the stones bear the common formula, "N ... put up this cross in memory of M", but among the other ten there is also a stone raised for the benefit of the runestone raiser.
The Manx runestones are consequently similar to the Scandinavian ones,[2] but whereas a Norwegian runestone is called "stone" in the inscriptions, even if it is in the shape of a cross, the runestones that were raised in the British isles typically call them "crosses".[3] There are also two slabs incised with Anglo-Saxon runes at Maughold.[4]
A map of the Scandinavian kingdom that included the Isle of Man at the end of the 11th century.
Manx runestones
83
Andreas parish
Br Olsen;183 (Andreas (I), MM 99)
This runestone is a stone cross that is located in the church Andreas. The inscription is in short-twig runes and it commemorates a father. Latin transliteration: ... ()[an](a) : [aft] (u)(f)(a)ik : fauur : sin : in : kautr : kar[]i : sunr : biarnar f(r)(a) : (k)(u)(l)(i) [:] Old Norse transliteration: ... enna ept feig, fur sinn, en Gautr geri, sonr Bjarnar fr Kolli. English translation: "... this [cross] in memory of feigr, his father, but Gautr made (it), the son of Bjrn from Kollr."[5]
Br Olsen;183
Br Olsen;184 (Andreas (II), MM 131)

This stone cross is located in the church Andreas. It is engraved with short-twig runes, and it is dated to c. 940. It was erected in memory of a wife. Latin transliteration: sont:ulf : hin : suarti : raisti : krus : ona : aftir : arin:biaurk * kuinu : sina (u) [*] k : au [*]: (o)ks/(b)ks Old Norse transliteration: Sandulfr hinn Svarti reisti kross enna eptir Arinbjrgu, konu sna. ... ... ... ... English translation: "Sandulfr the Black erected this cross in memory of Arinbjrg his wife. ..."[6]
Br Olsen;184
Manx runestones
84
Thorwald's Cross: Br Olsen;185A (Andreas (III), MM 128)

Referred to as Thorwald's Cross, this stone cross is found in the church Andreas. Only attribution to the one who raised the stoneorvaldrremains of the message inscribed on the cross.[7] It has been badly damaged since it was recorded.[8] The stone depicts a bearded human holding a spear downward at a wolf, his right foot in its mouth, while a large bird sits at his shoulder.[9] Rundata dates it to 940,[7] while Pluskowski dates it to the 11th century.[9] This depiction has been interpreted as the Norse pagan god Odin, with a raven or eagle at his shoulder, being consumed by the wolf Fenrir during the events of Ragnark.[10] Next to the image is a depiction of a large cross and another image parallel to it that has been described as Christ triumphing over Satan.[11] These combined elements have led to the cross as being described Br Olsen;185A as "syncretic art"; a mixture of pagan and Christian beliefs.[9] Andy Orchard comments that the bird on Odin's shoulder may be either Huginn or Muninn, Odin's ravens.[12] Latin transliteration: urualtr (r)[aisti] (k)(r)(u)(s) ()[...] Old Norse transliteration: orvaldr reisti kross e[nna]. English translation: "orvaldr raised (this) cross."[7]
Br Olsen;185B (Andreas (IV), MM 113)

This stone cross is located in the church Andreas. It is engraved with short-twig runes and it is dated to the 10th century. What remains of the message informs that it was raised in memory of someone. Latin transliteration: [... ...ai]s[t]i : [k]rus : aina : aftiR ... Old Norse transliteration: ... reisti kross enna eptir ... English translation: "... raised this cross in memory of ..."[13]
Manx runestones
85
Br Olsen;185C (Andreas (V), MM 111)

Only fragments remain of this stone cross, and they are located in the church Andreas. The inscription has not been deciphered, but it is of note as it consists of unusual twig runes and bind runes. Latin transliteration: ... Old Norse transliteration: ... English translation: "..."[14]
Br Olsen;185C
Br Page1998;9 (Andreas (VI), MM 121)

Only a fragment remains of this slab of stone that was once part of a grave. It is dated to the Viking Age and it is located in the church Andreas. Too little remains of the inscription to allow any decipherment. Latin transliteration: kaOld Norse transliteration: ... English translation: "..."[15]
Br NOR1992;6B (Andreas (VII), MM 193)

This fragment was discovered at Larivane Cottage it is a slab of stone was once part of a grave. The inscription was made in relief form, and it is presently located in the Manx Museum. What remains of the inscription cannot be read. Latin transliteration: ...----... Old Norse transliteration: ... English translation: "..."[16]
Manx runestones
86
Ballaugh parish
Br Olsen;189 (Ballaugh, MM 106)
This stone cross is located in Ballaugh. The inscription consists of short-twig runes and they are dated to the second half of the 10th century. It was raised in memory of a son. Latin transliteration: oulaibr liu(t)ulbs| |sunr : r[ai](s)[ti k]rs * -na : ai(f)(t)ir * ...-b : sun [s]in Old Norse transliteration: leifr/leifr Ljtulfs sonr reisti kross [e]nna eptir [Ul]f, son sinn. English translation: "leifr/leifr, Ljtulfrs son raised this cross in memory of Ulfr, his son."[17]
Br Olsen;189, Ballaug
Lezayre parish
Br Olsen;190A (Balleigh)
These fragments of a stone cross are found at Balleigh, and they are dated to the Viking Age. Only traces of runes remain and they cannot be read. Latin transliteration: ... Old Norse transliteration: ... English translation: "..."[18]
Braddan parish
Br Olsen;190B (Braddan (I), MM 112)
This stone cross is located in the church Braddan. The inscription consists of short-twig runes and they are dated to 930-950. It was raised in memory of a man. Latin transliteration: ()(u)(r)... : raisti : krus : ono : ift : ufaak : sun : krinais Old Norse transliteration: orsteinn reisti kross enna ept feig, son Krnns. English translation: "orsteinn raised this cross in memory of feigr, the son of Krnn."[19]
Manx runestones
87
Br Olsen;191A (Braddan (II), MM 138)

This stone cross is found in the church Braddan. The inscription consists of short-twig runes and it is dated to the second half of the 10th century. It reports betrayal. Latin transliteration: ... ...(n) roskitil : uilti : i : triku : aisoara : siin Old Norse transliteration: ... [e]n Hrossketill vlti tryggu eisvara sinn. English translation: "... but Hrosketill betrayed the faith of his sworn confederate."[20]
Br Olsen;191A
Br Olsen;191B (Braddan (III), MM 136)

This stone cross is found in the church Braddan. The inscription consists of short-twig runes and it is dated to the 980s. The runemaster is identified as man named Thorbjrn, who also made Br Olsen;193A, below.[21] It has been badly damaged since it was recorded.[8] Latin transliteration: utr : risti : krus : ono : aft : fro(k)(a) [: f](a)()[ur sin : in :] ()[urbiaurn : ...] Old Norse transliteration: Oddr reisti kross enna ept Frakka, fur sinn, en orbjrn ... English translation: "Oddr raised this cross in memory of Frakki, his father, but ... ..."[21]
Br Olsen;191B
Br Olsen;193A (Braddan (IV), MM 135)

This runestone which is dated to the 980s is found in the church Braddan. The inscription consists of short-twig runes and they were made by the runemaster Thorbjrn, like Br Olsen;191B, above. It was made in memory of a son. Latin transliteration: urlibr : nhaki : risti : krus : ono : aft [:] fiak : s(u)[n] (s)in : (b)ruur:sun : habrs {IHSVS} Old Norse transliteration: orleifr Hnakki reisti kross enna ept Fiak, son sinn, brurson Hafrs. {<ihsvs>} English translation: "orleifr the Neck raised this cross in memory of Fiak, his son, Hafr's brothers son. {<ihsvs>}"[22]
Br Olsen;193A
Manx runestones
88
Br Page1998;20 (Braddan (V), MM 176)

This fragment of a runestone is located in Manx Museum. It is probably from the Viking Age, but as of 2006, it had not yet been analysed. Latin transliteration: ... Old Norse transliteration: ... English translation: "..."[23]
Br NOR1992;6A (Braddan (VI), MM 200)

This runestone consists of a fragment of slate. It is dated to the Viking Age and it is located in Manx Museum. The only message that remains consists of "made". Latin transliteration: ...---r--nr * kiri * ... Old Norse transliteration: ... geri ... English translation: "... made ..."[24] geri would also translate into modern Swedish as gjorde or English did ... The meaning of the words made or did depends on the original context of the sentence as a whole (or at least the words surrounding this single word) , which here appears lost. The current use of the Swedish word gjorde is much more closely related to did than the word made. Which is intended is impossible to say here.
Bride parish
Br Olsen;193B (MM 118)
This stone cross is found in the church Bride. The inscription consists of short-twig runes and it is dated to between 930 and 950. It was raised in memory of a wife. Latin transliteration: [t]ruian : sur [t]u(f)kals : raisti krs ina : a(f)[t] amiu... : kunu si[n...] Old Norse transliteration: Druian, sonr Dufgals, reisti kross enna ept Amiu[l], konu sn[a]. English translation: "Druian, Dufgal's son raised this cross in memory of Amiu[l], his wife."[25]
Manx runestones
89
Onchan parish
Br Olsen;194 (MM 141)
This runestone consists of a short-twig runic inscription on an old Irish stone cross. The inscriptions A, B and C date from the Viking Age, while D is later. A and B were made by the same scribe, C and D were made by a second and a third one, while a fourth scribe made E, F and G. Latin transliteration: A ...(a) sunr raisti if(t) [k](u)[i](n)(u) (s)(i)(n)(a) B murkialu m... C uk ik at auk ra ik r...t D a=lns E kru... F isu krist G uri raist rune... Old Norse transliteration: A ... sonr reisti ept konu sna B Myrgjl ... C Hygg ek at ok r ek r[]tt. D Alleins. E Kro[ss] F Jsu Krist G r reist rna[r]. English translation: A "...'s son raised (this) in memory of his wife" B "Myrgjl ..." C "I examine (the runes) and I interpret (them) rightly.(?)" D "in agreement(?)" E "Cross" F "Jesus Christ" G "r carved the runes."[26]
Br Olsen;194
Manx runestones
90
German parish
Br Olsen;199 (German (I), MM 107)
This stone cross is located in the chapel of Saint John. The inscription is in short-twig runes and it is dated to between 930-950. The inscription is secondary and it is poorly preserved. Only a few main staffs are visible. Latin transliteration: ... in o(s)(r)(u)()(r) : raist : runar : sar ----- Old Norse transliteration: ... En srr reist rnar essar. ... ... English translation: "... and srr carved these runes. ... ..."[27]
Br Olsen;199
Br Olsen;200A (German (II), MM 140)

This stone cross is presently found in Manx Museum. The inscription is in short-twig runes, but it may be later than the Viking Age. It was inscribed in memory of a wife. Latin transliteration: ... ... ...(u)s * ense * efter * asrii * kunu sina * (t)(u)(t)ur * ut... ...Old Norse transliteration: ... ... [kr]oss enna eptir stri, konu sna, dttur Odd[s]. ... English translation: "... ... this cross in memory of strr, his wife, Oddr's daughter ..."[28]
Br Olsen;200A
Manx runestones
91
Jurby parish
Br Olsen;200B (MM 127)
This stone cross is found in Jurby and the short-twig runes are dated to the second half of the 10th century.[29] It has been badly damaged since it was recorded.[8] One of the figures depicted on the cross holds a small sword in his right hand and an Alpine horn in his left while a raven flies overhead. It has been suggested that this figure represents the Norse pagan deity Heimdall holding the Gjallarhorn, used to announce the coming of Ragnark.[30] Latin transliteration: [... ... ...un * si]n : in : onon : raiti --- * aftir urb-... Old Norse transliteration: ... ... [s]on sinn, en annan reisti/rtti [hann](?) eptir or... English translation: "... ... his son and raised(?) another ... in memory of orb-..."[29]
Br Olsen;200B
Marown parish
Br Olsen;201 (MM 139)
This stone cross is located in Saint Trinian's chapel. The short-twig inscription is dated to the Viking Age. Latin transliteration: urbiaurn : risti : krus : (o)-... Old Norse transliteration: orbjrn reisti kross e[nna]. English translation: "orbjrn raised this cross."[31]
Maughold parish
Br Olsen;202A (Maughold (I), MM 145)
This runic inscription is found on a stone slab that was used in a grave. It is located near the church Maughold. The inscription is dated to the second half of the 12th century, and it was made by the same runemaster as Br Olsen;202B. On the stone can also be seen the first half of the Ogham alphabet. Latin transliteration: (i)(u)an + brist + raisti + asir + runur + [f]uor(k)(h)niastbml + Old Norse transliteration: Jan prestr reisti essar rnar. <fuorkhniastbml> English translation:
Manx runestones "Jan the priest carved these runes. Fuorkhniastbml"[32]
92
Br Olsen;202B (Maughold (II), MM 144)

This inscription is found on a slab of stone that was used in a grave. It was discovered at the upper end of the Corna valley, but is presently found at the church Maughold. The short-twig inscription is dated to the second half of the 12th century and it was made by the same runemaster as Br Olsen;202A. Latin transliteration: + kris : malaki : ok bar(i)k : (a)(a)(n)man () [...nal] * sau * a... * iuan * brist * i kurnaal * Old Norse transliteration: Kristr, Malaki ok Patrik. Adamnn ... ... ... Jan prestr Kornadal. English translation: "Christ, Malachi, and Patrick. Adamnn ... Jon the priest in Kornadalr."[33]
Br Olsen;205A (Maughold (III), MM 133)

This fragment of a stone cross was found in Ballagilley. It is presently located at the church Maughold. It is dated to the Viking Age but only four runes remain of the inscription. Latin transliteration: ... Old Norse transliteration: ... English translation: "..."[34]
Br Olsen;205B (Maughold (IV), MM 142)

This inscription is dated to c. 1000 and found on a slab of stone that was used in a grave, and it is located at the church Maughold. The inscription is in long-branch runes, except for the s rune, and there is reason to believe that it was made by a visitor to the Isle of Man. Latin transliteration: A hein : seti : krus : ino : eftir : tutur : sino lif... lifilt B arni : risti : runar : isar C sikur Old Norse transliteration: A Heinn setti kross enna eptir dttur sna Hlf[hildi]. Hlfhildi. B rni risti rnar essar. C Sigurr. English translation: A "Heinn placed this cross in memory of his daughter Hlf(hildr). Hlfhildr." B "rni carved these runes." C "Sigurr."[35]
Manx runestones
93
Br Page1998;21 (Maughold (V), MM 175)

This inscription is found on a slab of stone that was used in a grave. It is located in the Manx Museum. It is in short-twig runes and it is dated to the Viking Age. It was engraved in memory of a wife. Latin transliteration: kuan sunr mailb---ak... + kiri + lik+tinn i(f)tir + + kuina sina + Old Norse transliteration: <kuan>, sonr <mailb---ak...> geri lkstein(?) eptir kona sna. English translation: "<kuan>, son of <mailb---ak...> made the tomb-stone(?) in memory of his wife."[36]
Michael parish
Br Olsen;208A (Kirk Michael (I), MM 102)
This fragment of a stone cross is located in the church Kirk Michael. The inscription in short-twig runes is dated to the Viking Age. Latin transliteration: ... [kru](s) : na : af[tir : ...] Old Norse transliteration: ... kross enna eptir ... English translation: "... this cross in memory of ..."[37]
Br Olsen;208A
Manx runestones
94
Br Olsen;208B (Kirk Michael (II), MM 101)

This stone cross is located in the church Kirk Michael, and it is dated to the Viking Age. The inscription is in short-twig runes and it was dedicated to a man while he was alive. Latin transliteration: mail:brikti : sunr : aakans : smi : raisti : krus : ano : fur : salu : sina : sin:bruku in : kaut kiri : ano : auk ala : i maun Old Norse transliteration: Melbrigi, sonr Aakns Smis, reisti kross enna fyr slu sna synd...(?), en Gautr geri enna ok alla Mn.[38] English translation: "Melbrigi, the son of Aakn the Smith, raised this cross for his sin ... soul, but Gautr made this and all in Man."
Br Olsen;208B
Br Olsen;215 (Kirk Michael (III), MM 130)

This is an old Irish stone cross that received an inscription in long branch runes, and it was probably by a Danish visitor in the 11th century. There are ogham inscriptions on both sides. Latin transliteration: mal:lymkun : raisti : krus : ena : efter : mal:mury : fustra : si(n)e : tot(o)r : tufkals : kona : is : aisl : ati + ...etra : es : laifa : fustra : kuan : an : son : ilan + Old Norse transliteration: <mallymkun> reisti kross enna eptir <malmury> fstra sn, dttir Dufgals, kona er Asl tti. Betra er leifa fstra gan en son illan. English translation:
Br Olsen;215
"<Mallymkun> raised this cross in memory of <Malmury>, his foster(-mother?), Dufgal's daughter, the wife whom Asl owned (= was married to). (It) is better to leave a good foster-son than a wretched son."[39]
Manx runestones
95
Br Olsen;217A (Kirk Michael (IV), MM 126)

This is a stone cross that is found in the church Michael. The inscription with short-twig runes was made in the second half of the 11th century. Latin transliteration: [k](r)i(m) : risti : krus : na : ift : rum(u)... ... Old Norse transliteration: Grmr reisti kross enna ept Hrmu[nd] ... English translation: "Grmr raised this cross in memory of Hrmundr ... his ..."[40]
Br Olsen;217A
Br Olsen;217B (Kirk Michael (V), MM 132)

This is a stone cross that is located in the church Michael. The inscription in short-twig runes was made in the 980s by a runemaster named Thorbjrn. Latin transliteration: + iualfir : sunr : urulfs : hins : raua : ris(t)i : krus : ono : aft : friu : muur : sino + Old Norse transliteration: <iualfir>, sonr rulfs hins Raua, reisti kross enna ept Fru, mur sna. English translation: "<iualfir>, the son of rulfr the Red, raised this cross in memory of Fra, his mother."[41]
Br Olsen;217A
Br Olsen;218A (Kirk Michael (VI), MM 129)

This stone cross is located in the church Michael. It was engraved with short-twig runes in the second half of the 10th century. Latin transliteration: ... (k)rims : ins : suarta Old Norse transliteration: ... Grms/...grms hins Svarta.
Br Olsen;218A
English translation: "... (of) Grmr/-grmr the Black."[42]
Manx runestones
96
Br Olsen;218B (Kirk Michael (VII), MM 110)

This fragment of a stone cross is located in the church Kirk Michael. The inscription was made in short-twig runes between 930 and 950. Latin transliteration: ... runar ... Old Norse transliteration: ... rnar ... English translation: "... runes ..."[43]
Br Olsen;219 (Kirk Michael (VIII), MM 123)

This fragment of a stone cross is located in the church Kirk Michael. The inscription was made during the Viking Age with short-twig runes. Latin transliteration: ... : [ai](f)(t)(i)(r) * (m)(u)... * (u)... Old Norse transliteration: ... eptir <mu-> ... English translation: "... in memory of <mu-> ..."[44]
Notes
[1] Page 1983:227 [2] Page 1983:228 [3] Page 1983:229 [4] Page 1983:225 [5] Entry Br Olsen;183 in Rundata 2.0 [6] Entry Br Olsen;184 in Rundata 2.0 [7] Entry Br Olsen;185A in Rundata 2.0 [8] Page 1983:226 [9] Pluskowski (2004:158). [10] Pluskowski (2004:158) and Jansson (1987:152) [11] Hunter, Ralston (1999:200). [12] Orchard (1997:115). [13] Entry Br Olsen;185B in Rundata 2.0 [14] Entry Br Olsen;185C in Rundata 2.0 [15] Entry Br Page1998;9 in Rundata 2.0 [16] Entry Br NOR1992;6B in Rundata 2.0 [17] Entry Br Olsen;189 in Rundata 2.0 [18] Entry Br Olsen;190A in Rundata 2.0 [19] Entry Br Olsen;190B in Rundata 2.0 [20] Entry Br Olsen;191A in Rundata 2.0 [21] Entry Br Olsen;191B in Rundata 2.0 [22] Entry Br Olsen;193A in Rundata 2.0 [23] Entry Br Page1998;20 in Rundata 2.0 [24] Entry Br NOR1992;6A in Rundata 2.0 [25] Entry Br Olsen;193B in Rundata 2.0 [26] [27] [28] [29] Entry Br Olsen;194 in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;199 in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;200A in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;200B in Rundata 2.0
Manx runestones
[30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] Kermode (2005 [1907]:188). Entry Br Olsen;201 in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;202A in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;202B in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;205A in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;205B in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Page1998;21 in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;208A in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;208B in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;215in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;217A in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;217B in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;218A in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;218B in Rundata 2.0 Entry Br Olsen;219 in Rundata 2.0
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References
Cumming, J. G. (1857) The Runic and Other Monumental Remains of the Isle of Man (http://www.archive.org/ stream/runicothermonume00cummrich) Hunter, John. Ralston, Ian (1999). The Archaeology of Britain: An Introduction. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-13587-7 Kermode, Philip Moore C. (1892). Catalogue of the Manx Crosses with the Runic Inscriptions and Various Readings and Renderings (http://www.archive.org/stream/catalogueofmanxc00kermrich). Kermode, Philip Moore C. (2005 reprint of 1907 Bemrose ed.)). Manx Crosses or The Inscribed and Sculptured Monuments of the Isle of Man From About the End of the Fifth to the Beginning of the Thirteenth Century (http:// books.google.com/books?id=WirasDmT2C8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage& q=&f=false). Elibron Classics. pp.188. ISBN14021192789 . Page, R. I. (1983) "The Manx Rune-stones", in Parsons, D. (ed). (1995). Runes and Runic Inscriptions. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. Pluskowski, Aleks (2004). "Apocalyptic Monsters: Animal Inspirations for the Iconography of Medieval Northern Devourers" (http://books.google.com/books?id=5M7JElJtK8AC&printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Bildhauer, Bettina; Mills, Robert. The Monstrous Middle Ages. University of Toronto Press. ISBN0-8020-8667-5. Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-34520-2 Rundata 2.0
Medieval runes
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Medieval runes
Medieval runes
Type Languages Time period alphabet North Germanic languages 12th to 17th centuries
Parent systems Phoenician alphabet Greek alphabet (Cumae variant) Old Italic alphabets Elder Futhark Younger Futhark Child systems Dalecarlian runes Medieval runes
This article is part of a series on: Old Norse
The medieval runes, or the futhork, was a Scandinavian 27 letter runic alphabet that evolved from the Younger Futhark after the introduction of dotted runes at the end of the Viking Age and it was fully formed in the early 13th century. Due to the expansion, each rune corresponded to only one phoneme, whereas the runes in the preceding Younger Futhark could correspond to several.[1] The medieval runes were in use throughout Scandinavia during the Middle Ages, and provided the basis for the appearance of runology in the 16th century.
Medieval runes
99
History and use

Towards the end of the 11th century, the runic alphabet met competition from the introduced Latin alphabet, but instead of being replaced, the runes continued to be used for writing in the native Old Norse language. The Latin alphabet, on the other hand, was mainly used by the clergy for writing in Latin, but also Latin prayers could be written down with runes. Whereas the Latin letters were written with quill and ink on expensive parchment, the runes were carved with sharp objects on prepared wood staffs that were cheaper[2] (see e.g. the Bryggen inscriptions). Although, it may at first appear that the church did not provide a congenial environment for tradition of writing in medieval runes, there are many known church objects that were engraved with runes, such as reliquaries, bells, baptismal fonts, iron work on church doors, church porches and church walls.[3] In fact, one of the last runestones was raised in memory of the archbishop Absalon (d. 1201).[4]
Evolution
Most of the runes in the medieval runic alphabet can be traced back to forms in the Younger Futhark as the runemasters preferred to use, or modify, old runes for new phonemes rather than invent new runes.[5]
A church bell from Saleby, Vstergtland, Sweden, containing a runic inscription from 1228.
At the end of the 10th century, or the early 11th century, three dotted runes were added in order to represent the phonemes in a more exact manner. Rather than create new runes for the /e/, // and /y/ phonemes, dots were added to the i, k and u runes.[5] At the mid-11th century, the and the R runes had become obsolete, and instead they were reused for other phonemes. When the distinction between /r/ and // was lost, the R rune was used for /y/ instead, and when the nasal // changed into /o/, this became the new phoneme for the rune.[5] Towards the end of the 11th century and in the early 12th century, new d and p runes were created through the addition of dots to the t and b runes.[5] When the medieval runic alphabet was fully developed in the early 13th century, it mixed short-twig and long-branch runes in a novel manner. The short-twig a rune represented /a/, while the long-branch one represented //. The short-twig rune represented /o/, whereas the long-branch form represented //.[5]
Medieval Runes
Medieval runes
100
Mutual influences
As the two alphabets were used alongside each other, there was a mutual influence. The Latin alphabet early borrowed the rune to represent the // and // phonemes, but in Denmark it was rarely used. In the 15th century, Norwegians and Swedes also stopped using the letter, but the Icelanders still retain it in their Latin alphabet. Due to the Latin alphabet the m and the l runes changed places so the rune row read fuorkniastblmy (note that the last rune had come to represent the /y/ phoneme). In addition, Scandinavians began to double spell runes for consonants, influenced by this use in the Latin alphabet.[2] In the oldest Scandinavian manuscripts that were written with Latin letters, the m rune was used as a conceptual rune meaning "man". This suggests that the medieval Scandinavian scribes had a widespread familiarity with the names and the meanings of the individual runes. In the oldest preserved manuscript of the Poetic Edda from 1270, and which is written with the Latin alphabet, the m is used as a conceptual rune meaning "man" and in Hvaml it appears 43 times.[6]
Competition
In the early 13th century, the runes began to be threatened by the Latin letters as the medieval Scandinavian laws were written. Until then, the laws had been memorized and recited by the lawspeakers. Still, when the runes began to experience competition, they went through a renaissance. A thorough reformation of the runes appeared and the medieval runes reached their most complete form. This may be because the laws were written down, and the oldest manuscript with a Scandinavian law, the Codex Runicus, was written entirely in runes.[6]
Leaf (f. 27r.) of Codex Runicus, a vellum manuscript from c. 1300 containing one of the oldest and best preserved texts of the Scanian Law, written entirely in runes.
Continuity and legacy

The Latin letters were introduced officially during the 13th century, but farmers, artisans and traders continued to write with runes to communicate or to mark goods.[6] It appears that in many parts of Sweden, people considered Latin letters to be a foreign practice throughout the Middle Ages.[7] Still in the 16th century, the runes were engraved on official memorials or as secret writing in diaries.[6] In the mid-16th century, the parson of the parish of Runsten[8] on land wrote a sign on the A 16th century depiction of children being educated in runelore. chancel-wall of the church that said "The pastor of the parish should know how to read runes and write them". It is likely that the text represented the general opinion of the parishioners.[9] Since the runes were still actively known and used in the 16th century, when the first runologists began to do scholarly work on the runes, the runic tradition never died out.[6]
Medieval runes When Linnaeus visited the province Dalarna in 1734, he noted the common use of runes,[10] and this province has been called "the last stronghold of the Germanic script". In Dalarna as in the rest of Sweden, the medieval tradition of using runic calendars was almost universal until the 19th century. A notable case of a runic calendar is the calendar from Gammalsvenskby in Ukraine. It was made on Dag in 1766 before the Swedish settlement was deported on a forced march to the steppes of Ukraine.[7] During 134 years, the people of Gammalsvenskby in Ukraine used it to calculate the passage of time, until 1900 when a member of the community brought it to Stockholm.[10] The prominent Swedish runologist Jansson commented on the use of runes in his country with the following words: We loyally went on using the script inherited from our forefathers. We clung tenaciously to our runes, longer than any other nation. And thus our incomparable wealth of runic inscriptions also reminds us of how incomparably slow we were - slow and as if reluctant - to join the company of the civilised nations of Europe.[9]
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Notes
[1] Enoksen 1998:137 [2] Enoksen 1998:140 [3] Jansson 1997:165 [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Jansson 1997:166 Enoksen 1998:136 Enoksen 1998:141 Jansson 1997:173 The parish name is homonymous with the Swedish word for "runestone" but is actually of different origin. "Runsten [frsamling]", Nationalencyklopedin, (http:/ / www. ne. se/ jsp/ search/ article. jsp?i_art_id=296543) [9] Jansson 1997:175 [10] Jansson 1997:174
References
Enoksen, Lars Magnar (1998). Runor: historia, tydning, tolkning. Historiska Media, Falun. ISBN 91-88930-32-7 Jansson, Sven B. F. (1997 [1987]). Runes in Sweden. Stockholm, Gidlund. ISBN 91-7844-067-X
Naudiz
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Naudiz
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse Naur
Name
*Nauiz
Ny "need, hardship"
Elder Futhark
Futhorc
Younger Futhark
Shape
U+16BE
U+16BF
n n
[n]
8
*Naudiz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the n-rune , meaning "need, distress". In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as nyd, in the Younger Futhark as , Icelandic naud and Old Norse naur. The corresponding Gothic letter is n, named naus. The rune is recorded in all three rune poems:
Rune Poem: [1] English Translation: Constraint gives scant choice; a naked man is chilled by the frost.
Old Norwegian Naur gerer nppa koste; nktan klr froste. Old Icelandic Nau er jar r ok ungr kostr ok vssamlig verk. opera niflungr. Anglo-Saxon Nyd by nearu on breostan; weore hi eah oft nia bearnum to helpe and to hle gehwre, gif hi his hlysta ror.
Constraint is grief of the bond-maid and state of oppression and toilsome work.
Trouble is oppressive to the heart; yet often it proves a source of help and salvation to the children of men, to everyone who heeds it betimes.
References
North Germanic languages
103

North Germanic
Scandinavian Geographic distribution: Northern Europe
Linguistic classification: Indo-European Germanic Proto-language: Subdivisions: North Germanic
Proto-Norse Icelandic Faroese Norwegian Danish Swedish
ISO 639-5:
gmq
North Germanic languages Continental Scandinavian languages: Danish Norwegian Swedish Insular Scandinavian languages: Faroese Icelandic
The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages, the languages of Scandinavians, make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is sometimes referred to as the Nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common term used among Danish, Swedish and Norwegian scholars and laypeople. In Scandinavia, Scandinavian languages is also used as a term referring specifically to the mutually intelligible languages of the three Scandinavian countries, and is thus used in a more narrow sense as a subset of the Nordic languages. The term Scandinavian arose in the 18th century, as a result of the early linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement, referring to the peoples, cultures and languages of the three Scandinavian countries and stressing their common heritage. The term "North Germanic languages" is used in genetic linguistics,[1] while the term "Scandinavian languages" appears in studies of the modern standard languages and the dialect continuum of Scandinavia.[2][3]
North Germanic languages Approximately 20 million people in the Nordic countries have a Scandinavian language as their mother tongue,[4] including a Swedish minority in Finland. Languages belonging to the North Germanic language tree are, to some extent, spoken on Greenland and by emigrant groups mainly in North America and Australia.
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History
Origins and characteristics
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North Germanic.[5] Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible to some degree during the Migration Period, so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify. Dialects with the features assigned to the northern group formed from Proto-Germanic in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age. From around the year 200 AD, speakers of the North Germanic branch became distinguishable from the other Germanic language speakers. The early development of this language branch is attested through Runic inscriptions. Features shared with West Germanic The North Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations shared with West Germanic: The retraction of Proto-Germanic (//, also written ) to .[6] Proto-Germanic *jraN ("year") > North/West Germanic *jraN > North Germanic *ra > Old Norse r, and > West Germanic *jra > Old High German jr, Old English ar /jr/. Compare Gothic jr. The raising of // to /o/ (and word-finally to /u/). The original vowel remained when nasalised *N // and when before /z/, and was then later lowered to //. Proto-Germanic *geb ("gift", /e/) > North/West Germanic *gebu > North Germanic *gjavu > (by u-umlaut) *gjvu > Old Norse gjf, and > West Germanic *gebu > Old English giefu. In Gothic, the result was a low vowel instead: giba. Proto-Germanic *tungN ("tongue", /tu/) > late North/West Germanic *tung > *tunga > Old Norse tunga, Old High German zunga, Old English tunge (unstressed a > e). Compare Gothic tugg. Proto-Germanic *gebz ("of a gift", /ez/) > late North/West Germanic *gebz > North Germanic *gjavaz > Old Norse gjafar, and > West Germanic *geba > Old High German geba, Old English giefe (unstressed a > e). Compare Gothic gibs. The development of i-umlaut. The rhotacism of /z/ to /r/, with presumably a rhotic fricative of some kind as an earlier stage. This change probably affected West Germanic much earlier and then spread from there to North Germanic, but failed to reach East Germanic which had already split off by that time. This is confirmed by an intermediate stage , clearly attested in late runic East Norse at a time when West Germanic had long merged the sound with /r/. The development of the demonstrative pronoun ancestral to English this. Some have argued that after East Germanic broke off from the group, the remaining Germanic languages, the Northwest Germanic languages, divided into four main dialects:[7] North Germanic, and the three groups conventionally called "West Germanic", namely 1. North Sea Germanic (Ingvaeonic, ancestral to Anglo-Frisian and Low German) 2. Weser-Rhine Germanic (Istvaeonic, ancestral to Low Franconian) 3. Elbe Germanic (Irminonic, ancestral to High German)
North Germanic languages Under this view, the properties that the West Germanic languages have in common separate from the North Germanic languages are not inherited from a "Proto-West-Germanic" language, but rather spread by language contact among the Germanic languages spoken in central Europe, not reaching those spoken in Scandinavia. Unique North Germanic features Some innovations are not found in West and East Germanic such as: Sharpening of geminate /jj/ and /ww/ according to Holtzmann's law Occurred also in East Germanic, but with a different outcome. Proto-Germanic *twajjN ("of two") > Old Norse tveggja, Gothic twaddj, but > Old High German zweiio Word-final devoicing of plosives. Proto-Germanic *band ("I/he bound") > *bant > Old West Norse batt, Old East Norse bant, but Old English band Loss of medial /h/ with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel and the following consonant, if present. Proto-Germanic *nahtuN ("night", accusative) > *nttu > (by u-umlaut) *nttu > Old Norse ntt /i/ > // before /r/ (but not /z/) Proto-Germanic *sairaz ("sore") > *sraz > *srz > Old Norse srr, but > *seira > Old High German sr. With original /z/ Proto-Germanic *gaizaz > *geizz > Old Norse geirr. General loss of word-final /n/, following the loss of word-final short vowels (which are still present in the earliest runic inscriptions). Proto-Germanic *bindanaN > *bindan > Old Norse binda, but > Old English bindan. This also affected stressed syllables: Proto-Germanic *in > Old Norse Vowel breaking of /e/ to /j/ except after w, j or l (see "gift" above). The diphthong /eu/ was also affected (also l), shifting to /ju/ at an early stage. This dipththong is preserved in Old Gutnish and survives in Modern Gutnish. In other Norse dialects, the /j/-onset and length remained, but the diphthong simplified resulting in variously /ju/ or /jo/. This affected only stressed syllables. The word *ek ("I"), which could occur both stressed and unstressed, appears varyingly as ek (unstressed, with no breaking) and jak (stressed, with breaking) throughout Old Norse. Loss of initial /j/ (see "year" above), and also of /w/ before a round vowel. Proto-Germanic *wulfaz > early North Germanic wulfaz > late ulfz > Old Norse ulfr The development of u-umlaut, which rounded stressed vowels when /u/ or /w/ followed in the next syllable. This followed vowel breaking, with ja /j/ being u-umlauted to j /j/.
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106
Middle Ages
After the Proto-Norse and Old Norse periods, the North Germanic languages developed into an East Scandinavian branch, consisting of Danish and Swedish; and a West Scandinavian branch, consisting of Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic.[8] Norwegian settlers brought Old West Norse to Iceland and the Faroe islands around 800 AD. Of the modern Scandinavian languages, written Icelandic is closest to this ancient language.[9] An additional language, known as Norn, developed on Orkney and Shetland after Vikings had settled there around 800 AD, but this language became extinct around 1700.[4]
In medieval times, speakers of all the Scandinavian languages could understand one another to a significant degree and it was often referred to as a single language, called the "Danish tongue" until the 13th century by some in Sweden[9] and Iceland.[10] In the 16th century, many Danes and Swedes still referred to North Germanic as a single language, which is stated in the introduction to the first Danish translation of the Bible and in Olaus Magnus' A Description of the Northern Peoples. Dialectal variation between west and east in Old Norse however was certainly present during the Middle Ages and three dialects had emerged: Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old Icelandic was essentially identical to Old Norwegian, and together they formed the Old West Norse dialect of Old Norse and were also spoken in settlements in the Faroe Islands, Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Norwegian settlements in Normandy.[11] The Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Russia,[12] England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East. Yet, by 1600, another classification of the North Germanic language branches had arisen from a syntactic point of view,[4] dividing them into an insular group (Icelandic and Faroese) and a continental group (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). The division between Insular Scandinavian (nordiska/nordisk/ynordisk)[13] and Continental Scandinavian (Skandinavisk)[14] is based on mutual intelligibility between the two groups and developed due to different influences, particularly the political union of Denmark and Norway (15361814) which lead to significant Danish influence on central and eastern Norwegian dialects (Bokml or Dano-Norwegian).[3]
The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century: Old West Norse dialectOld East Norse dialectOld GutnishOld EnglishCrimean Gothic Other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility
Number of speakers
107
Language Swedish Danish
Speakers 10,000,000 300,000 Swedish-speaking Finns 6,000,000
Notes
Norwegian 5,000,000 Icelandic Faroese 320,000 70,000
approx. 85-90% prefer Bokml as their written standard, 10-15% Nynorsk
Jamtlandic 45,000 Elfdalian 3,000
Classification
In historical linguistics, the North Germanic family tree is divided into two main branches, West Scandinavian languages (Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic) and East Scandinavian languages (Danish and Swedish), along with various dialects and varieties. The two branches are derived from the western and eastern dialect group of Old Norse, respectively. There was also an Old Gutnish branch spoken on the island of Gotland. The East Scandinavian languages (and modern Norwegian, through Danish) were heavily influenced by Middle Low German during the period of Hanseatic expansion. Currently, English loanwords are influencing the languages. A 2005 survey of words used by speakers of the Scandinavian languages showed that the number of English loanwords used in the languages has doubled during the last 30 years and is now 1.2%. Icelandic has imported fewer English words than the other Scandinavian languages, despite the fact that it is the country that uses English most.[15]
The present-day distribution of the Germanic languages in Europe:North Germanic languagesIcelandic languageIcelandicFaroese languageFaroeseNorwegian languageNorwegianSwedish languageSwedishDanish languageDanishWest Germanic languagesScots languageScotsEnglish languageEnglishFrisian languagesFrisianDutch languageDutchLow GermanGerman languageGermanDots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.
Another way of classifying the languages focusing on mutual intelligibility rather than the tree of life-model posits Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish as Continental Scandinavian, and Faroese and Icelandic as Insular Scandinavian.[3] Because of the long political union between Norway and Denmark, moderate and conservative forms of Norwegian Bokml share most of the Danish vocabulary and grammar, and was virtually identical to written Danish until the spelling reform of 1907. (For this reason, Bokml and its unofficial, more conservative variant Riksml is sometimes considered East Scandinavian, and Nynorsk West Scandinavian via the West-East division shown above.[16]) However, Danish has developed a greater distance between the spoken and written versions of the language, so the differences between spoken Norwegian and Danish are somewhat more significant
North Germanic languages than the difference between the written. In writing, Danish is relatively close to the other Continental Scandinavian languages, but the sound developments of spoken Danish include reduction and assimilation of consonants and vowels, as well as the prosodic feature called std in Danish (lit. "push; thrust"), developments which have not occurred in the other languages (though the std corresponds to the different tones in Norwegian and Swedish, which are tonal languages). However, Scandinavians are widely expected to understand the other spoken Scandinavian languages. Some people may have some difficulties, particularly older people who speak a dialect, but most people can understand the standard languages, as they appear in radio and television, of the other Scandinavian countries. Sweden left the Kalmar union in 1523 due to conflicts with Denmark, leaving two Scandinavian units: the union of Denmark-Norway (ruled from Copenhagen, Denmark) and Sweden (including present-day Finland). The two countries were taking different sides during several wars until 1814 and made different international contacts. This led to different borrowings from foreign languages (Sweden had a francophile period), for example the older Swedish word vindga (window) was replaced by fnster, whilst native vindue was kept in Danish. Norwegians, who spoke (and still speak) the Norwegian dialects derived from Old Norse, would say vindauga or similar. The written language of Denmark-Norway however, was based on the dialect of Copenhagen and thus had vindue. On the other hand, the word begynde (begin, now written begynne in Norwegian Bokml) was borrowed into Danish and Norwegian, whilst native brja was kept in Swedish. Even though standard Swedish and Danish were moving apart, the dialects were not influenced that much. Thus Norwegian and Swedish would still be similar in pronunciation, and words like brja would be able to survive in some of the Norwegian dialects whilst vindga survived in some of the Swedish dialects. The minority written standard of Norwegian (Nynorsk) incorporates a great portion of these words, like byrja, veke (Swedish vecka, Danish uge) and vatn (Swedish vatten, Danish vand) whereas Bokml has kept the Danish forms (begynne, uke, vann). This way Nynorsk is causing trouble for the above model, as it shares a lot of features with Swedish. According to Norwegian linguist Arne Torp, the Nynorsk project (whose goal was to re-establish a written Norwegian language) would be much harder to carry out if Norway had been in union with Sweden instead of Denmark, simply because the differences would be smaller.[17]
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Mutual intelligibility
See also Germanic languages#Vocabulary comparison. The mutual intelligibility between the Continental Scandinavian languages is asymmetrical. Various studies have shown Norwegian-speakers to be the best in Scandinavia at understanding other languages within the language group.[18][19] According to a study undertaken during 20022005 and funded by the Nordic Cultural Fund, Swedish-speakers in Stockholm and Danish-speakers in Copenhagen have the greatest difficulty in understanding other Nordic languages.[15] The study, which focused mainly on native speakers under the age of 25, showed that the lowest ability to comprehend another language is demonstrated by youth in Stockholm in regard to Danish, producing the lowest ability score in the survey. The greatest variation in results between participants within the same country was also demonstrated by the Swedish-speakers in the study. Participants from Malm, located in the southernmost Swedish province of Scania, demonstrated a better understanding of Danish than Swedish-speakers to the north. Access to Danish television and radio, direct trains to Copenhagen over the Oresund Bridge and a larger number of cross-border commuters in the Oresund Region contribute to a better knowledge of spoken Danish and a better knowledge of the unique Danish words among the region's inhabitants. According to the study, youth in this region were able to understand the Danish language (slightly) better than the Norwegian language. But they still could not understand Danish as well as the Norwegians could, demonstrating once again the relative distance of Swedish from Danish; and youth in Copenhagen had a very poor command of Swedish, showing that the Oresund connection was mostly one-way. The results from the study of how well native youth in different Scandinavian cities did when tested on their knowledge of the other Continental Scandinavian languages are summarized in table format,[18] reproduced below. The maximum score was 10.0:
109
City
Comprehension Comprehension Comprehension Average of Danish of Swedish of Norwegian 3.74 3.60 5.08 3.46 7.50 6.57 6.15 7.12 4.68 4.13 4.97 5.56 4.21 3.87 5.02 4.51 6.32 6.85
rhus, Denmark Copenhagen, Denmark Malm, Sweden Stockholm, Sweden Bergen, Norway Oslo, Norway
Faroese speakers (of the Insular Scandinavian languages group) are even better than the Norwegians at comprehending two or more languages within the Continental Scandinavian languages group, scoring high in both Danish (which they study at school) and Norwegian and having the highest score on a Scandinavian language other than the mother tongue, as well as the highest average score. Icelandic speakers, in contrast, have a poor command of Norwegian and Swedish, even slightly worse than Stockholmers' command of Danish. They do somewhat better with Danish; they are often taught Danish in school, but unlike in the Faroes, it is not compulsory. When speakers of Faroese and Icelandic were tested on how well they understood the three Continental Scandinavian languages, the test results were as follows (maximum score 10.0):[18]
Area/ Country Faroe Islands Iceland Comprehension Comprehension Comprehension Average of Danish of Swedish of Norwegian 8.28 5.36 5.75 3.34 7.00 3.40 7.01 4.19
Vocabulary
The North Germanic Languages share many lexical, grammatical, phonological, and morphological similarities, to a more significant extent than the West Germanic Languages do. These lexical, grammatical, and morphological similarities can be outlined in the table below.
Language English Danish Icelandic Faroese Norwegian (Bokml) Sentence It was a moist, grey summer day in late June. Det var en fugtig, gr sommerdag i slutningen af juni. a var rakur, grr sumardagur lok jn. Ta var ein rakur/fuktigur, grur summardagur sst juni. Det var en fuktig, gr sommerdag i slutten av juni.
Norwegian (Nynorsk) Det var ein fuktig, gr sumardag/sommardag i slutten/enden av juni. Swedish Det var en fuktig, gr sommardag i slutet av juni.
Language boundaries
Given the aforementioned homogeneity, there exists some discussion on whether the continental group should be considered one or several languages. [20] The Scandinavian languages (in the narrow sense, i.e., the languages of Scandinavia) are often cited as proof of the aphorism "A language is a dialect with an army and navy". The differences in dialects within the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark can often be greater than the differences across the borders, but the political independence of these countries leads continental Scandinavian to be
North Germanic languages classified into Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish in the popular mind as well as among most linguists. The generally agreed upon language border is, in other words, politically shaped. This is also because of the strong influence of the standard languages, particularly in Denmark and Sweden.[20] Even if the language policy of Norway has been more tolerant of rural dialectal variation in formal language, the prestige dialect often referred to as "Eastern Urban Norwegian", spoken mainly in and around the Oslo region, can be considered to be quite normative. The formation of Nynorsk out of western Norwegian dialects after Norway became independent of Denmark in 1814 added to making linguistic divisions match the political ones. The Nordic Council has on several occasions referred to the (Germanic) languages spoken in Scandinavia as the "Scandinavian language" (singular); for instance, the official newsletter of the Nordic Council is written in the "Scandinavian language".[21] There has been some low-key speculation that future spelling reforms in Norway, Sweden and Denmark might opt for one unified written language, [22][23] but there are currently no official plans in that direction.
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Family tree
All North Germanic languages are descended from Old Norse. Divisions between subfamilies of North Germanic are rarely precisely defined: Most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and the most separated ones not. Proto-Norse West Scandinavian Greenlandic Norse (extinct) Icelandic Faroese Norn (extinct) Norwegian
Vestnorsk (Western and Southern Norway) Nordnorsk (Northern Norway) Nynorsk (written standard of Norwegian) East Scandinavian Danish Island Danish East Danish (Blekinge, Halland, Skne, Bornholm) Jutlandic (or Jutish, in Jutland) South Jutlandic (in South Jutland and Southern Schleswig) Swedish Dalecarlian dialects (Dalarna) Elfdalian (Dalarna) Sveaml (Svealand) Norrlndska ml (Norrland) Gtaml (Gtaland) Sydsvenska ml (Blekinge, Halland, Skne, southern Smland) stsvenska ml (Finland and formerly, Estonia) Jamtlandic (Jmtland) (disputed as an East Scandinavian language)
Gutnish Old Gutnish (extinct, Gotland) Modern Gutnish (Gotland)
North Germanic languages Beside the two official written norms of Norwegian, there exist two established unofficial norms: Riksml, similar to, but more conservative than Bokml, which is used to various extents by numerous people, especially in the cities and Hgnorsk "High-Norwegian", similar to Nynorsk, used by a very small minority. Jamtlandic shares many characteristics with both Trndersk and with Norrlndska ml. Due to this ambiguous position, it is contested whether Jamtlandic belongs to the West Norse or the East Norse language group.[24] lvdalsml "lvdalen Speech", generally considered a Sveaml dialect, today has an official orthography and is, because of a lack of mutual intelligibility with Swedish, considered as a separate language by many linguists.[25] Traveller Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are varieties of their respective language with Romani vocabulary, or Para-Romani, known as the Scando-Romani languages.[26] They are spoken by Norwegian and Swedish Travellers.
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Other languages in Scandinavia

Sami languages form an unrelated group that has coexisted with the North Germanic language group in Scandinavia since prehistory.[27] Sami, like Finnish, is part of the group of the Uralic languages.[28] In inter-Nordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions: Finnish, Icelandic, and one of the three languages Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.[29] During centuries of interaction, Finnish and Sami have imported many more loanwords from North Germanic languages than vice versa. The North-Germanic languages are majority languages in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, while Finnish is spoken by the majority in Finland. Another language in the Nordic countries is Greenlandic, the official language of Greenland. In southernmost Denmark, German is also spoken, being an official language there. Traditionally, Danish and German were the two official languages of Denmark-Norway.
References
[1] Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Language Family Trees Indo-European, Germanic, North (http:/ / www. ethnologue. com/ show_family. asp?subid=90971). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International [2] Scandinavian Dialect Syntax (http:/ / uit. no/ scandiasyn/ scandiasyn/ 1). Network for Scandinavian Dialect Syntax. Retrieved 11 November 2007. [3] Torp, Arne (2004). Nordiske sprog i fortid og nutid. Sproglighed og sprogforskelle, sprogfamilier og sprogslgtskab (http:/ / www. norden. org/ en/ publications/ publications/ 2004-010). Moderne nordiske sprog. In Nordens sprog med rdder og fdder. Nord 2004:010, ISBN 92-893-1041-3, Nordic Council of Ministers' Secretariat, Copenhagen 2004. (In Danish). [4] Holmberg, Anders and Christer Platzack (2005). "The Scandinavian languages". In The Comparative Syntax Handbook, eds Guglielmo Cinque and Richard S. Kayne. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Excerpt at Durham University (http:/ / www. dur. ac. uk/ anders. holmberg/ resources/ The Scandinavian Languages. pdf). [5] Hawkins, John A. (1987). "Germanic languages". In Bernard Comrie. The World's Major Languages. Oxford University Press. pp.6876. ISBN0-19-520521-9. [6] But see Cercignani, Fausto, Indo-European in Germanic, in Zeitschrift fr vergleichende Sprachforschung, 86/1, 1972, pp. 104110. [7] Kuhn, Hans (195556). "Zur Gliederung der germanischen Sprachen". Zeitschrift fr deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 86: 147. [8] Bandle, Oskar (ed.)(2005). The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages. Walter de Gruyter, 2005, ISBN 3-11-017149-X. [9] Lund, Jrn. Language (http:/ / www. um. dk/ Publikationer/ UM/ English/ FactsheetDenmark/ Language/ html/ chapter01. htm). Published online by Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Version 1-November 2003. Retrieved 13 November 2007. [10] Lindstrm, F. & Lindstrm, H. (2006). Svitjods undergng och Sveriges fdelse. Albert Bonniers Frlag. ISBN 91-0-011873-7 p.259 [11] A. J. Johnson Company, Johnson's universal cyclopedia: a new edition, pgs. 336 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=H8IXAQAAIAAJ& pg=PA336), 337 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=H8IXAQAAIAAJ& pg=PA337), 338 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=H8IXAQAAIAAJ& pg=PA338); 1895 D. Appleton and company & A. J. Johnson company [12] Article Nordiska sprk, section Historia, subsection Omkring 8001100, in Nationalencyklopedin (1994). [13] Jnsson, Jhannes Gsli and Thrhallur Eythrsson (2004). "Variation in subject case marking in Insular Scandinavian" (http:/ / journals. cambridge. org/ action/ displayAbstract;jsessionid=72768CEEDB6A49E6E7A7224C321A3A45. tomcat1?fromPage=online& aid=355925). Nordic Journal of Linguistics (2005), 28: 223245 Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 9 November 2007. [14] Heine, Bernd and Tania Kuteva (2006). The Changing Languages of Europe. Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-19-929734-7.

[15] "Urban misunderstandings". In Norden this week Monday 01.17.2005 (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20050213062716/ http:/ / www. norden. org/ norden_i_veckan/ 2005/ uk/ 050117. asp).The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers. Retrieved 13 November 2007. [16] Victor Ginsburgh, Shlomo Weber (2011). How many languages do we need?: the economics of linguistic diversity, Princeton University Press. p.42. [17] http:/ / www. uniforum. uio. no/ nyheter/ 2005/ 03/ nynorsk-noe-for-svensker. html [18] Delsing, Lars-Olof and Katarina Lundin kesson (2005). Hller sprket ihop Norden? En forskningsrapport om ungdomars frstelse av danska, svenska och norska. Available in pdf format (http:/ / www. norden. org/ sv/ publikationer/ publikationer/ 2005-573/ at_download/ publicationfile). Numbers are from Figure 4:11. "Grannsprksfrstelse bland infdda skandinaver frdelade p ort", p.65 and Figure 4:6. "Sammanlagt resultat p grannsprksunderskningen frdelat p omrde", p.58. [19] Maurud, (1976). Nabosprksforstelse i Skandinavia. En underskelse om gjensidig forstelse av tale- og skriftsprk i Danmark, Norge og Sverige. Nordisk utredningsserie 13. Nordiska rdet, Stockholm. [20] Nordens sprk - med rtter och ftter (http:/ / www. norden. org/ da/ publikationer/ publikationer/ 2004-008/ at_download/ publicationfile) [21] http:/ / www. norden. org/ en/ analys-norden/ special-issues/ september-2010-elections-in-sweden-pure-power-game [22] Movement to Create a Samnordisk (http:/ / www. sjsu. edu/ faculty/ watkins/ scandilan. htm) [23] Finlandssvensk som hovedsprk (http:/ / www. norden. org/ no/ aktuelt/ nyheter/ 201dfinlandssvensk-boer-vaere-hovedspraak-i-nordisk-union201d) [24] Dalen, Arnold (2005). Jemtsk og trndersk to nre slektningar (http:/ / www. sprakrad. no/ Trykksaker/ Spraaknytt/ Spraaknytt_3_2005/ Jemtsk_og_troendersk/ ). Sprkrdet, Norway. (In Norwegian). Retrieved 13 November 2007. [25] Sapir, Yair (2004). Elfdalian, the Vernacular of vdaln. Conference paper, 1819 juni 2004. Available in pdf format at Uppsala University online archive (http:/ / www. nordiska. uu. se/ arkiv/ konferenser/ alvdalska/ konferensbidrag/ Sapir. pdf). [26] LLOW Traveller Danish (http:/ / languageserver. uni-graz. at/ ls/ desc?id=233) [27] Sammallahti, Pekka, 1990. "The Smi Language: Past and Present". In Arctic Languages: An Awakening. (http:/ / unesdoc. unesco. org/ images/ 0008/ 000861/ 086162e. pdf) The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Paris. ISBN 92-3-102661-5, p. 440: "the arrival of a Uralic population and language in Samiland [...] means that there has been a period of at least 5000 years of uninterrupted linguistic and cultural development in Samiland. [...] It is also possible, however, that the earlier inhabitants of the area also spoke a Uralic language: we do not know of any linguistic groups in the area other than the Uralic and Indo-Europeans (represented by the present Scandinavian languages)." [28] Inez Svonni Fjllstrm (2006). "A language with deep roots" (http:/ / www. eng. samer. se/ servlet/ GetDoc?meta_id=1185).Spmi: Language history, 14 November 2006. Samiskt Informationscentrum Sametinget: "The Scandinavian languages are Northern Germanic languages. [...] Sami belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family. Finnish, Estonian, Livonian and Hungarian belong to the same language family and are consequently related to each other." [29] The Nordic Council's/Nordic Council of Ministers' political magazine Analys Norden (http:/ / www. analysnorden. org) offers three versions: a section labeled "slenska" (Icelandic), a section labeled "Skandinavisk" (in either Danish, Norwegian or Swedish), and a section labeled "Suomi" (Finnish).
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Further reading
Jervelund, Anita (2007), Sdan Staver Vi Kristiansen, Tore m.fl. (1996), Dansk Sproglre Lucazin, M (2010), Utkast till ortografi ver sknska sprket med morfologi och ordlista. Frsta revisionen (http://www.maniskor.se/isbn9789197726528.pdf), ISBN978-91-977265-2-8 Outlined scanian orthography including morphology and word index. First revision. Lucazin, M (2010), Utkast till ortografi ver sknska sprket med morfologi och ordlista (http://www.maniskor. se/isbn9789197726511cropmarked.pdf), ISBN978-91-977265-1-1 Outlined scanian orthography including morphology and word index. Iben Stampe Sletten red., Nordens sprog med rdder og fdder, 2005, ISBN 92-893-1041-3, available online (http://www.norden.org/da/publikationer/publikationer/2004-010), also available in the other Scandinavian languages
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External links
Ethnologue Report for North Germanic (http://www.ethnologue.com/15/show_family.asp?subid=90971) Middle Low German influence on the Scandinavian languages (http://germanic.zxq.net/midlowgermloans. html)
Odal (rune)
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Odal (rune)
Name
*alan
el
"heritage, estate" Elder Futhark Futhorc
Shape
U+16DF
o o,
, oe, e
[o()]
[e], [()]
Position in rune-row
23 or 24
The Elder Futhark Odal rune () represents the o sound. Its reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is *alan. The corresponding Gothic letter is o, called oal. Variations of the name include Othila and Othala. The letter may be derived from a Raetian o letter variant, ultimately cognate with Greek . The rune is encoded in Unicode at codepoint U+16DF: The term oal (Old High German uodal) is a formative element in some Germanic names, notably Ulrich and variants. Edmund and other English names with the "ed" prefix (from Old English ead), German Otto and various Germanic names beginning with adal- or od- are also connected to Odal.
Futhorc Ethel
The Odal rune is often associated with property and inheritance, wealth and prosperity. In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, the name appears as ethel (el). In English runology this letter is sometimes transliterated .
Eel by oferleof ghwylcum men, gif he mot r rihtes and gerysena on brucan on bolde bleadum oftast. An estate is very dear to every man, if he can enjoy there in his house whatever is right and proper in constant prosperity.
Odal (rune)
115
Scandinavian property law

Odal was associated with the concept of inheritance in ancient Scandinavian property law. Some of these laws are still in effect today, and govern Norwegian property. These are the setesrett (homestead right), and the Odelsrett (allodial right). In runic inscriptions on objects, placing the Odal rune prior to a person's name would indicate that the object belonged to that person.[1]
Modern usage
Nazism and Neo-Nazism
Further information: Nazi symbolismandStrafgesetzbuch 86a The Odal rune was the emblem of the Yugoslav ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) of the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen operating during World War II in the Nazi Germany-sponsored Independent State of Croatia against the Yugoslav Partisans and Serbian population. The Odal rune has been used by Stefano Delle Chiaie's neofascist group Avanguardia Nazionale in Italy, by the Neo-Nazi Wiking-Jugend in Germany, and in South Africa by the Anglo-Afrikaner Bond, the terrorist, white-supremacist group Boeremag, and the Blanke Bevrydingsbeweging.[2] Odal was also the name of a monthly Nazi periodical.[3]
Flag of the Yugoslav Volksdeutsche 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen
Germanic Neopaganism
As with other runes, the Odal rune is also used as a symbol by Germanic Neopagans without a political association. The Odal rune is in the banner and name of the Theodish organization elland.
References
[1] Spurkland, Terje (2005). Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=1QDKqY-NWvUC& printsec=frontcover#v=onepage& q=& f=false). Boydell Press. pp.4748. ISBN1-84383-186-4. . [2] Schnteich, Martin and Boshoff, Henri Volk, faith and fatherland: the security threat posed by the white right Institute for Security Studies (South Africa)(2003) p48 [3] www.archive.org has an offprint of this periodical available: Blut und Boden (http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/ BlutundBodenEinGrundgedankedesNationalsozialismus)
External links
Futhark.com (http://futhark.com/third.html) - Futhark.com's entry on the Odal rune.
Old English
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Old English
Old English
nglisc, Anglisc, Englisc Spoken in Era England (except the extreme southwest and northwest), southern and eastern Scotland, and the eastern fringes of modern Wales. mostly developed into Middle English by the 13th century
Language family Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Anglo-Frisian Writing system Old English
Runic, later Latin (Old English alphabet). Language codes
ISO 639-2 ISO 639-3
ang ang
Old English (nglisc, Anglisc, Englisc) or Anglo-Saxon[1] is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southern and eastern Scotland, more specifically in the England Old Period, between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary register of Anglo-Saxon. It is a West Germanic language closely related to Old Frisian. Old English had a grammar similar in many ways to Classical Latin, and was much closer to modern German and Icelandic than modern English in most respects, including its grammar. It was fully inflected with five grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental), two grammatical numbers (singular and plural) and three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). First and second person personal pronouns also had dual forms for referring to groups of two people, in addition to the usual singular and plural forms. The instrumental case was somewhat rare and occurred only in the masculine and neuter singular; it could typically be replaced by the dative. Adjectives, pronouns and (sometimes) participles agreed with their antecedent nouns in case, number and gender. Finite verbs agreed with their subject in person and number. Nouns came in numerous declensions (with deep parallels in Latin, Ancient Greek and Sanskrit). Verbs came in nine main conjugations (seven strong and two weak), each with numerous subtypes, as well as a few additional smaller conjugations and a handful of irregular verbs. The main difference from other ancient Indo-European languages, such as Latin, is that verbs can be conjugated in only two tenses (vs. the six "tenses" really tense/aspect combinations of Latin), and have no synthetic passive voice (although it did still exist in Gothic). Gender in nouns was grammatical, as opposed to the natural gender that prevails in modern English. That is, the grammatical gender of a given noun did not necessarily correspond to its natural gender, even for nouns referring to people. For example, so sunne (the Sun) was feminine, se mna (the Moon) was masculine, and at wf "the woman/wife" was neuter. (Compare German cognates die Sonne, der Mond, das Weib.) Pronominal usage could reflect either natural or grammatical gender, when it conflicted. From the 9th century, Old English experienced heavy influence from Old Norse, a member of the related North Germanic group of languages.
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117
History
Further information: History of the English language Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the Norman invasion. Old English is a West Germanic language, developing out of Ingvaeonic (also known as North Sea Germanic) dialects from the 5th century. Anglo-Saxon literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century. The oldest surviving text of Old English literature is Cdmon's Hymn, composed between 658 and 680. There is a limited corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries, but the oldest coherent runic texts (notably Franks Casket) date to the 8th century. The history of Old English can be subdivided in: Prehistoric Old English (c. 450 to 650); for this period, Old English is mostly a reconstructed language as no literary witnesses survive (with the exception of limited epigraphic evidence).
The distribution of the primary Germanic languagesGermanic dialect groups in Europe in around AD 1: North Germanic languagesNorth GermanicNorth Sea Germanic, or IngvaeonicWeser-Rhine Germanic, or IstvaeonicElbe Germanic, or IrminonicEast Germanic languagesEast Germanic
Early Old English (ca. 650 to 900), the period of the oldest manuscript traditions, with authors such as Cdmon, Bede, Cynewulf and Aldhelm. Late Old English (c. 900 to 1066), the final stage of the language leading up to the Norman conquest of England and the subsequent transition to Early Middle English. The Old English period is followed by Middle English (12th to 15th century), Early Modern English (ca. 1480 to 1650) and finally Modern English (after 1650).
Influence of other languages

In the course of the Early Middle Ages, Old English assimilated some aspects of a few languages with which it came in contact, such as the two dialects of Old Norse from the contact with the Norsemen or "Danes" who by the late 9th century controlled large tracts of land in northern and eastern England which came to be known as the Danelaw.
Latin influence
Further information: Latin influence in English A large percentage of the educated and literate population of the time were competent in Latin, which was the scholarly and diplomatic lingua franca of Europe. It is sometimes possible to give approximate dates for the entry of individual Latin words into Old English based on which patterns of linguistic change they have undergone. There were at least three notable periods of Latin influence. The first occurred before the ancestral Angles and Saxons left
Old English continental Europe for Britain. The second began when the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity and Latin-speaking priests became widespread. See Latin influence in English: Dark Ages for details. The third and largest single transfer of Latin-based words happened after the Norman Conquest of 1066, when an enormous number of Norman (Old French) words began to influence the language. Most of these Ol language words were themselves derived from Old French and ultimately from classical Latin, although a notable stock of Norse words were introduced or re-introduced in Norman form. The Norman Conquest approximately marks the end of Old English and the advent of Middle English. One of the ways the influence of Latin can be seen is that many Latin words for activities came to also be used to refer to the people engaged in those activities, an idiom carried over from Anglo-Saxon but using Latin words. This can be seen in words like militia, assembly, movement, and service. The language was further altered by the transition away from the runic alphabet (also known as futhorc or fuorc) to the Latin alphabet, which was also a significant factor in the developmental pressures brought to bear on the language. Old English words were spelled, more or less, as they were pronounced. Often, the Latin alphabet fell short of being able to adequately represent Anglo-Saxon phonetics. Spellings, therefore, can be thought of as best-attempt approximations of how the language actually sounded. The "silent" letters in many Modern English words were pronounced in Old English: for example, the c and h in cniht, the Old English ancestor of the modern knight, were pronounced. Another side-effect of spelling Old English words phonetically using the Latin alphabet was that spelling was extremely variable. A word's spelling could also reflect differences in the phonetics of the writer's regional dialect. Words also endured idiosyncratic spelling choices of individual authors, some of whom varied spellings between works. Thus, for example, the word and could be spelt either and or ond.
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Norse influence
The second major source of loanwords to Old English were the Scandinavian words introduced during the Viking invasions of the 9th and 10th centuries. In addition to a great many place names, these consist mainly of items of basic vocabulary, and words concerned with particular administrative aspects of the Danelaw (that is, the area of land under Viking control, which included extensive holdings all along the eastern coast of England and Scotland). The Vikings spoke Old Norse, a language related to Old English in that both derived from the same ancestral Proto-Germanic language. It is very common The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century: Old West Norse dialectOld East Norse for the intermixing of speakers of different dialects, dialectOld GutnishOld EnglishCrimean Gothic Other Germanic such as those that occur during times of political unrest, languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual to result in a mixed language, and one theory holds that intelligibility exactly such a mixture of Old Norse and Old English helped accelerate the decline of case endings in Old English.[2] Apparent confirmation of this is the fact that simplification of the case endings occurred earliest in the north and latest in the southwest, the area farthest away from Viking influence. Regardless of the truth of this theory, the influence of Old Norse on the lexicon of the English language has been profound: responsible for such basic vocabulary items as sky, leg, the pronoun they, the verb form are, and hundreds of other words.[3]
Old English
119
Celtic influence
Traditionally, and following the Anglo-Saxon preference prevalent in the nineteenth century, many maintain that the influence of Brythonic Celtic on English has been small, citing the small number of Celtic loanwords taken into the language. The number of Celtic loanwords is of a lower order than either Latin or Scandinavian. However, a more recent and still minority view is that distinctive Celtic traits can be discerned in syntax from the post-Old English period, such as the regular progressive construction and analytic word order in opposition to the Germanic languages.[4] Why these traits appear to be restricted to syntax and do not include vocabulary is not clear. However, many common English words with early attestation in Britain, such as "dog," "bird" and "pig," have no apparent cognate in the West Germanic languages, leading some to speculate that their origin lies in the extinct Brythonic dialects of the "contact" period. Due to the remoteness of the period, etymological attribution in modern dictionaries is generally given simply as "Old English."
Dialects
Old English should not be regarded as a single monolithic entity just as Modern English is also not monolithic. It emerged over time out of the many dialects and languages of the colonising tribes, and it was not until the later Anglo-Saxon period that they fused together into Old English.[5] Even then it continued to exhibit local language variation, the remnants of which continue to be found in dialects of Modern English.[6] Thus it is misleading, for example, to consider Old English as having a single sound system. Rather, there were multiple Old English sound systems. Old English has variation along regional lines as well as variation across different times. For example, the language attested in Wessex during the time of thelwold of Winchester, which is named Late West Saxon (or thelwoldian Saxon), is considerably different from the language attested in Wessex during the time of Alfred the Great's court, which is named Early West Saxon (or Classical West Saxon or Alfredian Saxon). Furthermore, the difference between Early West Saxon and Late West Saxon is of such a nature that Late West Saxon is not directly descended from Early West Saxon (despite what the similarity in name implies). The four main dialectal forms of Old English were Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish, and West Saxon.[7] Each of those dialects was associated with an independent kingdom on the island. Of these, all of Northumbria and most of Mercia were overrun by the Vikings during the 9th century. The portion of Mercia that was successfully defended and all of Kent were then integrated into Wessex. After the process of unification of the diverse Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in 878 by Alfred the Great, there is a marked decline in the importance of regional dialects. This is not because they stopped existing; regional dialects continued even after that time to this day, as evidenced both by the existence of Middle and later Modern English dialects.
Old English
120
However, the bulk of the surviving documents from the Anglo-Saxon period are written in the dialect of Wessex, Alfred's kingdom. It seems likely that with consolidation of power, it became necessary to standardise the language of government to reduce the difficulty of administering the more remote areas of the kingdom. As a result, documents were written in the West Saxon dialect. Not only this, but Alfred was passionate about the spread of the vernacular, and brought many scribes to his region from Mercia to record previously unwritten texts.[8] The Church was affected likewise, especially since Alfred initiated an ambitious programme to translate religious materials into English. To retain his patronage and ensure the widest circulation of the translated materials, the monks and priests engaged in the programme worked in his dialect. Alfred himself seems to have translated books out of Latin and into English, notably Pope Gregory I's treatise on administration, Pastoral Care. Because of the centralisation of power and the Viking invasions, there is little or no written evidence for the development of non-Wessex dialects after Alfred's unification.
The first page of the Beowulf manuscript
Thomas Spencer Baynes claimed in 1856 that, owing to its position at the heart of the Kingdom of Wessex, the relics of Anglo-Saxon accent, idiom and vocabulary were best preserved in the Somerset dialect.[9] Even after the maximum Anglo-Saxon expansion, Old English was never spoken all over the Kingdom of England; not only was Medieval Cornish spoken all over Cornwall, it was also spoken in adjacent parts of Devon into the age of the Plantagenets, long after the Norman Conquest. Cumbric may have survived into the 12th century in parts of Cumbria and Welsh may have been spoken on the English side of the Border. In addition to the Celtic languages, Norse was spoken in some areas under Dane-Law.
Phonology
The inventory of classical Old English (i.e. Late West Saxon) surface phones, as usually reconstructed, is as follows.
Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Plosive Affricate Nasal Fricative Approximant Lateral approximant m f(v) () n s(z) r l () j pb td t(d) () (x)() w h k
The sounds marked in parentheses in the chart above are allophones: [d] is an allophone of /j/ occurring after /n/ and when geminated [] is an allophone of /n/ occurring before /k/ and // [v, , z] are allophones of /f, , s/ respectively, occurring between vowels or voiced consonants [, x] are allophones of /h/ occurring in coda position after front and back vowels respectively [] is an allophone of // occurring after a vowel, and, at an earlier stage of the language, in the syllable onset.
Old English
121
Monophthongs
Short
Long
Front Back Front Back Close Mid Open iy e() u o iy e() u o
The front mid rounded vowels /()/ occur in some dialects of Old English, but not in the best attested Late West Saxon dialect.
Diphthongs First element is close Both elements are mid Both elements are open Short (monomoraic) Long (bimoraic) iy [10] iy eo
eo
Grammar
Morphology
Unlike modern English, Old English is a language rich with morphological diversity. It maintains several distinct cases: the nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and (vestigially) instrumental. The only remnants of this system in modern English are in a few pronouns; the meanings of I (nominative) my (genitive) and me (accusative/dative) in the first person provide an example.
Syntax
Old English syntax was similar in many ways to that of modern English. However, there were some important differences. Some were simply consequences of the greater level of nominal and verbal inflection e.g., word order was generally freer. In addition: The default word order was verb-second and more like modern German than modern English. There was no do-support in questions and negatives. Multiple negatives could stack up in a sentence, and intensified each other (negative concord). Sentences with subordinate clauses of the type "when X, Y" (e.g. "When I got home, I ate dinner") did not use a wh-type conjunction, but rather used a th-type correlative conjunction (e.g. X, Y in place of "when X, Y"). The wh-type conjunctions were used only as interrogative pronouns and indefinite pronouns. Similarly, wh- forms were not used as relative pronouns (as in "the man who saw me" or "the car which I bought"). Instead, an indeclinable word e was used, often in conjunction with the definite article (which was declined for case, number and gender).
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Orthography
Old English was first written in runes (futhorc) but shifted to a (minuscule) half-uncial script of the Latin alphabet introduced by Irish Christian missionaries[11] from around the 9th century. This was replaced by insular script, a cursive and pointed version of the half-uncial script. This was used until the end of the 12th century when continental Carolingian minuscule (also known as Caroline) replaced the insular. The letter t (called eth or edh in modern English) was an alteration of Latin d, and the runic letters thorn and wynn are borrowings from futhorc. Also used was a symbol for the conjunction and, a character similar to the number seven (, called a Tironian note), and a symbol for the relative The runic alphabet used to write Old English before the introduction pronoun t, a thorn with a crossbar through the of the Latin alphabet. ascender (). Macrons over vowels were rarely used to indicate long vowels. Also used occasionally were abbreviations for a following m or n. All of the sound descriptions below are given using IPA symbols.
Conventions of modern editions

A number of changes are traditionally made in published modern editions of the original Old English manuscripts. Some of these conventions include the introduction of punctuation and the substitutions of symbols. The symbols e, f, g, r, s are used in modern editions, although their shapes in the insular script are considerably different. The long s is substituted by its modern counterpart s. Insular is usually substituted with its modern counterpart g (which is ultimately a Carolingian symbol). Additionally, modern editions often distinguish between a velar and palatal c and g with diacritic dots above the putative palatals: , . The wynn symbol is usually substituted with w. Macrons are usually found in modern editions to indicate putative long vowels, while they are usually lacking in the originals. In older printed editions of Old English works, an acute accent mark was used to maintain cohesion between Old English and Old Norse printing. The alphabetical symbols found in Old English writings and their substitute symbols found in modern editions are listed below:
Symbol a Description and notes Short //. Spelling variations like land ~ lond "land" suggest it may have had a rounded allophone [] before [n] in some cases) Long //. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short a in modern editions. Short //. Before 800 the digraph ae is often found instead of . During the 8th century began to be used more frequently was standard after 800. In 9th century Kentish manuscripts, a form of that was missing the upper hook of the a part was used. Kentish may be either // or /e/ although this is difficult to determine. Long //. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short in modern editions. Represented /b/. Also represented [v] in early texts before 800. For example, the word "sheaves" is spelled scabas in an early text but later (and more commonly) as scafas.
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Except in the digraphs sc, cg, either /t/ or /k/. The /t/ pronunciation is sometimes written with a diacritic by modern editors: most commonly , sometimes or . Before a consonant letter the pronunciation is always /k/; word-finally after i it is always /t/. Otherwise, a knowledge of the historical linguistics of the word is needed to predict which pronunciation is needed. (See The distribution of velars and palatals in Old English for details.) [dd] (the surface pronunciation of geminate /jj/); occasionally also for // Represented /d/. In the earliest texts, it also represented // but was soon replaced by and . For example, the word meaning "thought" (lit. mood-i-think, with -i- as in "handiwork") was written mdgidanc in a Northumbrian text dated 737, but later as mdgeanc in a 10th century West Saxon text. Represented // and its allophone []. Called t in Old English (now called eth in Modern English), is found in alternation with thorn (both representing the same sound) although it is more common in texts dating before Alfred. Together with it replaced earlier d and th. First attested (in definitely dated materials) in the 7th century. After the beginning of Alfred's time, was used more frequently for medial and final positions while became increasingly used in initial positions, although both still varied. Some [12] modern editions attempt to regularise the variation between and by using only . Short /e/. Either Kentish // or /e/ although this is difficult to determine. A modern editorial substitution for a form of missing the upper hook of the a found in 9th century texts. Long /e/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short e in modern editions. Short //; after , , sometimes // or //. Long //. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ea in modern editions. After , , sometimes //. Short /eo/; after , , sometimes /o/ Long /eo/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short eo in modern editions. /f/ and its allophone [v] // and its allophone []; /j/ and its allophone [d] (when after n). In Old English manuscripts, this letter usually took its insular form . The /j/ and [d] pronunciations are sometimes written by modern editors. Before a consonant letter the pronunciation is always [] (word-initially) or [] (after a vowel). Word-finally after i it is always /j/. Otherwise a knowledge of the historical linguistics of the word in question is needed to predict which pronunciation is needed. (See The distribution of velars and palatals in Old English for details.) /h/ and its allophones [, x]. In the combinations hl, hr, hn, hw, the second consonant was certainly voiceless. Short /i/. Long /i/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short i in modern editions. Short /iy/; after , , sometimes /e/. Long /iy/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ie in modern editions. After , , sometimes /e/. /k/ (rarely used) /l/; probably velarised (as in Modern English) when in coda position. /m/ /n/ and its allophone [] Short /o/. Long /o/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short o in modern editions. Short // (in dialects with this sound). Long // (in dialects with this sound). Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short oe in modern editions. /p/ A rare spelling of /kw/, which was usually written as c (= cw in modern editions). [13]
cg d
ea a eo o f g
h i ie e k l m n o oe e p qu r
/r/; the exact nature of /r/ is not known. It may have been an alveolar approximant [] as in most modern accents, an alveolar flap [], or an alveolar trill [r].
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/s/ and its allophone [z]. // or occasionally /sk/. /t/ Represented // in the earliest texts but was soon replaced by and . For example, the word meaning "thought" was written mdgithanc in an 8th century Northumbrian text, but later as mdgeanc in a 10th century West Saxon text. An alternate symbol called thorn used instead of . Represents // and its allophone []. Together with it replaced the earlier d and th. First attested (in definitely dated materials) in the 8th century. Less common than before Alfred's time, from then onward was used increasingly more frequently than at the beginning of words while its occurrence at the end and in the middle of words was rare. Some modern editions attempt to regularise the variation between and by using only . /u/ and /w/ in early texts of continental scribes. The /w/ u was eventually replaced by outside of the north of the island. /w/ in early texts of continental scribes. Outside of the north, it was generally replaced by . Long /u/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short u in modern editions. /w/. A modern substitution for . Runic wynn. Represents /w/, replaced in modern print by w to prevent confusion with p. /ks/ (but according to some authors, [xs ~ s]) Short /y/. Long /y/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short y in modern editions. /ts/. A rare spelling for ts. Example: /betst/ "best" is rarely spelled bezt for more common betst.
s sc t th
u uu w x y z
Doubled consonants are geminated; the geminate fricatives /, ff and ss cannot be voiced.
Literature
Old English literature, though more abundant than literature of the continent before AD 1000, is nonetheless scant. In his supplementary article to the 1935 posthumous edition of Bright's Anglo-Saxon Reader, Dr. James Hulbert writes:
In such historical conditions, an incalculable amount of the writings of the Anglo-Saxon period perished. What they contained, how important they were for an understanding of literature before the Conquest, we have no means of knowing: the scant catalogs of monastic libraries do not help us, and there are no references in extant works to other compositions....How incomplete our materials are can be illustrated by the well-known fact that, with few and relatively unimportant exceptions, all extant Anglo-Saxon poetry is preserved in four manuscripts.
Some of the most important surviving works of Old English literature are Beowulf, an epic poem; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a record of early English history; the Franks Casket, an early whalebone artefact; and Caedmon's Hymn, a Christian religious poem. There are also a number of extant prose works, such as sermons and saints' lives, biblical translations, and translated Latin works of the early Church Fathers, legal documents, such as laws and wills, and practical works on grammar, medicine, and geography. Still, poetry is considered the heart of Old English literature. Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous, with a few exceptions, such as Bede and Caedmon.
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Text samples
Beowulf
The first example is taken from the opening lines of the epic poem Beowulf. This passage describes how Hrothgar's legendary ancestor Scyld was found as a baby, washed ashore, and adopted by a noble family. The translation is literal and represents the original poetic word order. As such, it is not typical of Old English prose. The modern cognates of original words have been used whenever practical to give a close approximation of the feel of the original poem. The words in brackets are implied in the Old English by noun case and the bold words in parentheses are explanations of words that have slightly different meanings in a modern context. Notice how what is used by the poet where a word like lo or behold would be expected. This usage is similar to what-ho!, both an expression of surprise and a call to attention.
Line [1] [2] [3] [4] Original Translation
Hwt! w Gr-Dena in er-dagum, What! We of Gare-Danes (lit. Spear-Danes) in yore-days, od-cyninga, rym efrnon, h elingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scfing sceaena ratum, monegum mum, meodosetla oftah, egsode eorlas. Syan rest wear of thede(nation/people)-kings, did thrum (glory) frayne (learn about by asking), how those athelings (noblemen) did ellen (fortitude/courage/zeal) freme (promote). Oft did Scyld Scefing of scather threats (troops),
[5]
of many maegths (clans; cf. Irish cognate Mac-), of mead-settlements atee (deprive),
[6]
[and] ugg (induce loathing in, terrify; related to "ugly") earls. Sith (since, as of when) erst (first) [he] worthed (became) [in] fewship (destitute) found, he of this frover (comfort) aboded,
[7]
fasceaft funden, h s frfre ebd, wox under wolcnum, weormyndum h, ot him hwylc ra ymbsittendra ofer hronrde hran scolde, gomban gyldan. t ws gd cyning!
[8]
[and] waxed under welkin (firmament/clouds), [and amid] worthmint (honour/worship) threed (thrived/prospered) oth that (until that) him each of those umsitters (those "sitting" or dwelling roundabout)
[9]
[10] [11]
over whale-road (kenning for "sea") hear should, [and] yeme (heed/obedience; related to "gormless") yield. That was [a] good king!
A semi-fluent translation in Modern English would be: Lo! We have heard of majesty of the Spear-Danes, of those nation-kings in the days of yore, and how those noblemen promoted zeal. Scyld Scefing took away mead-benches from bands of enemies, from many tribes; he terrified earls. Since he was first found destitute (he gained consolation for that) he grew under the heavens, prospered in honours, until each of those who lived around him over the sea had to obey him, give him tribute. That was a good king!
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The Lord's Prayer

This text of the Lord's Prayer is presented in the standardised West Saxon literary dialect.
Line [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Original Fder re e eart on heofonum, S n nama ehlgod. Tbecume n re, ewure n willa, on eoran sw sw on heofonum. re edhwmlcan hlf syle s t d, and forgyf s re gyltas, sw sw w forgyfa rum gyltendum. And ne eld s on costnunge, ac ls s of yfele. Translation Father of ours, thou who art in heavens, Be thy name hallowed. Come thy riche (kingdom), Worth (manifest) thy will, on earth as also in heaven. Our daily loaf do sell (give) to us today, And forgive us our guilts as also we forgive our guilters [14]
[7]
And do not lead thou us into temptation, but alese (release/deliver) us of (from) evil. Soothly.
[8]
Sle.
Charter of Cnut
This is a proclamation from King Cnut the Great to his earl Thorkell the Tall and the English people written in AD 1020. Unlike the previous two examples, this text is prose rather than poetry. For ease of reading, the passage has been divided into sentences while the pilcrows represent the original division.
Original Cnut cyning gret his arcebiscopas and his leod-biscopas and urcyl eorl and ealle his eorlas and ealne his eodscype, twelfhynde and twyhynde, gehadode and lwede, on Englalande freondlice. And ic cye eow, t ic wylle beon hold hlaford and unswicende to godes gerihtum and to rihtre woroldlage. Ic nam me to gemynde a gewritu and a word, e se arcebiscop Lyfing me fram am papan brohte of Rome, t ic scolde ghwr godes lof upp arran and unriht alecgan and full fri wyrcean be re mihte, e me god syllan wolde. Nu ne wandode ic na minum sceattum, a hwile e eow unfri on handa stod: nu ic mid godes fultume t totwmde mid minum scattum. Translation Cnut, king, greets his archbishops and his lede'(people's)'-bishops and Thorkell, earl, and all his earls and all his peopleship, greater (having a 1200 shilling weregild) and 'lesser' (200 shilling weregild), hooded(ordained to priesthood) and lewd(lay), in England friendly. And I kithe(make known/couth to) you, that I will be [a] hold(civilised) lord and unswiking(uncheating) to God's rights(laws) and to [the] rights(laws) worldly.
I nam(took) me to mind the writs and the word that the Archbishop Lyfing me from the Pope brought of Rome, that I should ayewhere(everywhere) God's love(praise) uprear(promote), and unright(outlaw) lies, and full frith(peace) work(bring about) by the might that me God would(wished) [to] sell'(give).
Now, ne went(withdrew/changed) I not my shot(financial contribution, cf. Norse cognate in scot-free) the while that you stood(endured) unfrith(turmoil) on-hand: now I, mid(with) God's support, that [unfrith] totwemed(separated/dispelled) mid(with) my shot(financial contribution). Tho(then) [a] man kithed(made known/couth to) me that us more harm had found(come upon) than us well liked(equalled): and tho(then) fore(travelled) I, meself, mid(with) those men that mid(with) me fore(travelled), into Denmark that [to] you most harm came of(from): and that[harm] have [I], mid(with) God's support, afore(previously) forefangen(forestalled) that to you never henceforth thence none unfrith(breach of peace) ne come the while that ye me rightly hold(behold as king) and my life beeth.
a cydde man me, t us mara hearm to fundode, onne us wel licode: and a for ic me sylf mid am mannum e me mid foron into Denmearcon, e eow mst hearm of com: and t hbbe mid godes fultume forene forfangen, t eow nfre heonon for anon nan unfri to ne cym, a hwile e ge me rihtlice healda and min lif by.
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Notes
[1] The term Anglo-Saxon came to refer to all things of the early English period by the 16th century, including language, culture, and people. While this is still the normal term for the latter two aspects, the language began to be called Old English towards the end of the 19th century, as a result of the increasingly strong anti-Germanic nationalism in English society of the 1890s and early 1900s. The language itself began to be appropriated by some English scholars, who preferentially stressed the development of modern English from the Anglo-Saxon period to Middle English and through to the present day. However many authors still use the term Anglo-Saxon to refer to the language. Crystal, David (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-53033-4. [2] Barber, Charles (2009). The English Language: A Historical Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p.137. ISBN978-0-521-67001-2. [3] Scott Shay (30 January 2008). The history of English: a linguistic introduction (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=1vj0-f_U1SQC& pg=PA86). Wardja Press. p.86. ISBN978-0-615-16817-3. . Retrieved 29 January 2012. [4] "Rotary-munich.de" (http:/ / www. rotary-munich. de/ 2005-2006/ theo-vennemann. pdf) (PDF). . Retrieved 20 June 2011. [5] Shore, Thomas William (1906), Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race A Study of the Settlement of England and the Tribal Origin of the Old English People (1nd ed.), London, pp.3, 393 [6] Origin of the Anglo-Saxon race : a study of the settlement of England and the tribal origin of the Old English people; Author: William Thomas Shore; Editors TW and LE Shore; Publisher: Elliot Stock; published 1906 (http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/ originofanglosax00shoruoft) p. 3 [7] Campbell, Alistair (1959). Old English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.4. ISBN0-19-811943-7. [8] Moore, Samuel, and Knott, Thomas A. The Elements of Old English. 1919. Ed. James R. Hulbert. 10th ed. Ann Arbor, Michigan: George Wahr Publishing Co., 1958. [9] The Somersetshire dialect: its pronunciation, 2 papers (1861) (http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/ somersetshiredi00bayngoog) Thomas Spencer Baynes, first published 1855 & 1856 [10] It is uncertain whether the diphthongs spelt ie/e were pronounced [i()y] or [i()e]. The fact that this diphthong was merged with /y()/ in many dialects suggests the former. [11] Crystal, David (1987). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge University Press. p.203. ISBN0-521-26438-3. [12] See also Pronunciation of English th. [13] The spelling qu is much more common in later Middle English. [14] Lit. a participle: "guilting" or "[a person who is] sinning"; cf. Latin cognate -ant/-ent.
Bibliography
Sources
Whitelock, Dorothy (ed.) (1955) English Historical Documents; vol. I: c. 5001042. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode
General
Baker, Peter S. (2003). Introduction to Old English. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN0-631-23454-3. Baugh, Albert C; & Cable, Thomas. (1993). A History of the English Language (4th ed.). London: Routledge. Earle, John (2005). A Book for the Beginner in Anglo-Saxon. Bristol, PA: Evolution Publishing. ISBN1-889758-69-8. (Reissue of one of 4 eds. 18771902) Hogg, Richard M. (ed.). (1992). The Cambridge History of the English Language: (Vol 1): the Beginnings to 1066. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hogg, Richard; & Denison, David (eds.) (2006) A History of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jespersen, Otto (19091949) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. 7 vols. Heidelberg: C. Winter & Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard Lass, Roger (1987) The Shape of English: structure and history. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Lass, Roger (1994). Old English: A historical linguistic companion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-43087-9. Millward, Celia (1996). A Biography of the English Language. Harcourt Brace. ISBN0-15-501645-8. Mitchell, Bruce, and Robinson, Fred C. (2001). A Guide to Old English (6th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN0-631-22636-2.
Old English Quirk, Randolph; & Wrenn, C. L. (1957). An Old English Grammar (2nd ed.) London: Methuen. Strang, Barbara M. H. (1970) A History of English. London: Methuen.
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External history
Robinson, Orrin W. (1992). Old English and Its Closest Relatives. Stanford University Press. ISBN0-8047-2221-8. Bremmer Jr, Rolf H. (2009). An Introduction to Old Frisian. History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Stenton, F. M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Orthography/Palaeography
Bourcier, Georges. (1978). L'orthographie de l'anglais: Histoire et situation actuelle. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Campbell, A. (1959). Old English Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Elliott, Ralph W. V. (1959). Runes: An introduction. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Keller, Wolfgang. (1906). Angelschsische Paleographie, I: Einleitung. Berlin: Mayer & Mller. Ker, N. R. (1957). A Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Ker, N. R. (1957: 1990). A Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon; with supplement prepared by Neil Ker originally published in Anglo-Saxon England; 5, 1957. Oxford: Clarendon Press ISBN 0-19-811251-3 Page, R. I. (1973). An Introduction to English Runes (http://books.google.com/books?id=SgpriZdKin0C& printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). London: Methuen. Scragg, Donald G. (1974). A History of English Spelling. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Phonology
Anderson, John M; & Jones, Charles. (1977). Phonological structure and the history of English. North-Holland linguistics series (No. 33). Amsterdam: North-Holland. Brunner, Karl. (1965). Altenglische Grammatik (nach der angelschsischen Grammatik von Eduard Sievers neubearbeitet) (3rd ed.). Tbingen: Max Niemeyer. Campbell, A. (1959). Old English Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Cercignani, Fausto (1983). "The Development of */k/ and */sk/ in Old English". Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 82 (3): 313323. Girvan, Ritchie. (1931). Angelsaksisch Handboek; E. L. Deuschle (transl.). (Oudgermaansche Handboeken; No. 4). Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink. Halle, Morris; & Keyser, Samuel J. (1971). English Stress: its form, its growth, and its role in verse. New York: Harper & Row. Hockett, Charles F. (1959). "The stressed syllabics of Old English". Language 35 (4): 575597. doi:10.2307/410597. JSTOR410597. Hogg, Richard M. (1992). A Grammar of Old English, I: Phonology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Kuhn, Sherman M. (1961). "On the Syllabic Phonemes of Old English". Language 37 (4): 522538. doi:10.2307/411354. JSTOR411354. Kuhn, Sherman M. (1970). "On the consonantal phonemes of Old English". In: J. L. Rosier (ed.) Philological Essays: studies in Old and Middle English language and literature in honour of Herbert Dean Merritt (pp.1649). The Hague: Mouton. Lass, Roger; & Anderson, John M. (1975). Old English Phonology. (Cambridge studies in linguistics; No. 14). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Luick, Karl. (19141940). Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache. Stuttgart: Bernhard Tauchnitz.
Old English Maling, J. (1971). "Sentence stress in Old English". Linguistic Inquiry 2 (3): 379400. JSTOR4177642. McCully, C. B.; Hogg, Richard M. (1990). "An account of Old English stress". Journal of Linguistics 26 (2): 315339. doi:10.1017/S0022226700014699. Moulton, W. G. (1972). "The Proto-Germanic non-syllabics (consonants)". In: F. van Coetsem & H. L. Kufner (Eds.), Toward a Grammar of Proto-Germanic (pp.141173). Tbingen: Max Niemeyer. Sievers, Eduard (1893). Altgermanische Metrik. Halle: Max Niemeyer. Wagner, Karl Heinz (1969). Generative Grammatical Studies in the Old English language. Heidelberg: Julius Groos.
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Morphology
Brunner, Karl. (1965). Altenglische Grammatik (nach der angelschsischen Grammatik von Eduard Sievers neubearbeitet) (3rd ed.). Tbingen: Max Niemeyer. Campbell, A. (1959). Old English grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Wagner, Karl Heinz. (1969). Generative grammatical studies in the Old English language. Heidelberg: Julius Groos.
Syntax
Brunner, Karl. (1962). Die englische Sprache: ihre geschichtliche Entwicklung (Vol. II). Tbingen: Max Niemeyer. Kemenade, Ans van. (1982). Syntactic Case and Morphological Case in the History of English. Dordrecht: Foris. MacLaughlin, John C. (1983). Old English Syntax: a handbook. Tbingen: Max Niemeyer. Mitchell, Bruce. (1985). Old English Syntax (Vols. 12). Oxford: Clarendon Press (no more published) Vol.1: Concord, the parts of speech and the sentence Vol.2: Subordination, independent elements, and element order Mitchell, Bruce. (1990) A Critical Bibliography of Old English Syntax to the end of 1984, including addenda and corrigenda to "Old English Syntax" . Oxford: Blackwell Timofeeva, Olga. (2010) Non-finite Constructions in Old English, with Special Reference to Syntactic Borrowing from Latin, PhD dissertation, Mmoires de la Socit Nophilologique de Helsinki, vol. LXXX, Helsinki: Socit Nophilologique. Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. (1972). A History of English Syntax: a transformational approach to the history of English sentence structure. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Visser, F. Th. (19631973). An Historical Syntax of the English Language (Vols. 13). Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Lexicons
Bosworth-Toller Bosworth, J; & Toller, T. Northcote. (1898). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Based on Bosworth's 1838 dictionary, his papers & additions by Toller) Toller, T. Northcote. (1921). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: Supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Campbell, A. (1972). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: Enlarged addenda and corrigenda. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Clark Hall-Merritt Clark Hall, J. R; & Merritt, H. D. (1969). A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (4th ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Toronto Cameron, Angus, et al. (ed.) (1983) Dictionary of Old English. Toronto: Published for the Dictionary of Old English Project, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto by the Pontifical Institute of Medieval
Old English Studies, 1983/1994. (Issued on microfiche and subsequently as a CD-ROM and on the World Wide Web (http:// copac.ac.uk/search?rn=11&au=angus+cameron&ti=old+english+dictionary&sort-order=ti,-date).)
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External links
Old English/Modern English Translator (http://www.oldenglishtranslator.co.uk/) The Electronic Introduction to Old English (http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/index.html) Learn Old English with Leofwin (http://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/education/ learn-old-english-with-leofwin) Old English (Anglo-Saxon) alphabet (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/oldenglish.htm) Bosworth and Toller, An Anglo-Saxon dictionary (http://www.bosworthtoller.com) Downloadable Bosworth and Toller, An Anglo-Saxon dictionary Application (http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/app) Old English Made Easy (http://home.comcast.net/~modean52/index.htm) Old English Modern English dictionary (http://home.comcast.net/~modean52/oeme_dictionaries.htm) Old English Glossary (http://victorcauchi.fortunecity.com/EuCmp/o/oldeng.htm) Old English Letters (http://slodive.com/freebies/old-english-letters/) Shakespeare's English vs Old English (http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/ shakespeare-old-english.htm) Downloadable Old English keyboard for Windows and Mac (http://megse.unm.edu/research/internal/ keyboards.html) Another downloadable keyboard for Windows computers (http://sites.google.com/site/windowskeyboards/ Home) Guide to using Old English computer characters (http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/bylanguage/ oegermanic.html) (Unicode, HTML entities, etc.) The Germanic Lexicon Project (http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/language_resources.html) An overview of the grammar of Old English (http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/engl401/grammar/ index.htm) The Lord's Prayer in Old English from the 11th century (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wl-OZ3breE& feature=PlayList&p=11D1A11A88A6FF2A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1) (video link)
Old English rune poem
131

The Old English rune poem, dated to the 8th or 9th century, has stanzas on 29 Anglo-Saxon runes. It stands alongside younger rune poems from Scandinavia, which record the names of the 16 Younger Futhark runes. The poem is a product of the period of declining vitality of the runic script in Anglo-Saxon England after the Christianization of the 7th century. A large body of scholarship has been devoted to the poem, mostly dedicated to its importance for runology but to a lesser extent also to the cultural lore embodied in its stanzas.[1] The sole manuscript recording the poem, Cotton Otho B.x, was destroyed in the Cotton Fire of 1731, and all editions of the poems are based on a facsimile published by George Hickes in 1705.
History of preservation
The poem as recorded was likely composed in the 8th or 9th century.[2] Reproduction of the 1705 copy of the poem by It was preserved in the 10th-century manuscript Cotton Otho B.x, fol. George Hickes. 165a 165b, housed at the Cotton library in London. The first mention of the manuscript is in the 1621 catalogue of the Cottonian collection (Harley 6018, fol. 162v), as "A Saxon book of divers saints lives and the Alphabett of the old Danish letter amonghs Mr. Gocelins." From this it is inferred that the manuscript had formerly belonged to John Joscelyn (1526-1603). In 1731, the manuscript was lost with numerous other manuscripts in the fire at the Cotton library.[3] However, the poem had been copied by Humfrey Wanley (1672-1726), and published by George Hickes in his 1705 Linguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus. This copy has formed the basis of all later editions of the poems.[3] The rune poem was presumably recorded on a single sheet of parchment which had not originally been part of the manuscript, and was possibly bound with a manuscript of Aelfric's Lives of Saints by Joscelyn. Consequently, the surviving fragments of the manuscript are of no use in determining the hand or the date of the destroyed folio of the poem. Based on a number of late West Saxon forms in the text, it can be assumed that the manuscript of the rune poem dated to the 10th or 11th century, based on earlier copies by Anglian or Kentish scribes. Although the original dialect and date of the poem cannot be determined with certainty, it was most likely a West Saxon composition predating the 10th century.[4] George Hickes' record of the poem may deviate from the original manuscript. Hickes recorded the poem in prose, divided the prose into 29 stanzas, and placed a copper plate engraved with runic characters on the left margin so that each rune stands immediately in front of the stanza where it belongs. For five of the runes (wen, hgl, nyd, eoh, and ing) Hickes gives variant forms, and two more runes are given at the foot of the column: cweor and an unnamed rune (calc), which are not handled in the poem itself. A second copper plate appears across the foot of the page and contains two more runes: stan and gar. This apparatus is not likely to have been present in the original text of the Cotton manuscript.[3]
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Rune names
The rune poem itself does not provide the names of the runes. Rather, each stanza is a riddle, to which the rune name is the solution. But the text in Hickes' 1705 publication is glossed with the name of each rune. It is not certain if these glosses had been present in the manuscript itself, or if they were added by Hickes. According to Wrenn (1932), "Hickes himself was quite candid about his additions when printing the Runic Poem. [...] there can be little doubt that Hickes, as Hempl long ago [1904] suggested, added the marginal rune names and rune values deliberately". Consequently, the Old English rune poem is no independent testimony of these rune names which were borrowed by Hickes from other sources such as MS Domitian A.ix 11v. It is, however, the only source which provides context for these names.[5] Jones (1967:8) argues that the additions attributed by Wrenn and Hempl to Hickes were in fact those of Wanley, who originally transcribed the text and presumably arranged it into stanzas. The sixteen rune names which the poem shares with the Younger Futhark alphabet are as follows:
f u o/ r c/k h n i j/a s t b m l x/ Eolhx (see Algiz
Old English
Feoh Ur orn Os "wealth" "aurochs" "thorn" "mouth"
Rad Cen Hgl "riding" "torch" "hail"
Nyd "need"
Is Ger Sigel Tir Beorc "ice" "harvest" "sun" "glory" "birch"
Mann Lagu "man" "sea"
Norwegian F r "wealth" "dross" Icelandic r "rain"
urs ss Ri Kaun Hagall Nau(r) s(s) r "giant" "estuary" "riding" "ulcer" "hail" "need" "ice" "plenty" ss "Odin"
Sl Tr "sun"
Bjarkan Mar Lgr r "birch" "man" "waterfall" "yew" Lgr "water"
Of these sixteen Old English names, ten are exact cognates of the Scandinavian tradition (Feoh, Rad, Hgl, Nyd, Is, Ger, Sigel, Beorc, Mann, Lagu). In addition, the names of the Ur and Cen runes correspond in form but not in meaning. The name Eolhx is without counterpart as the corresponding Scandinavian rune has inherited the name of the Eoh rune. The names of the two runes recording theonyms are special cases. For the Os rune, the poem suggests Latin os "mouth" only superficially. The poem does not describe a mouth anatomically but the "source of language" and "pillar of wisdom", harking back to the original meaning of s"(the) god, Woden/Odin". The Tir rune appears to have adopted the Scandinavian form (Tr, the Anglo-Saxon cognate being Tiw). However, tr exists as a noun in Old English, with a meaning of "glory, fame honour". Perhaps involving the original meaning of Tiw, the god associated with fame and honour; also interpreted as "a constellation", "lodestar" because of the stanza's emphasis on "fixedness". The name of the Old English orn rune is thus the only case with no counterpart in Scandinavian tradition, where the corresponding rune is called urs. The good agreement between the Anglo-Saxon and the Scandinavian poems instils confidence that the names recorded in the Anglo-Saxon poem for the eight runes of the Elder Futhark which have been discontinued in the Younger Futhark also reflect their historical names.

Gyfu Wynn Eoh Peor Eh Ing Eel Dg "generosity" "bliss" "yew" (?) "horse" (a hero) "estate" "day"
Furthermore, the Anglo-Saxon poem gives the names of five runes which are Anglo-Saxon innovations and have no counterpart in Scandinavian or continental tradition.

Ac sc Yr Ior Ear "oak" "ash" (?) "eel"(?) "grave(?)"
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Editions and translations

Bruce Dickins, Runic and heroic poems of the old Teutonic peoples [6], 1915, pp. 1223. F. G. Jones, The Old English Rune Poem, An Edition, University of Florida, 1967.[7] T.A. Shippey (ed. and tr.) in: Poems of Wisdom and Learning in Old English. Cambridge, 1976, pp. 805. Maureen Halsall, The Old English Rune Poem: A Critical Edition, Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1981.
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Jones (1967:vi) Van Kirk Dobbie (1965:XLIX). Van Kirk Dobbie (1965:XLVI). Jones (1967:14-15) Jones (1967:4) http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/ runicandheroicpo00dickuoft http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/ oldenglishrunepo00jonerich
Hempl, G., 'Hickes' Additions to the Runic Poem', Modern Philology 1 (1903/4), 135-141. Lapidge, Michael (ed.) (2007). Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-03843-X Page, Raymond Ian (1999). An Introduction to English Runes (http://books.google.com/ books?id=SgpriZdKin0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-946-X Van Kirk Dobbie, Elliott (1942). The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems. Columbia University Press ISBN 0-231-08770-5 Wrenn, C. L., 'Late Old English Rune Names', Medium Aevum I (1932).
Old Frisian
134
Old Frisian
Old Frisian
Spoken in Era Netherlands, Germany, Southern Denmark 8th to 16th c.
Language family Indo-European Germanic West Germanic AngloFrisian Writing system Old Frisian
Anglo-Saxon runes Latin Language codes
ISO 639-3
ofs
Old Frisian is a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Weser on the European North Sea coast. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Friesland) also spoke Old Frisian but no medieval texts of this area are known. The language of the earlier inhabitants of the region between the Zuiderzee and Ems River (the Frisians famously mentioned by Tacitus) is attested in only a few personal names and place-names. Old Frisian evolved into Middle Frisian, spoken from the 16th to the 19th century. In the early Middle Ages, Frisia stretched from the area around Bruges, in what is now Belgium, to the Weser River, in northern Germany. At the time, the Frisian language was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast. This region is referred to as Greater Frisia or Frisia Magna, and many of the areas within it still treasure their Frisian heritage. However by 1300, their territory had been pushed back to the Zuiderzee (now the IJsselmeer), and the Frisian language survives along the coast only as a substrate. The people from what are today northern Germany and Denmark who settled in England from about 400 onwards came from the same regions and spoke more or less the same language as the people who lived in Frisia (as medieval Friesland is usually called to distinguish it from the present-day regions with that name). Hence, a close relationship exists between Old Frisian and Old English.
Phonology
Early sound developments
Generally, Old Frisian phonologically resembles Old English. In particular, it shares the palatalisation of velar consonants also found in Old English. For example, whereas the closely related Old Saxon and Old Dutch retain the velar in dag, Old Frisian has dei and Old English has d [dai]. When followed by front vowels the Germanic /k/ softened to a /t/ sound. The Old Frisian for church was tzirke or tzerke, in Old English it was irie [tirit], while Old Saxon and Old Dutch have the unpalatalised kirika. Another feature shared between the two is Anglo-Frisian brightening, which fronted a to e under some circumstances. In unstressed syllables, o merges into a, and i into e as in Old English. The old Germanic diphthongs *ai and *au become / and , respectively, in Old Frisian, as in n/n ("one") from Proto-Germanic *ainaz, and brd from *braudaN. In comparison, these diphthongs become and a (n and brad) in Old English, and and (n and brd) in Old Saxon. The diphthong *eu generally becomes ia, and Germanic *iu
Old Frisian is retained. These diphthongs initially began with a syllabic (stressed) i, but the stress later shifts to the second component, giving to i and i. For example, thid ("people") and lide from Proto-Germanic *theud and *liudz. Between vowels, h generally disappears (sian from *sehwanaN), as in Old English and Old Dutch. Word-initial hon the other hand is retained. Old Frisian retains th in all positions for longer than Old Dutch and Old Saxon do, showing the gradual spread of the shift from th to d from south to north, beginning in southern Germany in the 9th century as part of the High German consonant shift, but not reaching Frisian until the 13th or 14th century.
135
Grammar
Old Frisian (c.1150c.1550) retained grammatical cases. Some of the texts that are preserved from this period are from the 12th or 13th centuries, but most are from the 14th and 15th centuries. Generally, all these texts are restricted to legal writings. Although the earliest written examples of Frisianstray words in a Latin contextare from approximately the 9th century, there are a few examples of runic inscriptions from the region which are older and in a very early form of the Frisian language. These runic writings however usually consist of no more than inscriptions of a single or few words.
Notes References
Rolf H. Bremmer Jr, An Introduction to Old Frisian. History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2009.
Corpus
There are some early Frisian names preserved in Latin texts, and some runic (Futhorc) inscriptions, but the oldest surviving texts in Old Frisian date from the 13th century, in particular official and legal documents. They show a considerable degree of linguistic uniformity. Westeremden yew-stick (ca. 750900) Fon Alra Fresena Fridome (http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/germ/afries/afrcorp/afrco.htm?afrco004. htm#OFr.Corp._Fres.Frid.) Hunsigo MSS H1, H2: Ten Commandements (http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/germ/afries/afrcorp/ afrco.htm), 17 petitiones (http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/germ/afries/afrcorp/afrco.htm?afrco002. htm#OFr.Corp._17_Kren) Londriucht (http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/germ/afries/afrcorp/afrco.htm?afrco003.htm#OFr.Corp. _Londriucht) Thet Freske Riim (http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/germ/afries/afrcorp/afrco.htm?afrco005.htm#OFr. Corp._Fr.Riim) Skeltana Riucht law code (http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/germ/afries/afrcorp/afrco.htm?afrco006. htm#OFr.Corp._Skelt.Riucht)
Old Norse
136
Old Norse
Old Norse
dnsk tunga, dansk tunga ("Danish tongue"), norrnt ml ("Norse language") Spoken in Era Nordic countries, Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, Isle of Man, Normandy, Vinland, the Volga and places in-between developed into the various North Germanic languages by the 14th century
Language family Indo-European Germanic North Germanic Writing system Old Norse
Runic, later Latin (Old Norse alphabet) Language codes
ISO 639-2 ISO 639-3
non non
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300. Proto-Norse developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid- to late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century.[1] Old Norse was divided into three dialects: Old East Norse, Old West Norse, and Old Gutnish. Old West and East Norse formed a dialect continuum, with no clear geographical boundary between them. For example, Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway, although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, and Old West Norse traits were found in western Sweden. Most speakers spoke Old East Norse in what is present day Denmark and Sweden. Old Gutnish, the more obscure dialectal branch, is sometimes included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations. It developed its own unique features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders and Danes spoke the same language, dnsk tunga. Speakers of Old East Norse would have said dansk tunga ("Danish tongue") or norrnt ml ("Nordic speech"). Today Old Norse has developed into the modern North Germanic languages (Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish), and although distinct languages there is still considerable mutual intelligibility. In some instances the term Old Norse refers specifically to Old West Norse.[2]
Old Norse
137
Geographical distribution
Old Icelandic was essentially identical to Old Norwegian, and together they formed the Old West Norse dialect of Old Norse and were also spoken in settlements in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Norwegian settlements in Normandy.[3] The Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Russia,[4] England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language, ranging from Vinland in the West to the Volga in the East. In Russia, it survived the longest in Novgorod, probably lasting into the 13th century there.[4] The age of the Swedish language's presence in Finland is strongly contested (see Swedish-speaking Finns), but by the time of the Second Swedish Crusade in the 13th century, Swedish settlement spread the language into the region.
The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century: Old West Norse dialectOld East Norse dialectOld GutnishOld EnglishCrimean Gothic Other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility
Modern descendants
The modern descendants of the Old West Norse dialect are the West Scandinavian languages of Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian and the extinct Norn language of the Orkney and the Shetland Islands; the descendants of the Old East Norse dialect are the East Scandinavian languages of Danish and Swedish. Norwegian is descended from Old West Norse, but over the centuries it has been heavily influenced by East Norse, particularly during the DenmarkNorway union. Among these, Icelandic and the closely related Faroese have changed the least from Old Norse in the last thousand years, although with Danish rule of the Faroe Islands, Faroese has also been influenced by Danish. Old Norse also had an influence on English dialects and Lowland Scots, which contains many Old Norse loanwords. It also influenced the development of the Norman language. Various other languages, which are not closely related, have been heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman dialects, Scottish Gaelic and Waterford Irish. Russian, Finnish and Estonian also have a number of Norse loanwords; the words Rus and Russia, according to one theory, may be named after the Rus' people, a Norse tribe; see Rus (name). The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi, respectively. Of the modern languages, Icelandic is the closest to Old Norse. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system. Contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which differs slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the vowel phonemes, has changed at least as much as in the other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, and Gaelic (Scottish and/or Irish).[5] Although Swedish, Danish and the Norwegian languages have diverged the most, they still retain asymmetric mutual intelligibility.[6] Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, particularly if speaking slowly. The languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders. This could be because these languages have been mutually affected by each other, as well as having a similar development influenced by Middle Low German.[7]
Old Norse
138
Phonology
Vowels
The vowel phonemes mostly come in pairs of long and short. The standardized orthography marks the long vowels with an acute accent. In medieval manuscripts, it is often unmarked but sometimes marked with an accent or through gemination. All phonemes have, more or less, the expected phonetic realization. Old Norse had nasalized versions of all nine vowel places.[8] These occurred as allophones of the vowels before nasal consonants and in places where a nasal had followed it in an older form of the word, before it was absorbed into a neighboring sound. If the nasal was absorbed by a stressed vowel, it would also lengthen the vowel. These nasalizations also occurred in the other Germanic languages, but were not retained long. They were noted in the First Grammatical Treatise, and otherwise might have remained unknown. The First Grammarian marked these with a dot above the letter.[8] This notation did not catch on, and would soon be obsolete. Nasal and oral vowels probably merged around the 11th c. in most of Old East Norse.[9]:3 However, the distinction still holds in Dalarna.[9]:4 The dots in the following vowel table separate the oral from nasal phonemes.
Generic Vowel System ca. 9th-12th Centuries

Front vowels Unrounded High Mid i i Rounded y y Back vowels Unrounded Rounded u u o o a a
e e
Low/Low-Mid
Note: The low/low-mid vowels may be indicated differently: // = // // = // // = /a/ Sometime around the 13th century, (//) merged with or O in all dialects except Old Danish. In Icelandic, all merged with . This can be determined by their distinction within the 12th-century First Grammatical Treatise but not within the early 13th century Younger Edda. The nasals, also noted in the First Grammatical Treatise, are assumed to have been lost by this time. See Old Icelandic for the and E mergers.
Generic Vowel System ca. 13th-14th Centuries

Front vowels Back vowels
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded High Mid i e i e y y a a u o u o
Low/Low-Mid
Old Norse
139
History of Old Norse and Old Icelandic vowels

Proto-Germanic Northwest Germanic Primitive Old Norse Old Icelandic (1st Grammarian) a e <e> a e <> Later Old Icelandic Example (Old Norse)
a a a
a a (+i-mut) a (+u/w-mut)
a <a> <> <>
land "land" < *landaN menn "men" < *manniz lnd "lands" < *landu < *lando; sngr "song" < sngr < *sangwaz gra "to make" < *garwijanaN
a (+i-mut +w-mut) a a (+i-mut) a (+u-mut) e e (+u/w-mut) e (broken) e (broken +u/w-mut) e i i (+w-mut) i o o (+i-mut) u u (+i-mut) u (+a-mut) u u (+i-mut) ai ai (+w-mut) au au (+i-mut) eu eu (+dental)
<>
<>
e e e e
a <> <> <> e <e> <> ea <ea> eo/io <eo/io>
a e ja <ja> jo > j <j>
a a <> e <> ja j <j>
lta "to let" < *ltanaN mla "to speak" < *malijan < *mlijanaN ml "meals" < *malu < *mlo sex "six" < *seks; bresta "to burst" < *brestanaN tgr "ten" < *teguz gjalda "to repay" < *geldanaN skjldr "shield" < *skelduz
e i i i o o u u u u u ai ai au au eu eu
e <> i y <y> i <> o <> <> u y <y> o <o> u <> y <> ai, i <ei> y <ey, y> au <au> y <ey, y> eu <eu> eo <eo>
e i y i o u y o u y i y <ey> au y <ey> j <j> j <j> [10]
e i y() i o <> u y o u y i y au y j j lost
lt "let (past tense)" < *let mikill "great" < *mikilaz slyngva "to sling" < *slingwanaN lta "to look" < *litanaN fr "went" < *for; mt "meeting" < motaN mr "mothers" < *modriz una "to be content" < *unanaN kyn "race" < *kunjo fogl "bird" < *fuglaz; morginn "morning" < *murganaz drpa "to droop" < *drupanaN mss "mice" < musiz bein, Gut. bain "bone" < *bainaN kveykva "to kindle" < *kwaikwanaN lauss "loose" < *lausaz leysa "to loosen" < *lausijanaN djpr "deep" < *deupaz bja "to offer" < *beudanaN kom < *kwemanaN "to come, arrive"; OWN vtr/vttr < vintr < *wintruz "winter" hr "shark" < *hanhaz; l "file" < *finhlo; rar "our" [8] (pl.) < *unzaraz; r "younger" (acc. neut. wk. ) < [11] *junhizan
lost
Old Norse
140
Consonants
Old Norse has six plosive phonemes. Of these /p/ is rare word-initially and /d/ and /b/ do not occur between vowels, except in compound words (e.g. verabati), because of the fricative allophones of the Proto-Germanic language (e.g. *b *[] > [v] between vowels). The // phoneme is realized as [] after an n or another g and as [k] before /s/ and /t/. It is realized as a voiced velar fricative [], by some accounts inside words, and by others between vowels (and otherwise as []).[12][13] The Old East Norse // was an apical consonant whose position isn't precisely known, being reconstructed as a palatal sibilant[9]:2. It descended from Proto-Germanic /z/ and eventually developed into /r/, as it already had done in Old West Norse.
Labial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Labiovelar Glottal
Plosive Nasal Fricative Trill Approximant Lateral approximant
pb m f (v)
td n () s r l j
k () () h
Orthography
Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark, runic Old Norse was originally written with the Younger Futhark, which only had 16 letters. Because of the limited number of runes, the rune for the vowel u was also used for the vowels o, and y, and the rune for i was used for e. Medieval runes came into use some time later. As for the Latin alphabet, there was no standardized orthography in use in the Middle Ages. A modified version of the letter wynn called vend was used briefly for the sounds /u/, /v/, and /w/. Long vowels were sometimes marked with acutes, but also sometimes left unmarked or geminated. The standardized Old Norse spelling was created in the 19th century, and is for the most part phonemic. The most notable deviation is that the non-phonemic difference between the voiced and the unvoiced dental fricatives is marked the oldest texts as well as runic inscriptions use exclusively. Long vowels are denoted with acutes. Most other letters are written with the same glyph as the IPA phoneme, except as shown in the table below.
Accent
Primary stress in Old Norse falls on the word stem, so that hyrjar would be pronounced /hyr.jar/. In compound words, secondary stress falls on the second stem (e.g. lrisveinn, /l.iswin/).[14]:1 Modern Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian have two registers reflected in differing pronunciation of the stressed syllable of words. In Swedish and Norwegian, the registers are reflected in different tones (i.e. through tonal word accent), while in Danish the difference is the presence or absence of std, a glottal gesture considered a kind of creaky voice that seems to have been documented by Swedish sources as early as the 16th century.[15] What is here called class 1 is reflected as tone 1 in Norwegian, acute accent in Swedish, and presence of std in Danish, whereas class 2 words have tone 2 in Norwegian, grave accent in Swedish, and no std in Danish. No sign of any tonal system is found in Icelandic or Faroese.[16] Not all cognates occur in the same register classes in all three languages, partly due to language-specific restrictions on the contexts in which the two classes can occur. For example, std can only occur in stressed words that have long vowels and end in a voiced consonant, whereas in Swedish and Norwegian, monosyllables can only take tone 1/acute accent. In general, however, class 1 words are those that are monosyllabic in Old Norse, while class 2 words are those that are polysyllabic. Exceptions, including minimal pairs, have arisen for various reasons:
Old Norse 1. Suffixing a definite article onto class 1 words does not change their class, suggesting that the register distinctions developed before the definite article fused with the noun. Hence Old Norse and-inn "the duck" > Swedish class 1 anden, but andi-nn "the spirit" > class 2 anden. 2. The Old Norse non-syllabic morpheme -r after a consonant later became syllabic through the epenthesis of a vowel, without changing the class. Hence Old Norse bndr "farmers" > Norwegian class 1 bnder, but baunir "beans" and bnir "prayers" both > Norwegian class 2 bnner (homophonous with bnder except for the pitch difference). 3. Many later polysyllabic loanwords in the various languages have acquired class 1.
141
Phonological processes
Ablaut
Ablaut patterns are groups of vowels which are swapped, or ablauted, in the nucleus of a word. Strong verbs ablaut the lemma's nucleus to derive the past forms of the verb. This parallels English conjugation, where, e.g., the nucleus of sing becomes sang in the past tense and sung in the past participle. Some verbs are derived by ablaut, as the present-in-past verbs do by consequence of being derived from the past tense forms of strong verbs.
Umlaut
Umlaut or mutation is an assimilatory process acting on vowels preceding a vowel or semivowel of a different vowel backness. In the case of i-umlaut and -umlaut, this entails a fronting of back vowels, with retention of lip rounding. In the case of u-umlaut, this entails labialization of unrounded vowels. Umlaut is phonemic and in many situations grammatically significant as a side effect of losing the Proto-Germanic morphological suffices whose vowels created the umlaut allophones. Some /y/, /y/, //, //, //, //, /y/,[10] and /i/ were obtained by i-umlaut from /u/, /u/, /o/, /o/, /a/, /a/, /au/, and /ai/ respectively. Others were formed via -umlaut from /u/, /u/, /a/, /a/, and /au/.[3] Some /y/, /y/, //, //, and all //, // were obtained by u-umlaut from /i/, /i/, /e/, /e/, and /a/, /a/ respectively. See Old Icelandic for information on //. // was obtained through a simultaneous u- and i-umlaut of /a/. It appears in words like gra (gjra, geyra), from Proto-Germanic *garwijan, and commonly in verbs with a velar consonant before the suffix like skkva < *sankwijan.[17] OEN often preserves the original value of the vowel directly preceding runic while OWN receives -umlaut. Compare runic OEN gla, hai, hrau with OWN gler, heri (later hri), hryrr/hreyrr ("glass", "hare", "pile of rocks"). U-umlaut U-umlaut is more common in Old West Norse in both phonemic and allophonic positions, while it only occurs sparsely in post-runic Old East Norse and even in runic Old East Norse. Compare West Old Norse fur (accusative of fair, father), vrr (guardian/caretaker), rn (eagle), jr (in Modern Icelandic: jr, earth), mjlk (in Modern Icelandic: mjlk) with Old Swedish faur, varer, rn, jor and Modern Swedish rn, jord, mjlk with the latter two demonstrating the u-umlaut found in Swedish.[18][19] This is still a major difference between Swedish and Faroese and Icelandic today. Plurals of neuters do not have u-umlaut at all in Swedish, but in Faroese and Icelandic they do, for example the Faroese and Icelandic plurals of the word land: lond and lnd in contrast to the Swedish plural land and other numerous examples. That also applies to almost all feminine nouns, for example the largest feminine noun group, the o-stem nouns (except the Swedish noun jord mentioned above), and even i-stem nouns and rootnomina, such as Old West Norse mrk ( mrk [20] in Icelandic) in comparison with Modern and Old Swedish mark.[19]
Old Norse
142
Breaking
Vowel breaking, or fracture, caused a front vowel to be split into a semivowel-vowel sequence before a back vowel in the following syllable.[3] While West Norse only broke e, East Norse also broke i. The change was blocked by a v, l, or r preceding the potentially-broken vowel.[3][9]:1 Some /ja/ or /j/ and /ja/ or /j/ result from breaking of /e/ and /e/ respectively.[21]
Assimilation or elision of inflectional r

When a noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb has a long vowel or diphthong in the accented syllable and its stem ends in a single -l, -n, or -s, the -r (or the elder r- or z-variant ) in an ending is assimilated.[22] When the accented vowel is short, the ending is dropped. The nominative of the strong masculine declension and some i-stem feminine nouns uses one such -r (). in-r (in-) becomes inn instead of *inr (*in), but karl-r (karl-) remains karl. Blsa, to blow, has blss for "you blow" instead of *blsr (*bls).[23] The rule is not hard and fast, with counter-examples such as vinr, which has the synonym vin, yet retains the unabsorbed version, and jtunn, where assimilation takes place even though the root vowel, , is short. Words with a final r in the word stem, such as vetr, do not add another -r, as the sounds are already the same. The effect of the dropping usually results in the lack of distinction between some forms of the noun. In the case of vetr the dropping renders the nominative and accusative singular and plural identical; the nominative singular and nominative and accusative plural would otherwise have been *vetrr (*vintr), while the accusative singular would still have been vetr. This is because the 3rd strong masculine declension, to which it belongs, marks the nominative singular and nominative and accusative plural, but not the accusative singular, with inflectional Rs.
Phonotactics
Blocking of ii, uu
I/j adjacent to i, e, their u-umlauts, and was not possible, nor u/v adjacent to u, o, their i-umlauts, and .[3] At the beginning of words, this manifested as a dropping of the initial i/j or u/v. Compare ON or, lfr with English word, wolf. In inflections, this manifested as the dropping of the inflectional vowels. Thus, kli + -i remains kli, and sjum in Icelandic progressed to sjum > sjm > sjm.[24] The jj and vv of Proto-Germanic became ggj and ggw respectively in Old Norse, a change known as Holtzmann's law.[3]
Epenthesis
An epenthetic vowel became popular by 1200 in Old Danish, 1250 in Old Swedish and Norwegian, and 1300 in Old Icelandic.[16] An unstressed vowel was used which varied by dialect. Old Norwegian exhibited all three: /u/ was used in West Norwegian south of Bergen, as in aftur, aftor (older aptr); North of Bergen, /i/ appeared in aftir, after; and East Norwegian used /a/, after, aftr.[10]
Syntax
Old Norse had a freer word order than English. Old Norse used different listing structures than the English, "a, b and c," and, "a, b or c." In those two cases, Old Norse would have, "a and b and c," or, "a and b or c."
Old Norse
143
Grammar
Old Norse was a moderately inflected language with high levels of nominal and verbal inflection. Most of the fused morphemes are retained in modern Icelandic, especially in regard to noun case declensions, whereas modern Norwegian in comparison has moved towards more analytical word structures.
Gender
Further information: Grammatical gender Old Norse had three grammatical genders masculine, feminine or neuter. Adjectives or pronouns referring to a noun must mirror the gender of that noun, so that one says, "heill mar!" but, "heilt barn!" Like in other languages, the grammatical gender of an impersonal noun is generally unrelated to an expected natural gender of that noun. While indeed karl, "man" is masculine, kona, "woman", is feminine, and hs, house, is neuter, so also are hrafn and krka, for "raven" and "crow", masculine and feminine respectively, even in reference to a female raven or a male crow. All neuter words have identical nominative and accusative forms,[25] and all feminine words have identical nominative and accusative plurals.[26] The gender of some words' plurals does not agree with that of their singulars, such as lim and mund.[27] Some words, such as hungr, have multiple genders, evidenced by their determiners being declined in different genders within a given sentence.[28][29] Hierarchy Old Norse inherited the Proto-Germanic feature of having neuter as the default gender.[30] This means that when the gender of a noun is unknown, adjectives and pronouns referencing it use the neuter gender forms, rather than the masculine or feminine. Thus, if speaking or writing to a general audience, one would say velkomit, "well is it come," rather than velkominn or velkomin, "well is [he or she] come," as one does not know whether the person hearing it is going to be male or female. One generally sees adjectives in their neuter form when used pronominally for this reason. For words more commonly used in this way (rather than to describe a noun) one sees their neuter forms more often than their masculine or feminine. Normally the masculine form would be the most beneficial form of an adjective to learn first, given that the majority of nouns are masculine.[31] In these cases, however, the most practical form to learn first would be the neuter.
Morphology
Nouns, adjectives and pronouns were declined in four grammatical cases nominative, accusative, genitive and dative, in singular and plural numbers. Adjectives and pronouns were additionally declined in three grammatical genders. Some pronouns (first and second person) could have dual number in addition to singular and plural. The genitive is used partitively, and quite often in compounds and kennings (e.g.: Urarbrunnr, the well of Urr; Lokasenna, the gibing of Loki). There were several classes of nouns within each gender, the following is an example of the "strong" inflectional paradigms:
Old Norse
144
The strong masculine noun armr (English arm) Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative Singular armr arm arms armi Plural armar arma arma rmum/armum
The feminine noun hll (OWN), hall (OEN) (English hall) Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative Singular hll/hall hll/hall hallar hllu/hallu Plural hallir/hallar (OEN) hallir/hallar (OEN) halla hllum/hallum
The neuter noun troll (English troll): Case Singular Plural troll troll trolla trollum
Nominative troll Accusative Genitive Dative troll trolls trolli
In addition to these examples there were the numerous "weak" noun paradigms, which had a much higher degree of syncretism between the different cases in its paradigms, i.e. they didn't have as many different forms as the "strong" nouns. A definite article was realised as a suffix, that retained an independendent declension e.g. troll (a troll) trollit (the troll), hll ( a hall) hllin (the hall), armr (an arm) armrinn (the arm). This definite article, however, was a separate word, and did not become attached to the noun before later stages of the Old Norse period.
Texts
The earliest inscriptions in Old Norse are runic, from the 8th century. Runes continued to be commonly used until the 15th century and have been recorded to be in use in some form as late as the 19th century in some parts of Sweden. With the conversion to Christianity in the 11th century came the Latin alphabet. The oldest preserved texts in Old Norse in the Latin alphabet date from the middle of the 12th century. Subsequently, Old Norse became the vehicle of a large and varied body of vernacular literature, unique in medieval Europe. Most of the surviving literature was written in Iceland. Best known are the Norse sagas, the Icelanders' sagas and the mythological literature, but there also survives a large body of religious literature, translations into Old Norse of courtly romances, classical mythology, and the Old Testament, as well as instructional material, grammatical treatises and a large body of letters and official documents.[32]
Old Norse
145
Relationship to English
Old English and Old Norse were closely related languages, and it is therefore not surprising that many words in Old Norse look familiar to English speakers, e.g. armr (arm), ftr (foot), land (land), fullr (full), hanga (to hang), standa (to stand), etc. This is because both English and Old Norse stem from a Proto-Germanic mother language. In addition, a large number of common, everyday Old Norse words mainly of East Norse origin were adopted into the Old English language during the Viking age. A few examples of Old Norse loanwords in modern English are (English/Viking age Old East Norse): Nouns anger (angr), bag (baggi), bait (bit, bita, biti), band (band), bark (brk, stem bark-), birth (byrr), dirt (drit), dregs (drggia), egg (gg, related to OE. cognate "g" which became Middle English "eye"/"eai"), fellow (flagi), gap (gap), husband (hsbndi), cake (kaka), keel (kil, stem also kial-, kil-), kid (ki), knife (knf), law (lg, stem lag-), leg (lgg), link (hlnk), loan (ln, related to OE. cognate "ln", cf. lend), race (rs, stem rs-), root (rt, related to OE. cognate "wyrt", cf. wort), sale (sala), scrap (skrap), seat (sti), sister (systir, related to OE. cognate "sweostor"), skill (skial/skil), skin (skinn), skirt (skyrta vs. the native English shirt of the same root), sky (sk), slaughter (sltr), snare (snara), steak (stik), thrift (rift), tidings (tindi), trust (traust), window (vindauga), wing (v(i)ng) Verbs are (er, displacing OE "sind") blend (blanda), call (kalla), cast (kasta), clip (klippa), crawl (krafla), cut (possibly from ON kuta), die (dyia), gasp (gispa), get (geta), give (gifa/gefa, related to OE. cognate "giefan"), glitter (glitra), hit (hitta), lift (lyfta), raise (risa), ransack (rannsaka), rid (ryia), run (rinna, stem rinn-/rann-/runn-, related to OE. cognate "rinnan"), scare (skirra), scrape (skrapa), seem (sma), sprint (sprinta), take (taka), thrive (rfa(s)), thrust (rysta), want (vanta) Adjectives flat (flatr), happy (happ), ill (illr), likely (lklg), loose (lauss), low (lg), meek (mik), odd (odda), rotten (rotinn/rutinn), scant (skamt), sly (slg), weak (vik), wrong (vrang) Adverbs thwart/athwart (vert) Prepositions till (til), fro (fr) Conjunction though/tho () Interjection hail (hill), wassail (ves hill) Personal pronoun they (i), their (ia), them (im) (for which the Anglo-Saxons said he,[33] hiera, him) Prenominal adjectives same (sami) In a simple sentence like "They are both weak" the extent of the Old Norse loanwords becomes quite clear (Old East Norse with archaic pronunciation: "i eu bi wiki" while Old English "he syndon bgen () wce"). The words "they" and "weak" are both borrowed from Old Norse, and the word "both" might also be a borrowing, though this is disputed. While the number of loanwords adopted from the Norse was not as numerous as that of Norman French or Latin, their depth and every day nature make them a substantial and very important part of every day English speech as they are part of the very core of the modern English vocabulary. Words like "bull" and "Thursday" are more difficult when it comes to their origins. "Bull" may be from either Old English "bula" or Old Norse "buli" while "Thursday" may be a borrowing, or it could simply be from the Old English "unresdg" which could have been influenced by the Old Norse cognate. The word "are" is from Old English "earun"/"aron", which stems back to Proto-Germanic as well as the Old Norse cognates.
Old Norse
146
Dialects
Most of the innovations that appeared in Old Norse spread evenly through the Old Norse area. As a result, the dialects were very similar and considered to be the same language, a language that they sometimes called the Danish tongue (dnsk tunga), sometimes Norse language (norrnt ml), as evidenced in the following two quotes from Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson: Mir Dyggva var Drtt, dttir Danps konungs, sonar Rgs er fyrstr var konungr kallar danska tungu.[34] Dyggve's mother was Drott, the daughter of king Danp, Rg's son, who was the first to be called king in the Danish tongue. stirt var honum norrnt ml, ok kylfdi mk til oranna, ok hfu margir menn at mk at spotti.[35] the Norse language was hard for him, and he often fumbled for words, which amused people greatly. However, some changes were geographically limited and so created a dialectal difference between Old West Norse and Old East Norse. As Proto-Norse evolved into Old Norse, in the 8th century, the effects of the umlauts seem to have been very much the same over the whole Old Norse area. But in later dialects of the language a split occurred mainly between west and east as the use of umlauts began to vary. The typical umlauts (for example fylla from *fullian) were better preserved in the West due to later generalizations in the east where many instances of umlaut were removed (many archaic Eastern texts as well as eastern runic inscriptions however portray the same extent of umlauts as in later Western Old Norse). All the while the changes resulting in breaking (for example hiarta from *hert) were more influential in the East probably once again due to generalizations within the inflectional system. This difference was one of the greatest reasons behind the dialectalization that took place in the 9th and 10th centuries shaping an Old West Norse dialect in Norway and the Atlantic settlements and an Old East Norse dialect in Denmark and Sweden. Old West Norse and Old Gutnish did not take part in the monophthongization which changed i (ei) into , y (ey) and au into , nor did certain peripheral dialects of Swedish, as seen in modern Ostrobothnian.[36] Another difference was that Old West Norse lost certain combinations of consonants. The combinations -mp-, -nt-, and -nk- were assimilated into -pp-, -tt- and -kk- in Old West Norse, but this phenomenon was limited in Old East Norse. Here is a comparison between the two dialects as well as Old Gutnish. It is a transcription from one of the Funbo Runestones (U 990) meaning : Ver and Thane and Gunnar raised this stone after Haursi, their father. God help his spirit: Ver ok egn ok Gunnarr reistu stein enna at Haursa, fur sinn. Gu hjalpi nd hans. (OWN) Ver ok egn ok Gunnarr ristu stin enna at Haursa, faur sinn. Gu hialpi and hans (OEN) Ver ok egn ok Gunnarr raistu stain enna at Haursa, faur sinn. Gu hialpi and hans (OG) The OEN original text above is transliterated according to traditional scholarly methods, wherein u-umlaut is not regarded in runic Old East Norse. Modern studies have shown that the positions where it applies are the same as for runic Old West Norse. An alternative and probably more accurate transliteration would therefore render the text in OEN as such: Ver ok egn ok Gunnarr ristu stin enna at Haursa, fur sinn. Gu hialpi nd hans (OEN) Some past participles and other words underwent i-umlaut in Old West Norse but not in Old East Norse dialects. Examples of that are Icalandic slegi/sleginn and teki/tekinn, which in Swedish are slagit/slagen and tagit/tagen. This can also be seen in the Icelandic and Norwegian words sterkur and sterk ("strong"), which in Swedish is stark as in Old Swedish.[37] These differencies can also be seen in comparison between Norwegian and Swedish.
Old Norse
147
Old West Norse

The combinations -mp-, -nt-, and -nk- mostly merged to -pp-, -tt- and -kk- in Old West Norse at around the 7th century, marking the first distinction between the Eastern and Western dialects.[9]:3 The following table illustrates this:
English mushroom steep widow to shrink to sprint to sink Old West Norse Old East Norse Proto-Norse s(v)ppr brattr ekkja kreppa spretta skkva svamper branter nkia krimpa sprinta snkva *swampu *brantaz *ain(a)kjn *krimpan *sprintan *sankwian
An early difference between Old West Norse and the other dialects was that Old West Norse had the forms b (dwelling), k (accusative for cow) and tr (faith) whereas Old East Norse had b, k and tr. Old West Norse was also characterized by the preservation of u-umlaut, which meant that for example Proto-Norse *tanu (tooth) was pronounced tnn and not tann as in post-runic Old East Norse; OWN gs and runic OEN gs, while post-runic OEN gs (goose). The earliest body of text appears in runic inscriptions and in poems composed ca 900 by Tjodolf of Hvin. The earliest manuscripts are from the period 1150-1200 and concern both legal, religious and historical matters. During the 12th and 13th centuries, Trndelag and Vestlandet were the most important areas of the Norwegian kingdom and they shaped Old West Norse as an archaic language with a rich set of declensions. In the body of text that has come down to us from until ca 1300, Old West Norse had little dialect variation, and Old Icelandic does not diverge much more than the Old Norwegian dialects do from each other. Old Norwegian differentiated early from Old Icelandic by the loss of the consonant h in initial position before l, n and r, thus whereas Old Icelandic manuscripts might use the form hnefi (fist), Old Norwegian manuscripts might use nefi. From the late 13th century, Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian started to diverge more. After c. 1350, the Black Death and following social upheavals seem to have accelerated language changes in Norway. From the late 14th century, the language used in Norway is generally referred to as Middle Norwegian. Old West Norse underwent a lengthening of initial vowels at some point, especially in Norwegian, so that OWN eta became ta, ONW akr kr, OIC ek k.[38] Old Icelandic Further information: History of Icelandic In Iceland, initial /w/ before // was lost.[39] Compare Icelandic rangur with Norwegian vrangr, OEN vrang. This change is shared with Old Gutnish.[16] A specifically Icelandic sound, the long, u-umlauted A, spelled and pronounced //, developed circa the early 11th century.[8] It was short-lived, being marked in the Grammatical Treatises and remaining until the end of the 12th century.[8] /w/ merged with /v/ during the 12th century.[3] This caused /v/ to become an independent phoneme from /f/, and the written distinction of v for /v/ from medial and final f to become merely etymological. Around the 13th century, / (//) merged to (//).[40] Thus, pre-13th century grnn (green) became modern Icelandic grnn. The 12th century Grgs manuscripts distinguish the vowels, and so the Codex Regius copy does as well.[40] However, the 13th century Codex Regius copy of the Elder Edda probably relied on newer and/or poorer
Old Norse quality sources Demonstrating either difficulty with or total lack of natural distinction, the manuscripts show separation of the two phonemes in some places, but frequently mix up the letters chosen to distinguish them in others.[40][41] Towards the end of the 13th century, (//) merged to E (/e/).[42] Old Norwegian Around the 11th century, Old Norwegian hl, hn, and hr became l, n, and r. It is debatable whether the hC sequences represented a consonant cluster, /hC/, or a devoicing, /C/. Orthographic evidence suggests that, in a confined dialect of Old Norwegian, // may have been unrounded before /u/, so that u-umlaut was reversed where the u had not been eliminated. e.g. ll, llum > ll, allum.[43] Greenlandic Norse This dialect of Old West Norse was spoken by Icelandic colonies in Greenland. When the colonies died out around the 15th century, the dialect went with it. //, and some // merged to /t/, so that Old Icelandic rr becomes Tortr. Text example Further information: Old Norse orthography The following text is from Alexanders saga, an Alexander romance. The manuscript, AM 519 a 4to, is dated c. 1280. The facsimile demonstrates the sigla used by scribes to write Old Norse. Many of these were borrowed from Latin. Without familiarity with these abbreviations, the facsimile will be unreadable to many. In addition, reading the manuscript itself requires familiarity with the letterforms of the native script. The abbreviations are expanded in a version with normalized spelling like the standard normalization system's. Comparing this to the spelling of the same text in Modern Icelandic shows that, while pronunciation has changed greatly, spelling has changed little.
Digital facsimile of the manuscript [44] text [...] em on h brgzloo ho ep e a mon ag vera. e ven a.* ar cola er em ena e l rkra mana van-lanz a laa ga v bon Mear ar ho engn a e arole he. h ar harla go clercr en me pekngr a . er h .x. ve gamall a allr nalga alrocn a . en ohvga u m alla na analla. The same text with normalized spelling [44] The same text in Modern Icelandic
148
[...] sem vinir hans brigzluu honum eftir v, sem sarr man sagt vera. essi sveinn Alexander var skla settr, sem sivenja er til rkra manna tanlands at lta gera vi brn sn. meistari var honum fenginn s, er Aristoteles ht. hann var harla gr klerkr ok inn mesti spekingr at viti. ok er hann var 12 vetra gamall at aldri, nliga alroskinn at viti, en strhugar umfram alla sna jafnaldra, [...]
[...] sem vinir hans brigsluu honum eftir v, sem sar mun sagt vera. essi sveinn Alexander var skla settur, sem sivenja er til rkra manna utanlands a lta gera vi brn sn. Meistari var honum fenginn s, er Aristteles ht. Hann var harla gur klerkur og hinn mesti spekingur a viti og er hann var 12 vetra gamall a aldri, nlega alroskinn a viti en strhugaur umfram alla sna jafnaldra [...]
* a printed in uncial. Uncials not encoded separately in Unicode as of this section's writing.
Old Norse
149
Old East Norse

Old East Norse, between 800 and 1100, is in Sweden called Runic Swedish and in Denmark Runic Danish. The use of Swedish and Danish is not for linguistic reasons as the differences between them are minute at best during the more ancient stages of this dialect group. Changes had a tendency to occur earlier in the Danish region and until this day many Old Danish changes have still not taken place in modern Swedish rendering Swedish as the more archaic out of the two concerning both the ancient as well as modern languages, sometimes by a profound margin but in all differences are still minute. They are called runic because the body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Runic Old East Norse is characteristically archaic in form, especially Swedish (which is still true for modern Swedish compared to Danish). In essence it matches or surpasses the archaicness of post-runic Old West Norse which in its turn is generally more archaic than post-runic Old East Norse. While typically "Eastern" in structure, many later post-runic changes and trademarks of EON had yet to happen. The phoneme , which evolved during the Proto-Norse period from z, was still clearly separated from r in most positions, even when being geminated, while in OWN it had already merged with r.
Monophthongization of i > and y, au > started in mid-10th century Denmark.[10] Compare runic OEN: fig, gi, haug, mydm, di; with Post-runic OEN: fgher, gr, hgher, mdmber, dir; OWN: feigr, geirr, haugr, meydmr, dr; from PN *faigiaz, *gaizaz, *haugaz, *mawi- + dmaz (maidendom; virginity), *diuza ((wild) animal). Feminine o-stems often preserve the plural ending -a while in OWN they more often merge with the feminine i-stems: (runic OEN) *sla, *hafna/*hamna, *vga while OWN slir, hafnir and vgir (modern Swedish solar, hamnar, vgar; suns, havens, scales; Danish has mainly lost the distinction between the two stems with both endings now being rendered as -er or -e alternatively for the o-stems). Vice versa, masculine i-stems with the root ending in either g or k tended to shift the plural ending to that of the ja-stems while OWN kept the original: drngia, *lgia and *bnkia while OWN drengir, elgir (elks) and bekkir (modern Swedish drngar, lgar, bnkar). The plural ending of ja-stems were mostly preserved while those of OWN often acquired that of the i-stems: *bia, *bkkia, *vfia while OWN beir (beds), bekkir, vefir (modern Swedish bddar, bckar, vvar).
The Rk Runestone in stergtland, Sweden, is the longest surviving source of early Old East Norse. It is inscribed on both sides.
Old Norse Old Danish Until the early 12th century, Old East Norse was very much a uniform dialect. It was in Denmark that the first innovations appeared that would differentiate Old Danish from Old Swedish[9]:3 as these innovations spread north unevenly (unlike the earlier changes that spread more evenly over the East Norse area) creating a series of isoglosses going from Zealand to Svealand. In Old Danish, /h/ merged with // during the 9th century.[45] From the 11th to 14th centuries, the unstressed vowels -a, -o and -e (standard normalization -a, -u and -i) started to merge into -, represented with the letter e. This vowel came to be epenthetic, particularly before - endings.[16] At the same time, the voiceless plosives p, t and k became voiced plosives and even fricatives. Resulting from these innovations, Danish has kage (cake), tunger (tongues) and gster (guests) whereas (Standard) Swedish has retained older forms, kaka, tungor and gster (OEN kaka, tungur, gstir). Moreover, the Danish tonal word accent shared with Norwegian and Swedish changed into std around this time. Old Swedish At the end of the 10th and early 11th century initial h- before l, n and r was still preserved in the middle and northern parts of Sweden, and is sporadically still preserved in some northern dialects as g-, e.g. gly (lukewarm), from hl. The Dalecarlian dialects developed as Old Swedish dialects, and as such can be considered separate languages from Swedish. One such language is Elfdalian, spoken in the lvdalen municipality of Sweden, by about 1,0005,000 speakers (various sources). This language is not comprehensible to speakers of the other Scandinavian languages. Text example This is an extract from Vstgtalagen, the Westrogothic law. It is the oldest text written as a manuscript found in Sweden and from the 13th century. It is contemporaneous with most of the Icelandic literature. The text marks the beginning of Old Swedish as a distinct dialect. Drpr maar svnskan man eller smalenskn, innan konongsrikis man, eigh vstgskan, bte firi atta rtogher ok rettan markr ok nga tar bot. [] Drpar mar danskan man all norn man, bte niv markum. Drpr mar vtlnskan man, eigh ma frid flyia or landi sinu oc j th hans. Drpr mar vtlnskn prest, bte sva mykit firi sum hrlnskan man. Prstr skal i bondalaghum vr. Varr surman drpin llr nskr mar, ta skal bta firi marchum fiurum em sakin skir, ok tvar marchar konongi. Translation: If someone slays a Swede or a Smlander, a man from the kingdom, but not a West Geat, he will pay eight rtugar (20-pence coins) and thirteen marks, but no wergild. [...] If someone slays a Dane or a Norwegian, he will pay nine marks. If someone slays a foreigner, he shall not be banished and have to flee to his clan. If someone slays a foreign priest, he will pay as much as for a fellow countryman. A priest counts as a freeman. If a Southerner is slain or an Englishman, he shall pay four marks to the plaintiff and two marks to the king.
150
Old Gutnish
Due to Gotland's early isolation from the mainland, many features of Old Norse did not spread from or to the island, and Old Gutnish developed as an entirely separate branch from Old East and West Norse. For example, the diphthong ai in aigu, air and waita was not retroactively umlauted to ei as in e.g. Old Icelandic eigu, eir and veita. Breaking was especially active in Old Gutnish, leading to forms such as bjera and bjaua, mainland bera and bja. Dropping of /w/ in initial /w/ is shared only with Old Icelandic.[16]
Old Norse Text example The Gutasaga is the longest text surviving from Old Gutnish. It was written in the 13th century and dealt with the early history of the Gotlanders. This part relates to the agreement that the Gotlanders had with the Swedish king sometime before the 9th century: So gingu gutar sielfs wiliandi vndir suia kunung y at air mattin frir Oc frelsir sykia suiariki j huerium sta. vtan tull oc allar utgiftir. So aigu oc suiar sykia gutland firir vtan cornband ellar annur forbu. hegnan oc hielp sculdi kunungur gutum at waita. En air wir orftin. oc kallain. sendimen al oc kunungr oc ierl samulai a gutnal ing senda. Oc latta ar taka scatt sinn. air sendibuar aighu fri lysa gutum alla stei til sykia yfir haf sum upsala kunungi til hoyrir. Oc so air sum an wegin aigu hinget sykia.[46] Translation: So, by their own will, the Gotlanders became the subjects of the Swedish king, so that they could travel freely and without risk to any location in the Swedish kingdom without toll and other fees. Likewise, the Swedes had the right to go to Gotland without corn restrictions or other prohibitions. The king was to provide protection and help, when they needed it and asked for it. The king and the jarl shall send emissaries to the Gutnish thing to receive the taxes. These emissaries shall declare free passage for the Gotlanders to all locations in the sea of the king at Uppsala (that is the Baltic Sea was under Swedish control) and likewise for everyone who wanted to travel to Gotland.
151
Relationship to modern Scandinavian languages

Development of Old Norse vowels to the modern Scandinavian languages
Proto-Germanic origin Primitive Old Norse a <a> Old Icelandic (1st Grammarian) a Modern Icelandic Modern Faroese Modern Swedish Example
a()
a/a
a/ <a>
Ic land /lant/?, Fa land /lant/ "land"; dagur Ic /dar/, Fa /tav/ "day" lta Ic [lauta], Fa [lta] "to let" mla Ic [maila], Fa [mala] "to speak" menn Ic/Fa [mn] "men"
a (+i-mut) a (+i-mut) e e
a <> <> <> e <e> e <>
a e <e>
au() ai() ()
/a a/a /e
?/o <> / <>
j()
a/a <> /i () / <> /i Ic kinn [cn] Fa kinn [tn] "chin"
i i a (+u/w-mut)
i i <> <>
i i
() i() > () <> a > au() <> () ou() () u()
a (+u-mut)
<>
/a <>
Fa ntt [nt], t [t]
u (+a-mut) o u u
o <o> o <> u u <>
o o u u
/o /u /u /u /u: <o> /? bk Ic /bouk/, Fa [puk], Sw bok /buk/ "book"
hs Ic /hus/, Fa [hus] "house"
Old Norse
152
<> <> <> > () <> > ai() <> () i() () /i () / <ey> a() () <oy> /: <o/> ?/e: <e> Ic tvau /tv/, Fa tvey /tv/ "two" /y:? <y> / <>
a (+i-mut +w-mut) e (+u/w-mut) o (+i-mut)
u (+i-mut), i (+w-mut) u (+i-mut) au
y <y> y <> au <au>
y y au
ai ai (+w-mut), au (+i-mut)
i <ei> y <ey>
i y [10]
ei() ei()
Literature
Introductions Gordon, Eric V. and A.R. Taylor. An Introduction to Old Norse. Second. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981. Henry Sweet, An Icelandic Primer, with Grammar, Notes, and Glossary (1895) Univerzita Karlova - UK [47] Torp, Arne, Lars S. Vikr (1993), Hovuddrag i norsk sprkhistorie (3.utgve), Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS 2003 Dictionaries An Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874), Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson. @ Internet Archive [48], Germanic Lexicon Project [49] (HTML, PNG, TIFF) G. T. Zoga, A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic (1910) [50], Univerzita Karlova - UK [51] (Czech) "Ordbog over det norrne prosasprog A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose." [52] Copenhagen 1989. (Scientific dictionary yet to be completed. Edited volumes 13, word-list, Indices and all of the dictionary's unedited slips/citations (en-) available on-line. (Danish) and (English)) Jan de Vries, Altnordisches Etymologisches Wrterbuch (1977) Grammars Bayldon, George. An Elementary Grammar of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language London: Williams and Norgate, 1870. Faarlund, Jan Terje. The Syntax of Old Norse New York: Oxford University Press, (2004).
Notes
[1] Torp, Arne, Lars S. Vikr (1993) [2] Peter Tunstall. Review of The syntax of Old Norse: With a survey of the inflectional morphology and a complete bibliography (http:/ / elanguage. net/ blogs/ booknotices/ ?m=200802). Primary source. [3] A. J. Johnson Company, Johnson's universal cyclopedia: a new edition, pgs. 336 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=H8IXAQAAIAAJ& pg=PA336), 337 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=H8IXAQAAIAAJ& pg=PA337), 338 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=H8IXAQAAIAAJ& pg=PA338); 1895 D. Appleton and company & A. J. Johnson company [4] Article Nordiska sprk, section Historia, subsection Omkring 8001100, in Nationalencyklopedin (1994). [5] J. van der Auwera & E. Knig (1994). The Germanic Languages, p. 217. [6] J. Moberg, C. Gooskens, J. Nerbonne, N. Vaillette (2007). Conditional Entropy Measures Intelligibility among Related Languages, Proceedings of the 17th Meeting of Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands, pp. 51-66. [7] See, e.g., Harbert 710. [8] Introduction to Letter A (http:/ / lexicon. ff. cuni. cz/ html/ oi_cleasbyvigfusson/ b0001. html) [9] The Nordic Languages; 202. The typological development of the Nordic languages I: Phonology. 1. Proto-Nordic: 1853 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=6b7WwBC5tRAC& pg=PA1853). 2. Common Nordic: 1855 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=6b7WwBC5tRAC& pg=PA1855). 3. Old East Nordic: 1856 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=6b7WwBC5tRAC& pg=PA1856), 1859 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=6b7WwBC5tRAC& pg=PA1859). 4. Old West Nordic:
Old Norse
[10] M. Schulte. "Phonological developments from Old Nordic to Early Modern Nordic I: West Scandinavian." The Nordic languages vol. 2 pp. 1081-1096. Monophthongization: page 1082 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=6b7WwBC5tRAC& pg=PA1082); /y/: ; Reduced vowels: page 1085 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=6b7WwBC5tRAC& pg=PA1085) [11] Haugen, Einar (1950). "First Grammatical Treatise. The Earliest Germanic Phonology". Language 26 (4): 464. doi:10.2307/522272. [12] Orrin W. Robinson, Old English and Its Closest Relatives, pg. 83 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=xAeJoF55hhsC& pg=PA83) [13] Henry Sweet, An Icelandic Primer (1895) pg. 5 [14] Vigfsson, Powell; An Icelandic Prose Reader: with Notes, Grammar, and Glossary (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=YN4NAAAAQAAJ); #: Chapter [15] Nina Grnnum, "Nyt om det danske std" (http:/ / www. cphling. dk/ ng/ presentations/ stoed_hum_fest_04. pdf) (Microsoft PowerPoint presentation) [16] Oskar Bandle, et al; The Nordic Languages, An International Handbook on the History of the North Germanic Languages, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 2002 [17] Introduction to Letter (): 1 (http:/ / lexicon. ff. cuni. cz/ html/ oi_cleasbyvigfusson/ b0761. html), 2 (http:/ / lexicon. ff. cuni. cz/ html/ oi_cleasbyvigfusson/ b0762. html) [18] This citation will be automatically completed in the next few minutes. You can jump the queue or expand by hand (http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Template:cite_doi/ _10. 2307. 2f411124_?preload=Template:Cite_doi/ preload& editintro=Template:Cite_doi/ editintro& action=edit) [19] Ragnvald Iversen, Norrn Grammatikk, 1961, p 24 and onwards. [20] http:/ / digicoll. library. wisc. edu/ cgi-bin/ IcelOnline/ IcelOnline. TEId-idx?type=entry& eid=MO3RK-1& q1=mrk [21] Formation of Words - Vowel Changes; Page 1 (http:/ / www. northvegr. org/ vigfusson/ xxix. php): Umlaut, Breaking (Resolution); Page 2 (http:/ / www. northvegr. org/ vigfusson/ xxx. php): Breaking, Absorption and Contraction, Ablaut [22] Noun Tables (http:/ / www. northvegr. org/ vigfusson/ xvi. php), Remarks on the 1st Strong Masculine Declension (Assim.: Note 3.) [23] Old Norse for Beginners Lesson 5 (http:/ / www3. hi. is/ ~haukurth/ norse/ olessons/ lesson5. php) [24] A. G. Noreen Abriss Der Altnordischen (Altislndischen) Grammatik (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=xf-gwaFP7pgC) pg. 12 [25] Old Norse for Beginners: Grammar Reference - Neuter nouns (http:/ / www3. hi. is/ ~haukurth/ norse/ grammar/ neutern. php) [26] Old Norse for Beginners: Grammar Reference - Feminine nouns (http:/ / www3. hi. is/ ~haukurth/ norse/ grammar/ femininen. php) [27] References to words labelled heterogeneous in gender: Lilja-Linditre (http:/ / lexicon. ff. cuni. cz/ html/ oi_cleasbyvigfusson/ b0389. html); Muna-Mundr (http:/ / www. northvegr. org/ vigfusson/ 437. php) [28] MeNoTa Handbook v.2.0 - Ch. 8.3#id391306341240 (http:/ / www. menota. org/ guidelines-2/ ch8/ lemma_2-0. page).2.1 Gender [29] Zoga's - Letter H (http:/ / norse. ulver. com/ dct/ zoega/ h. html) - Entry hungr [30] Early England and the Great Gender Shift: Old English and Old Norse Straddling the Horns of the Default Dilemma Rice, Steinmetz (referenced in this abstract (http:/ / www. sciencedirect. com/ science?_ob=ArticleURL& _udi=B6V6H-4G4N0M8-1& _user=10& _rdoc=1& _fmt=& _orig=search& _sort=d& _docanchor=& view=c& _searchStrId=1085402217& _rerunOrigin=google& _acct=C000050221& _version=1& _urlVersion=0& _userid=10& md5=7b971b553b941b6f05f41c1f03bbe118S)) [31] Trond Tosterud, " Gender assignment in Old Norse (http:/ / www. sciencedirect. com/ science?_ob=ArticleURL& _udi=B6V6H-4FN5KR7-1& _user=10& _rdoc=1& _fmt=& _orig=search& _sort=d& _docanchor=& view=c& _searchStrId=1085480144& _rerunOrigin=google& _acct=C000050221& _version=1& _urlVersion=0& _userid=10& md5=e1df50e2de899a09db4fd2082a9fcd78)," Lingua 116:9 (Sep. 2006), pp. 14411463 [32] See, e.g., O'Donoghue 22102. [33] O'Donoghue 190-201; Lass 187-188. [34] Ynglingasaga (http:/ / www. heimskringla. no/ wiki/ Ynglinga_saga) [35] http:/ / www. heimskringla. no/ original/ heimskringla/ sagasigurdarjorsalafara. php [36] The Old Norse dialect areas (http:/ / aveneca. com/ westeast. html) [37] The word stark in Svensk etymologisk ordbok, "Swedish etymological dictionary" (http:/ / runeberg. org/ svetym/ 0950. html) [38] Further Old Norse Secondary Formations; Albert Murray Sturtevant; p. 457 (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ pss/ 409955) [39] Introduction to Letter R (http:/ / www. northvegr. org/ vigfusson/ 481. php) [40] Introduction to Letter () (http:/ / www. northvegr. org/ vigfusson/ 757. php) [41] Codex Regius - Vlusp (http:/ / gandalf. uib. no:8008/ corpus/ document. xml?corpus=menota& document=GKS23654to-Vsp-0-9-2& position=0:0+ 0+ 0& mode=facs& homepage=/ corpus/ menota. xml) [42] Introduction to Letter E: 1 (http:/ / lexicon. ff. cuni. cz/ html/ oi_cleasbyvigfusson/ b0113. html), 2 (http:/ / lexicon. ff. cuni. cz/ html/ oi_cleasbyvigfusson/ b0114. html) [43] Hock, Hans Henrich. Principles of Historical Linguistics. 1986 p. 149 [44] Andrea de Leeuw van Weenen, University of Leiden, University of Greifswald, ed. 2009. AM 519 a 4to: Alexanders saga, fol. 1v, l. 10-14. Menota ms. 14, v. 1.0. Bergen: Medieval Nordic Text Archive (http:/ / www. menota. org/ ). Facsimile (http:/ / gandalf. uib. no:8008/ corpus/ document. xml?corpus=menota& document=AM519a& position=0:0+ 0+ 0& mode=facs& homepage=/ corpus/ menota. xml); Normalization (http:/ / gandalf. uib. no:8008/ corpus/ document. xml?corpus=menota& document=AM519a& position=0:0+ 0+ 0& mode=norm& homepage=/ corpus/ menota. xml) [45] Tarrin Wills, The Anonymous Verse in the Third Grammatical Treatise (http:/ / www. dur. ac. uk/ medieval. www/ sagaconf/ wills. htm) [46] Gutasaga 45.
153
Old Norse
[47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] http:/ / lexicon. ff. cuni. cz/ texts/ oi_sweet_about. html http:/ / www. archive. org/ stream/ icelandicenglish00cleauoft#page/ n0/ mode/ 2up http:/ / lexicon. ff. cuni. cz/ texts/ oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about. html http:/ / norse. ulver. com/ dct/ zoega/ index. html http:/ / lexicon. ff. cuni. cz/ texts/ oi_zoega_about. html http:/ / dataonp. hum. ku. dk/ index_e. html
154
Cleasby-Vigfsson:
References
Cleasby, Richard. Vigfsson, Gubrandur. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, (1874). @: Germanic Lexicon Project (http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/texts/oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about.html) (images, text). Google Books (http://books.google.com/books?id=B08JAAAAQAAJ) (images) Gutasagan (http://runeberg.org/gutasaga/), Lars Aronsson, ed. Project Runeberg (1997), Facing Text Translation by Peter Tunstall (http://www.germanicmythology.com/works/Gutasagan.html) Harbert, Wayne. The Germanic Languages (http://books.google.com/books?id=npySdp6EI30C& printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2007) Haugan, Jens. Right Dislocated 'Subjects' in Old Norse (Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax Number 62. 1998) "WPSS" (http://norms.uit.no/wpss/vol.php?volume=62). Norms.uit.no. Retrieved 2010-05-02. Haugen, Einar (1950). "First Grammatical Treatise. The Earliest Germanic Phonology". Language 26 (4): 464. doi:10.2307/522272. Iversen, Ragnvald. Norrn Grammatikk, Aschehoug & Co., Oslo 1961. Lass, Roger. Old English: A Historical Linguistic Companion (http://books.google.com/ books?id=PhzIWORqgVgC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q& f=false). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (1993)
External links
Heimskringla.no (http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Main_Page), an online collection of Old Norse source material Indo-European Language Resources (http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/language_resources. html) The resources in question are mostly Germanic, including two dictionaries of Old Icelandic (English), two grammars of Old Icelandic (one in English, one in German) and a grammar of Old Swedish (German). An English Dictionary of Runic Inscriptions of the Younger Futhark, at the university of Nottingham (http:// runicdictionary.nottingham.ac.uk/index.php) Old Norse for Beginners (http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/) Old Norse sound sample (http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/sounds/ragn1_2b.mp3) Old Norse Online (http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/norol-0-X.html), by Todd B. Krause and Jonathan Slocum from the Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. Old Norse conjugator (http://www.verbix.com/languages/oldnorse.shtml) at Verbix.com Old Norse loans in Old and Middle English, and their legacy in the dialects of England and modern standard English (http://germanic.zxq.net/ON-Engloans.html)
Peor
155
Peor
Name
*Per(?) Elder Futhark
Peor Futhorc
Shape
U+16C8
p p
[p]
14
is the rune denoting the sound p in the Elder Futhark runic alphabet, in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem named peor. It does not appear in the Younger Futhark. In the poem, it is glossed with the enigmatic: peor by symble plega and hlehter / wlancum [on middum], ar wigan sitta / on beorsele blie tsomne "Peor is a source of recreation and amusement to the great, where warriors sit blithely together in the banqueting-hall." The name is not comprehensible from Old English, i.e. no word similar to peor is known in this language. According to a 9th-century manuscript of Alcuin (Codex Vindobonensis 795), written in Britain, the letters p (based on a Greek ) and q (an inverted ) are called "pairra" and "qairra", respectively, in Gothic. One of these names clearly is derived from the other. However, the names are not comprehensible in Gothic either, and it is not clear which is derived from which, except that we know that the Elder Futhark had a p, but no q rune. In any case, it seems evident that peor is related to pairra. Interestingly, the Anglo-Saxon futhorc adopted exactly the same approach for the addition of a labiovelar rune, cweor, in both shape and name based on peor, but unfortunately, we do not know if the Gothic runes already had a similar variant rune of p, or if the labiovelar letter was a 4th century creation of Ulfilas. The Common Germanic name could be referring to a pear-tree (or perhaps generally a fruit-tree). Based on the context of "recreation and amusement" given in the rune poem, a common speculative interpretation is that the intended meaning is "pear-wood" as the material of either a woodwind instrument, or a "game box" or game pieces made from wood. From peor, Proto-Germanic forms *peru, *per or *peraz may be reconstructed on purely phonological grounds. The expected Proto-Germanic term for "pear tree" would be *pera-trew (*pera being, however, a post-Proto-Germanic loan, either West Germanic, or Common Germanic, if Gothic pairra meant "pear tree", from Vulgar Latin pirum (plural pira), itself of unknown origin). The Ogham letter name Ceirt, glossed as "apple tree", may in turn be a loan from Germanic into Primitive Irish. The earliest attestation of the rune is in the Kylver Stone futhark row (ca. AD 400). The earliest example in a linguistic context (as opposed to an abecedarium) is already in futhorc, in the Kent II, III and IV coin inscriptions (the personal names pada and pa/epa), dated to ca. AD 700. On St. Cuthbert's coffin (AD 698), a p rune takes the place of Greek . The Westeremden yew-stick (ca. AD 750) has op hmu "at home" and up duna "on the hill".
Peor Looijenga (1997) speculates that the p rune arose as a variant of the b rune, parallel to the secondary nature of Ogham peith. The uncertainty surrounding the rune is a consequence of the rarity of the *p phoneme in Proto-Germanic, itself due to the rarity of its parent-phoneme *b in Proto-Indo-European. The rune is discontinued in Younger Futhark, which expresses /p/ with the b rune, for example on the Viking Age Skarpker Stone, iar sal rifna uk ubhimin for Old Norse Jr skal rifna ok upphiminn. "Earth shall be rent, and the heavens above."
156
References
A. Bammesberger, G. Waxenberger (eds.), Das fuark und seine einzelsprachlichen Weiterentwicklungen, Walter de Gruyter (2006), ISBN 3-11-019008-7, 85-98 (Birkhan), 418f. (Schulte).
Proto-Norse language
157
Proto-Norse
Spoken in Era Scandinavia evolved into Old Norse from the 8th century
Language family Indo-European Germanic North Germanic Writing system Proto-Norse
Elder Futhark Language codes
ISO 639-3
Proto-Norse (also Proto-Scandinavian, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Ancient Nordic, Old Scandinavian, Proto-North Germanic and North Proto-Germanic) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic over the first centuries AD. It is the earliest stage of a characteristically North Germanic language, and the language attested in the oldest Scandinavian Elder Futhark inscriptions, spoken ca. from the 3rd to 7th centuries (corresponding to the late Roman Iron Age and the early Germanic Iron Age). It evolved into the dialects of the Old Norse language at the beginning of the Viking Age.
Phonology
Accent
Old Norse had a stress accent which fell on the first syllable. Several scholars have proposed that Proto-Norse also had a separate pitch accent, which was inherited from Proto-Indo-European and has evolved into the tonal accents of modern Swedish and Norwegian, which in turn have evolved into the std of modern Danish.[1][2] Another recently advanced theory is that each Proto-Norse long syllable and every other short syllable received stress, marked by pitch, eventually leading to the development of the Swedish and Norwegian tonal accent distinction.[3] Finally, quite a number of linguists have assumed that even the first phonetic rudiments of the distinction didn't appear until the Old Norse period.[4][5][6][7]
Vowels
Short vowels a: [] e: [e] i: [i] o: [o] (from a-mutation of u) u: [u] Long vowels : [a] : [e] (from 2 and unstressed ai) : [i] : [o] : [u] Diphthongs eu: [eu] iu: [iu] (from i-mutation of eu) au: [u] ai: [i]
158
Consonants
Stops Proto-Norse had the same six stops as had Old Norse. When one of the voiced stops stands in between vowels, it is realized as a fricative. p: [p] t: [t] k: [k] b: [b] between vowels [] d: [d] between vowels [] g: [] between vowels []
Fricatives f: [f] : [] h: [x] s: [s]
z: [z], at later stages probably pronounced like a retroflex r. (Traditionally, U+280, has been used for z by texts transcribing Proto-Norse inscriptions).
Nasals n: [n] m: [m] Approximants j: [j] w: [w] Liquids l: [l] r: [r] - see fricatives z above.
Sources attesting Proto-Norse

Runic inscriptions
The surviving examples of Proto-Norse are all runic inscriptions in the Elder Futhark. There are about 260 surviving Elder Futhark inscriptions in Proto-Norse, the earliest dating to the 2nd century. Examples of inscriptions: vre Stabu spearhead, Oppland, Norway. 2nd century raunijaz, O-N raun, tester, cf. Norwegian ryne (try, test). Swedish utrna (find out). The word formation with a suffix ija is evidence of Sievers' law. Gallehus gold horn 2, South Jutland, Denmark 400 AD. ek hlewagastiz holtijaz horna tawido, I Hlewagastis of holt made the horn. Note again the ija suffix Tune Runestone, stfold, Norway 400 AD. ek wiwaz after woduride witadahalaiban worahto. [me]z woduride staina rijoz dohtriz dalidun arbija sijostez arbijano, I Wiwaz, after Woduridaz bread-warden wrought. For me Woduridaz, the stone, three daughters prepared, the most noble of heirs. The Einang stone, near Fagernes, Norway, is dated to the 4th century. It contains the message [ek go]dagastiz runo faihido ([I, Go]dguest drew the secret), in O-N ek gogestr rn faa. The first four letters of the inscription have not survived and are conjectured, and the personal name could well have been Gudagasti, or something similar.
composite photograph of the Einang stone inscription (ca. AD 400)
Proto-Norse language Kragehul spear, Denmark, c:a 500 AD. ek erilaz asugisalas muha haite, gagaga ginuga, he...lija... hagala wijubi... possibly, I eril of Asgisl, was named Muha, ga-ga-ga mighty-ga (ga being most likely an abbreviation of indeterminable reference), (incomplete) hail I consecrate. The Bjrketorp Runestone, Blekinge, Sweden, is one of three menhirs, but is the only one of them where, in the 6th century, someone has written a curse: haidz runo runu falh'k hedra ginnarunaz argiu hermalausz ... weladaue saz at brytz uarba spa (Here, I have hidden the secret of powerful runes, strong runes. The one who breaks this memorial will be eternally tormented by anger. Treacherous death will hit him. I foresee perdition.) The R runestone, in Bohusln, Sweden, was raised in the early 5th century and is the longest early inscription: Ek Hrazaz/Hraaz satido [s]tain[a] ... Swabaharjaz s[a]irawidaz. ... Stainawarijaz fahido. I, Hrazaz/Hraaz raised the stone ... Swabaharjaz with wide wounds. ... Stainawarijaz carved.
159
Loan words
Numerous Proto-Norse words have survived largely unchanged as borrowings in Finnic languages. Some of these words are (with the reconstructed form in P-N): rngas (Estonian)/rengas (Finnish) < *hrengaz (ring), kuningas (Estonian, Finnish) < *kuningaz (king), ruhtinas (Finnish) < *druhtinaz (sv. drott), silt (Estonian) < *skild (tag, token), mrk/ama (Estonian) / (panna) merkille (Finnish) < *mrke (to spot, to catch sight of), riik (Estonian) < *rik (state, land, commonwealth), vrt (Estonian) / vrti (Finnish) < *vard (worth), kapp (Estonian) / kaappi (Finnish) < *skap (chest of drawers; shelf)
Other
Some Proto-Norse names are found in Latin works, for example tribal names like Suiones (*Sweoniz, Swedes). Others can be conjectured from manuscripts such as Beowulf.
Evolution from Proto-Germanic into Old Norse

Proto-Germanic to Proto-Norse
The differences between attested Proto-Norse and unattested Proto-Germanic are rather small, though substantial, as several hundred years separate these language stages. Separating Proto-Norse from Northwest Germanic can be said to be a matter of convention, as sufficient evidence from the remaining parts of the area (i.e. Northern Germany, the Netherlands etc.) is lacking in a degree to provide sufficient comparison. Inscriptions found in Scandinavia are considered to be in Proto-Norse. Several scholars argue about this subject matter. Wolfgang von Krause, for one, sees the language of the runic inscriptions of the Proto-Norse period as an immediate precursor to Old Norse, but Elmer Antonsen views them as Northwest Germanic,[8] though his views on Runic Script and related subjects might be considered extreme. Some of the distinctions between Proto-Norse and Proto-Germanic can be partially proved and demonstrated by the names inscribed on the Negau helmet harigastiteiwa, Harigasti Teiwa, which can be said to be late Proto-Germanic. The two words both exhibit the loss of the final nominative marker /z/, which is retained in Proto-Norse as /R/ (i.e. a palatal "r", similar to, though not identical with, the English /r/); this is exhibited by similar names such as HlewagastiR from the Golden Horns of Gallehus and several others. Another distinctive difference between the two is the Proto-Norse lowering of Proto-Germanic to ; this is demonstrated by the pair mna (Gothic) and mni (Old Norse) (English moon). Unstressed diphthongs were also monophthongized, as in hait (Kragehul I) from Proto-Germanic *haitai, and likewise unstressed *au became . When the phoneme /z/, a voiced apical alveolar fricative, represented in runic writing by the *Algiz-rune, changed to /R/ an apical post-alveolar approximant, is debated. Taken into account the general Proto-Norse principle of devoicing of consonants in final position, a retained */z/ would have been devoiced to an *[s], and would be thus
Proto-Norse language realized in runes. There is, however, no trace of this in the Elder Futhark runic inscriptions, ergo it can be safely assumed that the quality of this consonant must have changed before the devoicing, otherwise the phoneme would not have been marked with a rune separate from the rune used for /s/. The quality of this consonant is only determined from conjecture, and the opinio communis is that it has to be something between /z/ and /r/, which is the Old Norse reflex of the sound. In Old Swedish, the phonemic distinction between /r/ and /R/ was retained into the 11th century, as exhibited by the numerous rune stones from Sweden from that period.
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Proto-Norse to Old Norse

In the period 500800, two great changes occurred within Proto-Norse. Umlauts appeared, which means that a vowel was influenced by the succeeding vowel or semi-vowel, e.g. Old Norse gestr (guest) came from P-N gastiz (guest). There was another kind of sound change known as breaking, in which the vowel changed into a diphthong, e.g. hiarta from *herto or fjorr from *feriuz. Umlauts resulted in the appearance of the new vowels y (e.g. fylla from *fullian) and (e.g. dma from *dmian). The umlauts are divided into three categories, A-umlaut, I-umlaut and U-umlaut; the latter was still productive in the Old Norse era. The first, however, appeared very early, and its effect can be seen already around 500 AD, on the Golden horns of Gallehus.[9] The variation caused by the umlauts was by and in itself no great disruption in the language. It merely introduced new allophones of back vowels if certain vowels were in following syllables. However, the changes brought forth by syncope made the umlaut-vowels a distinctive non-transparent feature of the morphology and phonology, i.e. phonemicizing what were previously allophones. Due to syncope, the long vowels of unstressed syllables were shortened and many shortened vowels lost. Also, most short unstressed vowels were lost. As in P-N the stress accent lay on the first syllable words as P-N *katilz became ON katlar (cauldrons), P-N hurna was changed into Old Norse horn and P-N gastiz resulted in ON gestr (guest). Some words underwent even more drastic changes, like the polysyllabic *haukaz which changed into a monosyllabic ON haukr (hawk).
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] Kock, Axel, 1901: Die alt- und neuschwedische Akzentuierung. Quellen und Forschungen 87. Strassburg Hamp, Eric P., 1959: Final syllables in Germanic and the Scandinavian accent system. I: Studia Linguistica 13. S.29-48. Riad, Tomas, 1998: The origin of Scandinavian tone accents. I: Diachronica XV(1). S.6398. Kristoffersen, Gjert, 2004: The development of tonal dialects in the Scandinavian languages. Analysis based on presentation at ESF-workshop 'Typology of Tone and Intonation', Cascais, Portugal 13 April 2004. (http:/ / helmer. hit. uib. no/ NTT/ Cascais/ 0404ManusCascaisRevised. htm). Elstad, Kre, 1980: Some Remarks on Scandinavian Tonogenesis. I: Nordlyd: Troms University Working Papers on Language and Linguistics 3. 61-77. hman, Sven, 1967: Word and sentence intonation: a quantitative model. Speech Transmission Laboratory Quarterly Progress and Status Report, KTH, 2-3. 20-54, 1967., 8(2-3):20-54. (http:/ / www. speech. kth. se/ qpsr/ pdf/ 1967/ 1967_8_2-3_020-054. pdf) Bye, Patrick, 2004: Evolutionary typology and Scandinavian pitch accent. Kluwer Academic Publishers. (http:/ / www. hum. uit. no/ a/ bye/ Papers/ pitch-accent-kluw. pdf). Runeninschriften als Quellen interdisziplinrer Forschung, "The linguistic status of the Early Runic Inscriptions", Hans Frede Nielsen, Walter de Gruyter GmBH & Co. KG 1998, ISBN 3-11-015455-2 Spurkland, Terje, Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=1QDKqY-NWvUC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage& q=& f=false), Boydell Press 2005 ISBN 1-84383-186-4
[5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
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External links
General information (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~marisal/ie/ngmc.html) Proto-Norse paradigms and links (http://www.iki.fi/jschalin/?cat=4)
Raido
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse Rei
Name
*Rai
Rad "ride, journey"
Elder Futhark
Futhorc
Younger Futhark
Shape
U+16B1
r r
[r]
5
*Raid "ride, journey" is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the r- rune of the Elder Futhark . The name is attested for the same rune in all three rune poems, Old Norwegian Ri Icelandic Rei, Anglo-Saxon Rad, as well as for the corresponding letter of the Gothic alphabet r, called raida. The shape of the rune may be directly derived from Latin R.
Rune Poem: [1] English Translation: Riding is said to be the worst thing for horses; Reginn forged the finest sword.
Old Norwegian Ri kvea rossom vsta; Reginn sl svret bzta. Old Icelandic Rei er sitjandi sla ok snig fer ok jrs erfii. iter rsir. Anglo-Saxon Rad by on recyde rinca gehwylcum sefte ond swihwt, ame sitte on ufan meare mgenheardum ofer milpaas.
Riding is of sitting a blessing and swift journey and horses toiling
Riding seems easy to every warrior while he is indoors and very courageous to him who traverses the high-roads on the back of a stout horse.
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References
External links
The Futhark (http://ancientscripts.com/futhark.html) (ancientscripts.com) Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150-700 (http://www.ub.rug.nl/eldoc/dis/arts/j.h. looijenga/) by J. H. Looijenga (dissertation, Groningen University)
Runa ABC
The Runa ABC of Johannes Bureus was the first Swedish alphabet book and its purpose was to teach the runic alphabet in 17th century Sweden. The runology pioneer Johannes Bureus was a religious Christian, but he also thought that the Christian influence had replaced the runic alphabet with the Latin alphabet. His good reputation and his influential friends enabled him to acquire the royal privilege that no alphabet books could be printed without teaching the runic alphabet and no one was allowed to print them but himself. The result was that the first Swedish alphabet book ever printed had the purpose of teaching runes.[1] The first edition of Runa ABC was printed in 1611. It contained the Latin alphabet in ABC order and the runic alphabet in both the futhark order and in the order of the Latin alphabet. Bureus had also added the names of the runes, the phonemes they represented as well as some spelling rules. The booklet contained small Christian texts, which were written in runes on one side and in Latin letters on the opposite one. The last edition was printed in 1624, and it was more pedagogical than the first one, since the Latin letters were placed directly under the runes. Whereas the first edition ended with some prayers written in Latin letters, the 1624 edition had the final prayers written with runes, without any Latin transliteration.[2]
A page from the 1611 edition.
Bureus did not succeed in making the runes replace the Latin alphabet since people were too familiar with the Latin letters. However, during the Thirty Years' War, some Swedish officers encrypted their messages by writing with runes.[3] Lars Magnar Enoksen notes that it appears from the title page of Johannes Bureus' first edition that Bureus had some understanding of the staveless runes in 1611, but that this has been denied by virtually all runologists.[2]
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Notes
[1] Enoksen 1998:182 [2] Enoksen 1998:183 [3] Enoksen 1998:184
References
Enoksen, Lars Magnar. (1998). Runor : historia, tydning, tolkning. Historiska Media, Falun. (Swedish) ISBN 91-88930-32-7
External links
Runa ABC (http://litteraturbanken.se/forfattare/BureusJ/titlar/RvnaAbcBoken/sida/1/faksimil) as a digital facsimile
Runamo
Runamo is a cracked dolerite dike that was for centuries held to be a runic inscription and gave rise to a famous scholarly controversy in the 19th century.[1] It is located 2.7 km from the church of Brkne-Hoby in Blekinge, Sweden.[1] For hundreds of years people said it was possible to read an inscription, and learned men referred to it.[1]
Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae's illustration of a part of the "inscription".
As early as the 12th century, the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus reported in the introduction to his Gesta Danorum that the runic inscription was no longer legible being too worn down. This had been established by a delegation sent by the Danish king Valdemar I of Denmark (11311182) to read the inscription:
Illustration of the official Danish expedition in 1833, by C.F. Christensen.
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Now in Bleking is to be seen a rock which travellers can visit, dotted with letters in a strange character. For there stretches from the southern sea into the desert of Vaarnsland a road of rock, contained between two lines a little way apart and very prolonged, between which is visible in the midst a level space, graven all over with characters made to be read. And though this lies so unevenly as sometimes to break through the tops of the hills, sometimes to pass along the valley bottoms, yet it can be discerned to preserve continuous traces of the characters. Now Waldemar, well-starred son of holy Canute, marvelled at these, and desired to know their purport, and sent men to go along the rock and gather with close search the series of the characters that were to be seen there; they were then to denote them with certain marks, using letters of similar shape. These men could not gather any sort of interpretation of them, because owing to the hollow space of the graving being partly smeared up with mud and partly worn by the feet of travellers in the trampling of the road, the long line that had been drawn became [2] blurred.
Later in book 7 of Gesta Danorum, Saxo explains that it was a memorial by the Danish king Harald Wartooth to his father's great deeds:
The Icelandic archaeologist and scholar Finnur Magnsson claimed to have deciphered the inscription.
HARALD, being of great beauty and unusual size, and surpassing those of his age in strength and stature, received such favour from Odin (whose oracle was thought to have been the cause of his birth), that steel could not injure his perfect soundness. The result was, that shafts which wounded others were disabled from doing him any harm. Nor was the boon unrequited; for he is reported to have promised to Odin all the souls which his sword cast out of their bodies. He also had his father's deeds recorded for a memorial by craftsmen on a rock in Bleking, [3] whereof I have made mention.
In spite of Saxo's report that the inscription was illegible as early as the 12th century, the Danish physician and antiquary Ole Worm declared in the 17th century that he had managed to read four letters in the description: Lund[4]. There was considerable interest in the inscription during the Gothicismus of the early 19th century.[5] The Swedish writer Esaias Tegnr referred to it in his unfinished poem on the giantess Gerr and Axel who became bishop Absalon of Lund.[5]
Runamo
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In 1833, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters sent an expedition led by an Icelandic professor at the University of Copenhagen named Finnur Magnsson.[1][6] The mission was to explore the signs making use of geological and artistic expertise,[7] including the geologist Johan Georg Forchhammer.[1] At first, Finnur was unable to read the signs, but resolving to read them from right to left and by interpreting some of them as cipher runes, he believed he discerned a poem.[7] This poem was an incantation by Harald Hildekinn (sic.), i.e. Harald Wartooth, for victory against the Swedish king Sigurd Ring at the Battle of Brvellir,[7] or stanzas from the skaldic poem that the champion Starkad composed on the battle.[1][6][8] Finnur's report prompted the famous Swedish scientist Jns Jacob Berzelius to undertake his own study in 1836, and he concluded that the inscription was nothing but natural cracks in the rock.[7] Finnur The famous Swedish chemist Jns Jakob Berzelius claimed that the inscription was only defended his thesis in an extensive publication in 1841, but the Danish natural cracks in the rock. archaeologist Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae made a third study at the location in 1844, which turned the general scholarly opinion towards Berzelius' theory.[6][7] Since then, it is generally considered to be a dolerite dike with cracks.[9]
Notes
[1] The article Runamo in Nordisk familjebok (1916). (http:/ / runeberg. org/ nfcc/ 0641. html) [2] The Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, Preface, at the Online Medieval and Classical Library. (http:/ / omacl. org/ DanishHistory/ preface. html) [3] The Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, book 7, at the Online Medieval and Classical Library. (http:/ / omacl. org/ DanishHistory/ book7. html) [4] An article in Sydstran (http:/ / www. sydostran. se/ 002. lasso?id=36431& lay=nyheter), retrieved January 1 2006. [5] Andersson 1947:222 [6] Brate 1922:135 [7] Andersson 1947:223 [8] Jn Helgason, "Magnsson, Finnur" (http:/ / www. rosekamp. dk/ DBL_All/ DBL_15_text. pdf), Dansk Biografisk Leksikon November 1938, volume 15, pp. 236-37. (Danish) [9] The article Runamo in Nationalencyklopedin.
Bibliography
Andersson, Ingvar. (1947). Sknes historia, till Saxo och Sknelagen. P.A. Norstedt & sners frlag/Stockholm. Brate, Eric. (1922). Sveriges runinskrifter, online. (http://www.runor.se/bra/bra67.htm) Saxo Grammaticus. Gesta Danorum, English Book I-IX: Online Medieval and Classical Library (http://sunsite. berkeley.edu/OMACL/DanishHistory/) The article Runamo in Nationalencyklopedin (1995). The article Runamo in Nordisk familjebok (1916). (http://runeberg.org/nfcc/0641.html)
Rundata
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Rundata
The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base (Swedish: Samnordisk runtextdatabas) is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future research. The database is freely available [1] via the Internet with a client program, called Rundata, for Microsoft Windows and ASCII text files for other operating systems.
History
The origin of the Rundata project was a 1986 database of Swedish inscriptions at Uppsala University for use in the Scandinavian Languages Department.[2] At a seminar in 1990 it was proposed to expand the database to cover all Nordic runic inscriptions, but funding for the project was not available until a grant was received in 1992 from the Axel och Margaret Ax:son Johnsons foundation.[2] The project officially started on January 1, 1993 at Uppsala University. After 1997, the project was no longer funded and work continued on a voluntary basis outside of normal work-hours.[2] In the current edition, published on December 3, 2008, there are over 6500 inscriptions in the database.[2] Work is currently underway for the next edition of the database.
Format of entries
Each entry includes the original text, its format, location, English and Swedish translations, information about the stone itself, et cetera. The stones are identified with a code which consists of up to three parts. The first part describes the origin of the inscription. For Swedish inscriptions this contains a code for the province, and, for Extra-Nordic inscriptions, a code for the country (not ISO 3166). Province code: Bo - Bohusln D - Dalarna G - Gotland Gs - Gstrikland Hs - Hlsingland J - Jmtland Lp - Lappland M - Medelpad N - Nrke Sm - Smland S - Sdermanland U - Uppland Vg - Vstergtland Vr - Vrmland Vs - Vstmanland g - stergtland l - land
Country code: BR - British Islands DR - Denmark (includes Skne, Halland, Blekinge, and Southern Schleswig). Stone numbers taken from Jacobsen & Moltke Danmarks Runeindskrifter (1941-1942)
Rundata FR - Faroe Islands GR - Greenland IR - Ireland IS - Iceland N - Norway X - Other areas
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The second part of the code consists of a serial number or a previous method of cataloging. The third part of the code is a character which indicates the age (Proto-Norse, Viking Age, or Middle Ages) and whether the inscription is lost or retranslated. # - inscription lost, later replaced with $ - newly retranslated M - inscription from the Middle Ages U - inscription in Proto-Norse, i.e. before ca 800. [inscription from the Viking Age, if M or U are not present]
As such, U 88 would mean that the stone is from Uppland and that it is the 88th to be catalogued. This system has its origin in the book Sveriges runinskrifter (English: "Runic Inscriptions of Sweden")
Dating of runic inscriptions in Rundata

Most of the time, the Period/Datering information in Rundata just gives the date as V, meaning Viking Age, which is very broad. For some Danish inscriptions from Jacobsen & Moltke a more precise sub-period is given. The periods used are: Helns-Grlev -- ca. 800 (or 750-ca. 900) fr-Jelling (pre-Jelling) -- ca. 900 Jelling (Jelling) -- 10th c. and into the 11th c. efter-Jelling (post-Jelling) -- ca. 10001050 kristen efter-Jelling (Christian, post-Jelling) -- 1st half 11th c.
Many of the inscriptions in Rundata also include a field called Stilgruppering. This refers to date bands determined by the style of ornamentation on the stone as proposed by Grslund: The date bands are: RAK -- ca. 990-1010 AD FP -- ca. 1010-1050 AD Pr1 -- ca. 1010-1040 AD Pr2 -- ca. 1020-1050 AD Pr3 -- ca. 1050 - a generation forward (en generation framt) Pr4 -- ca. 1060-1100 AD Pr5 -- ca. 1100-1130 AD
Rundata
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Original reference works

The catalog numbers refer to a variety of reference works and scholarly publications. Some of the more notable of these include: Sveriges runinskrifter, various volumes. Jacobsen, Lis; Moltke, Erik (1941-42). Danmarks Runeindskrifter. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaards Forlag. Grslund, A-S. (1991). "Runstenar om ornamentik och datering". TOR 23: 113140. Grslund, A-S. (1992). "Runstenar om ornamentik och datering II". TOR 24: 177201. Other bibliography information is available inside the Rundata client program by pressing F4.
References
[1] http:/ / www. nordiska. uu. se/ forskn/ samnord. htm [2] Owe, Jan (2010). "Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Hur kan den Utvecklas?" (http:/ / www. khm. uio. no/ forskning/ publikasjoner/ runenews/ 7th-symp/ preprint/ owe. pdf). Seventh International Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions: "Runes in Context". Oslo: University of Oslo. . Retrieved 27 Dec. 2010
External links
Samnordisk runtextdatabas (http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm) (Swedish)
Rune Poems
The Rune Poems are three poems that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Three different poems have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune Poem, and the Icelandic Rune Poem. The Icelandic and Norwegian poems list 16 Younger Futhark runes, while the Anglo Saxon Rune Poem lists 26 Anglo-Saxon runes. Each poem differs in poetic verse, but they contain numerous parallels between one another. Further, the poems provide references to figures from Norse paganism and Anglo-Saxon paganism, the latter included alongside Christian references. A list of rune names is also recorded in the Abecedarium Nordmannicum, a 9th century manuscript, but whether this can be called a poem or not is a matter of some debate. The rune poems have been theorized as having been mnemonic devices that allowed the user to remember the order and names of each letter of the alphabet and may have been a catalog of important cultural information, memorably arranged; comparable with the Old English sayings, Gnomic poetry, and Old Norse poetry of wisdom and learning.[1]
Rune poems
English
The Old English Rune Poem as recorded was likely composed in the 8th or 9th century[2] and was preserved in the 10th century manuscript Cotton Otho B.x, fol. 165a 165b, housed at the Cotton library in London, England. In 1731, the manuscript was lost with numerous other manuscripts in a fire at the Cotton library.[3] However, the poem had been copied by George Hickes in 1705 and his copy has formed the basis of all later editions of the poems.[3] George Hickes' record of the poem may deviate from the original manuscript.[3] Hickes recorded the poem in prose, divided the prose into 29 stanzas, and placed a copper plate engraved with runic characters on the left-hand margin so that each rune stands immediately in front of the stanza where it belongs.[3] For five of the runes (wen, hgl, nyd, eoh, and Ing) Hickes gives variant forms and two more runes are given at the foot of the column; cweor and an
Rune Poems unnamed rune (calc) which are not handled in the poem itself.[3] A second copper plate appears across the foot of the page and contains two more runes: stan and gar.[3] Van Kirk Dobbie states that this apparatus is not likely to have been present in the original text of the Cotton manuscript and states that it's possible that the original Anglo-Saxon rune poem manuscript would have appeared similar in arrangement of runes and texts to that of the Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems.[3]
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Norwegian
The Norwegian Rune Poem was preserved in a 17th century copy of a destroyed 13th century manuscript.[1] The Norwegian Rune Poem is preserved in skaldic metre, featuring the first line exhibiting a "(rune name)(copula) X" pattern, followed by a second rhyming line providing information somehow relating to its subject.[4]
Icelandic
The Icelandic Rune Poem is recorded in four Arnamagnan manuscripts, the oldest of the four dating from the late 15th century.[1] The Icelandic Rune Poem has been called the most systemized of the rune poems (including the Abecedarium Nordmannicum) and has been compared to the ljahttr verse form.[4]
Abecedarium Nordmannicum
Recorded in the 9th century, the Abecedarium Nordmannicum is the earliest known catalog of Norse rune names, though it does not contain definitions, is partly in Continental Germanic and also contains an amount of distinctive Anglo-Saxon rune types.[5] The text is recorded in Codex Sangallensis 878,[4] kept in the St. Gallen abbey, and may originate from Fulda, Germany.
Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Lapidge (2007:2526). Van Kirk Dobbie (1965:XLIX). Van Kirk Dobbie (1965:XLVI). Acker (1998:5253). Page (1999:660).
References
Acker, Paul (1998). Revising Oral Theory: Formulaic Composition in Old English and Old Icelandic Verse. Routledge. ISBN 0-8153-3102-9 Lapidge, Michael (Editor) (2007). Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-03843-X Page, Raymond Ian (1999). An Introduction to English Runes (http://books.google.com/ books?id=SgpriZdKin0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-946-X Van Kirk Dobbie, Elliott (1942). The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems. Columbia University Press ISBN 0-231-08770-5 The Rune Poem (Old English), ed. and tr. T.A. Shippey, Poems of Wisdom and Learning in Old English. Cambridge, 1976: 805.
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External links
Rune Poems (http://www.ragweedforge.com/poems.html) from "Runic and Heroic Poems" by Bruce Dickins
Runes
Runic
Type Languages Time period
Alphabet Germanic languages Elder Futhark from the 2nd century AD
Parent systems Phoenician Old Italic Child systems ISO 15924 Direction Unicode alias Runic
Younger Futhark, Anglo-Saxon futhorc Runr, 211 Left-to-right Runic
Unicode range U+16A0U+16FF [1] Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols.
Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets which were used to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter. The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark or fuark (derived from their first six letters of the alphabet: F, U, , A, R, and K); the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc or fuorc (due to sound changes undergone in Old English by the same six letters). Runology is the study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runestones, and their history. Runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics. The earliest runic inscriptions date from around AD 150. The characters were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianization by around AD 700 in central Europe and by around AD 1100 in Northern Europe. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in Northern Europe. Until the early 20th century runes were used in rural Sweden for decoration purposes in Dalarna and on Runic calendars. The three best-known runic alphabets are the Elder Futhark (around 150800), the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc (4001100), and the Younger Futhark (8001100). The Younger Futhark is further divided into the long-branch runes (also called Danish, although they were also used in Norway and Sweden), short-branch or Rk runes (also called Swedish-Norwegian, although they were also used in Denmark), and the stavesyle or Hlsinge runes (staveless
Runes runes). The Younger Futhark developed further into the Marcomannic runes, the Medieval runes (11001500), and the Dalecarlian runes (around 15001800). Historically, the runic alphabet is a derivation of the Old Italic alphabets of antiquity, with the addition of some innovations. Which variant of the Old Italic family in particular gave rise to the runes is uncertain, suggestions including Raetic, Etruscan or Old Latin candidates. All these scripts at the time had the same angular letter shapes suited for epigraphy which would become characteristic of the runes. The process of transmission of the script (the oldest inscriptions being found in Denmark and Northern Germany, not near Italy) is also unknown. A "West Germanic hypothesis" suggests transmission via Elbe Germanic groups, while a "Gothic hypothesis" assumes transmission via East Germanic expansion.
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History and usage

The runes were in use among the Germanic peoples from the 1st or 2nd century AD.[2] This period corresponds to the late Common Germanic stage linguistically, with a continuum of dialects not yet clearly separated into the three branches of later centuries; North Germanic, West Germanic, and East Germanic. No distinction is made in surviving runic inscriptions between long and short vowels, although such a distinction was certainly present phonologically in the spoken languages of the time. Similarly, there are no signs for labiovelars in the Elder Futhark (such signs were introduced in both the Anglo-Saxon futhorc and the Gothic alphabet as variants of p; see peor.) The name runes contrasts with Latin or Greek letters. It is attested on a 6th century Alamannic runestaff as runa, and possibly as runo on the 4th century Einang stone. The name is from a root run- (Gothic runa), meaning "secret" or "whisper". The root run- can also be found in the Baltic languages meaning "speech". In Lithuanian, runoti has two meanings: "to cut (with a knife)" or "to speak".[3] In the Finnish language, the word runot means "song".[4]
An inscription using cipher runes, the Elder Futhark, and the Younger Futhark, on the 9th-century Rk Runestone in Sweden.
Origins
The runes developed centuries after the Old Italic alphabets from which they are historically derived. The debate on the development of the runic script concerns the question which of the Italic alphabets should be taken as their point of origin, and which, if any, signs should be considered original innovations added to the letters found in the Italic scripts. The historical context of the script's origin is the cultural A Younger Futhark inscription on the contact between Germanic people, who often served as mercenaries in 12th-century Vaksala Runestone in Sweden. the Roman army, and the Italic peninsula during the Roman imperial period (1st c. BC to 5th c. AD). The formation of the Elder Futhark was complete by the early 5th century, with the Kylver Stone being the first evidence of the futhark ordering as well as of the p rune. Specifically, the Raetic alphabet of Bolzano is often advanced as a candidate for the origin of the runes, with only five Elder Futhark runes ( e, , j, , p) having no counterpart in the Bolzano alphabet (Mees 2000). Scandinavian scholars tend to favor derivation from the Latin alphabet itself over Raetic candidates.[5] A "North
Runes Etruscan" thesis is supported by the inscription on the Negau helmet dating to the 2nd century BC[6] This is in a northern Etruscan alphabet, but features a Germanic name, Harigast. The angular shapes of the runes are shared with most contemporary alphabets of the period used for carving in wood or stone. A peculiarity of the runic alphabet is the absence of horizontal strokes, although this characteristic is also shared by other alphabets, such as the early form of the Latin alphabet used for the Duenos inscription, and it is not universal especially among early runic inscriptions, which frequently have variant rune shapes including horizontal strokes. The "West Germanic hypothesis" speculates on an introduction by West Germanic tribes. This hypothesis is based on claiming that the earliest inscriptions of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, found in bogs and graves around Jutland (the Vimose inscriptions), exhibit word endings that, being interpreted by Scandinavian scholars to be Proto-Norse, are considered unresolved and having been long the subject of discussion. Inscriptions like wagnija, niijo, and harija are supposed to incarnate tribe names, tentatively proposed to be Vangiones, the Nidensis and the Harii, tribes located in the Rhineland.[7] Since names ending in -io reflect Germanic morphology representing the Latin ending -ius, and the suffix -inius was reflected by Germanic -inio-,[8] the question of the problematic ending -ijo in masculine Proto-Norse would be resolved by assuming Roman (Rhineland) influences, while "the awkward ending -a of laguewa (cf. Syrett 1994:44f.) can be solved by accepting the fact that the name may indeed be West Germanic;"[9] however, it should be noted that in the early Runic period differences between Germanic languages are generally assumed to be small. Another theory assumes a Northwest Germanic unity preceding the emergence of Proto-Norse proper from roughly the 5th century.[10] An alternative suggestion explaining the impossibility to classify the earliest inscriptions as either North or West Germanic is forwarded by . A. Makaev, who assumes a "special runic koine", an early "literary Germanic" employed by the entire Late Common Germanic linguistic community after the separation of Gothic (2nd to 5th centuries), while the spoken dialects may already have been more diverse.[11]
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Early inscriptions
Runic inscriptions from the 400 year period of c. AD 150 to 550 are referred to as "Period I" inscriptions. These inscriptions are generally in Elder Futhark, but the set of letter shapes and bindrunes employed is far from standardized. Notably the j, s and runes undergo considerable modifications, while others, such as p and , remain unattested altogether prior the first full futhark row on the Kylver Stone (c. AD 400). Artifacts such as spear-mounts, shield-heads have been found which bear runic marking can be dated to 200 A.D., as evidenced by artifacts found across northern Europe in Schleswig (North Germany), Fyn, Sjaeland, Jylland (Denmark), and Skne (Sweden). Earlier, but less reliable, artifacts have been found in Meldorf, Sderithmarschen, North Germany; these include brooches and comes found in graves, and are supposed to have the earliest markings resembling runic inscriptions.
An illustration of the Ring of Pietroassa (from between AD 250 to 400) by Henri Trenk, 1875.
Theories of the existence of separate Gothic runes have been advanced, even identifying them as the original alphabet from which the Futhark were derived, but these have little support in actual findings (mainly the spearhead of Kovel, with its right-to-left inscription, its T-shaped tiwaz and its rectangular dagaz). If there ever were genuinely Gothic runes, they were soon replaced by the Gothic alphabet. The letters of the Gothic alphabet, however, as given by the Alcuin manuscript (9th century), are obviously related to the names of the Futhark. The names are clearly Gothic, but it is impossible to say whether they are as old as, or even older than, the letters themselves. A handful of
Runes Elder Futhark inscriptions were found in Gothic territory, such as the 3rd to 5th century Ring of Pietroassa. The Encyclopdia Britannica even suggests the original development of the runes may have been due to the Goths.[12]
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Magical or divinatory use

In stanza 157 of Hvaml, the runes are attributed with the power to bring that which is dead to life. In this stanza, Odin recounts a spell:
A bracteate (G 205) from around AD 400 that features no runic inscription but the charm word alu with a depiction of a stylized male head, horse and a swastika, a common motif on bracteates.
An illustration of the Gummarp Runestone (500 to 700 AD) from Blekinge, Sweden.
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Closeup of the runic inscription found on the 6th or 7th century Bjrketorp Runestone located in Blekinge, Sweden.
at kann ek it tolfta, ef ek s tr uppi vfa virgiln,: sv ek rst ok rnum fk, at s gengr gumi ok mlir vi mik. [13]
I know a twelfth one if I see, up in a tree, a dangling corpse in a noose, I can so carve and color the runes, that the man walks And talks with me. [14]
The earliest runic inscriptions found on artifacts give the name of either the craftsman or the proprietor, or, sometimes, remain a linguistic mystery. Due to this, it is possible that the early runes were not so much used as a simple writing system, but rather as magical signs to be used for charms. Although some say the runes were used for divination, there is no direct evidence to suggest they were ever used in this way. The name rune itself, taken to mean "secret, something hidden", seems to indicate that knowledge of the runes was originally considered esoteric, or restricted to an elite. The 6th century Bjrketorp Runestone warns in Proto-Norse using the word rune in both senses: Haidzruno runu, falahak haidera, ginnarunaz. Arageu haeramalausz uti az. Weladaude, sa'z at barutz. Uarba spa. I, master of the runes(?) conceal here runes of power. Incessantly (plagued by) maleficence, (doomed to) insidious death (is) he who breaks this (monument). I prophesy destruction / prophecy of destruction.[15] The same curse and use of the word rune is also found on the Stentoften Runestone. There are also some inscriptions suggesting a medieval belief in the magical significance of runes, such as the Franks Casket (700 AD) panel. Charm words, such as auja, lau, laukaR and most commonly, alu,[16] appear on a number of Migration period Elder Futhark inscriptions as well as variants and abbreviations of them. Much speculation and study has been produced on the potential meaning of these inscriptions. Rhyming groups appear on some early bracteates that may also be magic in purpose, such as salusalu and luwatuwa. Further, an inscription on the Gummarp Runestone (500 to 700 AD) gives a cryptic inscription describing the use of three runic letters followed by the Elder Futhark f-rune written three times in succession.[17] Nevertheless, it has proven difficult to find unambiguous traces of runic "oracles": Although Norse literature is full of references to runes, it nowhere contains specific instructions on divination. There are at least three sources on divination with rather vague descriptions that may or may not refer to runes: Tacitus's 1st century Germania, Snorri Sturluson's 13th century Ynglinga saga and Rimbert's 9th century Vita Ansgari. The first source, Tacitus's Germania, describes "signs" chosen in groups of three and cut from "a nut-bearing tree," although the runes do not seem to have been in use at the time of Tacitus' writings. A second source is the Ynglinga saga, where Granmar, the king of Sdermanland, goes to Uppsala for the blt. There, the "chips" fell in a way that
Runes said that he would not live long (Fll honum svo spnn sem hann mundi eigi lengi lifa). These "chips," however, are easily explainable as a bltspnn (sacrificial chip), which was "marked, possibly with sacrificial blood, shaken and thrown down like dice, and their positive or negative significance then decided."[18] The third source is Rimbert's Vita Ansgari, where there are three accounts of what some believe to be the use of runes for divination, but Rimbert calls it "drawing lots". One of these accounts is the description of how a renegade Swedish king Anund Uppsale first brings a Danish fleet to Birka, but then changes his mind and asks the Danes to "draw lots". According to the story, this "drawing of lots" was quite informative, telling them that attacking Birka would bring bad luck and that they should attack a Slavic town instead. The tool in the "drawing of lots," however, is easily explainable as a hlautlein (lot-twig), which according to Foote and Wilson[18] would be used in the same manner as a bltspnn. The lack of extensive knowledge on historical usage of the runes has not stopped modern authors from extrapolating entire systems of divination from what few specifics exist, usually loosely based on the runes' reconstructed names and additional outside influence. A recent study of runic magic suggests that runes were used to create magical objects such as amulets (MacLeod and Mees 2006), but not in a way that would indicate that runic writing was any more inherently magical than were other writing systems such as Latin or Greek.
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Medieval use
As Proto-Germanic evolved into its later language groups, the words assigned to the runes and the sounds represented by the runes themselves began to diverge somewhat, and each culture would either create new runes, rename or rearrange its rune names slightly, or even stop using obsolete runes completely, to accommodate these changes. Thus, the Anglo-Saxon futhorc has several runes peculiar to itself to represent diphthongs unique to (or at least prevalent in) the Anglo-Saxon dialect. Nevertheless, the fact that the Younger Futhark has 16 runes, while the Elder Futhark has 24, is not fully explained by the some 600 years of sound changes that had occurred in the North Germanic language group. The development here might seem rather astonishing, since the younger form of the alphabet came to use fewer different rune signs at the same time as the development of the language led to a greater number of different phonemes than had been present at the time of the older futhark. For example, voiced and unvoiced consonants merged in script, and so did many vowels, while the number of vowels in the spoken language increased. From about 1100, this disadvantage was eliminated in the medieval runes, which again increased the number of different signs to correspond with the number of phonemes in the
Codex Runicus, a vellum manuscript from around 1300 AD containing one of the oldest and best preserved texts of the Scanian Law, written entirely in runes.
language. Some later runic finds are on monuments (runestones), which often contain solemn inscriptions about people who died or performed great deeds. For a long time it was assumed that this kind of grand inscription was the primary use of runes, and that their use was associated with a certain societal class of rune carvers. In the mid-1950s, however, about 600 inscriptions known as the Bryggen inscriptions were found in Bergen. These inscriptions were made on wood and bone, often in the shape of sticks of various sizes, and contained inscriptions of an everyday natureranging from name tags, prayers (often in Latin), personal messages, business letters and
Runes expressions of affection to bawdy phrases of a profane and sometimes even vulgar nature. Following this find, it is nowadays commonly assumed that at least in late use, Runic was a widespread and common writing system. In the later Middle Ages, runes were also used in the Clog almanacs (sometimes called Runic staff, Prim or Scandinavian calendar) of Sweden and Estonia. The authenticity of some monuments bearing Runic inscriptions found in Northern America is disputed, but most of them date from modern times.
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Runes in Eddic lore

In Norse mythology, the runic alphabet is attested to a divine origin (Old Norse: reginkunnr). This is attested as early as on the Noleby Runestone from around 600 AD that reads Runo fahi raginakundo toj[e'k]a..., meaning "I prepare the suitable divine rune ..."[19] and in an attestation from the 9th century on the Sparlsa Runestone which reads Ok ra runaR aR rgi[n]kundu, meaning "And interpret the runes of divine origin".[20] More notably, in the Poetic Edda poem Hvaml, Stanza 80, the runes are also described as reginkunnr:
at er reynt, er a rnum spyrr inum reginkunnum, eim er geru ginnregin ok fi fimbululr, hefir hann bazt, ef hann egir. [21] That is now proved, what you asked of the runes, of the potent famous ones, which the great gods made, and the mighty sage stained, that it is best for him if he stays silent. [22]
The poem Hvaml explains that the originator of the runes was the major god Odin. Stanza 138 describes how Odin received the runes through self-sacrifice:
Veit ek at ek hekk vindga meii a netr allar no, geiri vndar ok gefinn Oni, sialfr sialfom mer, a eim meii, er mangi veit, hvers hann af rtom renn. I know that I hung on a windy tree nine long nights, wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin, myself to myself, on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run. [23]
In stanza 139, Odin continues:

Vi hleifi mik seldo ne vi hornigi, nysta ek nir, nam ek vp rvnar, opandi nam, fell ek aptr aan. No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn, downwards I peered; I took up the runes, screaming I took them, then I fell back from there. [23]
This passage has been interpreted as a mythical representation of shamanic initial ritual in which the initiate must undergo a physical trial in order to receive mystic widsom.[24] In the Poetic Edda poem Rgsula another origin is related of how the runic alphabet became known to man. The poem relates how Rg, identified as Heimdall in the introduction, sired three sons (Thrall (slave), Churl (freeman) and Jarl (noble)) on human women. These sons became the ancestors of the three classes of men indicated by their names. When Jarl reached an age when he began to handle weapons and show other signs of nobility, Rig returned and, having claimed him as a son, taught him the runes. In 1555, the exiled Swedish archbishop Olaus Magnus recorded a tradition that a man named Kettil Runske had stolen three rune staffs from Odin and learned the runes and their magic.
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Runic alphabets
Elder Futhark (2nd to 8th c.)
The Elder Futhark, used for writing Proto-Norse, consists of 24 runes that are often arranged in three groups of eight; each group is referred to as an tt. The earliest known sequential listing of the full set of 24 runes dates to around AD 400 and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland, Sweden. Each rune most probably had a name, chosen to represent the sound of the rune itself. The names are, however, not directly attested for the Detail of the Elder Futhark inscription on a Elder Futhark themselves. Reconstructed names in Proto-Germanic replica of one of the 5th century AD Golden have been produced, based on the names given for the runes in the later Horns of Gallehus found in Denmark. alphabets attested in the rune poems and the linked names of the letters of the Gothic alphabet. The letter was named from The Runic letter Called Ansuz. The asterisk before the rune names means that they are unattested reconstructions. The 24 Elder Futhark runes are:[25]
Rune UCS Transliteration f u a r k g w h n i j (or ) p z s t b e IPA /f/ /u()/ Proto-Germanic name *fehu ?*ruz "wealth, cattle" "aurochs" (or *ram "water/slag"?) "the god Thor, giant" "one of the sir (gods)" "ride, journey" "ulcer"? (or *kenaz "torch"?) "gift" "joy" "hail" (the precipitation) "need" "ice" "year, good year, harvest" "yew-tree" meaning unclear, perhaps "pear-tree". unclear, possibly "elk". "Sun" "the god Tiwaz" "birch" "horse" Meaning
//, // ?*urisaz /a()/ /r/ /k/ // /w/ /h/ /n/ /i()/ /j/ *ansuz *raid ?*kaunan *geb *wunj *hagalaz *naudiz *saz *jra-
//(?) *(h)waz/*ei(h)waz /p/ /z/ /s/ /t/ /b/ /e()/ ?*per?*algiz *swil *twaz/*teiwaz *berkanan *ehwaz
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m l o d /m/ /l/ // /o()/ /d/ *mannaz *laguz *ingwaz *ila-/*ala*dagaz "Man" "water, lake" (or possibly *laukaz "leek") "the god Ingwaz" "heritage, estate, possession" "day"
Anglo-Frisian runes (5th to 11th c.)

The futhorc are an extended alphabet, consisting of 29, and later even 33 characters. It was probably used from the 5th century onward. There are competing theories as to the origins of the Anglo-Saxon Fuorc. One theory proposes that it was developed in Frisia and later spread to England. Another holds that runes were introduced by Scandinavians to England where the fuorc was modified and exported to Frisia. Both theories have their inherent weaknesses and a definitive answer likely awaits more archaeological evidence. Futhorc inscriptions are found e.g. on the Thames scramasax, in the Vienna Codex, in Cotton Otho B.x (Anglo-Saxon rune poem) and on the Ruthwell Cross.
The Anglo-Saxon Fuorc. The Anglo-Saxon rune poem gives the following characters and names: feoh, ur, thorn, os, rad, cen, gyfu, wynn, haegl, nyd, is, ger, eoh, peordh, eolh, sigel, tir, beorc, eh, mann, lagu, ing, ethel, daeg, ac, aesc, yr, ior, ear.
The expanded alphabet features the additional letters cweorth, calc, cealc and stan- these additional letters have only been found in manuscripts. Feoh, orn, and sigel stood for [f], [], and [s] in most environments, but voiced to [v], [], and [z] between vowels or voiced consonants. Gyfu and wynn stood for the letters yogh and wynn, which became [g] and [w] in Middle English.
"Marcomannic runes" (8th to 9th c.)

In a treatise called De Inventione Litterarum, preserved in 8th and 9th century manuscripts, mainly from the southern part of the Carolingian Empire (Alemannia, Bavaria), ascribed to Hrabanus Maurus, a runic alphabet consisting of a curious mixture of Elder Futhark with Anglo-Saxon futhorc is recorded. The manuscript Marcomannic runes. text ascribes the runes to the Marcomanni, quos nos Nordmannos vocamus, and the alphabet is hence traditionally called "Marcomannic runes", but it has no connection with the Marcomanni and is rather an attempt of Carolingian scholars to represent all letters of the Latin alphabets with runic equivalents. Wilhelm Grimm discussed these runes in 1821 (Ueber deutsche Runen, chapter 18, pp.149159).
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Younger Futhark (9th to 11th c.)

The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian Futhark, is a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters. The reduction correlates with phonetic changes when Proto-Norse evolved into Old Norse. They are found in Scandinavia and Viking Age settlements abroad, probably in use from the 9th century onward. They are divided into long-branch (Danish) and short-twig (Swedish and Norwegian) runes. The difference between the two versions has been a matter of controversy. A general opinion is that the difference was functional; i.e. the long-branch runes were used for documentation on stone, whereas the short-branch runes were in everyday use for private or official messages on wood.
The Younger Futhark: long-branch runes and short-twig runes.
While also featuring a runic inscription detailing the erection of a bridge for a loved one, the 11th century Ramsung carving is a Sigurd stone that depicts the legend of Sigurd.
Medieval runes (12th to 15th c.)

In the Middle Ages, the Younger Futhark in Scandinavia was expanded, so that it once more contained one sign for each phoneme of the Old Norse language. Dotted variants of voiceless Medieval runes. signs were introduced to denote the corresponding voiced consonants, or vice versa, voiceless variants of voiced consonants, and several new runes also appeared for vowel sounds. Inscriptions in medieval Scandinavian runes show a large number of variant rune forms, and some letters, such as s, c and z, were often used interchangeably.[26][27] Medieval runes were in use until the 15th century. Of the total number of Norwegian runic inscriptions preserved today, most are medieval runes. Notably, more than 600 inscriptions using these runes have been discovered
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in Bergen since the 1950s, mostly on wooden sticks (the so-called Bryggen inscriptions). This indicates that runes were in common use side by side with the Latin alphabet for several centuries. Indeed, some of the medieval runic inscriptions are actually in Latin language.
A church bell from Saleby, Vstergtland, Sweden, containing a runic inscription from 1228.
Dalecarlian runes (16th to 19th c.)

According to Carl-Gustav Werner, "In the isolated province of Dalarna in Sweden a mix of runes and Latin letters developed."(Werner 2004, p.7) The Dalecarlian runes came into use in the early 16th century and remained in some use up to the 20th century. Some Dalecarlian runes. discussion remains on whether their use was an unbroken tradition throughout this period or whether people in the 19th and 20th centuries learned runes from books written on the subject. The character inventory was mainly used for transcribing Elfdalian.
Academic study
The modern study of runes was initiated in the Renaissance, by Johannes Bureus (15681652). Bureus viewed runes as holy or magical in a kabbalistic sense. The study of runes was continued by Olof Rudbeck Sr (16301702) and presented in his collection Atlantica. Anders Celsius (170144) further extended the science of runes and travelled around the whole of Sweden to examine the runstenar (runestones). From the "golden age of philology" in the 19th century, runology formed a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics.
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Body of inscriptions
The largest group of surviving Runic inscription are Viking Age Younger Futhark runestones, most commonly found in Sweden. Another large group are medieval runes, most commonly found on small objects, often wooden sticks. The largest concentration of runic inscriptions are the Bryggen inscriptions found in Bergen, more than 650 in total. Elder Futhark inscriptions number around 350, about 260 of which are from Scandinavia, of which about half are on bracteates. Anglo-Saxon futhorc inscriptions number around 100 items.
Modern use
Runic alphabets have seen numerous usages since the 18th century Viking revival, in Scandinavian Romantic nationalism (Gothicismus) and Germanic occultism in the 19th century, and in the context of the Fantasy genre and of Germanic Neopaganism in the 20th.
The Vimose Comb from the island of Funen, Denmark features the earliest known runic inscription (AD 150 to 200) and simply reads [28] "Harja", a male name.
Esotericism
Germanic mysticism and Nazi symbolism Further information: Runosophy,Armanen runes,Wiligut runes,andRunengymnastik The pioneer of the Armanist branch of Ariosophy and one of the more important figures in esotericism in Germany and Austria in the late 19th and early 20th century was the Austrian occultist, mysticist and vlkisch author Guido von List. In 1908, he published in Das Geheimnis der Runen ("The Secret of the Runes") a set of 18 so-called "Armanen runes", based on the Younger Futhark and runes of List's own introduction, which were allegedly revealed to him in a state of temporary blindness after a cataract operation on both eyes in 1902. The use of runes in Germanic mysticism, notably List's "Armanen runes" and the derived "Wiligut runes" by Karl Maria Wiligut, played a certain role in Nazi symbolism. The fascination with runic symbolism was mostly limited to Heinrich Himmler, and not shared by the other members of the Nazi top echelon. Consequently, runes appear mostly in insignia associated with the Schutzstaffel, the paramilitary organization led by Himmler. Wiligut is credited with designing the SS-Ehrenring, which displays a number of "Wiligut runes". Modern neopaganism and esotericism Runes are popular in Germanic neopaganism, and to a lesser extent in other forms of Neopaganism and New Age esotericism. Various systems of Runic divination have been published since the 1980s, notably by Ralph Blum (1982), Stephen Flowers (1984 etc.), Stephan Grundy (1990) and Nigel Pennick (1995).
Runic script on an 1886 gravestone in Parkend, England.
From 1933, Schutzstaffel unit insignia displayed two Sig Runes.
The Uthark theory was originally proposed as a scholarly hypothesis by Sigurd Agrell in 1932. In 2002, Swedish esotericist Thomas Karlsson popularized this "Uthark" runic row, which he refers to as the "night side of the runes",
Runes in the context of modern occultism.
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J. R. R. Tolkien and contemporary fiction

In J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit (1937), the Anglo-Saxon runes are used on a map to emphasize its connection to the Dwarves. They were also used in the initial drafts of The Lord of the Rings, but later were replaced by the Cirth rune-like alphabet invented by Tolkien. Following Tolkien, historical and fictional runes appear commonly in modern popular culture, particularly in fantasy literature, but also in other forms of media such as video games.
Unicode
Runic alphabets were added to the Unicode Standard in September, 1999 with the release of version 3.0.
Block
The Unicode block for Runic alphabets is U+16A0U+16FF. It is intended to encode all shapes of runic letters. Each letter is encoded only once, regardless of the number of alphabets in which it occurs. The block contains 81 symbols: 75 runic letters (U+16A0U+16EA), three punctuation marks (Runic Single Punctuation U+16EB , Runic Multiple Punctuation U+16EC and Runic Cross Punctuation U+16ED ), and three runic symbols that are used in mediaeval calendar staves ("Golden number Runes", Runic Arlaug Symbol U+16EE , Runic Tvimadur Symbol U+16EF and Runic Belgthor Symbol U+16F0 ). Characters U+16F1U+16FF are unassigned (as of Unicode Version 6.0).
Runic Steel Stamps, Elder Futhark
Runic[1] Unicode.org chart [1] (PDF)
U+16Ax U+16Bx U+16Cx U+16Dx U+16Ex U+16Fx Notes
1.As of Unicode version 6.1
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Letters
Table of runic letters (U+16A0U+16EA):
16A0 fehu feoh fe f 16A1 v 16A2 uruz ur u 16B0 on 16B1 raido rad reid r 16B2 kauna 16C0 dotted-n 16C1 isaz is iss i 16C2 e 16D0 short-twig-tyr t 16D1 d 16D2 berkanan beorc bjarkan b 16D3 short-twig-bjarkan b 16D4 dotted-p 16D5 open-p 16E0 ear 16E1 ior 16E2 cweorth
16A3 yr
16B3 cen
16C3 jeran j
16E3 calc
16A4 y 16A5 w
16B4 kaun k 16B5 g
16C4 ger 16C5 long-branch-ar ae 16C6 short-twig-ar a
16E4 cealc 16E5 stan
16A6 thurisaz thurs thorn 16A7 eth 16A8 ansuz a
16B6 eng
16D6 ehwaz eh e
16E6 long-branch-yr
16B7 gebo gyfu g 16B8 gar
16C7 iwaz eoh 16C8 pertho peorth p
16D7 mannaz man m 16D8 long-branch-madr m 16D9 short-twig-madr m 16DA laukaz lagu logr l 16DB dotted-l
16E7 short-twig-yr 16E8 Icelandic-yr
16A9 os o 16AA ac a 16AB aesc
16B9 wunjo wynn w 16BA haglaz h 16BB haegl h
16C9 algiz eolhx 16CA sowilo s 16CB sigel long-branch-sol s
16E9 q 16EA x 16EB single punctuation
16AC long-branch-oss 16BC long-branch-hagall 16CC short-twig-sol s o h 16AD short-twig-oss o 16BD short-twig-hagall h 16CD c
16DC ingwaz
16EC multiple punctuation 16ED cross punctuation 16EE arlaug symbol 16EF tvimadur symbol 16F0 belgthor symbol
16DD ing
16AE o 16AF oe
16BE naudiz nyd naud n 16BF short-twig-naud n
16CE z 16CF tiwaz tir tyr t
16DE dagaz daeg d 16DF othalan ethel o
Fonts
Unicode fonts that support the runic block include the following Free Unicode fonts: Junicode, Free Mono, and Caslon Roman. The following non-free Unicode fonts also support the runic block: Alphabetum, Code2000, Everson Mono, Segoe UI Symbol, and TITUS Cyberbit Basic. Segoe UI Symbol is included in Windows 7, meaning that the Runic alphabet is supported in that system.[29]
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References
Notes
[1] http:/ / www. unicode. org/ charts/ PDF/ U16A0. pdf [2] The oldest known runic inscription dates to around AD 150 and is found on a comb discovered in the bog of Vimose, Funen, Denmark (Stoklund 2003:173). The inscription reads harja; a disputed candidate for a 1st century inscription is on the Meldorf fibula in southern Jutland. [3] "Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language" (http:/ / www. lkz. lt/ en/ dze. htm). Lkz.lt. . Retrieved 2010-04-13. [4] Kalevala Society. "Kalevala, the national epic". Retrieved 15 August 2010. [5] Odenstedt 1990; Williams 1996). Cf. Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages (book under preparation) (http:/ / ariadne. uio. no/ runenews/ odmarune. htm) [6] Markey 2001 [7] Looijenga, J. H. (1997). Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent 150-700CE (http:/ / dissertations. ub. rug. nl/ faculties/ arts/ 1997/ j. h. looijenga/ ), dissertation, Groningen University. [8] Weisgerber 1968:135, 392ff. and Weisgerber 1966/67:207 [9] Looijenga, J. H. (1997). Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150-700 (http:/ / dissertations. ub. rug. nl/ faculties/ arts/ 1997/ j. h. looijenga/ ), dissertation, Groningen University. [10] Penzl (1994) assumes a period of "Proto-Nordic-Westgermanic" unity down to the 5th century and the Gallehus horns inscription. H. Penzl, Language (1994), p. 186; in greater detail in Englisch: Eine Sprachgeschichte nach Texten von 350 bis 1992 : vom Nordisch-Westgermanischen zum Neuenglischen (1994); the division between Northwest Germanic and Proto-Norse is somewhat arbitrary, see Elmer H. Antonsen, On Defining Stages in Prehistoric Germanic, Language (1965), p. 36 [11] cited after . Antonsen (1965), p. 36 [12] "A likely theory is that the runic alphabet was developed by the Goths, a Germanic people, from the Etruscan alphabet of northern Italy and was perhaps also influenced by the Latin alphabet in the 1st or 2nd century bc" Encyclopdia Britannica, runic alphabet (http:/ / www. britannica. com/ EBchecked/ topic/ 512796/ runic-alphabet) [13] Hvaml (http:/ / www. heimskringla. no/ original/ edda/ havamal. php) [14] Larrington, Carolyne. (Trans.) (1999) The Poetic Edda, p. 37. Oxford World's Classics ISBN 0192839462 [15] Entry DR 360 in Rundata 2.0 for Windows. [16] Macleod, Mindy. Mees, Bernard. (2006) Runic Amulets and Magic Objects (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=hx7UigqsTKoC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage& q=& f=false), pp. 100101. Boydell Press ISBN 1843832054 [17] Page, R.I. (2005) Runes, p. 31. The British Museum Press ISBN 0-7141-8065-3 [18] Foote, P.G., and Wilson, D.M. (1970). The Viking Achievement, Sidgwick & Jackson: London, UK, ISBN 0-283-97926-7 [19] Entry Vg 63 in Rundata 2.0 for Windows. [20] Entry Vg 119 in Rundata 2.0 for Windows. [21] Hvaml (http:/ / www. heimskringla. no/ original/ edda/ havamal. php) at Norrne Tekster og Kvad, Norway. [22] Larrington, Carolyne. (Trans.) (1999) The Poetic Edda, p. 25. Oxford World's Classics ISBN 0192839462 [23] Larrington, Carolyne. (Trans.) (1999) The Poetic Edda, p. 34. Oxford World's Classics ISBN 0192839462 [24] Seigfried, Karl E. H. "Odin & the Runes, Part Three (http:/ / www. norsemyth. org/ 2010/ 03/ odin-runes-part-three. html) at The Norse Mythology Blog (http:/ / www. norsemyth. org/ ). [25] Page, R.I. (2005) Runes, pp. 8, 15, and 16. The British Museum Press ISBN 0-7141-8065-3 [26] Jacobsen & Moltke, 194142, p. VII [27] Werner, 2004, p. 20 [28] Looijenga, Tineke (2003). Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions. Leiden: Brill. p.160. ISBN9004123962. [29] "21 new typefaces in Windows 7" (http:/ / news. office-watch. com/ t/ n. aspx?a=871). News.office-watch.com. 2009-05-08. . Retrieved 2011-12-24.
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Bibliography
Bammesberger, A. and G. Waxenberger (eds), Das fuark und Seine Einzelsprachlichen Weiterentwicklungen, Walter de Gruyter (2006), ISBN 3-11-019008-7. Blum, Ralph. (1932. The Book of Runes - A Handbook for the use of Ancient Oracle : The Viking Runes,Oracle Books, St. Martin's Press, New York, ISBN 0-312-00729-9. Brate, Erik (1922). Sveriges Runinskrifter, ( online text (http://www.runor.se/) in Swedish) Dwel, Klaus (2001). Runenkunde, Verlag J.B. Metzler (In German). Foote, P. G., and Wilson, D. M. (1970), p.401. The Viking Achievement, Sidgwick & Jackson: London, UK, ISBN 0-283-97926-7 Jacobsen, Lis; Moltke, Erik (194142). Danmarks Runeindskrifter. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaards Forlag. Looijenga, J. H. (1997). Runes Around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150-700 (http://dissertations.ub. rug.nl/faculties/arts/1997/j.h.looijenga/), dissertation, Groningen University. MacLeod, Mindy, and Mees, Bernard (2006). Runic Amulets and Magic Objects (http://books.google.com/ books?id=hx7UigqsTKoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Boydell Press: Woodbridge, UK; Rochester, NY, ISBN 1843832054. Markey, T. L. (2001). "A Tale of the Two Helmets: Negau A and B.". Journal of Indo-European Studies 29: 69172. McKinnell, John and Rudolf Simek, with Klaus Dwel (2004). Runes, Magic, and Religion: A Sourcebook. Wien: Fassbaender, ISBN 3900538816. Mees, Bernard (200). "The North Etruscan Thesis of the Origin of the Runes." Arkiv for nordisk fililogi 115: 3382. Odenstedt, Bengt (1990). On the Origin and Early History of the Runic Script, Uppsala, ISBN 9185352209. Page, Raymond I. (1999). An Introduction to English Runes (http://www.boydell.co.uk/5115946X.HTM), The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. ISBN 0-85115-946-X. Prosdocimi, A. L. (20034). Sulla Formazione Dell'alfabeto Runico. Promessa di Novit Documentali Forse Decisive. Archivio per l'Alto Adige. XCVIIXCVIII:427440 Robinson, Orrin W. (1992). Old English and its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages (http://books.google.com/books?id=mmCqKS6rb04C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false) Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1454-1 Spurkland, Terje (2005). Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions (http://books.google.com/ books?id=1QDKqY-NWvUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false), Boydell Press. ISBN 1-84383-186-4 Stoklund, M. (2003). The first runes - the literary language of the Germani in The Spoils of Victory - the North in the Shadow of the Roman Empire Nationalmuseet (?) Thorsson, Edred; Flowers, Stephen (1987). Runelore: a Handbook of Esoteric Runology. United States: Samuel Weiser, Inc.. ISBN0-87728-667-1. Werner, Carl-Gustav (2004). The Allrunes Font and Package (ftp://tug.ctan.org/pub/tex-archive/fonts/ allrunes/allrunes.pdf)PDF. Williams, Henrik (1996). "The Origin of the Runes". Amsterdamer Beitrge zur lteren Germanistik 45: 21118. Williams, Henrik (2004). "Reasons for Runes" (http://books.google.com/books?id=jsWL_XJt-dMC& printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Houston, Stephen D.. The First Writing: Script Invention as History and Process. Cambridge University Press. pp.262273. ISBN0-521-83861-4.
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External links
Nytt om Runer runology journal. (http://www.khm.uio.no/forskning/publikasjoner/runenews/) Bibliography of Runic Scholarship (http://www.galinngrund.org/Runes-Bibliography.htm) Unicode Code Chart (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U16A0.pdf)PDF(68.3KB)
Runestone
A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century, and it lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones date from the late Viking Age. Most runestones are located in Scandinavia, but there are also scattered runestones in locations that were visited by Norsemen during the Viking Age. Runestones are often memorials to deceased men. Runestones were usually brightly colored when erected, though this is no longer evident as the color has worn off.
The Lingsberg Runestone, Sweden, known as U 240
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An early runestone: the Mjbro Runestone from Hagby (first placed near Mjebro), Uppland, Sweden. As with other early runic inscriptions, (e.g. Kylver Stone from about 300 - 400 CE) this is written from right to left, while later Runestones were written from left to right. The [1] text is Frawaradar anahaha is laginar
History
The tradition of raising stones that had runic inscriptions first appeared in the 4th and 5th century in Norway and Sweden, and these early runestones were usually placed next to graves.[2][3] The earliest Danish runestones appeared in the 6th and 7th centuries,[3] and there are about 50 runestones from the Migration Period in Scandinavia.[4] Most runestones were erected during the period 950-1100 CE, and then they were mostly raised in Sweden and Denmark, and to a lesser degree in Norway.[2] The tradition is mentioned in both Ynglinga saga and Hvaml: For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other warriors who had been distinguished for manhood a standing stone, a custom that remained long after Odin's time. The Ynglinga saga[5]
The Snoldelev stone, one of the oldest runestones in Denmark
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A son is better, though late he be born, And his father to death have fared; Memory-stones seldom stand by the road Save when kinsman honors his kin. [6] Hvaml
What resulted in the production of most runestone was a trend that began in Denmark in the 960s. King Harald Bluetooth had just been baptized and in order to mark the arrival of a new order and a new age, he commanded the construction of a runestone.[7] The inscription reads King Haraldr ordered this monument made in memory of Gormr, his father, and in memory of yrv, his mother; that Haraldr who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian.[7][8] The runestone has three sides of which two are decorated with images. On one side, there is an animal that is the prototype of the runic animals that would be commonly engraved on runestones, and on another side there is Denmark's oldest depiction of Jesus. Shortly after this stone had been made, something happened in Scandinavia's runic tradition. Scores of chieftains and powerful Norse clans consciously tried to imitate King Harald, and from Denmark a runestone wave spread northwards through Sweden. In most districts, the fad died out after a generation, but, in the central Swedish provinces of Uppland and Sdermanland, the fashion lasted into the 12th century.[7] An alternative view says that the Scandinavian (Germanic) runic writing has its origins in Central Asia, probably a system of proto-Elamite characters evolved into the writing of the Scythians and later the Hun and Turkic empires. From the Huns the Goth nations might be the transmitters. Also the Varangian (Viking) and Hungarian (Kara-Bulgarian) coexistence in and around the Ancient Kiev in the period of VII-Xth centuries might have been fruitful too.
Runestone
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Distribution
There are about 3,000 runestones among the c. 6,000 runic inscriptions in Scandinavia.[3] There are also runestones in other parts of the world as the tradition of raising runestones followed the Norsemen wherever they went, from the Isle of Man (Manx Runestones) in the west to the Black Sea in the east (Berezan' Runestone), and from Jmtland in the north to Schleswig in the south.[2] The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia: Denmark has 250 runestones, Norway has 50 while Iceland has none.[4] Sweden has as many as between 1,700[4] and 2,500[3][7] depending on definition. The Swedish district of Uppland has the highest concentration with as many as 1,196 inscriptions in stone, whereas Sdermanland is second with 391.[7] Outside of Scandinavia, the Isle of Man stands out with its 30 runestones from the 9th century and early 11th century.[9] Scattered runestones have also been found in England, Ireland, Scotland and the Faroe Islands.[3] With the exception of the runestone on Berezan', there are no runestones in Eastern Europe, which probably is due to a lack of available stones and the fact that the local population probably did not treat the foreigners' stones with much respect.[10] Runestones were placed on selected spots in the landscape, such as assembly locations, roads, bridge constructions, and fords. In medieval churches, there are often runestones that have been inserted as Distribution of runestones in Sweden, the construction material, and it is debated whether they were originally part country with the highest density. Runestones / km: >105-91-4<1Lacks runestones of the church location or had been moved there. In southern Scania, runestones can be tied to large estates that also had churches constructed on their land. In the Mlaren Valley, the runestones appear to be placed so that they mark essential parts of the domains of an estate, such as courtyard, grave field, and borders to neighbouring estates. Runestones usually appear as single monuments and more rarely as pairs. In some cases, they are part of larger monuments together with other raised stones.[2] However, although scholars know where 95% of all runestones were discovered, only c. 40% were discovered in their original location. The remainder have been found in churches, roads, bridges, graves, farms, and water routes.[11] On the other hand scholars agree that the stones were not moved very far from their original sites.[12]
Runestone
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Effect of religion
In many districts,50% of the stone inscriptions have traces of Christianity, but, in Uppland, which has the highest concentration of runic inscriptions in the world, c. 70% of the 1,196 stone inscriptions are explicitly Christian, which is shown by engraved crosses or added Christian prayers, and only a few runestones are not Christian.[7] Scholars have suggested that the reason why so many Christian runestones were raised in Uppland is that the district was the focal point in the conflict between Norse paganism and the newly Christianized King of Sweden. It is possible that the chieftains tried to demonstrate their allegiance to the king and to display their Christian faith to the world and to God by adding Christian crosses and prayers on their runestones. What speaks against this theory is the fact that Norway, Denmark, and Gtaland did not have any corresponding development in the runestone tradition. Moreover, not a single runestone declares that there was any relationship towards the king.[14] Additionally, the runestones appear to show that the conversion was a rather peaceful process.[15]
The Stenkvista runestone in Sdermanland, Sweden, shows Thor's hammer instead of a cross. [13] Only two such runestones are known.
According to another theory, it was a social fashion that was popular among certain clans, but not among all of them.[14] Once some clans in southern Uppland had begun to raise runestones, neighbouring clans emulated them. However, in parts where these clans were less influential, the runestone raising did not reach the same popularity.[16] Several scholars have pointed out the long Viking expeditions and the considerable amassment of wealth in the district. At this time, Swedish chieftains near Stockholm had created considerable fortunes through trade and pillaging both in the East and in the West. They had seen the Danish Jelling Stones or they had been inspired by English high crosses and other monuments.[7] The runestones show the different ways in which Christianity changed Norse society, and one of the greatest changes involved no longer burying the deceased on the clan's grave field among his ancestors. Instead, he was buried in the cemetery of the church,[17] while the runestone would serve as a memorial at the homestead,[18] but for certain families, there was less change as they had churches built adjoining the family grave field.[19]
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Inscriptions
The main purpose of a runestone was to mark territory, to explain inheritance, to boast about constructions, to bring glory to dead kinsmen and to tell of important events. In some parts of Uppland, the runestones also appear to have functioned as social and economical markers.[14] Virtually all the runestones from the late Viking Age make use of the same formula. The text tells in memory of whom the runestone is raised, who raised it, and often how the deceased and the one who raised the runestone are related to each other. Also, the inscription can tell the social status of the dead person, possible foreign voyage, place of death, and also a prayer, as in the following example,[20] the Lingsberg Runestone U 241: And Danr and Hskarl and Sveinn had the stone erected in memory of Ulfrkr, their father's father. He had taken two payments in England. May God and God's mother help the souls of the father and son.[20][21]
Stone raisers
Most runestones were raised by men and only one runestone in eight is raised by a single woman, while at least 10% are raised by a woman together with several men. It is common that the runestones were raised by sons and widows of the deceased, but they could also be The Mask Stone (DR 66) found in Aarhus, Denmark commemorates a battle between two raised by sisters and brothers. It is almost only in Uppland, kings and features a stylized depiction of a mask. Sdermanland, and land that women raised runestones together with male relatives. It is not known why many people such as sisters, brothers, uncles, parents, housecarls, and business partners can be enumerated on runestones, but it is possible that it is because they are part of the inheritors.[20]
Those commemorated
A vast majority, 94%, are raised in memory of men, but, contrary to common perception, the vast majority of the runestones are raised in memory of people who died at home. The most famous runestones and those that people tend to think of are those that tell of foreign voyages, but they comprise only c. 10% of all runestones,[20] and they were raised in usually memory of those not having returned from Viking expeditions and not as tributes to those having returned.[22] These runestones contain roughly the same message as the majority of the runestones, which is that people wanted to commemorate one or several dead kinsmen.[20]
Runestone Expeditions in the East The first man who scholars know fell on the eastern route was the East Geat Eyvindr whose fate is mentioned on the 9th century Klvesten Runestone.[20] The epitath reads: Styggr/Stigr made this monument in memory of Eyvindr, his son. He fell in the east with Eivsl. Vkingr colored and Grmulfr.[22][23] It is unfortunate for historians that the stones rarely reveal where the men died.[22] On the Smula Runestone in Vstergtland, we are informed only that they died during a war campaign in the East: "Gulli/Kolli raised this stone in memory of his wife's brothers sbjrn and Juli, very good valiant men. And they died in the east in the retinue".[22][24] Another runemaster in the same province laconically states on the Dalum Runestone: "Tki and his brothers raised this stone in memory of their brothers. One died in the west, another in the east".[22][25] The single country that is mentioned on most runestone is the Byzantine Empire, which at the time comprised most of Asia Minor and the Balkans, as well as a part of Southern Italy. If a man died in the Byzantine Empire, no matter how he had died or in which province, the event was mentioned laconically as "he died in Greece". Sometimes an exception could be made for Southern Italy, which was known as the land of the Lombards, such as Inga's leifr who, it is presumed, was a member of the Varangian Guard, and about whom the Djulafors Runestone in Sdermanland says: "Inga raised this stone in memory of leifr, her ... He ploughed his stern to the east, and met his end in the land of the Lombards."[22][26] Other Norsemen died in Gardariki (Russia and Ukraine) such as Sigvir on the Esta Runestone who his son Ingifastr reported had died in Novgorod (Holmgarr): "He fell in Holmgarr, the ship's leader with the seamen."[22][27] There were others who died not as far from home and it appears that there were close contacts with Estonia due to many personal names such as istfari ("traveller to Estonia"), istulfr The Djulafors Runestone, Sweden ("Wolf of Estonians") and istr ("Estonian"). One of the runestones that report of deaths in Estonia is the ngby Runestone which tells that a Bjrn had died in Vironia (Virland).[22] There were many ways to die as reported by the runestones. The da Runestone reports that Bergvir drowned during a voyage to Livonia,[22] and the Sjonhem Runestone tells that the Gotlander Hrfss was killed in a treacherous way by what was probably a people in the Balkans.[28] The most famous runestones that tell of eastern voyages are the Ingvar Runestones which tell of Ingvar the Far-Travelled's expedition to Serkland, i.e., the Muslim world. It ended in tragedy as none of the more than 25 runestones that were raised in its memory tells of any survivor.[29]
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The Klvesten Runestone, Sweden
Runestone Expeditions in the West Other Vikings travelled westwards. The Anglo-Saxon rulers paid large sums, Danegelds, to Vikings, who mostly came from Denmark and who arrived to the English shores during the 990s and the first centuries of the 11th century. What may be part of a Danegeld has been found submerged in a creek in Sdra Betby in Sdermanland, Sweden. At the location, there is also a runestone with the text: "[...] raise the stone in memory of Jrundr, his son, who was in the west with Ulfr, Hkon's son."[29][30] It is not unlikely that the voyage westwards is connected with the English silver treasure.[29] Other runestones are more explicit with the Danegelds. Ulf of Borresta who lived in Vallentuna travelled westwards several times,[29] as reported on the Yttergrde Runestone: And Ulfr has taken three payments in England. That was the first that Tosti paid. Then orketill paid. Then Kntr paid.[29][31] Tosti may have been the Swedish chieftain Skoglar Tosti who is otherwise only mentioned by Snorri Sturluson in Heimskringla and who Snorri reports to have been a "great warrior" who "was out for long periods of time on war expeditions". orketill was Thorkell the Tall, one of the most famous Viking chieftains, and who often stayed in England. Kntr is no one else but Canute the Great, who became king of England in 1016.[29]
The Yttergrde Runestone, Sweden
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Canute sent home most of the Vikings who had helped him conquer England, but he kept a strong bodyguard, the ingali. It was considered to be a great honour to be part of this force, and, on the Hggeby Runestone in Uppland, it is reported that Geiri "sat in the Assembly's retinue in the west",[29][32] and the Landeryd Runestone mentions jalfi "who was with Kntr".[29][33] Some Swedish Vikings wanted nothing else but to travel with Danes such as Thorkell and Canute the Great, but they did not make it to their destinations. Sveinn, The Valleberga Runestone, Sweden, reports that who came from Husby-Sjuhundra in Uppland, died when he was two Vikings had died in London. half-way to England, as explained on the runestone that was raised in his memory: "He died in Jtland. He meant to travel to England".[34][35] Other Vikings, such as Guvr did not only attack England, but also Saxony, as reported by the Grinda Runestone in Sdermanland:[36]
Grjtgarr (and) Einrii, the sons made (the stone) in memory of (their) able father. Guvr was in the west; divided (up) payment in England; manfully attacked townships in Saxony. [36][37]
There are in total c. 30 runestones that tell of people who went to England,[36] see the England Runestones. Some of them are very laconic and only tell that the Viking was buried in London, or in Bath, Somerset.[36]
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Conversion
Swedish men who travelled to Denmark, England, or Saxony and the Byzantine Empire played an important part in the introduction of Christianity in Sweden,[38] and two runestones tell of men baptized in Denmark, such as the runestone in Amn, which says "He died in christening robes in Denmark."[39][40] A similar message is given on another runestone in Vallentuna near Stockholm that tells that two sons waited until they were on their death beds before they converted: "They died in (their) christening robes."[36][41] Christening robes or baptismal clothes, hvitavair, were given to pagan Scandinavians when they were baptized, and in Uppland there are at least seven stones that tell of convertees having died in such robes.[39][42]
Modern runestone on Adels near Stockholm, Sweden
The language used by the missionaries appears on several runestones, and they suggest that the missionaries used a rather uniform language when they preached.[38] The expression "light and paradise" is presented on three runestones, of which two are located in Uppland and a third on the Danish island Bornholm. The runestone U 160 in Risbyle says "May God and God's mother help his spirit and soul; grant him light and paradise."[38][43] and the Bornholm runestone also appeals to Saint Michael: "May Christ and Saint Michael help the souls of Aubjrn and Gunnhildr into light and paradise."[38][44] Christian terminology was superimposed on the earlier pagan, and so Paradise substituted Valhalla, invocations to Thor and magic charms were replaced with Saint Michael, Christ, God, and the Mother of God.[38] Saint Michael, who was the leader of the army of Heaven subsumed Odin's role as the psychopomp, and led the dead Christians to "light and paradise".[45] There are invocations to Saint Michael on one runestone in Uppland, one on Gotland, on three on Bornholm and on one on Lolland.[38] There is also the Bogesund runestone that testifies to the change that people were no longer buried at the family's grave field: "He died in Eikrey(?). He is buried in the churchyard."[18][46]
Other types of runestones

Another interesting class of runestone is rune-stone-as-self promotion. Bragging was a virtue in Norse society, a habit in which the heroes of sagas often indulged, and is exemplified in runestones of the time. Hundreds of people had stones carved with the purpose of advertising their own achievements or positive traits. A few examples will suffice: U 1011: "Vigmund had this stone carved in memory of himself, the cleverest of men. May God help the soul of Vigmund, the ship captain. Vigmund and frid carved this memorial while he lived." Frs Runestone: stman Gudfasts son made the bridge, and he Christianized Jmtland Dr 212: Eskill Skulkason had this stone raised to himself. Ever will stand this memorial that Eskill made; U 164: Jarlabanki had this stone put up in his own lifetime. And he made this causeway for his souls sake. And he owned the whole of Tby by himself. May God help his soul.
The Kingittorsuaq Runestone from Greenland The Jelling Stones which triggered the great runestone trend in Scandinavia
Runestone Other runestones, as evidenced in two of the previous three inscriptions, memorialize the pious acts of relatively new Christians. In these, we can see the kinds of good works people who could afford to commission runestones undertook. Other inscriptions hint at religious beliefs. For example, one reads: U 160: Ulvshattil and Gye and Une ordered this stone erected in memory of Ulv, their good father. He lived in Skolhamra. God and God's Mother save his spirit and soul, endow him with light and paradise. Although most runestones were set up to perpetuate the memories of men, many speak of women, often represented as conscientious landowners and pious Christians: S 101: Sigrid, Alriks mother, Orms daughter made this bridge for her husband Holmgers, father of Sigoerd, for his soul as important members of extended families: Br Olsen;215: Mael-Lomchon and the daughter of Dubh-Gael, whom Adils had to wife, raised this cross in memory of Mael-Muire, his fostermother. It is better to leave a good fosterson than a bad son and as much-missed loved ones: N 68: Gunnor, Thythriks daughter, made a bridge in memory of her daughter Astrid. She was the most skilful girl in Hadeland.
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As sources
The only existing Scandinavian texts dating to the period before 1050[47] (besides a few finds of inscriptions on coins) are found amongst the runic inscriptions, some of which were scratched onto pieces of wood or metal spearheads, but for the most part they have been found on actual stones.[48] In addition, the runestones usually remain in their original form[47] and at their original locations,[49] and so their importance as historical sources cannot be overstated.[47] The inscriptions seldom provide solid historical evidence of events and identifiable people but instead offer insight into the development of language and poetry, kinship, and habits of name-giving, settlement, depictions from Norse paganism, place-names and communications, Viking as well as trading expeditions, and, not least, the spread of Christianity.[50] Though the stones offer Scandinavian historians their main resource of information concerning early Scandinavian society, not much can be learned by studying the stones individually. The wealth of information that the stones provide can be found in the different movements and reasons for erecting the stones, in each region respectively. Approximately ten percent of the known runestones announce the travels and deaths of men abroad. These runic inscriptions coincide with certain Latin sources, such as the Annals of St. Bertin and the writings of Liudprand of Cremona, which contain valuable information on Scandinavians/Rus' who visited Byzantium.[51]
Imagery
The inscription is usually arranged inside a band, which often has the shape of a serpent, a dragon or a quadruped beast.[2]
Norse legends
It appears from the imagery of the Swedish runestones that the most popular Norse legend in the area was
A drawing of the Ramsund inscription, in the province of Sdermanland, Sweden
Runestone that of Sigurd the dragon slayer.[52] He is depicted on several runestones, but the most famous of them is the Ramsund inscription. The inscription itself is of a common kind that tells of the building of a bridge, but the ornamentation shows Sigurd sitting in a pit thrusting his sword, forged by Regin, through the body of the dragon, which also forms the runic band in which the runes are engraved. In the left part of the inscription lies Regin, who is beheaded with all his smithying tools around him. To the right of Regin, Sigurd is sitting and he has just burnt his thumb on the dragon's heart that he is roasting. He is putting the thumb in his mouth and begins to understand the language of the marsh-tits that are sitting in the tree. They warn him of Regin's schemes. Sigurd's horse Grani is also shown tethered to the tree.[53] Another important personage from the legend of the Nibelungs is Gunnarr. On the Vsterljung Runestone, there are three sides and one of them shows a man whose arms and legs are encircled by snakes. He is holding his arms stretched out gripping an object that may be a harp, but that part is damaged due to flaking.[53] The image appears to be depicting an older version of the Gunnarr legend in which he played the harp with his fingers, which appears in the archaic eddic poem Atlakvia.[54]
196
Norse myths
The Norse god who was most popular was Thor,[55] and the Altuna Runestone in Uppland shows Thor's fishing expedition when he tried to capture the Midgard Serpent.[56] Two centuries later, the Icelander Snorri Sturluson would write: "The Midgarth Serpent bit at the ox-head and the hook caught in the roof of its mouth. When it felt that, it started so violently that both Thor's fists went smack against the gunwhale. Then Thor got angry, assumed all his godly strength, and dug his heels so sturdily that his feet went right through the bottom of the boat and he braced them on the sea bed." (Jansson's translation).[57] The Altuna Runestone has also included the foot that went through the planks.[58] It appears that Ragnark is depicted on the Ledberg stone in stergtland. On one of its sides it shows a large warrior with a helmet, and who is bitten at his feet by a beast. This beast is, it is presumed, Fenrir, the brother of the Midgard Serpent, and who is attacking Odin. On the bottom of the illustration, there is a prostrate man who is holding out his hands and who has no legs. There is a close parallel from an illustration at Kirk Douglas on the Isle of Man. The Manx illustration shows Odin with a spear and with one of his ravens on his shoulders, and Odin is attacked in the same way as he is on the Ledberg stone. Adding to the stone's spiritual content is a magic formula that was known all across the world of the pagan Norsemen.[58]
Odin attacked by Fenrir on the Ledberg stone, Sweden
On one of the stones from the Hunnestad Monument in Scania, there is an image of a woman riding a wolf using snakes as reins. The stone may be an illustration of the giantess Hyrrokin ("fire-wrinkled"), who was summoned by the gods to help launch Baldr's funeral ship Hringhorni, which was too heavy for them. It was the same kind of wolf that is referred to as the "Valkyrie horse" on the Rk Runestone.[58]
Runestone
197
Colour
Today, most runestones are painted with falu red, since the colour red makes it easy to discern the ornamentation, and it is appropriate since red paint was also used on runes during the Viking Age.[59] In fact, one of the Old Norse words for "writing in runes" was f and it originally meant "to paint" in Proto-Norse (faihian).[60] Moreoever, in Hvaml, Odin says: "So do I write / and color the runes"[6][59] and in Gurnarkvia II, Gudrun says "In the cup were runes of every kind / Written and reddened, I could not read them".[61][62] There are several runestones where it is declared that they were originally painted. A runestone in Sdermanland says "Here shall these stones stand, reddened with runes",[59][63] a second runestone in the same province says "sbjrn carved and Ulfr painted"[59][64] and a third runestone in Sdermanland says "sbjrn cut the stone, painted as a marker, bound with runes".[60][65] Sometimes, the original colors have been preserved unusually well, and especially if the runestones were used as construction material in churches not very long after they had been made. One runestone in the church of Kping on land was discovered to be painted all over, and the colour of the words was alternating between black and red.[59]
A runestone from the church of Resmo on land has been repainted. It is presently at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm.
The most common paints were red ochre, red lead, soot, calcium carbonate, and other earth colors, which were bound with fat and water. It also appears that the Vikings imported white lead, green malachite and blue azurite from Continental Europe.[59] By using an electron microscope, chemists have been able to analyse traces of colors on runestones, and in one case, they discovered bright red vermilion, which was an imported luxury color. However, the dominating colors were white and red lead.[66] There are even accounts where runes were reddened with blood as in Grettis saga, where the Vlva urr cut runes on a tree root and colored them with her own blood to kill Grettir, and in Egils saga where Egill Skallagrmsson cut ale runes on a drinking horn and painted them with his own blood to see if the drink was poisoned.[67]
Preservation and care

The exposed runestones face several threats to the inscribed rock surface. In Sweden, lichen grows at approximately 2mm per year. In more ideal conditions it can grow considerably faster. Many runestones are placed alongside roads and road dust causes lichen to grow faster, making lichen a major problem. The lichen's small root strands break through the rock, and blast off tiny pieces, making the rock porous, and over time degrade the inscriptions. Algae and moss also cause the rock to become porous and crumble.[68] Water entering the cracks and crevices of the stone can cause whole sections to fall off either by freezing or by a combination of dirt, organic matter, and moisture, which can cause a hollowing effect under the stone surface.[68] Proper preservation techniques slow down the rate of degradation. One method to combat the lichen, algae and moss problem is to smear in fine grained moist clay over the entire stone. This is then left to sit for a few weeks, which suffocates the organic matter and kills it.[68]
Runestone
198
In popular culture
Runestones appear frequently in the videogame: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as a place where players can gain ancient powers and weapons.
Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] (http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/ omlifvetisverige00mont) Om lifvet i Sverige under hednatiden by Oscar Montelius (1905), page 81 - 82. The article runsten in Nationalencyklopedin (1995), tome 16, p. 91-92. Zilmer 2005:38 Olstad, Lisa (2002-12-16). "Ein minnestein for hedre seg sjlv" (http:/ / www. forskning. no/ artikler/ 2002/ desember/ 1039779970. 6). forskning.no. . Retrieved 2008-04-20. [5] Ynglinga saga (http:/ / www. northvegr. org/ lore/ heim/ 001_02. php) in English translation, at Northvegr. [6] Bellows 1936:44 (http:/ / www. sacred-texts. com/ neu/ poe/ poe04. htm) [7] Harrison & Svensson 2007:192 [8] Entry DR 42 in Rundata. [9] Page 1995:207-244 [10] Pritsak 1987:306 [11] Sawyer, B. 2000:26 [12] Zilmer 2005:39 [13] Larsson 1999:176 [14] Harrison & Svensson 2007:195 [15] Jansson 1987:120 [16] Harrison & Svensson 2007:195ff [17] Jansson 1987:116 [18] Jansson 1987:118 [19] Jansson 1987:119 [20] Harrison & Svensson 2007:196 [21] The entry U 241 in Rundata. [22] Harrison & Svensson 2007:197 [23] The entry g 8 in Rundata. [24] The entry Vg 184 in Rundata. [25] The entry Vg 197 in Rundata. [26] The entry S 65 in Rundata. [27] The entry S 171 in Rundata. [28] Harrison & Svensson 2007:197ff [29] Harrison & Svensson 2007:198 [30] The entry S 260 in Rundata. [31] The entry U 344 in Rundata. [32] The entry U 668 in Rundata. [33] The entry g 111 in Rundata. [34] Harrison & Svensson 2007:198ff [35] The entry U 539 in Rundata. [36] Harrison & Svensson 2007:199 [37] The entry S 166 in Rundata. [38] Jansson 1987:113 [39] Jansson 1987:112 [40] Entry U 699 in Rundata. [41] The entry U 243 in Rundata. [42] A monk in the Abbey of St. Gall tells of a group of Norsemen who visited the court of the Frankish king Louis the Pious. They agreed to get baptized and were given valuable baptismal robes, but, as there were not enough robes, the robes were cut up and divided among the Norsemen. One of the Vikings then exclaimed that he had got baptized 20 times and he had always received beautiful clothes, but this time he got rags that better fit a herdsman than a warrior. (Harrison & Svensson 2007:199) [43] Entry U 160 in Rundata. [44] Entry DR 399 in Rundata. [45] Jansson 1987:114 [46] Entry U 170 in Rundata. [47] Pritsak 1987:307 [48] Sawyer, B. 2000:1
Runestone
[49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] [65] [66] [67] [68] Pritsak 1987:308 Sawyer, B. 2000:3 Sawyer, P. 1997:139 Jansson 1987:144 Jansson 1987:145 Jansson 1987:146 Jansson 1987:149 Jansson 1987:150 Jansson 1987:151ff Jansson 1987:152 Harrison & Svensson 2007:208 Jansson 1987:156 Jansson 1987:153 Bellows 1936:459 (http:/ / www. sacred-texts. com/ neu/ poe/ poe31. htm) Entry S 206 in Rundata. Entry S 347 in Rundata. Entry S 213 in Rundata. Harrison & Svensson 2007:209 Jansson 1987:154 Snaedal & hlen 2004:33-34
199
References
Bellows, Henry A. (1936). The Poetic Edda. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New York. Harrison, D. & Svensson, K. (2007). Vikingaliv. Flth & Hssler, Vrnamo. ISBN 91-27-35725-2 Nationalencyklopedin (1995), tome 16, p.91-92. Jansson, Sven B. F. (1987), Runes in Sweden, Gidlunds, ISBN91-7844-067-X Larsson, Mats G. (1999). Svitjod Resor till Sveriges Ursprung. Atlantis. ISBN 91-7486-421-1 Page, Raymond I. (1995). Runes and Runic Inscriptions: Collected Essays on Anglo-Saxon and Viking Runes (http://books.google.com/books?id=solYSR2sUB0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). Parsons, D. (ed). Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-387-2 Pritsak, O. (1987). The Origin of Rus'. Cambridge, Mass.: Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Sawyer, Birgit. (2000). The Viking-Age Rune-Stones: Custom and Commemoration in Early Medieval Scandinavia (http://books.google.com/books?id=4M4-r-VL_WkC&printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926221-7 Sawyer, P. (1997). The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285434-8 Snaedal, T. & hlen, M. (2004). Svenska Runor. Riksantikvariembetet, 33 & 34. ISBN 91-7209-366-8 Stocklund, Marie et al., ed. (2006), Runes and Their Secrets: Studies in Runology (http://books.google.com/ ?id=USIpSluLe10C&pg=PA385#v=onepage&q=), Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, ISBN87-635-0428-6 Zilmer, Kristel (diss. 2005) (PDF), "He Drowned in Holmr's Sea": Baltic Traffic in Early Nordic Sources (http:// www.utlib.ee/ekollekt/diss/dok/2005/b1734458x/zilmer.pdf), Tartu University Press, ISBN9949-11-089-0
Runestone
200
External links
The Jelling Project (http://jelling.natmus.dk) - Information about Jelling and the runestones Photos of runestones and image stones from Gotland (http://home.no.net/ahruner/gotland.htm)
Runestone styles
The term "runestone style" in the singular may refer to the Urnes style. The runestone styles varied during the Viking Age. The early runestones were simple in design, but towards the end of the runestone era they became increasingly complex and made by travelling runemasters such as pir and Viste. A categorization of the styles was developed by Anne-Sophie Grslund in the 1990s.[1] Her systematization is considered to have been a break-through and is today a standard. The styles are RAK, Fp, Pr1, Pr2, Pr3, Pr4 and Pr5, and they cover the period 980-1130, which was the period during which most runestones were made. The styles Pr1 and Pr2 correspond to the Ringerike style, whereas Pr3, Pr4 and Pr5 belong to what is more widely known as the Urnes style.[2] Below follows a brief presentation of the various styles by showing sample runestones according to Rundata's annotation.
RAK
RAK is the oldest style and covers the period 980-1015 AD, but the Rundata project also includes the older runestones in this group, as well as younger ones. This style has no dragon heads and the ends of the runic bands are straight.
The runestone styles were part of the general evolution of art in Scandinavia. This is a part of the decoration of the Urnes stave church which is in the same as the later runestone styles.
Rk Runestone
U 336
Karlevi Runestone
g 165
Runestone styles
201
Fp
This style is from the period c. 1010/1015 to c. 1040/1050, when Pr3 appeared. It is characterized by runic bands that end with animal heads seen from above.
U 778
Gripsholm Runestone
U FV 1992;157
S 194
Pr (profile styles)
In the styles called Pr1, Pr2, Pr3, Pr4 and Pr5, the runic bands end with animal heads seen in profile.
Pr1 (Ringerike style)

This style is contemporary with FP dated to c. 1010- c. 1050 when it was succeeded by Pr3.
U 324
U 335
U 201
U 161
Pr2 (Ringerike style)

This style is only somewhat younger than the previous style and it is dated to c. 1020- c. 1050, and it was also succeeded by Pr3.
S 279
U 212
U 137
U 165
Runestone styles
202
Pr3 (Urnes style)

This style succeeded FP, Pr1 and Pr2 and is dated to c. 1050- c. 1080.
U 194
U 240
U 256
U 148
Pr4 (Urnes style)

This style appeared somewhat later c. 1060/1070 and lasted until c. 1100.
U Fv1976;107
U 647
U 152
U 871
Pr5 (Urnes style)

This style was the last one before runestones stopped being raised. It appeared c. 1080/1100 and lasted until c. 1130.
U 104
U 1014
U 216
U 541
Runestone styles
203
KB
This style is used by the Rundata project, although it does not attribute it to Grslund's model. The style is common in western Sdermanland and it is characterized by bordered crosses.
S 84
S 362
S 363
S 85
Footnotes
[1] Grslund, Anne-Sophie (2006), "Dating the Swedish Viking-Age Rune Stones on Stylistic Grounds" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=USIpSluLe10C& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage& q& f=false), Runes and Their Secrets: Studies in Runology, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, pp.117140, ISBN87-635-0428-6, [2] Sawyer 2000:32
Sources and external links

Rundata Edberg, Rune. Runriket Tby-Vallentuna en Handledning (http://stockholms.lans.museum/runriket/runriket. pdf) Fuglesang, Signe Horn (1998). Swedish Runestones of the Eleventh Century: Ornament and Dating (http:// books.google.com/books?id=KYqsisEVQHEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage& q=&f=false), Runeninschriften als Quellen Interdisziplinrer Forschung (K. Dwel ed.). Gttingen. pp. 197218 Sawyer, Peter. (1997). The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285434-6
Runic calendar
204
Runic calendar
A Runic calendar (also Rune staff or Runic Almanac) is a perpetual calendar based on the 19 year long Metonic cycle of the Moon. Runic calendars were written on parchment or carved onto staves of wood, bone, or horn. The oldest one known, and the only one from the Middle Ages, is the Nykping staff, believed to date from the 13th century. Most of the several thousand which survive are wooden calendars dating from the 16th and the 17th centuries. During the 18th century, the Runic calendars had a renaissance, and around 1800, such calendars were made in the form of tobacco boxes in brass. A typical Runic calendar consisted of several horizontal lines of symbols, one above the other.
Rune staffs at the Museum of History in Lund, Sweden.
Special days like solstices, equinoxes, and celebrations (including Christian holidays and feasts) were marked with additional lines of symbols. The calendar does not rely on knowledge of the length of the tropical year or of the occurrence of leap years. It is set at the beginning of each year by observing the first full moon after the winter solstice. The first full moon also marked the date of Disting, a pagan feast and a fair day.
Marks
On one line, 52 weeks of 7 days were laid out using 52 repetitions of the first seven runes of the Younger Futhark. The runes corresponding to each weekday varied from year to year. On another, many of the days were marked with one of 19 symbols representing the 19 Golden numbers, Detail of a Runic Calendar, showing the three rows of symbols. Based on page 104 of F.E. Farwerck's Noord-Europese Mysterin [1] the years of the Metonic cycle. In early calendars, each of the 19 years in the cycle was represented by a rune; the first 16 were the 16 runes of the Younger Futhark, plus special runes for the remaining three years: Arlaug (Golden Number 17), Tvimadur (Golden Number 18), and Belgthor (Golden Number 19). The new moon would fall on that day during that year of the cycle. For example, in the 18th year of the cycle, the new moons would fall on all the dates marked with Tvimadur, the symbol for year 18. Later calendars used Pentadic numerals for the values 119.
Runic calendar A version using Latin alphabet for weekdays and Arabic numerals for the golden numbers was printed in 1498 as part of the Breviarium Scarense.[2]
205
Additional runes
Because this system needed 19 runes to represent the 19 golden numbers which stood for the 19 years of the perpetual calendar's cycle, the Younger Futhark, a Runic alphabet, was insufficient, having only 16 characters. The solution devised was to add three special runes to represent the numbers above 16: Arlaug (Golden Number 17), Tvimadur (tvmaur, Golden Number 18), and Belgthor (Golden Number 19).
Arlaug, Runic calendar rune number 17.
Tvimadur, Runic calendar rune number 18.
Belgthor, Runic calendar rune number 19.
Primstav
A primstav (translation: prime staff) is the ancient Norwegian calendar stick. These were engraved with images instead of runes. The images depicted the different nonmoving religious holidays. The oldest primstav still in existence is from 1457 and is exhibited at Norsk Folkemuseum.
A Norwegian primstav, carved in wood.
Modern use
Adherents of the Estonian ethnic religion (maausk) have published Runic calendars (Estonian: sirvilauad) every year since 1978. During the Soviet occupation, it was an illegal samizdat publication.[3]
References
[1] http:/ / www. gangleri. nl/ articles/ 59/ rune-calendars [2] Brinolf Gerlaksson, bishop of Skara (commissioned by) (1498). Breviarium Scarense (http:/ / istc. bl. uk/ search/ search. html?operation=record& rsid=655644& q=0). Nuremberg: Georg Stuchs. pp.213. . Retrieved 2010-06-20. [3] Sirvilauad loevad aega (http:/ / www. maaleht. ee/ 2009/ 01/ 08/ kultuur/ 4151-sirvilauad-loevad-aega)
Runic calendar
206
External links
An article on rune calendars, with illustrations (http://www.gangleri.nl/articles/59/rune-calendars) from http:/ /www.gangleri.nl/ (http://www.gangleri.nl/)
Runic inscription N 351

N 351 is the Rundata catalog number for a medieval runic inscription carved on a piece of wood that was found at the north portal of the Borgund stave church in Norway.
Description
This runic inscription states that it was carved by a man named rir into a piece of wood while visiting the church during the mass of Saint Olaf during the Middle Ages. Olaf was king of Norway from 1015 to 1028 C.E. and legally recognized Christianity as the nation's religion in 1024, and in the century after his death was recognized as a saint. His feast day is celebrated on July 29, the date of his death. The inscription testifies to lingering beliefs in the pagan Norns, the female beings who rule the fates of the various races in Norse mythology. Here rir blames the Norns for his troubles, just as the characters do in the Reginsml and Sigurarkvia hin skamma of the Poetic Edda.[1] One of the Bryggen inscriptions, listed as B145 or as N B145 M under Rundata, also refers to the Norns.[1]
The stave church in Borgund.
Inscription
Transcription
o=rir * rist * runa=r * essa=r * an * olaus*mess*o=pa=n ...r han * fo=r * he=r um be= =ge=ro= =no=(r)ne=r * ul * o=k * il=la * mikla * me g skapau * r mer[2]
Transliteration
rir reist rnar essar ann lausmessaptan, [e]r han fr hr um. Bi geru nornir vel ok illa, mikla mi ... skpuu r mr.[2]
Translation
rir carved these runes on the eve of Olaus-mass, as he travelled past here. The norns presented measures of good and evil, great toil ... they created before me.[2]
207
References
[1] MacLeod, Mindy; Mees, Bernard (2006), Runic Amulets and Magic Objects (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=hx7UigqsTKoC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_v2_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage& q& f=false), Woodbridge: Boydell Press, p.39, ISBN1-84383-205-4, [2] Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk (http:/ / www. nordiska. uu. se/ forskn/ samnord. htm) - Rundata entry for N 351.
Other sources
Simek, Rudolf (translated by Angela Hall) (1996). Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D. S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-369-4, p.237.
Runic inscriptions
A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of Elder Futhark (some 350 items, dating to between the 2nd and 8th centuries AD), Anglo-Frisian Futhorc (some 100 items, 5th to 11th c.) and Younger Futhark (close to 6,000 items, 8th to 12th c.).[1]
Younger futhark inscription on bone.
The total 350 known inscriptions in the Elder Futhark script[2] fall into two main geographical categories, North Germanic (Scandinavian, ca. 267 items) and Continental or South Germanic ("German" and Gothic, ca. 81 items).[3] These inscriptions are on many types of loose objects, but the North Germanic tradition shows a preference for bracteates, while the South Germanic one has a preference for fibulae. The precise figures are debatable because some inscriptions are very short and/or illegible, so that it is uncertain whether they qualify as an inscription at all. The division into Scandinavian, North Sea (Anglo-Frisian) and South Germanic inscription makes sense from the 5th century. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, the Elder Futhark script is still in its early phase of development, with inscriptions concentrated in what is now Denmarkand Northern Germany. The tradition of runic literacy continues in Scandinavia into the Viking Age, developing into the Younger Futhark script. Close to 6,000 Younger Futhark inscriptions are known, many of them on runestones.
Statistics
Number of known inscriptions
The following table lists the number of known inscriptions (in any alphabet variant) by geographical region:
Runic inscriptions
208
Area Sweden Norway Denmark Scandinavian total
Number of runic inscriptions 3,432 1,552 844 5,826
Continental Europe except Scandinavia and Frisia 80 Frisia The British Isles except Ireland Greenland Iceland Ireland Faroes Non-Scandinavian total Total 20 > 200 > 100 < 100 16 9 > 500 > 6,400
Estimates of total number of inscriptions produced

Elder Futhark inscriptions were rare, with very few active literati, in relation to the total population, at any time, so that knowledge of the runes was probably an actual "secret" throughout the Migration period. Of 366 lances excavated at Illerup, only 2 bore inscriptions. A similar ratio is estimated for Alemannia, with an estimated 170 excavated graves to every inscription found (Lthi 2004:323) Estimates of the total number of inscriptions produced are based on the "minimal runological estimate" of 40,000 (ten individuals making ten inscriptions per year for four centuries). The actual number was probably considerably higher, maybe close to 400,000 in total, so that of the order of 0.1% of the corpus has come down to us), and Fischer (2004:281) estimates a population of several hundred active literati throughout the period, with as many as 1,600 during the Alamannic "runic boom" of the 6th century.
Types of inscribed objects

Especially the earliest inscriptions are found on all types of everyday objects. Later, a preference for valuable or prestigious objects (jewelry or weapons) seems to develop, inscriptions often indicating ownership. jewelry bracteates: some 133 Elder Futhark inscriptions, popular during the Scandinavian Germanic Iron Age / Vendel era fibulae: some 50 Elder Futhark inscriptions, popular in 6th to 7th century Alemannia brooches: Boarley (Kent), Harford (Norfolk) brooch, West Heslerton (North Yorkshire), Wakerley (Northamptonshire), Dover (Kent) belt parts (plaques, buckles, strap.ends): Vimose buckle, Pforzen buckle, Heilbronn-Bckingen, Szabadbattyan rings: six known Anglo-Saxon runic rings, a few examples from Alemannia (Vrstetten-Schupfholz, Pforzen, Aalen neck-ring) amber: Weingarten amber-pearl Weapon parts seaxes: Thames scramasax, Steindorf, Hailfingen spearheads: Vimose, Kovel, Dahmsdorf-Mncheberg, Wurmlingen
Runic inscriptions swords and sword-sheaths Vimose chape, Vimose sheathplate, Thorsberg chape, Schretzheim ring-sword, Ash Gilton (Kent) gilt silver sword pommel, Chessel Down II (Isle of Wight) silver plate (attached to the scabbard mouthpiece of a ring-sword), Sb sword coins: Skanomody solidus, Harlingen solidus, Schweindorf solidus, Folkestone tremissis, Midlum sceat, Kent II coins (some 30 items), Kent III, IV silver sceattas, Suffolk gold shillings (three items), Upper Thames Valley gold coins (four items) boxes or containers: Franks Casket, Schretzheim capsule, Gammertingen case, Ferwerd combcase, Kantens combcase runestones: from about AD 400, very popular for Viking Age Younger Futhark inscriptions bone: Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus, Rasquert swordhandle (whalebone handle of a symbolic sword), Hantum whalebone plate, Bernsterburen whalebone staff, Hamwick horse knucklebone, Wijnaldum A antler piece pieces of wood: Vimose woodplane, Neudingen/Baar, Arum sword (a yew-wood miniature sword), Westeremden yew-stick cremation urns: Loveden Hill (Lincolnshire), Spong Hill (Norfolk) the Kleines Schulerloch inscription is a singular example of an inscription on a cave wall
209
Early period (2nd to 4th c.)

Further information: Alu (runic)andErilaz The earliest period of Elder Futhark (2nd to 4th centuries) predates the division in regional script variants, and linguistically essentially still reflect the Common Germanic stage. Their distribution is mostly limited to southern Scandinavia, northern Germany and Frisia (the "North Sea Germanic runic Koine"), with stray finds associated with the Goths from Romania and Ukraine. Linguistically, the 3rd and 4th centuries correspond to the formation of Proto-Norse, just predating the separation of West Germanic into Anglo-Frisian, Low German and High German. Vimose inscriptions (6 objects, AD 160-300) Gotland spearhead (ca. 180), gaois Ovre Stabu spearhead (ca. 180), raunijaz Thorsberg chape (AD 200) Nydam axe-handle (4th century): wagagastiz / alu:??hgusikijaz:aialataz Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus (AD 400) Illerup inscriptions (9 objects)
Scandinavian
Further information: Sveriges runinskrifter,bracteate,andRunestone About 260 items in Elder Futhark, and close to 6,000 items (mostly runestones) in Younger Futhark. The highest concentration of Elder Futhark inscriptions is in Denmark. An important Proto-Norse inscription was on one of the Golden horns of Gallehus (early 5th century). A total of 133 known inscriptions on bracteates. The oldest known runestones date to the early 5th century (Einang stone, Kylver Stone). The longest known inscription in the Elder Futhark, and one of the youngest, consists of some 200 characters and is found on the early 8th century Eggjum stone, and may even contain a stanza of Old Norse poetry. The transition to Younger Futhark begins from the 6th century, with transitional examples like the Bjrketorp or Stentoften stones. In the early 9th century, both the older and the younger futhark were known and used, which is shown on the Rk Runestone. By the 10th century, only Younger Futhark remained in use.
Runic inscriptions
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Anglo-Frisian
Some 100 items spanning the 5th to 11th centuries. The 5th century Undley bracteate is considered the earliest known Anglo-Frisian inscription. The 8th-century Franks Casket, preserved during the Middle Ages in Brioude, central France, exhibits the longest coherent inscriptions in Anglo-Saxon runes by far, including five alliterating long-lines, qualifying as the oldest preserved Anglo-Saxon poetry. While the Nordic bracteates are jewelry imitating Roman gold coins, there were a number of actual coins (currency) in Anglo-Saxon England inscribed with runes, notably the coins from Kent, inscribed with pada, pa and epa (early 7th century). There are a number of Christian inscriptions from the time of Christianization. St. Cuthbert's coffin, dated to 698, even has a runic monogram of Christ, and the Whitby II bone comb (7th c.) has a pious plea for God's help, deus meus, god aluwaldo, help Cy "my God, almighty God, help Cy". The Ruthwell Cross inscription could also be mentioned, but its authenticity is dubious. Unlike the situation on the continent, the tradition of runic writing does not disappear in England after Christianization but continues for a full three centuries, disappearing after the Norman conquest. A type of object unique to Christianized Anglo-Saxon England are the six known Anglo-Saxon runic rings of the 9th to 10th centuries.
Continental
Further information: Elder_Futhark#Continental_inscriptions Apart from the earliest inscriptions found on the continent along the North Sea coast (the "North Germanic Koine", Martin 2004:173), continental inscriptions can be divided in those of the "Alemannic runic province" (Martin 2004), with a few dozen examples dating to the 6th and 7th centuries, and those associated with the Goths, loosely scattered along the Oder to south-eastern Poland, as far as the Carpathian Mountains (e.g. the ring of Pietroassa in Romania), dating to the 4th and 5th centuries. The cessation of both the Gothic and Alemannic runic tradition conincides with the Christianization of the respective peoples. Lthi (2004:321) identifies a total of about 81 continental inscriptions found south of the "North Germanic Koine". Most of these originate in southern Germany (Baden-Wrttemberg and Bavaria), with a single one found south of the Rhine (Blach fibula, found in Blach, Switzerland), and a handful from Eastern Europe (Poland, Romania, Ukraine). A silver-plated copper disk, originally part of a sword-belt, found at Liebenau, Lower Saxony with an early 5th century runic inscription (mostly illegible, interpreted as possibly reading rauzwih) is classed as the earliest South Germanic (German) inscription known by the RGA (vol. 6, p.576); the location of Liebenau is close to the boundary of the North Sea and South Germanic zones. Siglas Poveiras in Povoa de Varzim, Portugal are also a type of writing based on the Viking runes. The siglas were first studied by Antnio de Santos Graa in his book Epopeia dos Humildes ("The Odyssey of the Humble"). Published in 1952, the book contains hundreds of siglas and the history and maritime tragedy of Pvoa. Other works of his are "O Poveiro" (The Poveiro, 1932), "A Crena do Poveiro nas Almas Penadas" (Poveiro Beliefs Regarding Dead Souls, 1933) e "Inscries Tumulares por Siglas" (Tomb Inscriptions Using Siglas, 1942). After a visit to the National Museet in Copenhagen, Octvio Lixa Filgueiras, by accident, found objects marked with "home-marks" from Funen in Denmark. Moreover, the complex hereditary mark system of Pvoa de Varzim was also found in Funen. The Siglas development is at least, partly, attributed to Vikings that settled in the town during the 10th century and 11th century. This form of primitive writing developed within the community of Pvoa de Varzim was kept due to
Runic inscriptions the practice of endogamy. Also, the similarity with the Scandinavian tradition of using specific bomrken ("homestead marks") for signatures and for marking property has also been noted.
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Gothic
Out of about a dozen candidate inscriptions, only three are widely accepted to be of Gothic origin: the gold ring of Pietroassa, bearing a votive inscription, part of a larger treasure found in the Romanian Carpathians, and two spearheads inscribed with what is probably the weapon's name, one found in the Ukrainian Carpathians, and the other in eastern Germany, near the Oder. The inscription on the spearhead of Kovel, found in Ukraine (now lost) is a special case. Its date is very early (3rd century) and it shows a mixture of runic and Latin letters, reading <TD> or <TIRIDS> (the i, r and s letters being identical in the Elder Futhark and Latin scripts), and may thus reflect a stage of development before the runes became fixed as a separate script in its own right.
Alemannic
The known inscriptions from Alemannia mostly date to the century between AD 520 and 620. There are some 70 inscriptions in total, about half of them on fibulae. Some are explicitly dedications among lovers, containing leub "beloved", or in the case of the Blach fibula fridil "lover". Most were found in Germany, in the states of Baden-Wrttemberg and Bavaria. A lesser number originates in Hessen and Rheinland-Pfalz, and outside of Germany there is a single example from Switzerland, and a small number of what are likely Burgundian inscriptions from eastern France. The precise number of inscriptions is debatable, as some proposed inscriptions consist of a single sign, or a row of signs that may also be "rune-like", in imitation of writing, or purely ornamental. For example, a ring found in Bopfingen has been interpreted as being inscribed with a single g, i.e. a simple X-shape that may also be ornamental. Most interpretable inscriptions contain personal names, and only ten inscriptions contain more than one interpretable word. Of these, four translate to "(PN) wrote the runes".[4] The other six "long" interpretable inscriptions are: Pforzen buckle: aigil andi alrun / ltahu gasokun ("Aigil and Ailrun fought at the [Ilz River?]") Nordendorf fibula: logaorewodanwigionar (three theonyms, or "Wodan and Wigi-onar are magicians/sorcerers") Schretzheim case: arogisd / alaguleuba : dedun ("Arogast / Alaguth [and] Leubo (Beloved) made it") Schretzheim fibula: siwagadin leubo ("to the Traveller (Wotan?), [from] Leubo (Beloved)", or perhaps "love to my travel-companion" or similar[5]) Osthofen: madali umbada ("Madali, protection") Bad Ems fibula: god fura dih deofile ("God for/before you, Theophilus". The inscription is one of the youngest of the Alemannic sphere, dating to between 660 and 690, and clearly reflects a Christianized background.[6]) Other notable inscriptions: Blach fibula: frifridil du aftm Wurmlingen spearhead, from an Alemannic grave in Wurmlingen, inscription read as a personal name (i)dorih (Ido-rh or Dor-rh) Schretzheim ring-sword: the sword blade has four runes arranged so that the staves form a cross. Read as arab by Dwel (1997). Schwab (1998:378) reads abra, interpreting it as abbreviating the magic word Abraxas, suggesting influence of the magic traditions of Late Antiquity, and the Christian practice of arranging monograms on the arms of a cross. Kleines Schulerloch inscription, long suspected as a hoax, now considered genuine due to the discovery of a parallel inscription in Bad Krozingen. Reads birg : leub : selbrade.
Runic inscriptions A small number of inscriptions found in eastern France may be Burgundian rather than Alemannic: the Arguel pebble: arbitag | wodan | lugo[?h]azej | kim | the Charnay Fibula: fuarkgwhnijpstbem | ' uf[?]ai ' id | dan ' (l)iano | ia | [?]r |
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Frankish
Very few inscriptions can be associated with the Franks, reflecting their early Romanization and Christianization. An important find is the Bergakker inscription, suggested as recording 5th-century Old Frankish. The only other inscription definitely classified as Frankish is the Borgharen buckle, reading bobo (a Frankish personal name).[7]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] not including the inscriptions in medieval runes in Sweden, and the early modern and modern inscriptions in Dalecarlian runes. Fischer 2004:281 Lthi 2004:321 Karin Lthi, 'South Germanic runic inscriptions as testimonies of early literacy, in: Marie Stoklund, Michael Lerche Nielsen, Gillian Fellows-Jensen, Bente Holmberg (eds.), Runes and their secrets: studies in runology, Volume 2000, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006, 172f. [5] Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, s.v. "Schretzheim". [6] Wolfgang Jungandreas, 'God fura dih, deofile ' in: Zeitschrift fr deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 101, 1972, pp. 84-85. [7] Looijenga, Tineke. , Two Runic finds from the Netherlands - both with a Frankish connection. In: Essays on the early Franks, ed. Taayke, Ernst. Barkhuis 2003, 231-240.
Brate, Erik (1922). Sveriges Runinskrifter, ( online text (http://www.runor.se/) in Swedish) Fischer, Svante (2004). "Alemannia and the North Early Runic Contexts Apart (400800)" (http://books. google.com/books?id=QHLqfS7mI3YC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska et al. Alemannien und der Norden. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp.266317. ISBN3-11-017891-5. Ilkjr, Jrgen (1996a). "Runeindskrifter fra mosefund i Danmark - kontekst og oprindelse" in Frisian Runes and Neighbouring Traditions. Rodopi Jacobsen, Lis; Moltke, Erik (194142). Danmarks Runeindskrifter. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaards Forlag. Looijenga, Jantina Helena (1997). Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150700 (http:// dissertations.ub.rug.nl/faculties/arts/1997/j.h.looijenga/), dissertation, Groningen University. Looijenga, Tineke (2004). Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions (http://books.google.com/ books?id=-edm1fMPbXwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Leiden: Brill. ISBN90-04-12396-2. Lthi, Katrin (2004). "Von ruhild und Hariso: Alemannische und ltere skandinavische Runenkultur im Vergleich" (http://books.google.com/books?id=QHLqfS7mI3YC&printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska et al. Alemannien und der Norden. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp.318339. ISBN3-11-017891-5. MacLeod, Mindy, and Mees, Bernard (2006). Runic Amulets and Magic Objects (http://books.google.com/ books?id=hx7UigqsTKoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Boydell Press: Woodbridge, UK; Rochester, NY, ISBN 1-84383-205-4. Martin, Max (2004). "Kontinentalgermanische Runeninschriften und 'Alamannische Runenprovinz'" (http:// books.google.com/books?id=QHLqfS7mI3YC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska et al. Alemannien und der Norden. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp.165212. ISBN3-11-017891-5. Nowak, Sean (2003). Schrift auf den Goldbrakteaten der Vlkerwanderungszeit (http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ diss/2003/nowak/nowak.pdf), Diss. Gttingen. Spurkland, Terje (2005). Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions (http://books.google.com/ books?id=1QDKqY-NWvUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false), Boydell Press. ISBN 1-84383-186-4
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External links
Runenprojekt Kiel (http://www.runenprojekt.uni-kiel.de/) (German) Samnordisk runtextdatabas (http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm) (Swedish)
Runic inscriptions in Hagia Sophia

There are at least two runic inscriptions in Hagia Sophia's marble parapets. They may have been engraved by members of the Varangian Guard in Constantinople in the Viking Age.
Exterior view of the Hagia Sophia, 2004
The Halfdan inscription

The first runic inscription was discovered in 1964 on a parapet on the top floor of the southern gallery, and the discovery was published by Elisabeth Svrdstrm in "Runorna i Hagia Sofia", Fornvnnen 65 (1970), 247-49. The inscription is worn down so only -alftan, which is the Norse name Halfdan, is legible. The remainder of the inscription is considered to be illegible, but it is possible that it followed the common formula "NN carved these runes".[1]
The second inscription
The "Halfdan inscription"
A second inscription was discovered by Folke Hgberg from Uppsala in 1975. It was discovered in a niche in the western part of the same gallery as the first inscription. The discovery was reported to the Department of Runes in Stockholm in 1984, but it was not published. The archaeologist Mats G. Larsson discovered the runes anew in 1988 and published the find in "Nyfunna runor i Hagia Sofia", Fornvnnen 84 (1989), 12-14. He read ari:k and interpreted it as a possible "ri m(ade)" or "ri m(ade the runes)". Because of the uncertainty in the reading, the inscription was not registered in the periodical Nytt om runer 4 of 1989.[1] Hgberg had made a different reading from Larsson in 1975, and this reading was supported by Svein Indrelid, who is a professor of archaeology at the University of Bergen in 1997. The reading of Hgberg and Indrelid is the man's name rni and they consider the inscription to be pure graffiti, unlike Larsson. The latter learnt of Hgberg's interpretation in 1989, but he defended his own interpretation.[1]
Runic inscriptions in Hagia Sophia
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More inscriptions
Professor Indrelid made copies of five possible runic inscriptions on the parapet and he handed them over to the Norwegian Runic archive in 1997. There may be additional runic inscriptions waiting to be found on the walls and other parts of the Hagia Sophia.[1]
References
[1] James E. Knirk, Runer i Hagia Sofia i Istanbul, Nytt om runer 14 (1999), 26-27 (http:/ / ariadne. uio. no/ runenews/ nor_1999/ hagsof-1. htm) (Norwegian).
Sources
James E. Knirk, Runer i Hagia Sofia i Istanbul, Nytt om runer 14 (1999), 26-27 (http://ariadne.uio.no/ runenews/nor_1999/hagsof-1.htm) Relics Of The Varangians - Grafitti in Hagia Sophia (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/relics/ relics.html#Grafitti in Hagia Sophia) (with pictures)
Runic magic
There is some evidence that, in addition to being a writing system, runes historically served purposes of magic. This is the case from earliest epigraphic evidence of the Roman to Germanic Iron Age, with non-linguistic inscriptions and the alu word. An erilaz appears to have been a person versed in runes, including their magic applications. In medieval sources, notably the Poetic Edda, the Sigrdrfuml mentions "victory runes" to be carved on a sword, "some on the grasp and some on the inlay, and name Tyr twice." In early modern and modern times, related folklore and superstition is recorded in the form of the Icelandic magical staves. In the early 20th century, Germanic mysticism coins new forms of "runic magic", some of which were continued or developed further by contemporary adherents of Germanic Neopaganism. Modern systems of runic divination are based on Hermeticism, classical Occultism, and the I Ching.
Historical evidence
Tacitus
Historically it is known that the Germanic peoples used various forms of divination and means of reading omens. Tacitus (Germania 10) gives a detailed account (98AD): They attach the highest importance to the taking of auspices and casting lots. Their usual procedure with the lot is simple. They cut off a branch from a nut-bearing tree and slice it into strips these they mark with different signs and throw them at random onto a white cloth. Then the state's priest, if it is an official consultation, or the father of the family, in a private one, offers prayer to the gods and looking up towards heaven picks up three strips, one at a time, and, according to which sign they have previously
Bracteate G 205 (ca. 5th to 7th century), bearing the inscription alu.
Runic magic been marked with, makes his interpretation. If the lots forbid an undertaking, there is no deliberation that day about the matter in question. If they allow it, further confirmation is required by taking auspices.[1] It is often debated whether "signs" refers specifically to runes or to other marks; both interpretations are plausible and Tacitus does not give enough detail for a definite decision to be made.[2]
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Epigraphy
The Ansuz and Tiwaz runes in particular seem to have had magical significance in the early (Elder Futhark) period. The Sigrdrfuml instruction of "name Tyr twice" is reminiscent of the The inscription on the Kylver stone ends with a stacked double or triple "stacked Tyr" bindrunes found e.g. on bind rune combining six Tiwaz runes used to invoke Seeland-II-C or the Lindholm amulet in the aaaaaaaazzznnn-bthe god Tyr and four Ansuz runes to invoke the [3] sir. muttt, sequence, which besides stacked Tyr involves multiple repetition of Ansuz, but also triple occurrence of Algiz and Naudiz. Many inscriptions also have meaningless utterances interpreted as magical chants, such as tuwatuwa (Vadstena bracteate), aaduaaaliia (DR BR42) or ggog (Undley bracteate), gagaga (Kragehul I). Alu is a charm word appearing on numerous artifacts found in Central and Northern Europe dating from the Germanic Iron Age. The word is the most common of the early runic charm words and can appear either alone or as part of an apparent formula. The origin and meaning of the word are matters of dispute, though a general agreement exists among scholars that the word either represents amulet magic or is a metaphor (or metonym) for it.[4] A few Viking Age rings with runic inscriptions of apparently magical nature were found, among them the Kingmoor Ring. The phrase "runes of power" is found on two runestones in Sweden, DR 357 from Stentoften and DR 360 from Bjrketorp. Runestones with curses include DR 81 in Skjern, DR 83 in Snder Vinge, DR 209 in Glavendrup, DR 230 from Tryggevlde, DR 338 in Glemminge, and Vg 67 in Saleby.[5]
Medieval sources
The most prolific source for runic magic in the Poetic Edda is the Sigrdrfuml, where the valkyrie Sigrdrfa (Brynhild) presents Sigurd with a memory-draught of ale that had been charmed with "gladness runes" (stanza 5),
Bir fori ec er /brynings apaldr! magni blandinn / oc megintri; fullr er hann lioa / oc licnstafa, godra galdra / oc gamanruna. "Beer I bring thee, tree of battle, Mingled of strength and mighty fame; Charms it holds and healing signs, Spells full good, and gladness-runes." [6]
She goes on to give advice on the magical runes in seven further stanzas. In all instances, the runes are used for actual magic (apotropaic or ability-enhancing spells) rather than for divination: "victory runes" to be carved on the sword hilt (stanza 6, presumably referring to the t rune named for Tyr[7]), lrunar "Ale-runes" (stanza 7, a protective spell against being bewitched by means of ale served by the hosts wife; naudiz is to be marked on one's fingernails, and laukaz on the cup), biargrunar "birth-runes" (stanza 8, a spell to facilitate childbirth), brimrunar "wave-runes" (stanza 9, a spell for the protection of ships, with runes to be carved on the stem and on the rudder), limrunar "branch-runes" (stanza 10, a healing spell, the runes to be carved on trees "with boughs to the eastward bent"),[8] malrunar "speech-runes" (stanza 11, the stanza is corrupt, but apparently referred to a spell to improve one's rhetorical ability at the thing),
Runic magic hugrunar "thought-runes" (stanza 12, the stanza is incomplete, but clearly discussed a spell to improve one's wit).[9] The Poetic Edda also seems to corroborate the magical significance of the runes the Hvaml where Odin mentions runes in contexts of divination, of healing and of necromancy (trans. Bellows): "Certain is that which is sought from runes / That the gods so great have made / And the Master-Poet painted" (79) "Of runes heard I words, nor were counsels wanting / At the hall of Hor" (111) "Grass cures the scab / and runes the sword-cut" (137) "Runes shalt thou find / and fateful signs" (143) " if high on a tree / I see a hanged man swing / So do I write and color the runes / That forth he fares / And to me talks." (158) Other oft cited sources for the practice of runic divination are chapter 38 of Snorri Sturluson's Ynglinga Saga, where Granmar, the king of Sdermanland, travels to the Temple at Uppsala for the seasonal blt. "There, the chips fell in a way that said that he would not live long" (Fll honum svo spnn sem hann mundi eigi lengi lifa).[10] Another source is in the Vita Ansgari, the biography of Ansgar the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, which was written by a monk named Rimbert. Rimbert details the custom of casting lots by the pagan Norse (chapters 26-30).[11] The chips and the lots, however, can be explained respectively as a bltspnn (sacrificial chip) and a hlautlein (lot-twig), which according to Foote and Wilson [12] would be "marked, possibly with sacrificial blood, shaken and thrown down like dice, and their positive or negative significance then decided." Egils Saga features several incidents of runic magic. The most celebrated is the scene where Egil discovers (and destroys) a poisoned drink prepared for him, by cutting his hand and cutting runes on the drinking horn, and painting them runes with blood. While the motif of blood painted runes also appears in other examples of early Norse literature it is uncertain whether the practice of painting runes with blood is merely a literary invention or whether it had precedence in magical practice.[13]
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Modern systems
In the 17th Century, Hermeticist and Rosicrucian Johannes Bureus, having been inspired by visions, developed a Runic system based on the Kaballah and the Futhark which he called the Adulruna.[14] The Armanen runes "revealed" to Guido von List in 1902 were employed for magical purposes in Germanic mysticism by authors such as Friedrich Bernhard Marby and Siegfried Adolf Kummer, and after World War II in a reformed "pansophical" system by Karl Spiesberger. More recently, Stephen Flowers, Adolf Schleipfer, Larry E. Camp and others also build on List's system. Several modern systems of runic magic and runic Runic divination using ceramic tiles divination were published from the 1980s onward. The first book on runic divination, written by Ralph Blum in 1982, led to the development of sets of runes designed for use in several such systems of fortune telling, in which the runes are typically incised in clay, stone tiles, crystals, resin, glass, or polished stones, then either selected one-by-one from a closed bag or thrown down at random for reading.
Runic magic Later authors such as Diana L. Paxson and Freya Aswynn follow Blum (1989) in drawing a direct correlation between runic divination and tarot divination. They may discuss runes in the context of "spreads" and advocate the usage of "rune cards". Modern authors like Ralph Blum sometimes include a historical "blank rune" in their sets. Some were to replace a lost rune, but according to Ralph Blum this was the god Odin's rune, the rune of the beginning and the end, representing "the divine in all human transactions".[15]
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Ralph Blum
In 1982, the modern usage of the runes for answering life's questions was apparently originated by Ralph Blum in his divination book The Book of Runes: A Handbook for the Use of an Ancient Oracle, which was marketed with a small bag of round tiles with runes stamped on them. This book has remained in print since its first publication. The sources for Blum's divinatory interpretations, as he explained in The Book of Runes itself, drew heavily on then-current books describing the ancient I Ching divination system of China. Each of Blum's seven books on runic divination deals with a specialized area of life or a varied technique for reading runes: The Book of Runes: A Handbook for the Use of an Ancient Oracle: The Viking Runes (1982); revised 10th Anniversary Edition (1992); revised 25th Anniversary Edition (2007). The Rune Cards: Sacred Play for Self Discovery (1989); reissued as The Rune Cards: Ancient Wisdom For the New Millennium (1997). Rather than rune stones, this book uses images of the runes printed on card stock, much like a set of trading cards or tarot cards. The Healing Runes with co-author Susan Loughan (1995) teaches methods for using runic divination in the context of health and personal integration. Rune Play: A Method of Self Counseling and a Year-Round Rune Casting Recordbook (1996) The Serenity Runes: Five Keys to the Serenity Prayer with co-author Susan Loughan (1998); reissued as The Serenity Runes: Five Keys to Spiritual Recovery (2005) utilizes runic divination as a method for assisting self-help and recovery from addictions; the title is a reference to the well-known serenity prayer widely used in the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Ralph H. Blum's Little Book of Runic Wisdom (2002). The Relationship Runes: A Compass for the Heart with co-author Bronwyn Jones (2003) shows how to use runic divination in matters of love and friendship. Blum has also written books on the Tao Te Ching, Zen Buddhism, and UFOs.
Stephen Flowers
In the wake of a 1984 dissertation on "Runes and Magic", Stephen Flowers published a series of books under the pen-name "Edred Thorsson" which detailed his own original method of runic divination and magic,'odianism',[16] which he said was loosely based on historical sources and modern European hermeticism. These books were: Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic [17] (1984) Runelore: A Handbook of Esoteric Runology (1987) At The Well of Wyrd (1988) which was later reprinted under the title Runecasters Handbook: The Well of Wyrd. Northern Magic: Rune Mysteries and Shamanism (2002).
Runic divination is a component of Flowers' "esoteric runology" course offered to members of his Rune Gild, as detailed in The Nine Doors of Midgard: A Curriculum of Rune-Work.
Runic magic
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Stephan Grundy
In 1990, Stephan Grundy, a.k.a. Kveldulf Gundarsson, described runic magic as the active principle as opposed to passive interpretations based on runic divination. He held that runic magic is more active than the allegedly shamanic practice of seid practiced by the Seikona. Runic magic, he states, uses the runes to affect the world outside based on the archetypes they represent.[18] Most of Gundarsson's runic magic entails being in possession of a physical entity that is engraved with any or all of the individual runes or "staves", so as to practically work with their energies. The individual runes are reddened with either blood, dyes, or paints. The act of possessing the stave in its final form serves the purpose of affecting the world of form with "the rune might" of that particular stave. After use, the staves are discarded or destroyed.[19] Gundarsson holds that each rune has a certain sound to it, to be chanted or sung; the sound has in common the phonetic value by which it is represented.[20] This act of singing or chanting is supposed to have more or less the same effect of using the staves in their physical form.[21]
Other
Nigel Pennick proposes "Germanic Runic Astrology" in publications such as Runic Astrology: Starcraft and Timekeeping in the Northern Tradition (1995), ISBN 1-898307-45-8. Freya Aswynn has a feminist version of runic magic, in Leaves of Yggdrasil: Runes, Gods, Magic, Feminine Mysteries, and Folklore Llewellyn Worldwide (1990), ISBN 0-87542-024-9 and Northern Mysteries and Magick: Runes, Gods & Feminine Powers (1998), Llewellyn Worldwide ISBN 1-56718-047-7. Adam Byrn Tritt, in Runic Divination in the Welsh Tradition (2011)[22] presents a system based on a ten stone set, including nine symbols which are unrelated to the historical runes, plus a blank stone, which represents the querent. Diana L. Paxson deals with the subject of runic divination and the use of the runes in magical spell-casting in her book Taking Up The Runes: A Complete Guide To Using Runes In Spells, Rituals, Divination, And Magic (2005).[23] Wendy Christine Duke in Spiral of Life (2008)[24] presents a divination system is based on organizing a set of forty-one "revealed images" based on the runic letters.
References
[1] Birley (1999:42). [2] J. B. Rives, Germania By Cornelius Tacitus, Oxford University Press p. 166 [3] Spurkland, Terje (2005). Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=1QDKqY-NWvUC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage& q=& f=false). Boydell Press. pp.16. ISBN1-84383-186-4. . [4] Macleod and Mees (2006), 91-101. [5] Nielsen, M. L. (1998). "Glavendrup" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=bcwfZW_soyMC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage& q=& f=false). In Hoops, Johannes; Beck, Heinrich. Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. 12. Walter de Gruyter. p.198. ISBN3-11-016227-X. . [6] translation and numbering of stanzas after the edition by Henry Adams Bellows (1936). [7] Enoksen, Lars Magnar. Runor: Historia, tydning, tolkning (1998) ISBN 91-88930-32-7 [8] "Such runes were believed to transfer sickness from the invalid to the tree. Some editors, however, have changed limrunar ("branch runes") to lifrunar ("life-runes")" Bellows (1936), p. 392. [9] "Here the list of runes breaks off, though the manuscript indicates no gap, and three short passages of a different type, though all dealing with runes, follow." Bellows (1936) p. 393. [10] http:/ / wikisource. org/ wiki/ Ynglinga_saga#Orusta_Ingjalds_konungs_og_Granmars [11] http:/ / www. fordham. edu/ halsall/ basis/ anskar. html [12] Foote and Wilson (1970), 401. [13] MacLeod and Mees (2006), 235. [14] kerman Susanna Rose Cross over the Baltic: the Spread of Rosicrucianism in Northern Europe p.47 [15] Blum, Ralph (2000). The Book of Runes: 20th Anniversary Edition. Eddison Sadd. pp.pp133-134. ISBN1-85906-042-0. [16] Thorsson, Edred. Runelore; A handbook of Esoteric Runology
Runic magic
[17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=_rMC8PJzC3IC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage& q=& f=false Gundarsson (1990), 27; 211; 211-212. Gundarsson (1990), 33; 34; 27. Gundarsson (1990), 37-156. Gundarsson (1990), 31-32. ISBN 978-0-9793935-1-8. ISBN 978-1-57863-325-8 Spiral of Life - A Guidebook For Your Journey (2008) Cloud Haven Studio Incorporated, ISBN 978-0-9818693-0-8.
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Sources
Birley, A. R. (Trans.) (1999). Agricola and Germany. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 978-0-19-283300-6 Blum, Ralph (1993). The Book of Runes : A Handbook for the Use of an Ancient Oracle: The Viking Runes with Stones, St. Martin's Press; 10th anniversary ed. ISBN 0-312-09758-1. Flowers, Stephen (1986), Runes and magic: magical formulaic elements in the older runic tradition, vol. 53 of American university studies: Germanic languages and literatures, P. Lang, ISBN 978-0-8204-0333-5. , as Thorsson, Edred (1983). A Handbook of Rune Magic, Weiser Books. ISBN 0-87728-548-9 , as Thorsson, Edred (1987). A Handbook of Esoteric Runology. Weiser Books, ISBN 0-87728-667-1 Fries, Jan, Helrunar: A Manual of Rune Magick, Second Edition, Mandrake of Oxford (2002), ISBN 978-1-869928-38-4 Foote, Peter G., and Wilson, D. M. (1970). The Viking Achievement, Sidgwick & Jackson: London, UK. ISBN 0-283-97926-7 Gundarsson, Kveldulf (1990). Teutonic Magic. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, Inc.. ISBN0-87542-291-8. MacLeod, Mindy; Mees, Bernard (2006). Runic Amulets and Magic Objects (http://books.google.com/ books?id=hx7UigqsTKoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q& f=false). Boydell Press. ISBN1-84383-205-4. Meadows, Kenneth (1996). Rune Power: The Secret Knowledge of the Wise Ones. Milton, Brisbane: Element Books Limited. ISBN 1-85230-706-4 Plowright, Sweyn (2006). The Rune Primer. Lulu Press. ISBN 1-84728-246-6 Tritt, Adam Byrn (2011), Tellstones: Runic Divination in the Welsh Tradition. Smithcraft Press. ISBN 978-0-9793935-1-8
External links
Mystic Uses of the Runes (http://home.ica.net/~runesmith/bibliogr/myst.html) bibliography Meaning of the Runes (http://sunnyway.com/runes/meanings.html) by Ingrid Halvorsen Magic Runes (http://www.vikingrune.com/2008/12/magic-runes/) On line readings (http://www.metta.org.uk/runes)
Runic transliteration and transcription
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Runic transliteration and transcription

Runic transliteration and transcription are part of analysing a runic inscription which involves transliteration of the runes into Latin letters, transcription into a normalized spelling in the language of the inscription, and translation of the inscription into a modern language. In machine-processed text, there is a long-standing practice of formatting transliterations in boldface and transcriptions in Italic type, as the two forms of rendering a runic text have to be kept distinct.[1]
Overview
By not only showing the original inscription, but also transliterating, transcribing and translating, scholars present the analysis in a way that allows the reader to follow their interpretation of the runes. Every step has its challenges, but most Younger Futhark inscriptions are quite easy to interpret. Most Scandinavians can learn to read runic inscriptions with a little training. The Elder Futhark inscriptions, however, are much more challenging and they demand a great deal of knowledge in historical linguistics. Standard works such as Sveriges runinskrifter contain extensive presentations of the ways inscriptions have been interpreted throughout the centuries.[2]
Runes
It is practically impossible to render the runes in all the various ways that they appear in the inscriptions, and so the way they look has to be presented in pictures and in drawings.[2]
The a and the rune in ligature on the Rk Runestone.
Transliteration
Transliteration means that the runes are represented by a corresponding Latin letter in bold. No consideration is given to the sound the rune represented in the actual inscription, and a good example of this is the ansuz rune, which could vary greatly in shape. In the oldest Younger Futhark inscriptions, it always represented a nasal a, as in French an, but later it came to represent other phonemes such as /o/. However, some runemasters continued to use the ansuz rune for an a phoneme. The ansuz rune is always transliterated as o from the Younger Futhark, and consequently, the transliteration mon represents Old Norse man in a runestone from Bllsta, and hon represents Old Norse han in the Frs Runestone, while forom represents Old Norse forom in an inscription from Replsa.[2] Sometimes the runes are "dotted" which means that a dot has been added, and in transliterations dotted runes are treated differently from ordinary runes. Dotted u, k and i are transliterated as y, g and e though they are rather variations of the non-dotted runes than runes in their own right.[2]
Variations of the ansuz rune. They are all transliterated as a.
The i bindrune.
Runic transliteration and transcription Bind runes are marked with an arch. Some bind runes look in a way that makes it impossible to know which rune preceded the other, and then the scholar has to test the various combinations that give a comprehensible word. Thus all transliterations of bind runes are scholarly interpretations.[2] Runes that are known from older depictions but that have since disappeared are rendered within square brackets.[2]
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Transcription or normalization
The runes are transcribed into normalized spellings of the languages the runes were written in, and normalizations are rendered with italics. Since a single rune may represent several different phonemes, normalizations can differ greatly from transliterations. The rune can represent both the Old Norse letter (as in English the) or (as in English thing).[2]
Notes and references

[1] Antonsen, Elmer H. (2002). Runes and Germanic Linguistics (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=gvSi3JVNRFQC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage& q=& f=false). Mouton de Gruyter. pp.85. ISBN3-11-017462-6. . [2] Att lsa runor och runinskrifter (http:/ / www. raa. se/ cms/ extern/ kulturarv/ arkeologi_och_fornlamningar/ runstenar/ att_lasa_runor_och_runinskrifter. html) on the site of the Swedish National Heritage Board, retrieved May 10, 2008.
Runology
This article is about the philological discipline, not to be confused with occultist concepts like runosophy. Runology is the study of the Runic alphabets, Runic inscriptions and their history. Runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics.
History
Runology was initiated by Johannes Bureus (1568-1652) who was very interested in the linguistics of the Geatish language (Gtiska sprket), i.e. Old Norse. However, he did not look at the runes as just an alphabet but rather something holy or magical.
Children being taught a runic alphabet (1555), from Olaus Magnus's Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus
The study of runes was continued by Olof Rudbeck Sr (1630-1702) and presented in his collection Atlantica. The physicist Anders Celsius (1701-44) further extended the science of runes and travelled around the whole of Sweden to examine the bautastenar (megaliths, today termed runestones). Another early treatise is the 1732 Runologia by Jn lafsson of Grunnavk. The various runic scripts were well understood by the 19th century, when their analysis became an integral part of the Germanic philology and historical linguistics. Wilhelm Grimm published his Ueber deutsche Runen in 1821, where among other things he discussed the "Marcomannic runes" (chapter 18, pp.149-159). In 1828 he published a supplement, titled Zur Literatur der Runen, where he discusses the Abecedarium Nordmannicum. Sveriges runinskrifter was published from 1900. The dedicated journal Nytt om runer has been published by the "Runic Archives" of the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo from 1985. The Rundata project, aiming at a machine-readable catalogue of runic inscriptions, was initiated in 1993.
Ruthwell Cross
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Ruthwell Cross
The Ruthwell Cross is a stone Anglo-Saxon cross probably dating from the 8th century,[1] when Ruthwell was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria; it is now in Scotland. It is both the most famous and elaborate Anglo-Saxon monumental sculpture,[2] and possibly the oldest surviving "text" of English poetry, predating any manuscripts containing Old English poetry.[3] It has been described by Nikolaus Pevsner thus; "The crosses of Bewcastle and Ruthwell ... are the greatest achievement of their date in the whole of Europe."[4]
The Ruthwell Cross
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The cross was smashed by Presbyterian iconoclasts in 1664, and the pieces left in the churchyard until they were restored in 1818 by Henry Duncan. In 1887 it was moved into its current location in Ruthwell church, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, when the apse which holds it was specially built.[5]
Description
Anglo-Saxon crosses are closely related to the contemporary Irish high crosses, and both are part of the Insular art tradition. The Ruthwell cross features the largest figurative reliefs found on any surviving Anglo-Saxon crosswhich are virtually the largest surviving Anglo-Saxon reliefs of any sortand has inscriptions in both Latin and, unusually for a Christian monument, the runic alphabet, the latter containing lines similar to lines 39-64 of The Dream of the Rood, an Old English poem, which were possibly added at a later date. It is 18 feet (5.5 metres) high.
The washing of Christ's feet, south side.
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The two main sides of the cross (north and south) feature figurative relief carvings, now considerably worn, that depict Christ and several other figures; their subjects and interpretation have been much discussed by art historians, and the cross continues to be "one of the most extensive and most studied of all surviving visual programs of the early Middle Ages."[6] It is clear to most scholars that the images and texts each form part of a sophisticated and unified programme, "almost an academician's monument,"[2] though a number of different schemes have been proposed, and some suggest the runic inscription may have been added later. The largest panel on the cross (north side) shows either Christ treading on the beasts, a subject especially popular with the Anglo-Saxons, or its rare pacific variant Christ as Judge recognised by the beasts in the desert,[7] as suggested by the unique Latin inscription surrounding the panel: "IHS XPS iudex aequitatis; bestiae et dracones cognoverunt in deserto salvatorem mundi" - "Jesus Christ: the judge of righteousness: the beasts and dragons recognised in the desert the saviour of the world." Whatever the subject it is, it is clearly the same as the very similar relief that is the largest panel on the nearby Bewcastle Cross which, subject to dating, was probably created by the same artists. Below this is Saints Paul and Antony breaking bread in the desert, another rare scene identified by an inscription ("Sanctus Paulus et Antonius duo eremitae fregerunt panem in deserto"), then either a Flight into Egypt or perhaps a Return from Egypt, and at the bottom a scene too worn to decipher, which may have been a Nativity of Christ.[8] On the south side the largest scene is Mary Magdalen drying the feet of Christ, Christ as judge, with two animals inscribed "Attulit alabastrum unguenti et stans retro secus pedes eius lacrimis coepit rigare pedes eius et capillis capitas sui tergebat" - see Luke 7:37-38 and John 12:3.[9] Below this is the Healing of the man born blind from John 9:1, inscribed: "Et praeteriens vidit hominem caecum a natibitate et sanavit eum ab infirmitate," the Annunciation ("Et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit ave gratia plena dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus" - Luke 1:28) and the Crucifixion, which on stylistic grounds is considered to have been added at a considerably later period. These scenes are on the main, lower, section of the shaft, which was broken above the largest senes, and possibly the two sections were not restored the right way round. Above the large scene on the north side is either John the Baptist holding a lamb, or possibly God the Father holding the Lamb of God, who opens a book as in Apocalypse 5:1-10.[10] Above this (and another break) are two remaining figures of the Four Evangelists with their symbols that originally were on the four arms of the cross-head: St. Matthew on the lowest arm, and St. John the Evangelist on the top arm. The side arms and centre roundel of the cross are replacements, of purely speculative (and most improbable) design.[10] On the south side, Martha and Mary (with inscription) are followed by an archer, the subject of almost as much debate as the judging Christ, on the lowest arm of the Cross, and an eagle on the top arm.[11]
Destruction and restoration

It escaped injury at the time of general destruction during the Reformation in the sixteenth century, but in 1662 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland ordered the "many idolatrous monuments erected and made for religious worship" to be "taken down, demolished, and destroyed." It was not till two years later, however, that the cross was taken down when an Act was passed "anent the Idolatrous Monuments in Ruthwell."[12] The usual account is that the cross was taken down in the church or churchyard soon after the 1642 order and broken up. It was used, it appears, as a bench to sit upon. The pieces were later removed from the church and left out in the churchyard. In
Ruthwell Cross 1818, Henry Duncan collected all the pieces he could find, and put them together, adding two new crossbeams (the original ones were lost), and having gaps filled in with small pieces of stone. Duncan's restoration is questionable. He was convinced that he was reconstructing a "Popish" (Roman Catholic) monument, and based his work on "drawings of similar Popish relics." Duncan dismissed the rare early medieval motif of Paul and Anthony breaking bread in the desert as probably "founded on some Popish tradition." It has been suggested that the work was not in fact originally a cross. In a 2007 journal article, Patrick W. Conner, a professor of English, wrote that he will not call the structure a cross: "Fred Orton has argued persuasively that the lower stone on which the runic poem is found may, indeed, never have belonged to a standing cross, or if it did, that cannot be asserted with confidence now. For that reason, I shall refer throughout to the Ruthwell Monument in preference to the Ruthwell cross." In his 1998 essay, Rethinking the Ruthwell Monument: Fragments and Critique; Tradition and History; Tongues and Sockets, scholar Fred Orton discusses a note Reginald Bainbrigg wrote to William Camden in 1600 for possible publication in any new edition of his 1586 Britannia: Bainbrigg saw a column which he referred to as a cross, Orton said of the note.[13] Orton is also convinced the piece is made of two different types of stone: it seems to make more sense to see the Ruthwell monument as originally a column amended with the addition of a Crucifixion scene, and then further amended with the addition of a cross made of a different kind of stone."[14]
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Runic inscription
At each side of the vine-tracery runic inscriptions are carved. The runes were first described around 1600, and Reginald Bainbrigg of Appleby recorded the inscription for the Britannia of William Camden. Around 1832, the runes were recognized as different from the Scandinavian futhark (categorized as Anglo-Saxon runes) by Thorleif Repp, by reference to the Exeter Book. His rendition referred to a place called the vale of Ashlafr, compensation for injury, a font and a monastery of Therfuse. John Mitchell Kemble in 1840 advanced a reading referring to Mary Magdalene. The better known Dream of the Rood inscription is due to a revised reading of Kemble's in an 1842 article. The inscription is translated as: / / Krist ws on rodi. Hwer'/ er fus fearran kwomu / il til anum. "Christ was on the cross. Yet / the brave came there from afar / to their lord." Kemble's revised reading is based on the poem of the Vercelli Book, to the extent that missing words in each are supplied from the other. Its authenticity is disputed and may be a conjecture inserted by Kemble himself: O'Neill (2005) notes Kemble's "almost pathological dislike of Scandinavian interference in what he sees as the English domain." Kemble himself notes how the inscription may be "corrected" with the help of the Vercelli Book.
Ruthwell Cross inscription
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Many believe that the runes, as opposed to the Latin inscriptions, were added later, possibly as late as the 10th century. Conner agrees with Paul Meyvaerts conclusion that the runic poem dates from after the period in which the monument was created.[16] He says Meyvaert has satisfactorily explained that the layout of the runes suggest that the stone was already standing when the decision to add the runic poem was made. [16] The runic inscription on the monument is not a [15] formulaic memorial text of the kind usually carved in Old English on Translation of Ruthwell Cross Inscription stone. Rather, Conner sees the content of the runic addition to the monument as related to prayers used in the adoration of the cross first composed in the tenth century.[17] He therefore concludes that the poem was developed in the 10th century well after the creation of the monument.
Gallery
Overall view of the south side
Vine scrolls and creatures on the west side
'Mary Magdalen drying the feet of Christ, on the south side
Notes
[1] Wilson, 72. Other datings are usually earlier rather than later. [2] Wilson, 72. [3] This depends on the date allocated to the cross itself, and also the runic inscriptions, which may be later (see below). The earliest English manuscripts containing poetry are two versions of Bede that contain Cdmon's Hymn, and are dated to the 8th century: the Moore Bede and Saint Petersburg Bede. [4] Pevsner - Introduction. [5] Information boards, Ruthwell Church. [6] Farr, 45. [7] See discussion at Christ treading on the beasts. [8] Raw, and Wilson, 72. [9] Raw, Schapiro, 163. [10] Raw. [11] Raw, Schapiro, 177-186 on the archer, to which he gives a purely secular, decorative meaning. [12] It has usually been assumed that this was the Ruthwell Cross, but this cannot be known with certainty. See Carragin, Ritual and the Rood, 15. [13] Orton, 83.
Ruthwell Cross
[14] [15] [16] [17] Orton, 88. Browne 1908:297. Conner, 34. Conner, 43-51.
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References
Browne, G. F. (1908), Alcuin of York (http://books.google.com/?id=ho8QGIF5py8C), London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, p.297, retrieved 2008-08-08 Farr, Carol A., Woman as sign in Early Anglo-Saxon Monasticism (http://books.google.com/ books?id=Kb-u7jlAZXkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q& f=false), in The Insular Tradition, SUNY series in medieval studies, Eds: Catherine E. Karkov, Michael Ryan, Robert T. Farrell, SUNY Press, 1997, ISBN 0-7914-3455-9, ISBN 978-0-7914-3455-0. Haney, Kristine Edmonson, The Christ and the Beasts Panel on the Ruthwell Cross (http://books.google.com/ books?id=qY87DJqOPBQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q& f=false), in Anglo-Saxon England, vol 14, Editors Peter Clemoes, Simon Keynes, Michael Lapidge, Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 0-521-03838-3, ISBN 978-0-521-03838-6. Herren, Michael W., and Brown, Shirley Ann, Christ in Celtic Christianity: Britain and Ireland from the Fifth to the Tenth Century (http://books.google.com/books?id=zDT-4fTqbgAC&printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false), Volume 20 of Studies in Celtic history, Boydell Press, 2002, ISBN 0-85115-889-7, ISBN 978-0-85115-889-1. Hilmo, Maidie. Medieval Images, Icons, and Illustrated English Literary Texts: From Ruthwell Cross to the Ellesmere Chaucer (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BgMMIyJ-BIIC&printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false), Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004, ISBN 0-7546-3178-8, ISBN 780754631781 . Orton, Fred. "Rethinking the Ruthwell Monument: Fragments and critique; tradition and history; tongues and sockets." Art History. 21.1 (1998): 65-106. Carragain, amonn, Christian Inculturation in Eighth-Century Northumbria: The Bewcastle and Ruthwell Crosses (http://www.yale.edu/ism/colloq_journal/vol4/carragain1.html), Colloquium Magazine, Vol 4, Autumn 2007, Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Carragin, amonn, Ritual and the Rood: Liturgical Images and the Old English Poems of the Dream of the Rood Tradition (http://books.google.com/books?id=leww8xr8IKoC&printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false), University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2005. Pevsner, Nikolaus, The buildings of Cumberland and Westmorland (the Buildings of England series) ISBN 0140710.33 7. Raw, Barbara (June 1994) Ruthwell Cross: Description (http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/oecoursepack/rood/ context/description.html). University of Oxford. Schapiro, Meyer, Selected Papers, volume 3, Late Antique, Early Christian and Mediaeval Art, 1980, Chatto & Windus, London, ISBN 0-7011-2514-4 (includes The Religious Meaning of the Ruthwell Cross (1944), etc.). Wilson, David M.; Anglo-Saxon Art: From The Seventh Century To The Norman Conquest, Thames and Hudson (US edn. Overlook Press), 1984.
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Further reading
Bammesberger, Alfred (1994). " Two archaic forms in the Ruthwell cross inscription (http://www. informaworld.com/smpp/ftinterface?content=a901590943&rt=0&format=pdf)," English Studies Vol. 75, Issue 2, pp.97103. Cassidy, Brendan (ed.), The Ruthwell Cross, Princeton University Press (1992). Conner, Patrick W. "The Ruthwell Monument Runic Poem in a Tenth-Century Context." Review of English Studies Advance Access. (2007): 1-27. Print. Kelly, Richard J. (ed.), Stone, Skin and Silver, Litho Press / Sheed & Ward (1999). ISBN 978-1-871121-35-3 Hawkes, Jane & Mills, Susan (eds.), Northumbria's Golden Age, Sutton Publishing Ltd (1999). Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, County of Dumfries, (1920). Saxl, Fritz, "The Ruthwell Cross," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 6, (1943), pp.119, The Warburg Institute, JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/stable/750418)
External links
Ruthwell Cross - site information from Historic Scotland (http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/ propertyresults/propertyoverview.htm?PropID=PL_240) Ruthwell Church Official Website (http://www.ruthwellkirk.org.uk)
Schretzheim sword
A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of Elder Futhark (some 350 items, dating to between the 2nd and 8th centuries AD), Anglo-Frisian Futhorc (some 100 items, 5th to 11th c.) and Younger Futhark (close to 6,000 items, 8th to 12th c.).[1]
Younger futhark inscription on bone.
The total 350 known inscriptions in the Elder Futhark script[2] fall into two main geographical categories, North Germanic (Scandinavian, ca. 267 items) and Continental or South Germanic ("German" and Gothic, ca. 81 items).[3] These inscriptions are on many types of loose objects, but the North Germanic tradition shows a preference for bracteates, while the South Germanic one has a preference for fibulae. The precise figures are debatable because some inscriptions are very short and/or illegible, so that it is uncertain whether they qualify as an inscription at all. The division into Scandinavian, North Sea (Anglo-Frisian) and South Germanic inscription makes sense from the 5th century. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, the Elder Futhark script is still in its early phase of development, with inscriptions concentrated in what is now Denmarkand Northern Germany. The tradition of runic literacy continues in Scandinavia into the Viking Age, developing into the Younger Futhark script. Close to 6,000 Younger Futhark inscriptions are known, many of them on runestones.
Schretzheim sword
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Statistics
Number of known inscriptions
The following table lists the number of known inscriptions (in any alphabet variant) by geographical region:
Area Sweden Norway Denmark Scandinavian total Number of runic inscriptions 3,432 1,552 844 5,826
Continental Europe except Scandinavia and Frisia 80 Frisia The British Isles except Ireland Greenland Iceland Ireland Faroes Non-Scandinavian total Total 20 > 200 > 100 < 100 16 9 > 500 > 6,400
Estimates of total number of inscriptions produced

Elder Futhark inscriptions were rare, with very few active literati, in relation to the total population, at any time, so that knowledge of the runes was probably an actual "secret" throughout the Migration period. Of 366 lances excavated at Illerup, only 2 bore inscriptions. A similar ratio is estimated for Alemannia, with an estimated 170 excavated graves to every inscription found (Lthi 2004:323) Estimates of the total number of inscriptions produced are based on the "minimal runological estimate" of 40,000 (ten individuals making ten inscriptions per year for four centuries). The actual number was probably considerably higher, maybe close to 400,000 in total, so that of the order of 0.1% of the corpus has come down to us), and Fischer (2004:281) estimates a population of several hundred active literati throughout the period, with as many as 1,600 during the Alamannic "runic boom" of the 6th century.
Types of inscribed objects

Especially the earliest inscriptions are found on all types of everyday objects. Later, a preference for valuable or prestigious objects (jewelry or weapons) seems to develop, inscriptions often indicating ownership. jewelry bracteates: some 133 Elder Futhark inscriptions, popular during the Scandinavian Germanic Iron Age / Vendel era fibulae: some 50 Elder Futhark inscriptions, popular in 6th to 7th century Alemannia brooches: Boarley (Kent), Harford (Norfolk) brooch, West Heslerton (North Yorkshire), Wakerley (Northamptonshire), Dover (Kent) belt parts (plaques, buckles, strap.ends): Vimose buckle, Pforzen buckle, Heilbronn-Bckingen, Szabadbattyan rings: six known Anglo-Saxon runic rings, a few examples from Alemannia (Vrstetten-Schupfholz, Pforzen, Aalen neck-ring) amber: Weingarten amber-pearl
Schretzheim sword Weapon parts seaxes: Thames scramasax, Steindorf, Hailfingen spearheads: Vimose, Kovel, Dahmsdorf-Mncheberg, Wurmlingen swords and sword-sheaths Vimose chape, Vimose sheathplate, Thorsberg chape, Schretzheim ring-sword, Ash Gilton (Kent) gilt silver sword pommel, Chessel Down II (Isle of Wight) silver plate (attached to the scabbard mouthpiece of a ring-sword), Sb sword coins: Skanomody solidus, Harlingen solidus, Schweindorf solidus, Folkestone tremissis, Midlum sceat, Kent II coins (some 30 items), Kent III, IV silver sceattas, Suffolk gold shillings (three items), Upper Thames Valley gold coins (four items) boxes or containers: Franks Casket, Schretzheim capsule, Gammertingen case, Ferwerd combcase, Kantens combcase runestones: from about AD 400, very popular for Viking Age Younger Futhark inscriptions bone: Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus, Rasquert swordhandle (whalebone handle of a symbolic sword), Hantum whalebone plate, Bernsterburen whalebone staff, Hamwick horse knucklebone, Wijnaldum A antler piece pieces of wood: Vimose woodplane, Neudingen/Baar, Arum sword (a yew-wood miniature sword), Westeremden yew-stick cremation urns: Loveden Hill (Lincolnshire), Spong Hill (Norfolk)
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the Kleines Schulerloch inscription is a singular example of an inscription on a cave wall
Early period (2nd to 4th c.)

Further information: Alu (runic)andErilaz The earliest period of Elder Futhark (2nd to 4th centuries) predates the division in regional script variants, and linguistically essentially still reflect the Common Germanic stage. Their distribution is mostly limited to southern Scandinavia, northern Germany and Frisia (the "North Sea Germanic runic Koine"), with stray finds associated with the Goths from Romania and Ukraine. Linguistically, the 3rd and 4th centuries correspond to the formation of Proto-Norse, just predating the separation of West Germanic into Anglo-Frisian, Low German and High German. Vimose inscriptions (6 objects, AD 160-300) Gotland spearhead (ca. 180), gaois Ovre Stabu spearhead (ca. 180), raunijaz Thorsberg chape (AD 200) Nydam axe-handle (4th century): wagagastiz / alu:??hgusikijaz:aialataz Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus (AD 400) Illerup inscriptions (9 objects)
Scandinavian
Further information: Sveriges runinskrifter,bracteate,andRunestone About 260 items in Elder Futhark, and close to 6,000 items (mostly runestones) in Younger Futhark. The highest concentration of Elder Futhark inscriptions is in Denmark. An important Proto-Norse inscription was on one of the Golden horns of Gallehus (early 5th century). A total of 133 known inscriptions on bracteates. The oldest known runestones date to the early 5th century (Einang stone, Kylver Stone). The longest known inscription in the Elder Futhark, and one of the youngest, consists of some 200 characters and is found on the early 8th century Eggjum stone, and may even contain a stanza of Old Norse poetry. The transition to Younger Futhark begins from the 6th century, with transitional examples like the Bjrketorp or Stentoften stones. In the early 9th century, both the older and the younger futhark were known and used, which is
Schretzheim sword shown on the Rk Runestone. By the 10th century, only Younger Futhark remained in use.
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Anglo-Frisian
Some 100 items spanning the 5th to 11th centuries. The 5th century Undley bracteate is considered the earliest known Anglo-Frisian inscription. The 8th-century Franks Casket, preserved during the Middle Ages in Brioude, central France, exhibits the longest coherent inscriptions in Anglo-Saxon runes by far, including five alliterating long-lines, qualifying as the oldest preserved Anglo-Saxon poetry. While the Nordic bracteates are jewelry imitating Roman gold coins, there were a number of actual coins (currency) in Anglo-Saxon England inscribed with runes, notably the coins from Kent, inscribed with pada, pa and epa (early 7th century). There are a number of Christian inscriptions from the time of Christianization. St. Cuthbert's coffin, dated to 698, even has a runic monogram of Christ, and the Whitby II bone comb (7th c.) has a pious plea for God's help, deus meus, god aluwaldo, help Cy "my God, almighty God, help Cy". The Ruthwell Cross inscription could also be mentioned, but its authenticity is dubious. Unlike the situation on the continent, the tradition of runic writing does not disappear in England after Christianization but continues for a full three centuries, disappearing after the Norman conquest. A type of object unique to Christianized Anglo-Saxon England are the six known Anglo-Saxon runic rings of the 9th to 10th centuries.
Continental
Further information: Elder_Futhark#Continental_inscriptions Apart from the earliest inscriptions found on the continent along the North Sea coast (the "North Germanic Koine", Martin 2004:173), continental inscriptions can be divided in those of the "Alemannic runic province" (Martin 2004), with a few dozen examples dating to the 6th and 7th centuries, and those associated with the Goths, loosely scattered along the Oder to south-eastern Poland, as far as the Carpathian Mountains (e.g. the ring of Pietroassa in Romania), dating to the 4th and 5th centuries. The cessation of both the Gothic and Alemannic runic tradition conincides with the Christianization of the respective peoples. Lthi (2004:321) identifies a total of about 81 continental inscriptions found south of the "North Germanic Koine". Most of these originate in southern Germany (Baden-Wrttemberg and Bavaria), with a single one found south of the Rhine (Blach fibula, found in Blach, Switzerland), and a handful from Eastern Europe (Poland, Romania, Ukraine). A silver-plated copper disk, originally part of a sword-belt, found at Liebenau, Lower Saxony with an early 5th century runic inscription (mostly illegible, interpreted as possibly reading rauzwih) is classed as the earliest South Germanic (German) inscription known by the RGA (vol. 6, p.576); the location of Liebenau is close to the boundary of the North Sea and South Germanic zones. Siglas Poveiras in Povoa de Varzim, Portugal are also a type of writing based on the Viking runes. The siglas were first studied by Antnio de Santos Graa in his book Epopeia dos Humildes ("The Odyssey of the Humble"). Published in 1952, the book contains hundreds of siglas and the history and maritime tragedy of Pvoa. Other works of his are "O Poveiro" (The Poveiro, 1932), "A Crena do Poveiro nas Almas Penadas" (Poveiro Beliefs Regarding Dead Souls, 1933) e "Inscries Tumulares por Siglas" (Tomb Inscriptions Using Siglas, 1942). After a visit to the National Museet in Copenhagen, Octvio Lixa Filgueiras, by accident, found objects marked with "home-marks" from Funen in Denmark. Moreover, the complex hereditary mark system of Pvoa de Varzim was also found in Funen.
Schretzheim sword The Siglas development is at least, partly, attributed to Vikings that settled in the town during the 10th century and 11th century. This form of primitive writing developed within the community of Pvoa de Varzim was kept due to the practice of endogamy. Also, the similarity with the Scandinavian tradition of using specific bomrken ("homestead marks") for signatures and for marking property has also been noted.
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Gothic
Out of about a dozen candidate inscriptions, only three are widely accepted to be of Gothic origin: the gold ring of Pietroassa, bearing a votive inscription, part of a larger treasure found in the Romanian Carpathians, and two spearheads inscribed with what is probably the weapon's name, one found in the Ukrainian Carpathians, and the other in eastern Germany, near the Oder. The inscription on the spearhead of Kovel, found in Ukraine (now lost) is a special case. Its date is very early (3rd century) and it shows a mixture of runic and Latin letters, reading <TD> or <TIRIDS> (the i, r and s letters being identical in the Elder Futhark and Latin scripts), and may thus reflect a stage of development before the runes became fixed as a separate script in its own right.
Alemannic
The known inscriptions from Alemannia mostly date to the century between AD 520 and 620. There are some 70 inscriptions in total, about half of them on fibulae. Some are explicitly dedications among lovers, containing leub "beloved", or in the case of the Blach fibula fridil "lover". Most were found in Germany, in the states of Baden-Wrttemberg and Bavaria. A lesser number originates in Hessen and Rheinland-Pfalz, and outside of Germany there is a single example from Switzerland, and a small number of what are likely Burgundian inscriptions from eastern France. The precise number of inscriptions is debatable, as some proposed inscriptions consist of a single sign, or a row of signs that may also be "rune-like", in imitation of writing, or purely ornamental. For example, a ring found in Bopfingen has been interpreted as being inscribed with a single g, i.e. a simple X-shape that may also be ornamental. Most interpretable inscriptions contain personal names, and only ten inscriptions contain more than one interpretable word. Of these, four translate to "(PN) wrote the runes".[4] The other six "long" interpretable inscriptions are: Pforzen buckle: aigil andi alrun / ltahu gasokun ("Aigil and Ailrun fought at the [Ilz River?]") Nordendorf fibula: logaorewodanwigionar (three theonyms, or "Wodan and Wigi-onar are magicians/sorcerers") Schretzheim case: arogisd / alaguleuba : dedun ("Arogast / Alaguth [and] Leubo (Beloved) made it") Schretzheim fibula: siwagadin leubo ("to the Traveller (Wotan?), [from] Leubo (Beloved)", or perhaps "love to my travel-companion" or similar[5]) Osthofen: madali umbada ("Madali, protection") Bad Ems fibula: god fura dih deofile ("God for/before you, Theophilus". The inscription is one of the youngest of the Alemannic sphere, dating to between 660 and 690, and clearly reflects a Christianized background.[6]) Other notable inscriptions: Blach fibula: frifridil du aftm Wurmlingen spearhead, from an Alemannic grave in Wurmlingen, inscription read as a personal name (i)dorih (Ido-rh or Dor-rh) Schretzheim ring-sword: the sword blade has four runes arranged so that the staves form a cross. Read as arab by Dwel (1997). Schwab (1998:378) reads abra, interpreting it as abbreviating the magic word Abraxas, suggesting influence of the magic traditions of Late Antiquity, and the Christian practice of arranging monograms on the arms of a cross.
Schretzheim sword Kleines Schulerloch inscription, long suspected as a hoax, now considered genuine due to the discovery of a parallel inscription in Bad Krozingen. Reads birg : leub : selbrade. A small number of inscriptions found in eastern France may be Burgundian rather than Alemannic: the Arguel pebble: arbitag | wodan | lugo[?h]azej | kim | the Charnay Fibula: fuarkgwhnijpstbem | ' uf[?]ai ' id | dan ' (l)iano | ia | [?]r |
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Frankish
Very few inscriptions can be associated with the Franks, reflecting their early Romanization and Christianization. An important find is the Bergakker inscription, suggested as recording 5th-century Old Frankish. The only other inscription definitely classified as Frankish is the Borgharen buckle, reading bobo (a Frankish personal name).[7]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] not including the inscriptions in medieval runes in Sweden, and the early modern and modern inscriptions in Dalecarlian runes. Fischer 2004:281 Lthi 2004:321 Karin Lthi, 'South Germanic runic inscriptions as testimonies of early literacy, in: Marie Stoklund, Michael Lerche Nielsen, Gillian Fellows-Jensen, Bente Holmberg (eds.), Runes and their secrets: studies in runology, Volume 2000, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006, 172f.
[5] Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, s.v. "Schretzheim". [6] Wolfgang Jungandreas, 'God fura dih, deofile ' in: Zeitschrift fr deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 101, 1972, pp. 84-85. [7] Looijenga, Tineke. , Two Runic finds from the Netherlands - both with a Frankish connection. In: Essays on the early Franks, ed. Taayke, Ernst. Barkhuis 2003, 231-240.
Brate, Erik (1922). Sveriges Runinskrifter, ( online text (http://www.runor.se/) in Swedish) Fischer, Svante (2004). "Alemannia and the North Early Runic Contexts Apart (400800)" (http://books. google.com/books?id=QHLqfS7mI3YC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska et al. Alemannien und der Norden. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp.266317. ISBN3-11-017891-5. Ilkjr, Jrgen (1996a). "Runeindskrifter fra mosefund i Danmark - kontekst og oprindelse" in Frisian Runes and Neighbouring Traditions. Rodopi Jacobsen, Lis; Moltke, Erik (194142). Danmarks Runeindskrifter. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaards Forlag. Looijenga, Jantina Helena (1997). Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150700 (http:// dissertations.ub.rug.nl/faculties/arts/1997/j.h.looijenga/), dissertation, Groningen University. Looijenga, Tineke (2004). Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions (http://books.google.com/ books?id=-edm1fMPbXwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Leiden: Brill. ISBN90-04-12396-2. Lthi, Katrin (2004). "Von ruhild und Hariso: Alemannische und ltere skandinavische Runenkultur im Vergleich" (http://books.google.com/books?id=QHLqfS7mI3YC&printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska et al. Alemannien und der Norden. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp.318339. ISBN3-11-017891-5. MacLeod, Mindy, and Mees, Bernard (2006). Runic Amulets and Magic Objects (http://books.google.com/ books?id=hx7UigqsTKoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Boydell Press: Woodbridge, UK; Rochester, NY, ISBN 1-84383-205-4. Martin, Max (2004). "Kontinentalgermanische Runeninschriften und 'Alamannische Runenprovinz'" (http:// books.google.com/books?id=QHLqfS7mI3YC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska et al. Alemannien und der Norden. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp.165212. ISBN3-11-017891-5. Nowak, Sean (2003). Schrift auf den Goldbrakteaten der Vlkerwanderungszeit (http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ diss/2003/nowak/nowak.pdf), Diss. Gttingen.
Schretzheim sword Spurkland, Terje (2005). Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions (http://books.google.com/ books?id=1QDKqY-NWvUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false), Boydell Press. ISBN 1-84383-186-4
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External links
Runenprojekt Kiel (http://www.runenprojekt.uni-kiel.de/) (German) Samnordisk runtextdatabas (http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm) (Swedish)
Scythe sword
The scythe sword (Sensenschwert) was a type of single-edged swordof the German Renaissance, related to the Dussack. It consisted of the blade of a scythe to which a sword hilt was attached. Like the falx or falcataof antiquity, it was thus a curved sword with the cutting edge on the inside (as opposed to the scimitar or sabre type with the edge on the outside). The only known surviving example of a true scythe sword (its blade being made from an actual scythe), is that of Thomas Mntzer (14891525), kept in the Historical Museum, Dresden. This sword has a representation of a runic calendar incised on the blade. Demmin (1893) notes the existence of other sword blades of the early 16th century bearing runic calendars in Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Munich, Graz and Luxembourg.
References
Auguste Frdric Demmin, Die Kriegswaffen in ihren geschichtlichen Entwickelungen [1] (1893), 727-729.
External links
Sensenschwert mit Runenkalender 1501-1520.
[2]
(drawing of sword)
The scythe sword of Thomas Mntzer representation of the "summer" half of its runic calendar.
References
[1] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=fsmEAAAAIAAJ& printsec=frontcover#v=onepage& q& f=false [2] http:/ / www. bildindex. de/ obj32004991. html
Seax of Beagnoth
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Seax of Beagnoth
Seax of Beagnoth
The Seax of Beagnoth on display at the British Museum Material Size Iron (inlaid with copper, bronze and silver) Length: 72.1cm (unknown operator: u'strong'in) Width: 38.7mm (unknown operator: u'strong'in) Thickness: 8.2mm (unknown operator: u'strong'in) 985 g Runic, Old English 9th century Late Anglo-Saxon 1857; River Thames, Battersea
Weight Writing Created Period/culture Discovered
Present location Room 41, British Museum, London Registration 1857,0623.1 [1]
The Seax of Beagnoth (also known as the Thames scramasax) is a 9th century Anglo-Saxon seax (single-edged knife). It was found in the River Thames in 1857, and is now at the British Museum in London. It is a prestige weapon, decorated with elaborate patterns of inlaid copper, bronze and silver wire. On one side of the blade is the only known complete inscription of the twenty-eight letter Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet, as well as the name "Beagnoth" in runic letters. It is thought that the runic alphabet had a magical function, and that the name Beagnoth is that of either the owner of the weapon or the smith who forged it. Although many Anglo-Saxon and Viking swords and knives have inscriptions in the Latin alphabet on their blades, or have runic inscriptions on the hilt or scabbard, the Seax of Beagnoth is one of only a handful of finds with a runic inscription on its blade.
Discovery
The seax was found in the River Thames near Battersea by Henry J. Briggs, a labourer, in early 1857.[2] Briggs sold it to the British Museum, and on 21 May 1857 it was exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries of London by Augustus Wollaston Franks (an antiquary who worked at the Antiquities Department of the British Museum), when it was described as "resembling the Scramasax of the Franks, of which examples are very rare in England; and bears a row of runic characters inlaid in gold".[3] Since then the weapon has usually been called the Thames scramasax; but the term scramasax (from Old Frankish *scrmasahs) is only attested once, in the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours, and the meaning of the scrama- element is uncertain,[4] so recent scholarship prefers the term long seax or long sax for this type of weapon.[5][6]
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Description
The seax is an iron knife with a single cutting edge and a long tapering point. It is 72.1cm in length, of which the tang is 17.0cm and the blade is 55.1cm.[7] The tang would have been attached to a handle, which has not survived. The blade is a prestige weapon,[8] decorated on both faces with geometric patterns created by hammering strips of twisted copper, brass and silver wire into grooves cut into the blade, as well as with inlaid triangles and lozenges of copper, brass and silver.[7] The technique of inlaying wire to create decorative patterns and inscriptions was widely used on Germanic and Anglo-Saxon seaxes and spear heads from the 9th and 10th centuries,[9] and is also found on Viking swords from about the same period.[10] On both sides of the seax is a deep median groove running the length of the blade, above which is a long rectangular panel bordered at the top and bottom with inlaid copper strips. The panel on one side of the seax is filled with a lozenge pattern in silver and copper, which may have been meant to Detail of the Seax of Beagnoth, showing the inlaid wire decoration between the [9] two inscriptions simulate pattern welding. The panel on the other side bears two runic inscriptions inlaid with brass and silver wire. The inscription on the left comprises the twenty-eight letters of the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet or futhorc. The inscription on the right, separated from the other by a herringbone design in silver and brass, is the male personal name Beagno or Beagnoth , which is assumed to be that of the maker or original owner of the blade.[8][11]
Epigraphy
The inscription of the futhorc is as follows:
Order on Seax Standard rune UCS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 feoh ur orn s rad cen gyfu wynn hgl nyd
Old English name
Transliteration f u o r c g w h n
[12] Order in Vienna Codex 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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is ger eoh peor eolh sigel (written as , see below) Tiw beorc eh ing dg lagu mann eel (written as the "lantern rune" ac sc yr ear i j p x s t b e d l m ) a y ea 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 22 23 21 20 24 25 26 28 27
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
There are a number of interesting features about this inscription. Firstly, the order of the runes does not exactly match the traditional sequence of the earlier twenty-four letter runic alphabet or that of the twenty-eight letter Anglo-Saxon futhorc preserved in the Vienna Codex. The first nineteen runes are in the correct order, but the next four (2023: ) are in a confused sequence which does not match that found in any other source. The last two runes (2728: ) are swapped with regard to their order in the Vienna Codex, but as these are later additions to the original twenty-four letter runic alphabet their order may have been less stable, especially as the last letter is very rare in Anglo-Saxon inscriptions (elsewhere it occurs in the name Jslheard on a stone found in Dover).[13] Secondly, the 16th rune () is very small, and appears to have been squeezed in as an afterthought.[14] Thirdly, the letterforms of a number of the runes are unusual: No.12 ger is written in an unusual form, with a single horizontal bar instead of the circle, lozenge or cross most commonly found in other epigraphic and manuscript examples.[15] No.16 is written in an unusual form, but one that is attested in a few other inscriptions (for example on the shrine of Saint Cuthbert). Some scholars believe this runic letterform is borrowed from the insular letter s used in Anglo-Saxon bookhand as it has a very similar shape (both have a vertical stem with a horizontal or diagonal branch to the right).[16] On the other hand, Elliot sees it as an evolution of the normal runic letter by straightening the left branching stroke and mirroring the letter.[17] No.21 is written in a unique form with the two diagonal crossbars forming a triangle rather than crossing in the middle. This is probably an aberrant form.[14] No.24 is written in an unusual form with a single vertical stem instead of two diagonal legs as is normally the case. This form occurs occasionally in runic inscriptions, and more often in manuscript texts.[16] Ralph Elliott, former professor of English at the University of Adelaide, suggests that it represents a simplified form of the standard rune.[13] No.27 is written in an unusual form with a cross in the centre rather than a vertical stroke.[16]
Seax of Beagnoth These peculiarities may indicate that the artisan who designed the inscription was unfamiliar with runic writing,[18] although perhaps some of the unusual letterforms may have been errors occasioned by the difficulty of inlaying wire to form runes.[16] The inscription of the name Beagnoth is as follows:
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There are no unusual features in the inscription of the name, but at the top right of the name are two strange designs that almost look like letters, which no-one has been able to explain.
Date and provenance

Finds of seaxes in Europe range from the 7th to the 11th century, and the earliest examples in England are from 7th-century graves.[7] Isolated finds of seaxes in England are believed to date from the 9th and 10th centuries.[14][19] The exact date that the Seax of Beagnoth was made is uncertain, but on stylistic and epigraphical grounds it has been dated to the 9th century,[8][11] possibly as late as circa 900.[20] Several seaxes of a similar kind are known from southern England (three from London, one from Suffolk, one from the River Thames at Keen Edge Ferry in Berkshire), and one from Hurbuck in County Durham in the north of England.[21] The Berkshire seax is so similar in construction and design to the Seax of Beagnoth that both may have come from the same workshop.[22] Elliott suggests a southern, presumably Kentish, origin for the seax because its inscription only comprises the original twenty-eight letters of the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, and does not include any of the additional letters in use in Northumbrian runic inscriptions at that time.[11] The name Beagnoth inscribed on the seax also supports a Kentish provenance, as the only two examples of this name in manuscript sources are Kentish. One Beagnoth was a witness to a charter (S30) by King Eardwulf of Kent, granting pasture rights to the church of St Andrew at Rochester, Kent, which is dated to 748760,[23] and another Beagnoth (also spelled Beahno) was a monk from Kent who was present at the Synod of Clovesho in 803 and witnessed a charter by King thelwulf of Wessex dated to 844.[24] The name "Beagnoth" derives from the Old English words bag or bah meaning "ring, bracelet, torque or crown" and n meaning "boldness", and can be translated as "Ringbold".[25] Daniel Haigh (18191879), a noted Victorian scholar of Anglo-Saxon history and literature, in an 1872 study of the runic monuments of Kent, considered the possibility that although the Beagnoth Seax was found in England, because the scramasax was thought at that time to be a Frankish weapon, it may have been an import from the continent, and would originally have belonged to a Frank. He therefore attempted to read the name as if the runes represented Old Frankish, suggesting the hypothetical Frankish name Baugnanth (reading as au, and as an).[26] However, modern scholarship considers Anglo-Saxon seaxes to be native to England,[27] and Haigh's theory is not widely accepted today.
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Significance
The Seax of Beagnoth is significant both as a rare example of a runic-inscribed Anglo-Saxon weapon, and specifically for its runic inscription, which is a unique epigraphical example of the complete twenty-eight letter Anglo-Saxon futhorc.[8]
Runic inscribed blades

Further information: blade inscription There was a widespread tradition throughout Northern Europe of inscribing runes on weapons, particularly swords. Thus, in Stanza 6 of the eddaic poem Sigrdrfuml the valkyrie Sigrdrfa teaches the hero Sigurd how to engrave runes on his sword to provide magical protection:
"Sigrnar skalt kunna, ef vilt sigr hafa, ok rsta hialti hirs, sumar vttrimum, sumar valbstum, ok nefna tysvar T" [28] "Victory runes you must know if you will have victory, and carve the on the sword's hilt, some on the grasp and some on the inlay, [28] and name Tyr twice."
This poem was not committed to writing until the late 13th century (in the Codex Regius), although it may preserve elements from a much earlier date. However, a similar admonishment to carve runes on swords is found in lines 16941698 of the Old English poem Beowulf, which is roughly contemporary with the Seax of Beagnoth:
"Sw ws on m scennum scran goldes urh rnstafas rihte gemearcod, geseted and gesd, hwm t sweord geworht, rena cyst rest wre, [29] wreoenhilt ond wyrmfh." "On clear gold labels let into the cross-piece it was rightly told in runic letters, set down and sealed, for whose sake it was that the sword was first forged, that finest of iron, [30] spiral-hilted, serpent-bladed."
This poem mentions the practice of carving the sword-owner's name in runes on the hilt. This practice is confirmed by a 6th-century sword pommel from Kent, as well as a 6th-century silver scabbard mouth-piece from Chessell Down, Isle of Wight, which both preserve fragmentary runic inscriptions. The latter is the only known example of an Anglo-Saxon runic inscription on a weapon from outside Kent.[31] Several other Anglo-Saxon weapons have isolated runic letters on them. For example a tiw rune , symbolizing the Anglo-Saxon war god Tiw (Tyr in the earlier quotation from the Sigrdrfuml), is found on two sword-pommels and a spear blade, all from Kent.[32] Thus, although some Anglo-Saxon runic inscriptions on weapons are known, none are as extensive or as prominent as the runic inscription on the Seax of Beagnoth. Furthermore, the Seax is Beagnoth is the only known Anglo-Saxon weapon with a runic inscription on its blade, and indeed, other than the Schretzheim sword, which has a cryptic runic inscription on its blade comprising four runes in a cross formation, there are no other certain examples from anywhere in Europe of a sword or knife blade with a runic inscription. In contrast, inscriptions in the Latin alphabet occur frequently on Viking swords. For example, some one hundred swords with the maker's name "Ulfberht" inlaid into the blade are known from a period of about 300 years.[33] On the basis of the Beowulf quotation it may be that "Beagnoth" was the Seax's original owner's name. However, that is not certain, as Viking and Anglo-Saxon weapons often have the name of the weapon's maker engraved on them instead of, or as well as, the owner's (as on the Sittingbourne seax shown below). Raymond Page, former Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Cambridge, considers four possibilities:[34]
Seax of Beagnoth
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1. That the name is that of the smith who forged the seax, as swords from the Dark Ages often had their maker's name engraved on them. 2. That the name is that of the BIORHTELM ME ORTE ("Biorhtelm made me") and S[I]GEBEREHT ME AH rune-master who wrote the futhorc. ("S[i]gebereht owns me"). Page supposes that adding the rune-master's name would have added extra magical power to the weapon.
A "broken-back" seax from Sittingbourne in Kent, inscribed in Insular majuscules
3. That the name is that of the original owner of the seax, for as he notes, "[t]he scramasax is an impressive piece of equipment, one that an owner would be proud to see his name on".[34] 4. That the name is that of someone who gave the seax as a present to someone else, for it is "distinguished enough to make a fine gift bearing the giver's name".[34] Page concludes that we cannot know which possibility is correct.
The inscribed futhorc

The runic inscription on the seax not only identifies the maker or owner of the seax, but also provides a rare example of the twenty-eight letter Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet. Examples of the earlier, twenty-four letter Elder Futhark and sixteen letter Younger Futhark alphabets are relatively common in continental and Scandinavian runic inscriptions, but inscriptions of the historically later Anglo-Saxon futhorc are rare in England, with most examples of the Anglo-Saxon futhorc being known from manuscript sources. This seax represents the only surviving epigraphic inscription of the basic twenty-eight letter Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet,[7] although an incomplete inscription of the first sixteen letters of the futhorc occurs on the disc-shaped head of a Middle Saxon pin from Brandon, Suffolk,[14] and the first seven or eight letters of the futhorc are inscribed on the head of a pin from Malton, North Yorkshire.[36] It is unclear what purpose the inscription of the futhorc served, but Page suggests it cannot be simply decorative, but must have had a magical significance.[37] He notes that the carving of runic letters on swords as a form of magical protection was an ancient practice, but by the 9th century rune lore was probably on the decline in the Anglo-Saxon disc-headed pin from Malton, North Kingdom of Kent, and the owner of the seax may have Yorkshire, engraved with the first seven or eight letters [35] of the futhorc, followed by the three vowel letters commissioned an archaic runic inscription for prestige purposes. (). The fact that there are errors in the order and design of the runic letters suggests that the smith who made the seax was not used to adding such runic inscriptions to the weapons he made,[18] and they may have been copied inaccurately from a manuscript text.[20]
Seax of Beagnoth
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Notes
[1] http:/ / www. britishmuseum. org/ research/ search_the_collection_database/ search_object_details. aspx?objectid=86215& partid=1 [2] Briggs sold many archaeological finds from the Thames mud to the British Museum between 1843 and 1866, including the Battersea Shield. "Biographical details for Henry J Briggs" (http:/ / www. britishmuseum. org/ research/ search_the_collection_database/ term_details. aspx?bioId=90436). British Museum. . Retrieved 2010-08-18. [3] London, Society of Antiquaries of (1857), "Notices for Thursday May 21st 1857" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=mY5IAAAAYAAJ), Proceedings of the Society of Antiquitaries of London 4 (47): 83, . [4] Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, ISBN0-19-861186-2 [5] Underwood 1999, p.68 [6] Gale The Seax in Hawkes Weapons and Warfare in Anglo-Saxon England Oxford 1989 ISBN 0-947816-21-6 [7] "Search the collection database : seax" (http:/ / www. britishmuseum. org/ research/ search_the_collection_database/ search_object_details. aspx?objectid=86215& partid=1). British Museum. . Retrieved 2010-06-14. [8] Page 1987, p.40 [9] Oakeshott 2006, p.35 [10] Oakeshott 1991, p.6 [11] Elliott 1980, p.79 [12] The system of runic transliteration used is that given in Page 1987, p.19. [13] Elliott 1980, p.36 [14] Page 2006, p.80 [15] Page 2006, pp.40, 46 [16] Page 2006, p.40 [17] Elliott 1980, p.80 [18] Thorsson 1987, p.23 [19] DeVries 2007, p.232 [20] Wilson 1964, p.73 [21] Backhouse 1984, p.101 [22] Backhouse 1984, p.102 [23] "PASE Index of persons : Beagnoth 1 (Male)" (http:/ / www. pase. ac. uk/ pdb?dosp=VIEW_RECORDS& st=PERSON_NAME& value=5196& level=1& lbl=Beagnoth). Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. . Retrieved 2010-09-19. [24] "PASE Index of persons : Beahnoth 1 (Male)" (http:/ / www. pase. ac. uk/ pdb?dosp=VIEW_RECORDS& st=PERSON_NAME& value=6598& level=1& lbl=Beahnoth). Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. . Retrieved 2010-09-19. [25] Krause 1993, p.16 [26] Haigh 1872, pp.235236 [27] Underwood 1999, p.71 [28] Jansson 1987, p.15 [29] Wrenn 1973, p.160 [30] Alexander 2003, p.61 [31] Wilson 1992, pp.120122 [32] Wilson 1992, pp.115117 [33] Williams 2009, p.124 [34] Page 2006, p.165 [35] According to Page 1999, the eighth letter lagu may be an error for the similar-looking letter wynn , which is the eighth letter of the futhorc. [36] Page 1999 [37] Page 2006, pp.114115
Seax of Beagnoth
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Footnotes References
Alexander, Michael (2003), Beowulf: a verse translation (revised ed.), Penguin, ISBN978-0-14-044931-0 Backhouse, Janet; Turner, Derek Howard; Webster, Leslie (1984), The Golden age of Anglo-Saxon art: 966 1066, British Museum Press, ISBN978-0-7141-0532-1 DeVries, Kelly; Smith, Robert Douglas (2007), Medieval weapons: an illustrated history of their impact (http:// books.google.co.uk/books?id=jdcrsCOB-VcC), ABC-CLIO, ISBN1-85109-526-8 Elliott, Ralph Warren Victor (1980) [1959], Runes: an Introduction (http://books.google.co.uk/ books?id=SDS8AAAAIAAJ) (reprint ed.), Manchester University Press, ISBN978-0-7190-0787-3 Haigh, Daniel H. (1872), "Notes in Illustration of the Runic Monuments of Kent" (http://www.archive.org/ details/archaeologiacan15socigoog), Archologia Cantiana 8: 164270, ISSN0066-5894 Jansson, Sven Birger Fredrik (1987), Runes in Sweden (http://books.google.com/ books?id=SDZcAAAAMAAJ), Foote, Peter (trans.), Gidlunds, ISBN978-91-7844-067-2 Krause, Wolfgang (1993), Sammlung Gschen (http://books.google.de/books?id=JTrKWGMdfEsC) (reprint ed.), Walter de Gruyter & Co., ISBN311014042 Looijenga, Tineke (2003), Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions (http://books.google.com/ books?id=-edm1fMPbXwC), Brill, ISBN978-90-04-12396-0 Oakeshott, Ewart (1991), Records of the Medieval Sword (http://books.google.com/ books?id=gcGtAWbxV70C), Boydell Press, ISBN978-0-85115-566-1 Oakeshott, Ewart (2006), The Sword in the Age of Chivalry (http://books.google.com/ books?id=TYcBwoeWwp0C), Boydell Press, ISBN978-0-85115-715-3 Page, Raymond Ian (1987), Runes (http://books.google.com/books?id=tThcAAAAMAAJ), Reading the past, British Museum Press, ISBN978-0-7141-8065-6 Page, Raymond Ian (1999), "Recent Finds of Anglo-Saxon Runes (c. 1998)" (http://www.khm.uio.no/ forskning/publikasjoner/runenews/nor_1999/engl98rp.htm), Nytt om runer 14: 911, ISSN0801-3756 Page, Raymond Ian (2006) [1973], An Introduction to English Runes (http://books.google.co.uk/ books?id=SgpriZdKin0C) (2nd ed.), Boydell Press, ISBN978-0-85115-946-X Thorsson, Edred (1987), Runelore: A Handbook of Esoteric Runology (http://books.google.com/ books?id=TL_lPRMWAdMC), Weiser, ISBN978-0-87728-667-7 Underwood, Richard (1999), Anglo-Saxon Weapons and Warfare (http://books.google.com/ books?id=BO8WAQAAIAAJ), Tempus Publishing Ltd., ISBN978-0-7524-1412-6 Williams, Alan (2009), "A Metallurgical Study of Some Viking Swords" (http://gladius.revistas.csic.es/index. php/gladius/article/viewFile/218/222), Gladius XXIX: 121184, doi:10.3989/gladius.2009.218, ISSN0436-029X Wilson, David Mackenzie (1964), Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork 700 1100, in the British Museum (http://books.google.com/books?ei=kJ4_TKGKOeKX4gav6oG2Cg), British Museum Press Wilson, David Raoul (1992), Anglo-Saxon Paganism (http://books.google.com/ books?id=QKkOAAAAQAAJ), Taylor & Francis, ISBN978-0-415-01897-5 Wrenn, Charles Leslie (1973), Beowulf with the Finnesburg Fragment (3rd ed.), Harrap, ISBN978-0-245-51008-3
Seax of Beagnoth
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External links
British Museum: Seax of Beagnoth (http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/ pe_mla/s/seax_of_beagnoth.aspx)
Setre Comb
The Setre Comb is a comb which has been dated from the 650 to 700 C.E.[1] that has been the subject of an amount of Runological study due to its runic inscription. The Setre Comb, listed as N KJ40 in the Rundata catalog, was discovered in an ancient refuse heap in 1932 in Setre, which is near Brevik, Norway, and is currently in the collection of the Bergen Museum. The comb is made of bone and its inscription features a mixture of Elder Futhark and Younger Futhark characters.[2] The inscription has three rows of text, but it is unclear as to the direction it is to be read, or if all rows are to be read in the same direction.[1] The comb is the subject of an amount of scholarly discourse as most experts accept the reading of the Germanic charm word alu and Nanna, though there exists questions as to if the Nanna mentioned is the same figure as the goddess from later attestations.[2] The inscription reads: hAl mAz mA unA Alu naA| |Alu nanA[3] One suggested transcription into Old Norse goes: Hll mr ma una, llu naa, llu nenna.[3] the corresponding English translation goes "Leaning maiden may repose, attain everything, be pleased with everything."[3] However, this ignores the reading of the charm word alu. Several other translations have been proposed.[4] None of the proposed interpretations has been generally accepted to date.[1]
References and notes

[1] Barnes, Michael P. (1998). "The Transitional Inscriptions" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=KYqsisEVQHEC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_v2_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage& q& f=false). In Beck, Heinrich; Dwel, Klaus et al. Runeninschriften als Quellen Interdisziplinrer Forschung: Abhandlungen des Forschung. Walter de Gruyter. pp.448461. ISBN3-11-015455-2. . pp. 455-456. [2] Macleod, Mindy; Mees, Bernard (2006). Runic Amulets and Magic Objects (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=hx7UigqsTKoC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage& q=& f=false). Boydell Press. pp.2324. ISBN1-84383-205-4. . [3] Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk (http:/ / www. nordiska. uu. se/ forskn/ samnord. htm) - Rundata entry for N KJ40. [4] The Kieler RunenProjekt lists nine interpretations (http:/ / www. runenprojekt. uni-kiel. de/ abfragen/ standard/ deutung2_eng. asp?findno=59& ort=Setre& objekt=kam, ben) of the inscription.
External links
Photograph of comb (http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/no-rune-setrekamm.jpg)
Sigtuna box
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Sigtuna box
The Sigtuna box is a copper box from Sigtuna, Sweden, which was engraved with a runic inscription in the early 11th century. The box not only tells of trading across the Baltic Sea, it is also engraved with an Old Norse poem in drttkvtt, the lordly meter which was used when skalds praised lords and kings. The poem talks of thieves being devoured by ravens.
Discovery
The Sigtuna box. The box was discovered in August 1911, when an upholsterer was digging at the bank of lake Mlaren. The finder reported it to have been filled with a heavy substance like coarse wet coffee-grounds,[1] and which was probably made up of small pieces of metal. The substance was kept inside a cloth which quickly disintegrated as soon as he touched it. The content, which weighed about 2kg (unknown operator: u'strong'lb), was unfortunately thrown away, but the box was sent to the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities where the runic inscription was discovered.[2]
Description and use

The box measures 10cm (unknown operator: u'strong'in) across on the outside and the space inside measures 9.6cm (unknown operator: u'strong'in) to 9.8cm (unknown operator: u'strong'in). The thickness of the metal is on average 2mm (unknown operator: u'strong'in). From top to bottom, it measures 7.8cm (unknown operator: u'strong'in).[2] The box was used by a merchant to keep a small pair of scales for weighing silver and gold. More than 100 similar scales have been found in Birka, Sigtuna's predecessor as emporia, and they were a merchant's insignia,[3] and his most important equipment.[4]
Inscription
Latin transliteration: A tiarfr fik af simskum moni skalaR is[aR] i ...(o)t(i) in uirmuntr f(a)i runor isar B fuhl ualua slait (f)aluon fon kauk o nos au-a Old Norse transcription: A DiarfR fkk af semskum manni skalaR essaR i(?) ...[l]andi. En Vrmundr fai runaR essaR. B Fugl vlva slit falvan: fann gauk a nas au[k]a. English translation: A "Diarfr got from a man from Samland / Semgallen these scales in(?) ...-land. And Vermundr coloured these runes." B "The bird tore apart the pale thief: (One) found (ie observed) the increase (ie from eating) in the corpse-cuckoo (raven)."[5]
A box of the same kind with a Norse merchant's tools, at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities.
Sigtuna box
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Prose part (A)

The first part of the early 11th century inscription contains the merchant's name Diarfr and informs of how he acquired the box and its contents, but it does not give any precise information on from where he got his scales. The adjective semskR is ambiguous and the phrase af semskum manni can both mean that the man came from Sambia and from Zemgale.[3]
Poetry part (B)

The second part of the inscription contains a couplet in the skaldic metre known as drttkvtt. Here follows Jansson's transcription and translation (1987):
Drawing of the box.
Fugl velva slit falvan, fann'k gauk a nas auka.
"The bird tore the pale thief I saw the how the corpse-cuckoo swelled."
The word velva is in the accusative case and it is probably the same word as the Gothic wilwa ("robber"). Nas gaukR is a kenning for raven which literally means "corpse's cuckoo,"[6] and a comparable expression known from Old Icelandic poems is hrva gaukr ("carrion's cuckoo"). The idea that a dead thief should be food for ravens is also in agreement with poetic imagery from the Gksholm runestone and the Rk Runestone where ravens and wolves feast on the slain.[7] (For the symbolism of the raven in Viking culture, see the Raven banner.)
Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Friesen 1912, p.6 Friesen 1912, p.7 Jansson 1987, p.56 Jesch 2001, p.65 The entry U Fv1912;8 in Rundata Jansson 1987, p.133 Jansson 1987, p.134
References
Friesen, O. von (1912). Runinskrifterna p en koppardosa funnen i Sigtuna, augusti 1911, in Ekhoff, E. (ed) Fornvnnen rgng 7. (http://fornvannen.se/1910talet/fornvannen_1912.html) pp. 6-19. Jansson, S. B. F. (1987), Runes in Sweden, ISBN 91-7844-067-X Jesch, J. (2001). Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse (http://books.google.com/books?id=RkNY2KrdvscC&printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-826-9. Rundata 2.0
Sowil
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Sowil
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse Sol
Name
*Swil
Siel "Sun"
Elder Futhark
Futhorc
Younger Futhark
Shape
U+16CA
U+16CB
U+16CC
s s
[s]
16 11
*Sowil or *swel is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the s-rune, meaning "sun". The name is attested for the same rune in all three rune poems. It appears as Old Norse sl, Old English sigel, and Gothic sugil.
Name
The Germanic words for "Sun" have the peculiarity of alternating between -l- and -n- stems, Proto-Germanic *sunnon (Old English sunne, Old Norse, Old Saxon and Old High German sunna) vs. *swil or *saewel (Old Norse sl, Gothic sauil, also Old High German forms such as suhil). This continues a Proto-Indo-European alternation *suwen- vs. *sewol- (Avestan xweng vs. Latin sl, Greek helios, Sanskrit surya, Welsh haul, Breton heol, Old Irish suil "eye"), a remnant of an archaic, so-called "heteroclitic", declension pattern that remained productive only in the Anatolian languages. The Old English name of the rune, written sigel or siel (but pronounced /s jel/) is most often explained as a remnant of an otherwise extinct l-stem variant of the word for "Sun" (meaning that the spelling with g is unetymological),[1] but alternative suggestions have been put forward.[2]
Development and variants

The Elder Futhark s rune (reconstructed name *Sowilo) is attested in two variants, a shape (four strokes), more prevalent in earlier (3rd to 5th century) inscriptions (e.g. Kylver stone), and an S shape (three strokes), more prevalent in later (5th to 7th century) inscriptions (e.g. Golden horns of Gallehus, Seeland-II-C).
The evolution of the rune in the elder futhark during the centuries.
Sowil Coincidentally, the Phoenician letter in from which the Old Italic s letter ancestral to the rune was derived was itself named after the Sun, shamash, based on the Egyptian uraeus hieroglyph. The Younger Futhark Sol and the Anglo-Saxon futhorc Sigel runes are identical in shape, a rotated version of the later Elder Futhark rune, with the middle stroke slanting upwards, and the initial and final strokes vertical. Anglo-Saxon sigel (siel) is phonologically sjel /sijel/ (from *swel), the yogh being only orthographical. The Anglo-Saxon runes developed a variant shape (), called the "bookhand" s rune because it is probably inspired by the long s () in Insular script. This variant form is used in the futhorc given on the Seax of Beagnoth.
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Rune poems
Rune Poem: [3] English Translation: Sun is the light of the world; I bow to the divine decree.
Old Norwegian Sl er landa ljme; lti ek helgum dme. Old Icelandic Sl er skja skjldr ok sknandi rull ok sa aldrtregi. rota siklingr. Anglo-Saxon Sigel semannum symble bi on hihte, onne hi hine feria ofer fisces be, o hi brimhengest bringe to lande.
Sun is the shield of the clouds and shining ray and destroyer of ice.
The sun is ever a joy in the hopes of seafarers when they journey away over the fishes' bath, until the courser of the deep bears them to land.
Elder Futhark Sowilo rune, earlier ("") variant.
Elder Futhark Sowilo rune, later ("S") variant.
Anglo-Saxon Sigel / Younger Futhark Sol rune
Anglo-Saxon "bookhand s"
Sowil
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Modern usage
Armanen Runes
The Sig rune in Guido von List's Armanen Futharkh were very loosely based on the Younger Futhark Sigel, thus changing the concept associated with it from "Sun" to "victory" (German Sieg), arriving Tr" in his row, yielding Sigtr, a name of din.
Nazi usage
List's runes were later adopted and modified by Karl Maria Wiligut who was a proponent of their occult use by the NSDAP that were subsequently used widely on insignia and literature during the Third Reich most strikingly as the insignia of the Schutzstaffel (SS), responsible for the adoption of which was the graphic designer Walter Heck.[4]
Germanic neopaganism
The Sowilo rune is commonly used by Germanic Neopagans, often without political implications.
References
Oblique Sig Rune as used in Nazi occultism
[1] following Jacob Grimm, ber Diphtongen (1845) (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=KGIJAAAAQAAJ& pg=PA120& dq=sigel+ sol+ rune& hl=en& ei=utWETMq0GoSZOMTugLQO& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=6& ved=0CEMQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage& q=sigel sol rune& f=false); see also e.g. Joseph Bosworth, A dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon language (1838), s.v. "Sigel" [2] Karl Schneider, Die germanischen Runennamen (1956), p. 98; R. W. V. Elliott, Runes: An Introduction (1981), p. 56; Maureen Halsall, The Old English Rune poem: a critical edition (1981), p. 133. [3] Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page (http:/ / www. ragweedforge. com/ poems. html). [4] SS Himmler's Black Order 1923-45 pg. 146 2 C. ISBN 0-7509-1396-7
St Cuthbert's coffin
249
What is usually referred to St. Cuthbert's coffin is a fragmentary oak coffin in Durham Cathedral, pieced together in the 20th century, which between AD 698 and 1827 contained the remains of Saint Cuthbert, who died in 687. In fact when Cuthbert's remains were yet again reburied in 1827 in a new coffin, some 6,000 pieces of up to four previous layers of coffin were left in the burial, and then finally removed in 1899. This coffin is thought to be Cuthbert's first wooden coffin, and probably to date to 698, when his remains were moved from a stone sarcophagus in the abbey church at Lindisfarne to the main altar.[1] The coffin is almost the only survival of what was no doubt a very large body of Anglo-Saxon wood carving, being inscribed or engraved with linear images which have tituli in Latin lettering and Anglo-Saxon runes with names of apostles and saints; many names are illegible.[2]
Representation of the pectoral cross from the coffin, used as an emblem.
History
Few people's remains are as well-travelled as those of Cuthbert. He died on 20 March 687 in his hermit's cell on Inner Farne Island, two miles from Bamburgh, Northumberland, and was taken back to the main monastery at Lindisfarne to be buried. Eleven years later the coffin was re-opened, and according to his biographies (including prose and verse ones by Bede from about 720) his remains were found to be "incorrupt" or undecayed. This was a traditional attribute of sainthood and helped greatly in his subsequent cult. He was reburied in a new coffin, apparently over the original one, which is described in his biographies, and matches the surviving coffin closely; this is called a levis theca ("light chest" in Latin) in Bede's biography. This was placed above ground at the altar, and apparently covered with a linen cloth, an indication that Cuthbert was already regarded as a saint.[3] In 875 the monks evacuated the abbey with the coffin, in anticipation of the Great Heathen Army moving into the area. For seven years they The most recent resting place of Cuthbert's carried it with them to various places in modern Scotland and remains, in Durham Cathedral Northumbria before settling it in the still existing St Cuthbert's church in Chester-le-Street until 995, when another Danish invasion led to its removal to Ripon. It was at Chester-le-Street that King Athelstan visited it, and the textiles were placed inside.[4] Travelling once again, the cart with the coffin became stuck at Durham, which was taken as a sign that the saint wished to remain there. A new stone churchthe so-called 'White Church'was built, the predecessor of the present grand cathedral. The body was moved within the cathedral at various points; perhaps in 1041, in 1096 to escape the Harrying of the North by William the Conqueror, in 1104 when the Norman cathedral was constructed, and in 1541 when the medieval shrine which was one of the principal English pilgrimage sites was destroyed during the Reformation.[5] The coffin was opened at various times during this period: one mid-10th century monk was in the habit of often combing the hair of the saint, and was also responsible for placing the purloined bones of the Venerable Bede in the coffin.[6] In 1827 the coffin was once again removed, having been found in a walled space at the site of the shrine. By then there were up to four layers of coffin in fragmentary condition, taken to date from 1541, 1041, 698 and 687, housing
St Cuthbert's coffin a complete skeleton, and other human remains, though many of the contents had been removed earlier. The textiles were removed in 1827. The human remains were reburied in a new coffin under a plain inscribed slab, with the remains of the old coffins, which were removed in yet another opening of the burial in 1899. These totalled some 6,000, of which 169 showed signs of having been carved or engraved. The art-historian Ernst Kitzinger, then with the British Museum, made a reconstruction of the carved oak sections in 1939, which has subsequently been slightly re-arranged.[7] The reconstructed coffin and most of the contents are on now view in the Cathedral Museum; the Saint Cuthbert Gospel has been often on display in London since the 1970s, but following its purchase for the nation in 2012, will in future be also displayed for equal periods in Durham or elsewhere in the North-East.
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Engraving and contents

From the several thousand fragments collected in 1899 the art historian Ernst Kitzinger pieced together in 1939 a selection of 169 to make the fragmentary montages of the 7th century coffin now exhibited in the museum in Durham Cathedral, with engraved figures of Christ[8] surrounded by four Evangelists' symbols on the lid, on one end the earliest surviving iconic representation of the Virgin and Child outside Rome from the medieval art of the Western Church,[9] with the archangels Michael and Gabriel on the other. The sides show the Twelve Apostles and five archangels.[10] The coffin also contained the Stonyhurst or Saint Cuthbert Gospel (now British Library) and the best surviving examples of Anglo-Saxon embroidery or opus Anglicanum, a stole and maniple which were probably added in the 930s, and given by King Athelstan.[11] Other probable possessions of Cuthbert found inside are an ivory comb, a portable altar, and a pectoral cross with gold and garnet cloisonn, a rare and important early example of Christian Anglo-Saxon jewellery.[12]
Inscriptions
The runic inscription reads: ihs xps mat(t)[h](eus) The ma and possibly the eu are bind runes. The t is inverted. Then follows: marcus The ma is again a bind rune, then: LVCAS In Latin letters, followed by runic: iohann(i)s Followed by Latin: (RAPH)AEL (M)A(RIA) The names of Matthew, Mark and John are thus in runes, while that of Luke is in Latin letters. The Christogram is notably in runic writing, ihs xps , with the h double-barred in the continental style, the first attestation of that variant in England. The monogram reflects a runic variant of a partly Latinized XPS from Greek CC, with the rho rendered as runic p and the eolc rune (the old Algiz rune z) used to render chi. It is difficult to account for the mixture of scripts, or find significance in which parts are in which script, but it can be said that such mixtures are not uncommon among inscriptions of the period from northern England, including the Franks Casket and stones from Lindisfarne and Monkwearmouth.[13]
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Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Wilson, 49-50; here for number of fragments (http:/ / www. earlymedievalart. com/ category/ metalwork/ ) Wilson, 49-50; here for number of fragments (http:/ / www. earlymedievalart. com/ category/ metalwork/ ) Lexicon, 112-113; Bonner et al, xxi-xxii, and 105 Brown, 28 Lexicon, 112-113; Bonner et al, xxi-xxii Brown, 28-29 Cronyn & Horie, 247 image (http:/ / www. bbc. co. uk/ legacies/ myths_legends/ england/ wear/ img/ p1_body. jpg) As opposed to their inclusion in scenes of the Nativity or Adoration of the Magi. There is at least one Virgin and Child, with another figure, in the Catacombs of Rome. There is a group of icons in Roman churches, some of which are probably older. [10] Wilson, 49-50; here for number of fragments (http:/ / www. earlymedievalart. com/ category/ metalwork/ ) [11] Wilson, 154-155; Brown, 28; see also the articles at pp. 303-366 in Bonner et al. [12] Wilson, 49-50, Image of pectoral cross (http:/ / www. cushnieent. force9. co. uk/ WebSitePhotoGallery/ cuthbertcross. htm) [13] Page, 264-265
References
Bonner, Gerald, Rollason, David & Stancliffe, Clare, eds., St. Cuthbert, his Cult and his Community to AD 1200. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1989 ISBN 0-85115-610-X ISBN 9780851156101 Brown, T.J., et al., The Stonyhurst Gospel of Saint John, 1969, Oxford, printed for the Roxburghe Club Cronyn, J.M. and Horie, C.V., "The Anglo-Saxon Coffin: Further Investigations", in Bonner et al. "Lexicon", Page, R. I., "St Cuthbert", in Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Volume 26, 2004, Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-017734-X, 9783110177343, google books (http://books.google.co.uk/ books?id=XncmdPu_yykC&pg=PA113&dq=St+Cuthbert's+coffin&hl=en&sa=X& ei=h14dT9_HFYrsOb_QrcsI&ved=0CDoQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=St Cuthbert's coffin&f=false) Page, R. I., "Roman and Runic on St Cuthbert's Coffin", in Bonner et al. Raine, James, Saint Cuthbert: with an account of the state in which his remains were found upon the opening of his tomb in Durham cathedral, in the year MDCCCXXVII, 1828, G. Andrews, google books (http://books. google.co.uk/books?id=JjUDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA218&dq=Dissolution+Shrine+of+St+Cuthbert&hl=en& sa=X&ei=yuVQT5PFO-mx0QWv7s3YCw&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Dissolution Shrine of St Cuthbert&f=false) (treat with caution, but important primary account of the 1827 opening) Wilson, David M.; Anglo-Saxon Art: from the Seventh Century to the Norman Conquest, London: Thames and Hudson, 1984 (also: US edn. Overlook Press)
Further reading
Battiscombe, C. F. (ed.) The Relics of Saint Cuthbert: studies by various authors collected and edited with an historical introduction, 1956, Oxford University Press Cronyn, J.M., Horie, Charles Velson, St. Cuthbert's coffin: the history, technology & conservation, 1985, Dean and Chapter, Durham Cathedral, ISBN 0-907078-18-4, ISBN 978-0-907078-18-0 pdf (http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/FILES/faculties/arts/1997/j.h.looijenga/c1.pdf) J. H. Looijenga's dissertation including comments on the runes.
Sveriges runinskrifter
252
Sveriges runinskrifter (English: "Sweden's rune inscriptions", ISSN 0562-8016) is a multi-volume catalog of rune inscriptions found in various Swedish provinces. The earliest volume of this ongoing series dates to 1900, and as of 1981, 15 volumes had been published. Sveriges runinskrifter established the standard cataloging system for Swedish rune inscriptions. Each inscription is identified by a province code and a catalog number. For example: U 11 - Uppland rune inscription 11 g 179 - stergtland rune inscription 179 Today, this cataloging system is used by electronic databases such as Rundata and commonly seen in scholarly publications. This cataloging system has also been imitated and extended by scholars in other countries.
References
Sderberg, Sven; Erik Brate (1900-1906). Sveriges runinskrifter: I. lands runinskrifter. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISSN 0562-8016. Brate, Erik (1911-1918). Sveriges runinskrifter: II. stergtlands runinskrifter. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISSN 0562-8016. Brate, Erik; Elias Wessn (1924-1936). Sveriges runinskrifter: III. Sdermanlands runinskrifter. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISSN 0562-8016. Kinander, Ragnar (1935-1961). Sveriges runinskrifter: IV. Smlands runinskrifter. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISSN 0562-8016. Jungner, Hugo; Elisabeth Svrdstrm (1940-1971). Sveriges runinskrifter: V. Vstergtlands runinskrifter. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISSN 0562-8016. Wessn, Elias; Sven B.F. Jansson (1940-1943). Sveriges runinskrifter: VI. Upplands runinskrifter del 1. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISSN 0562-8016. Wessn, Elias; Sven B.F. Jansson (1943-1946). Sveriges runinskrifter: VII. Upplands runinskrifter del 2. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISSN 0562-8016. Wessn, Elias; Sven B.F. Jansson (1949-1951). Sveriges runinskrifter: VIII. Upplands runinskrifter del 3. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISSN 0562-8016. Wessn, Elias; Sven B.F. Jansson (1953-1958). Sveriges runinskrifter: IX. Upplands runinskrifter del 4. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISSN 0562-8016. (Volume X is under preparation, see (in Swedish) Upplands runinskrifter del 5, digital supplement [1].) Jansson, Sven B.F.; Elias Wessen and Elisabeth Svrdstrm (1962). Sveriges runinskrifter: XI. Gotlands runinskrifter del 1. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISSN 0562-8016. Jansson, Sven B.F.; Elias Wessen and Elisabeth Svrdstrm (1978). Sveriges runinskrifter: XII. Gotlands runinskrifter del 2. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISBN91-7402-056-0, ISSN 0562-8016. Jansson, Sven B.F. (1964). Sveriges runinskrifter: XIII. Vstmanlands runinskrifter. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISSN 0562-8016. Jansson, Sven B.F. (1975). Sveriges runinskrifter: XIV.1. Nrkes runinskrifter. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISBN91-7192-204-0, ISSN 0562-8016. Jansson, Sven B.F. (1978). Sveriges runinskrifter: XIV.2. Vrmlands runeinskrifter. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISBN91-7402-066-8, ISSN 0562-8016. Jansson, Sven B.F. (1981). Sveriges runinskrifter: XV. Gstriklands runinskrifter. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. ISBN91-7402-124-9, ISSN 0562-8016.
253
External links
List of publications at the National Heritage Board [2] Bibliography for Sveriges runinskrifter [3] at the Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities "Viking Answer Lady" rune bibliography [4]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] http:/ / www. raa. se/ cms/ extern/ kulturarv/ arkeologi_och_fornlamningar/ runstenar/ upplands_runinskrifter. html http:/ / www. raa. se/ bibliotek/ english/ xchange_list. asp http:/ / www. vitterhetsakad. se/ publikationer/ e-transf. htm#anchorRun http:/ / www. vikinganswerlady. com/ callig. shtml#RuneBibliography
Sb sword
254
Sb sword
Sb sword
The Sb sword as on display at Bergen Museum Material Size Created Discovered Iron and steel, with iron inlays on blade. 95 cm total length (78 cm blade) 800-850 1825; Sb, Vik, Sogn
Present location Bergen Museum Registration museum no. B1622 [1]
The Sb sword (also known as the Thurmuth sword) is an early 9th-century Viking sword, found in a barrow at Sb, Vik, Sogn, Norway in 1825. It is now held at the Bergen Museum in Bergen, Norway. The sword has an enigmatic inscription on its blade, which has been identified as a runic inscription incorporating a swastika symbol. If so, this sword is a very rare example of a weapon with a runic inscription on its blade.
Description
The sword itself is categorized as 'Type C' by Pedersen (1919), who notes that it is unique in showing remnants of a metal thread at the broadsides of the upper hilt,[2] compared to other specimens of the type which show horizontal ridges or protruding edges, or less commonly Drawing by George Stephens of the Sb sword inlaid forged stripes or protruding moldings that seem to be imitations and detail of inlaid decoration on the reverse of twisted or smooth thread. It is described as an imitation of a foreign [continental] sword inscription because of the lack of parallels in native tradition. There is an inscription realised in iron inlay along the center of the blade, close to the hilt.
Sb sword
255
Inscription
The sword was described in 1867 by George Stephens, an English archaeologist and philologist who specialised in the runic inscriptions of Scandinavia, in his book Handbook of the Old-Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England. In this work he showed a drawing of the sword with a very clear inscription comprising five runes or rune-like letters with a swastika symbol in the middle. According to Stephens the inscription reads ohmu from right to left. He interpreted the swastika as being used in rebus-writing to represent the syllable ur for the god Thor, and thus expanded the reading to oh urmu meaning "Owns [me], Thurmuth".[3] This reading was inspired by the idea that the swastika was used as a symbol of Thor (more precisely, of Thor's hammer) in Viking Age Norse paganism. It was the subject of scholarly discussion at the International Congress of Anthropology and Prehistoric Archology at Budapest in 1876, where the prevalent opinion was that the swastika stood for "blessing" or "good luck".[4] In 1889, in a review of a book by A. L. Lorange, Stephens noted that the sword had been treated with acid whilst at the Danish Museum, with the result that the sword and its inscription were severely damaged, and consequently the inscription shown in a colour plate in Lorange's book was undecipherable.[5]
drawing of the inscription as published by Stephens.
Remnants of the inscription as on display at Bergen Museum
Footnotes
[1] http:/ / www. unimus. no/ arkeologi/ forskning/ web_arkeologi_vistekst. php?museum=BM& id=36202& museumsnr=B1622
Drawing from table IV in the book "Den yngre jernalders svrd" by Anders Lorange, 1889.
[2] Petersen, Jan (1919). "Den ldste vikingtid, Type C. [The Earliest Viking Age, Type C. (trans 1999. Noer, Kristin)]" (http:/ / www. vikingsword. com/ petersen/ ptsn066c. html). De Norske Vikingesverd [The Norwegian Viking Swords]. pp.6670. . [3] Stephens 18661867, p.407 [4] Wilson 1896, p.93 [5] Stephens 1889, p.407
References
Stephens, George (10 August 1889). "Review of Den Yngre Jernalders Svaerd by A. L. Lorange". The Academy and Literature 36 (901): 9193. Stephens, George (18661867). Handbook of the Old-Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England. Part 3. London. Stephens, George (1884). Handbook of the Old-Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England (condenced version) (http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026355499). Wilson, Thomas (1896). "Swastika" (http://books.google.com/books?id=2rQTAAAAYAAJ& printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false). Report upon the condition and progress of the U.S. National Museum during the year ending June 30, 1894. Washington DC: Government Printing Office. Lorange, Anders (1889). Den yngre jernalders svrd. Bergen: John Griegs bogtrykkeri. Petersen, Jan (1919). De norske vikingesverd [The Norwegian Viking Swords] (http://www.vikingsword.com/ petersen/). Kristiania.
Thurisaz
256
Thurisaz
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse urs "giant" Younger Futhark
Name
*urisaz "giant" Elder Futhark
orn "thorn" Futhorc
Shape
U+16A6
[]
3
[], []
The rune is called Thurs (Old Norseurs "giant", from a reconstructed Common Germanic*urisaz) in the Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems. In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem it is called thorn, whence the name of the letter derived from it. It is transliterated as , and has the sound value of a voiceless dental fricative (the English th sound). The rune is an adoption of the Latin letter D (while the d rune takes its shape from an Italic variant of the letter san). It is absent from the earliest Vimose inscriptions, but it is found in the Thorsberg chape inscription, dated to ca. AD 200.
Name
urs is a name for the giants in Norse mythology. Tursas is also an ill-defined being in Finnish mythology - Finland was known as the land of the giants (Jotland) in Scandinavian/north Germanic mythology.[1] In Anglo-Saxon England, the same rune was called Thorn or "orn" and it survives as the Icelandic letter (). An attempt has been made to account for the substitution of names by taking "thorn" to be a kenning (metaphor) for "giant".[2] It is disputed as to whether a distinct system of Gothic runes ever existed, but it is clear that most of the names (but not most of the shapes) of the letters of the Gothic alphabet correspond to those of the Elder Futhark. The name of , the Gothic letter corresponding to is an exception; it is recorded as iu "(the) good" in the Codex Vindobonensis 795, and as such unrelated to either urs or orn. The lack of agreement between the various glyphs and their names in Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and Old Norse makes it difficult to reconstruct the Elder Futhark rune's Proto-Germanic name. Assuming that the Scandinavian name urs is the most plausible reflex of the Elder Futhark name, a Common Germanic form *urisaz can be reconstructed (c.f. Old English yrs "giant, ogre" and Old High German duris-es "(of the) giant").
Thurisaz
257
Rune poems
The Germanic rune is mentioned in three rune poems:
Rune Poem: [3] English Translation: Thurs ("Giant") causes anguish to women, misfortune makes few men cheerful.
Old Norwegian urs vldr kvinna kvillu, ktr vrr fr af illu. Old Icelandic urs er kvenna kvl ok kletta bi ok varrnar verr. Saturnus engill. Anglo-Saxon orn by earle scearp; egna gehwylcum anfeng ys yfyl, ungemetum ree manna gehwelcum, e him mid reste.
Thurs ("Giant") is torture of women and cliff-dweller and husband of a giantess Saturn's thegn.
The thorn is exceedingly sharp, an evil thing for any knight to touch, uncommonly severe on all who sit among them.
References
[1] Fornjot and the Settlement of Norway (http:/ / www. northvegr. org/ lore/ prose2/ 036. php) [2] Old English Rune Poem (http:/ / www. northvegr. org/ lore/ runes/ 005. php) [3] Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page (http:/ / www. ragweedforge. com/ poems. html).
Tiwaz rune
258
Tiwaz rune
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse Tr Younger Futhark
Name
*Twaz Elder Futhark
Tir(?) Futhorc
Shape
U+16CF
U+16D0
t [t]
17
t, d [t], [d]
12
The t-rune is named after Tr, and was identified with this god. The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is *Twaz or *Teiwaz.
Rune poems
Tiwaz is mentioned in all three rune poems. In the Icelandic and Norwegian poems, the rune is associated with the god Tyr.
stanza Old Norwegian Tyr es einhendr Asa; opt verr smir at blasa. Old Icelandic Tr er einhendr ss ok ulfs leifar ok hofa hilmir. Mars tiggi. Old English [tir] bi tacna sum, healde trywa wel wi elingas; a bi on frylde ofer nihta genipu, nfre swice. translation Tyr is the one-handed god; often happens the smith must blow. comments
Tyr is a one-handed god, and leavings of the wolf and prince of temples.
the "Mars tiggi" is a gloss and not part of the poem itself, indicating that Tr was associated with the Roman deity and/or the planet Mars.
[Fame] is a sign, it The tir "fame, honour" is a gloss written alongside the rune. Several interpretations have been offered, keeps faith well typically involving association with the north star, as the words tacna and fryld have astronomical with athelings, it is connotations (used for "sign of the zodiac" and "path of a planet", respectively). always on its course over the mists of night, it never fails.
Tiwaz rune
259
Usage
Multiple Tiwaz runes
Multiple Tiwaz runes either stacked atop one another to resemble a tree-like shape, or repeated after one another, appear several times in Germanic paganism:
The inscription on the Kylver stone ends with stacked Tiwaz runes at the end of the line.
The charm (alu) on the Lindholm amulet, dated from the 2nd to the 4th century contains three consecutive t runes, has been interpreted as an invocation of Tyr.[1] The Kylver Stone (400 AD, Gotland) features 8 stacked Tiwaz runes at the end of an Elder Futhark inscription. From 500 AD, a Scandinavian C-bracteate (Seeland-II-C) features an Elder Futhark inscription ending with three stacked Tiwaz runes. Poetic Edda According to the runologist Lars Magnar Enoksen, the Tiwaz rune is referred to in a stanza in Sigrdrfuml, a poem in the Poetic Edda.[2] Sigrdrfuml tells that Sigurd has slain the dragon Fafnir and arrives at a fortress of shields on top of a mountain which is lit by great fires.[3] In the fortress, he finds an enchanted sleeping Valkyrie whom he wakes by cutting open her corslet with his sword. The grateful Valkyrie Sigrdrfa offers him the secrets of the runes in return for delivering her from the sleep, on condition that he shows that he has no fear.[2] The Valkyrie begins by teaching him that if he wants to achieve victory in battle, he is to carve "victory runes" on his sword and twice say the name "Tr" - the name of the Tiwaz rune.[2]
6. Sigrnar skaltu kunna, ef vilt sigr hafa, ok rsta hjalti hjrs, sumar vttrimum, sumar valbstum, [4] ok nefna tysvar T.
Sigrdrfa, Sigurd's teacher of runic lore, on the Drvle Runestone.
6. Winning-runes learn, if thou longest to win, And the runes on thy sword-hilt write; Some on the furrow, and some on the flat, And twice shalt thou call on Tyr. [5]
Tiwaz rune
260
Modern usage
Germanic neopaganism The Tyr rune is commonly used by Germanic neopagans, often without political implications, but to symbolize veneration of the god Tyr. Guido von List The Tyr rune in Guido von List's Armanen Futharkh was based on the version found in the Younger Futhark. List's runes were later adopted and modified by Karl Maria Wiligut who was responsible for their adoptions by the NSDAP and subsequently used widely on insignia and literature during the Third Reich. It was the badge of the Sturmabteilung training schools, the Reichsfhrerschulen in Nazi Germany. Neo-Nazism In Neo-Nazism it has appeared, together with the Sowilo rune, in the emblem of the Kassel-based think tank Thule Seminar. It has also appeared as the former logo of the fashion label Thor Steinar which was banned in Germany for resembling "fascist symbols". (It might also be noted that both these uses were technically incorrect, since both Thor and Thule would be spelled with a thurisaz, , rune.)
Notes
[1] Spurkland, Terje (2005). Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=1QDKqY-NWvUC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage& q=& f=false). Boydell Press. pp.12. ISBN1-84383-186-4. . [2] Enoksen, Lars Magnar. Runor: Historia, tydning, tolkning (Page 27)(1998) ISBN 91-88930-32-7 [3] Enoksen, Lars Magnar. Runor: Historia, tydning, tolkning (Page 26)(1998) ISBN 91-88930-32-7 [4] Sigrdrfuml (http:/ / www. heimskringla. no/ original/ edda/ sigrdrifumal. php) Guni Jnsson's edition with normalized spelling. [5] Sigrdrifumol (http:/ / www. sacred-texts. com/ neu/ poe/ poe25. htm) in translation by Henry Adams Bellows.
References
Enoksen, Lars Magnar. (1998). Runor : historia, tydning, tolkning. Historiska Media, Falun. ISBN 91-88930-32-7
Torpo stave church
261
Torpo stave church

Torpo stave church (Norwegian: Torpo stavkyrkje) is a stave church located in Torpo, a small village in l municipality, in Buskerud County, Norway. Torpo is located along Rv 7, the Norwegian national road which runs between Oslo and Bergen.[1]
History
Built in 1192, the Torpo stave church is the oldest building within the valley and traditional district of Hallingdal. The church was dedicated to Saint Margareta. The stave church was purchased by the municipality in 1875. It was initially planned to expand it with an annex to the east, but in 1879 it was decided instead to modernize the interior with new ceiling and gallery. Following protest from the Ancient Monuments Society (Fortidsminneforeningen), the municipality decided to build a new church (Torpo Kirke) on the adjacent property. The new church was built north of the old one with the two churches standing side by side. [2][3]
Torpo Stave church

The Torpo stave church is one of two stave churches that are signed by the their craftsmen, the other being the church at l. In both churches a runic inscription reads: Torolf built this church.[4] The full runic inscription in the Torpo stave church, which is listed as N 110 in the Rundata catalog, reads: A orolfr : gri : kirku esa : askrimr hakon likr pal inrii sinti orolfr B orer rist C olafr[5] This translates as "rolfr made this church. sgrmr, Hkon, Erlingr, Pll, Eindrii, Sjaundi, rulfr. rir carved. lafr."[5]
Torpo Church and Torpo Stave church
Torpo Stave church Main portal
Torpo Stave church South portal
Torpo Stave church Interior
Torpo Stave church Interior
Torpo stave church
262
Torpo Stave church Interior detail
Torpo Stave church Exterior
Torpo Stave church Exterior
Torpo Church and Torpo Stave church (1880 - 1890)
References
[1] Torpo stavkirke (Olavsrosa) (http:/ / www. olavsrosa. no/ objektinfo. aspx?id=27023) [2] Torpo Kirke (Norsk Institutt for kulturminneforskning) (http:/ / niku. pdc. no/ index. php?seks_id=49790& m=7) [3] Middelaldermaleriet i Torpo stavkirke (University of Oslo, 2007) (http:/ / www. duo. uio. no/ publ/ IFIKK/ 2007/ 57728/ Hovedoppgavexferdigstiltxsammenslxtt. pdf) [4] l kommune: Torpo stavkirke / Torpo Stabkirche og Torpo kyrkje (Bilder av stavkirken) (http:/ / www. reuber-norwegen. de/ Buskerud/ BilderTab_BuskerudAlTorpo. html) [5] Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk (http:/ / www. nordiska. uu. se/ forskn/ samnord. htm) - Rundata entry for N 110.
Other sources
Bugge Gunnar. Stavkirker, Stave Churches in Norway (Dreyers Forlag. Oslo: 1983) ISBN 82-504-2072-1 Christie, Sigrid and Haakon. Norges kirker Buskerud ((Norske Mindesmerker. Oslo: 1981) ISBN 82-05-13123-6 Dietrichson, Lorentz. Norske Stavkirker: Studier Over Deres System, Oprindelse Og Historiske Udvikling (http:// books.google.co.uk/books?id=7YS0AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false) (Kristiania: 1892) New edition: (Gregg Publishing; September 1971) ISBN 0-576-19100-0
External links
Torpo stave church in Stavkirke.org (http://www.stavkirke.org/stavkirker/torpo.html) Torpo stave church photo gallery (http://visanor.com/galleri/index/module/search/pId/104/keyword/Torpo/phrase/)
Undley bracteate
263
Undley bracteate
Undley bracteate
Material Size Writing Created Period/culture Discovered gold 2.3cm (unknown operator: u'strong'in) diameter Runic, Old English 5th century Early Anglo-Saxon Undley Common, near Lakenheath, Suffolk
Present location Room 41, British Museum, London Registration 1984,1101.1 [1]
The Undley bracteate is a 5th century bracteate found in Undley Common, near Lakenheath, Suffolk. It bears the earliest known inscription that can be argued to be in Anglo-Frisian Futhorc (as opposed to Common Germanic Elder Futhark). The image on the bracteate is an adaptation of an Urbs Roma coin type issued by Constantine the Great, conflating the helmeted head of the emperor and the image of Romulus and Remus suckled by the wolf on one face. With a diameter of 2.3cm, it weighs 2.24grams. It may have originated in northern Germany or southern Scandinavia, and been brought to England with an early Anglo-Saxon settler. The inscription reads right to left around the circumference of the obverse side, terminating at the image of the wolf: ggog mg medu The o is the earliest known instance of the os rune contrasting with the sc rune . The three syllables of the initial word ggog are written as bind runes, with side-twigs attached to the X shape of the gyfu rune to represent the vowels and o. The words mg medu are interpreted as meaning "meed for the kinsmen", i.e. "reward for relatives", referring to the bracteate itself. The word ggog appears to be some magical invocation or battle cry, comparable to the gagaga on the Kragehul I lance-shaft.
References
J. Hines and B. Odemstedt, The Undley bracteate and its runic inscription, Studien zur Sachsenforschungen, 6 (1987), pp.7394. J. Hines, The Scandinavian character of Anglian England in the pre-Viking period, BAR British Series 124 (Oxford, 1984), pp.2049. S. E. West, Gold bracteate from Undley, Suffolk, Frhmittelalterliche Studien, 17 (1983), p.459. M. Axboe, The Scandinavian gold bracteates, Acta Archaeologica, 52 (1982), p.75.
Undley bracteate
264
External links
Gold bracteate at the British Museum [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. britishmuseum. org/ research/ search_the_collection_database/ search_object_details. aspx?objectid=94643& partid=1 [2] http:/ / www. thebritishmuseum. ac. uk/ explore/ highlights/ highlight_objects/ pe_mla/ g/ gold_bracteate-1. aspx
Ur (rune)
265
Ur (rune)
Proto-Germanic Old English Ur; Yr "aurochs"; ? Futhorc Old Norse r "dross"/"rain" Younger Futhark
Name
*ruz/ram "aurochs" / "water" Elder Futhark
Shape
Unicode
U+16A2
U+16A2 U+16A3
U+16A2
Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row
u u
[u()]
2
u; y u; y
[u()], [y()]
2; 27
u u, y, o, v / w
[u()], [y()], [()], [w]
2
The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark u rune is *ruz meaning "wild ox"[1] or *ram "water". It may have been derived from the Raetic alphabet character u as it is similar in both shape and sound value. The name of the corresponding letter in the Gothic alphabet is urus.
Name
The Icelandic word for "rain" and the Old English for "aurochs" go back to two different Proto-Germanic words, *ruz and *ram (although possibly from the same root). The Norwegian meaning "dross, slag" is more obscure, but may be an Iron Age technical term derived from the word for water (cf. the Kalevala, where iron is compared to milk). Because of this, it is difficult to reconstruct a Proto-Germanic name for the Elder Futhark rune. It may have been *ruz "aurochs" (see also Bull worship), or *ram "water". The aurochs is preferred by authors of modern runic divination systems, but both seem possible, compared to the names of the other runes: "water" would be comparable to "hail" and "lake", and "aurochs" to "horse" or "elk" (although the latter name is itself uncertain). The Gothic alphabet seems to support "aurochs", though: as the name of the letter u is urus.
Rune poems
It is recorded in all three rune poems, and it is called Ur in all, however with different meanings:
Ur (rune)
266
Rune Poem:
[2]
English Translation: Dross comes from bad iron; the reindeer often races over the frozen snow.
Old Norwegian r er af illu jarne; opt lypr rinn hjarne. Old Icelandic r er skja grtr ok skra verrir ok hiris hatr. umbre vsi
Rain is lamentation of the clouds and ruin of the hay-harvest and abomination of the shepherd.
Old English The aurochs is proud and has great horns; Ur by anmod ond oferhyrned, it is a very savage beast and fights with its horns; felafrecne deor, feohte mid a great ranger of the moors, it is a creature of mettle. hornum mre morstapa; t is modig wuht.
References
[1] Page, R.I. (2005). Runes, page 15. The British Museum Press ISBN 0-7141-8065-3 [2] Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page (http:/ / www. ragweedforge. com/ poems. html).
Vang stave church

Vang stave church (Polish: witynia Wang; Norwegian: Vang stavkyrkje; German: Stabkirche Wang) is a stave church which was bought by the Prussian King and transferred from Vang in Norway and re-erected in 1842 in Brckenberg near Krummhbel in Germany, now Karpacz in the Karkonosze mountains of Poland. The church is a four-post single-nave stave church originally built around 1200 in the parish of Vang in the Valdres region of Norway.
Wang church in Karpacz
Vang stave church
267
History
In 1832, the local council decided to pull down the stave church because it was too small and had become structurally unsafe over the years. The plans for its demolition and replacement were known already in 1826, when the painter Johan Christian Dahl made the first attempt to save it. He urged the council to repair and extend it.
Drawing of the stave church from 1841 by F.W. Schiertz
There was also an attempt to have it re-erected at Heenssen in the same parish as an annex church. Knut Nordsveen, a local farmer, offered to donate the building site to the community, but his offer was rejected. Disappointed by the rebuff, he later sold his farm and emigrated to America. In 1932, a monument was erected in memory of him.
Relocation
While traveling in Norway in 1839, J. C. Dahl again visited Vang. He found the stave church still standing, beside a newly built larger log-built church seating 230 parishioners. Demolition of the old one was imminent. Dahl was more than ever convinced that the stave church must be preserved as a Original location of Vang stave church cultural monument. He proposed without success to have it re-erected as a Royal Chapel in Christiania, or as a museum church adjacent to the medieval Haakon's Hall in Bergen. Count Herman Wedel Jarlsberg announced his willingness to place it in his park at Bogstad manor near Christiania, but he died before the plan could be carried out. Dahl saw no other way than to buy the church himself. He asked the vicar of Vang to bid on his behalf at the public auction held in January 1841. Dahl won the bid at 86 speciedaler, 1 ort and 7 skilling, on the condition that the site was cleared by the end of the year. Accused of being a speculant, Dahl defended himself by stating that his only intention was to rescue the church, and that he had no intention of making money from the deal. The solution came from Crown Prince, later King Frederick William IV of Prussia, whom Dahl knew personally. After the exchange of several letters, he persuaded the prince to take over responsibility for the Vang stave church and cover the costs of re-erecting it in Potsdam. The task of surveying the church, marking the materials, supervising the dismantling and preparing for the transportation was entrusted to the young German architect Franz Wilhelm Schiertz, who had helped Dahl to make the plates for his book on the stave churches, and who was probably also known to the Crown Prince. Schiertz did pioneering work in documentation and planning for an enterprise without precedent. His drawings and inventories are now priceless sources of knowledge about the original appearance of the stave church. All pieces were marked and packed for transportation during the summer. In September they were delivered at the harbour of Lrdalsyri at the head of the Sognefjord, where they were loaded on board the Haabet, bound for Stettin. Upon arrival in Stettin after two months at sea, the materials were transferred onto a barge for the last leg of the journey to Berlin, where they were stored during the winter in the courtyard of the Altes Museum. The original plan had been to re-erect the church on the Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island) near Potsdam. But in the meantime, this plan was discarded in favour of a site at the remote village of Brckenberg near Krummhbel in the Riesengebirge (Giant Mountains), now the Karkonosze mountains, in the province of Silesia. The idea probably came from countess Friederike von Reden of Buchwald, now Bukowiec, whose memorial stands beside the church. Count Christian Leopold von Schaffgotsch of Warmbrunn, now Cieplice, donated the site. In the spring of 1842 the materials were again taken by river barge up the Oder to the foothills, and from there by wagon to the mountain village of Krummhbel. The new site for the church lays 885 metres (unknown operator: u'strong'ft) above sea level in Brckenberg, about half way between Krummhbel and the peak of the Mount
Vang stave church Schneekoppe.
268
Re-erection
The foundation stone was laid on August 2, 1842 in the presence of King Friedrich Wilhelm himself. It was a demanding task for carpenters who had never seen the church, nor any stave church, to rebuild it correctly. In spite of excellent drawings, most of the materials were discarded. Only the main construction, consisting of sills, posts and wall plates, were made use of, in addition to the carved doorframes. All of the external gallery was built with new materials, and every wall plank was replaced. The long lost apse was reconstructed, albeit with a very strange baroque roof. The gallery and the flche were reconstructed, but several new windows without historical precedent were put in. The doorways were turned inside out, with the carvings facing inward. The decorated ceiling above the choir was not restored, probably because it seemed too Catholic in a Protestant church. All the original roof trusses were renewed. The work took two years and the total cost amounted to more than 75 000 marks. On the King's birthday, October 15, 1843, the flche with the date 1200 was raised. On July 27, 1844 Prince Frederick of the Netherlands together with huge crowds witnessed the consecration of "Die Bergkirche unseres Erlsers zu Wang" (The mountain church of Our Savior of Vang). The former owner J. C. Dahl was not present, but he was happy to know that his project had been realised. He was spared the burden of preserving only certain decorated elements, and pleased that "a fair likeness" had been rebuilt. Now serving a Polish community, Wang church has become a major tourist attraction and is probably the world's most visited stave church with about 200 000 visitors each year.
Original building
The layout with four internal posts or staves is common to several stave churches in the Valdres region. But in the stave churches of Hre and Lomen they are incorporated into a construction with a raised roof above the central part of the nave, whereas the churches of Vang and ye have ordinary saddle roofs, with no structural connection between the roof and the interior posts. According to tradition, the church had been relocated once before at an earlier date, confirming the opinion of many scholars that it was much altered before leaving Vang. The Norwegian architect Arne Berg has after thorough examination of the rebuilt church concluded that the remaining original materials belonged to a stave church of the Sogn type with a raised roof above the central part of the nave. Dating evidence is, however, scant. He estimates it to have been built around 1200 confirming the rather dubious date inscribed in 1843. It may have been rebuilt already in the medieval period, but perhaps as late as 1600.
There is a runic inscription listed in Rundata as N 83 located on the doorway of the church, of which the expert Magnus Olsen has proposed the translation: " Eindridi the dexterous carved (the doorway), the son of Olav of Lo" (Old Norse: Eindrii skar, mjfingr, sonr lafs L).[1] If this is the correct interpretation, the inscription identifies the artist. His name was Eindridi, his nickname was "dexterous" or "handy", and his father was Olav of Lo. In 1937, the inscription was reported as badly damaged and hardly readable. The interpretations of the inscriptions are based on copies made before the church was moved.
Vang stave church
269
Literature
Berg, Arne, Stavkyrkja fr Vang og hennar lange ferd, Foreningen til norske Fortidsminnesmerkers bevaring, rbok 1980, vol. 134, p.105-140
Footnotes
[1] Magnus Olsen, Norske innskrifter med de yngre runer, frste bind [Norwegian inscriptions with the younger runes, vol. 1] (Oslo, 1941), p. 231
External links
Vang stave church in Poland (http://www.wang.com.pl/) in English, Polish, German
Westeremden yew-stick
The Westeremden yew-stick is a yew-wood stick found in Westeremden B in the Groningen province of the Netherlands in 1917 that bears an Old Frisian Futhorc inscription.
:
:
Runes with unfamiliar shapes or uncertain values are: , a Spiegelrune of , similar to a variant of stan, transliterated as B below , a Spiegelrune of , similar to a variant of stan, transliterated as P below , like Younger Futhark kaun, transliterated as K below (like Anglo-Saxon cen, occurring three times); it apparently represents a vowel, likely , replacing absent sc (like Younger Futhark ar), transliterated as A below , a "bookhand-s", transliterated as S below , like a short-twig n, probably for n
with these decisions, the transliteration may be: ophmujiBAdamlu: wimBhuSA iwioKuPdunale: Seebold (1990) reads (transliterating g for j, v for B, for A, for ): ophmu givda amlu:iwi ok upduna (a)le wimv h us Looijenga (1997) reads: op hmu jibada mlu : iwi ok up duna (a)le wimd h usa Interpreted as something like "luck (amlu) stays (gibada) at home (op hmu); and (ok) at the yew (iwi) may it grow (ale) on the hill (up duna); Wimd has (h) this (usa)." or "at the homestead stays good fortune, may it also grow near the yew on the terp; Wimd owns this." For paleographical reasons (the bookhand-s and Younger Futhark influence), Looijenga dates the stick to after AD 750.
Westeremden yew-stick
270
References
J. H. Looijenga, Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150700 [1], dissertation, Groningen University (1997), 183185.
References
[1] http:/ / dissertations. ub. rug. nl/ faculties/ arts/ 1997/ j. h. looijenga/
Wynn
271
Wynn
Name
*Wunj "joy" Elder Futhark
Wynn
Futhorc
Shape
U+16B9
w w
[w]
8
Wynn () (also spelled wen, ynn, or en) is a letter of the Old English alphabet, where it is used to represent the sound /w/. While the earliest Old English texts represent this phoneme with the digraph <uu>, scribes soon borrowed the rune wynn () for this purpose. It remained a standard letter throughout the Anglo-Saxon era, eventually falling out of use (perhaps under the influence of French orthography) during the Middle English period, circa 1300.[1] It was replaced with <uu> once again, from which the modern <w> developed. The denotation of the rune is "joy, bliss" known from the Anglo-Saxon rune poem: enne bruce, e can eana lyt sares and sorge and him sylfa hf bld and blysse and eac byrga geniht. Bliss he enjoys who knows not pain, sorrow nor anxiety, and himself has prosperity and bliss and a good enough house. It is not continued in the Younger Futhark, but in the Gothic alphabet, the letter Proto-Germanic reconstruction of the rune's name as *wunj "joy".
w is called winja, allowing a
It is one of the two runes (along with ) to have been borrowed into the English alphabet (or any extension of the Latin alphabet). A modified version of the letter ynn called Vend was used briefly in Old Norse for the sounds /u/, /v/, and /w/. As with , ynn was revived in modern times for the printing of Old English texts, but since the early 20th century the usual practice has been to substitute the modern <w> instead due to ynn's visual resemblance to P.
Wynn
272
Wynn in Unicode and HTML Entities

"Unicode character search" [2]. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
References
[1] Freeborn, Dennis (1992). From Old English to Standard English. London: MacMillan. p.25. [2] http:/ / www. fileformat. info/ info/ unicode/ char/
Capital wynn (left), lowercase wynn (right)
Yngvi
Yngvi, Yngvin, Ingwine, Inguin are names that relate to an older theonym Ing and which appears to have been the older name for the god Freyr (originally an epithet, meaning "lord"). Proto-Germanic *Ingwaz was one of the three sons of Mannus and the legendary ancestor of the Ingaevones and is also the reconstructed name of the Elder Futhark rune. A torc, the "Ring of Pietroassa", part of a late third- to fourth-century Gothic hoard discovered in Romania, is inscribed in much-damaged runes, one reading of which is gutan [i(ng)]wi[n] hailag ", "to Ingwi of the Goths. Holy".[1]
"Yngve Frey bygger Gamla Upsala tempel" (1830) by Hugo Hamilton. Yngvi-Freyr builds the Uppsala temple.
Etymology
Further information: Fraujaz The Old Norse name Yngvi is a hypocoristic form of an older and rarer Yngvin (OHG: Inguin, OE: Ingwine), which is derived from the theonym Ing- and means "worshiper or friend of Ing".[2] The theonym would originally have been Proto-Germanic *Inguz,[3] and it appears in Old Norse Ingvifreyr and Ingunarfreyr, as well as in OE fra inguina, and which mean "Lord of the Inguins", i.e. the god Freyr. The name appears also in Ingvaeones which was a grouping of related tribes occupying the original Germanic homeland, and distinct from the migrant tribes that spread out of the homeland from the beginning of the Celtic Iron Age onward. Other names that retain the theonym are Inguiomerus/Ingemar and Yngling, the name of an old Scandinavian dynasty.[2]
Yngvi
273
The Ingwaz rune

Name
*Ingwaz Elder Futhark
Ing Futhorc
Shape
Unicode Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row The rune (with variants and
U+16DC U+16DD
[]
22
) together with Peor and Eihwaz is among the problematic cases of runes of
uncertain derivation unattested in early inscriptions. The rune first appears independently on the futhark row of the Kylver stone, and is altogether unattested as an independent rune outside of such rows. There are a number of attestations of the i bindrune or (the "lantern rune", similar in shape to the Anglo-Saxon Gr rune ), but its identification is disputed in most cases, since the same sign may also be a mirror rune of Wynn or Thurisaz. The earliest case of such an i bindrune of reasonable certain reading is the inscription maris (perhaps referring to the "Mrings" or Ostrogoths) on the silver buckle of Szabadbattyn, dated to the first half 5th century and conserved at the Magyar Nemzeti Mzeum in Budapest[4]. The Old English Runic Poem contains these obscure lines: Ing ws rest mid Estdenum gesewen secgum, o he san est ofer wg gewt. wn fter ran. us Heardingas one hle nemdon. " Ing was first amidst the East Danes so seen, until he went eastward over the sea. His wagon ran after. Thus the Heardings named that hero."
Yngvi
274
Norse Yngvi
In Scandinavian mythology, Yngvi, alternatively Yngve, was the progenitor of the Yngling lineage, a legendary dynasty of Swedish kings from whom the earliest historical Norwegian kings in turn claimed to be descended, see also Freyr. Information on Yngvi varies in different traditions as follows: Yngvi is a name of the god Freyr, perhaps intended as Freyr's true name while Frey 'Lord' is his common title. In the Ynglinga saga and in Gesta Danorum, Frey is euhemerized as a king of Sweden. In the Ynglinga saga, Yngvi-Frey reigned in succession to his father Njrd who in turn succeeded Odin. Yngvi-Frey's descendants were the Ynglings. In the slendingabk Yngvi Tyrkja konungr 'Yngvi king of Turkey' appears as father of Njrd who in turn is the father of Yngvi-Freyr, the ancestor of the Ynglings. In the Skjldunga saga Odin came from Asia and conquered Northern Europe. He gave Sweden to his son Yngvi and Denmark to his son Skjldr. Since then the kings of Sweden were called Ynglings and those of Denmark Skjldungs (Scyldings). In Historia Norwegi, Ingui is the first king of Sweden, and the father of Njord, the father of Freyr: Rex itaque Ingui, quem primum Swethi monarchiam rexisse plurimi astruunt, genuit Neorth, qui vero genuit Froy; hos ambos tota illorum posteritas per longa scula ut deos venerati sunt. Froyr vero genuit Fiolni, qui in dolio medonis dimersus est,[...]. In the introduction to Snorri Sturluson's Edda Snorri claims again that Odin reigned in Sweden and relates: "Odin had with him one of his sons called Yngvi, who was king in Sweden after him; and those houses come from him that are named Ynglings." Snorri here does not identify Yngvi and Frey though Frey occasionally appears elsewhere as a son of Odin instead of a son of Njrd. See Sons of Odin. In the Skldskaparml section of Snorri Sturluson's Edda Snorri brings in the ancient king Halfdan the Old who is the father of nine sons whose names are all words meaning 'king' or 'lord' in Old Norse and nine other sons who are the forefathers of various royal lineages, including "Yngvi, from whom the Ynglings are descended". But rather oddly Snorri immediately follows this with information on what should be four other personages who were not sons of Halfdan but who also fathered dynasties and names the first of these as "Yngvi, from whom the Ynglings are descended". In the related account in the ttartolur ('Genealogies') attached to Hversu Noregr byggdist, the name Skelfir appears instead of Yngvi in the list of Halfdan's sons. For more details see Scylfing (The Yngling Saga section of Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla also introduces a second Yngvi son of Alrek who is a descendant of Yngvi-Frey and who shared the Swedish kingship with his brother lf. See Yngvi and Alf.)
References
[1] See Ring of Pietroassa; see also R. North, Heathen Gods in Old English Literature (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=X_LKUIqNvPQC& pg=PP1& dq=Heathen+ Gods+ in+ Old+ English+ Literature& lr=& ei=g2DTSqn6CIiWMPrOkIsO#v=onepage& q=& f=false) 1997:140-49, noted by John Grigsby, Beowulf and Grendel, 2005: 132 and note 16. [2] Hellquist, E. (1922). Svensk etymologisk ordbok p. 1184ff (http:/ / runeberg. org/ svetym/ 1272. html) [3] Hellquist, E. (1922). Svensk etymologisk ordbok p. 272 (http:/ / runeberg. org/ svetym/ 0360. html) [4] J.H. Looijenga, Runes Around The North Sea And On The Continent Ad 150-700 (http:/ / dissertations. ub. rug. nl/ FILES/ faculties/ arts/ 1997/ j. h. looijenga/ thesis. pdf), PhD dissertation, Groningen, 1997; page 80.
Younger Futhark
275
Younger Futhark
Younger Futhark
Type Languages Time period Parent systems alphabet Old Norse 8th to 12th centuries Phoenician alphabet Greek alphabet Old Italic alphabet Elder Futhark Child systems Sister systems Younger Futhark
Medieval runes Anglo-Saxon runes
The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet, a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters, in use from ca. 800 AD. The reduction, paradoxically, happened at the same time as phonetic changes led to a greater number of different phonemes in the spoken language, when Proto-Norse evolved into Old Norse. Thus, the language included distinct sounds and minimal pairs which were not separate in writing. Also, since the writing custom avoided having the same rune twice in consecutive order, the spoken distinction between long and short vowels were not retained in writing, either. The only real reason for using the same rune consecutively, would be when it represented different sounds following each other, such as carving kunuur for the name Gunvor.
History
Usage of the Younger Futhark is found in Scandinavia and Viking Age settlements abroad, probably in use from the 9th century onward. While the Migration Period Elder Futhark had been an actual "secret" known only to a literate elite, with only some 350 surviving inscriptions, literacy in the Younger Futhark became widespread in Scandinavia, as witnessed by the great number of Runestones (some 6,000), sometimes inscribed with almost casual notes. Scholars have identified a transitional phase from about 650 to 800 AD where some inscriptions mixed the use of Elder and Younger Futhark runes. Examples of inscriptions considered to be from this period include DR 248 from Snoldelev, DR 357 from Stentoften, DR 358 from Gummarp, DR 359 from Istaby, and DR 360 from Bjrketorp, and objects such as the Setre Comb (N KJ40).[1] g 136 in Rk, which uses Elder Futherk runes to encrypt part of the text, and g 43 in Ingelstad, which uses a single Elder Futherk rune as an ideogram, are also sometimes included as transitional inscriptions.[1]
Younger Futhark The Younger Futhark became known in Europe as the "alphabet of the Norsemen", and was studied in the interest of trade and diplomatic contacts, referred to as Abecedarium Nordmannicum in Frankish Fulda (possibly by Walahfrid Strabo) and ogam lochlannach "Ogham of the Scandinavians" in the Book of Ballymote. The Younger Futhark is divided into long-branch (Danish) and short-twig (Swedish and Norwegian) runes. The difference between the two versions has The ogam lochlannach, Book of Ballymote, fol. 170v been a matter of controversy. A general opinion is that the difference was functional, i.e. the long-branch runes were used for documentation on stone, whereas the short-branch runes were in everyday use for private or official messages on wood. In addition the Hlsinge Runes (staveless runes, ca. 9001200), Middle Age runes (ca. 11001500) and the Latinised Dalecarlian futhark (ca. 15001910) were developed out of the Younger futhark.
276
Variants
The Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems have 16 runes, with the stave names fe ("wealth"), ur ("iron"/"rain"), Thurs ("giant"), As/Oss, reidh ("ride"), kaun ("ulcer"), hagall ("hail"), naudhr/naud ("need"), is/iss ("ice"), ar ("plenty"), sol ("sun"), Tyr, bjarkan/bjarken ("birch"), madhr/madr ("man"), logr/lg ("water"), yr ("yew").
Long-branch runes
The long-branch runes are the following signs:
The Younger Futhark: Danish long-branch runes and Swedish/Norwegian short-twig runes.
f u r k h n i a s t b m l
Short-twig runes
In the short-twig runes (or Rk runes), nine runes appear as simplified variants of the long-branch runes, while the remaining seven have identical shapes:
f u r k h n i a s t b m l
Younger Futhark
277
Hlsinge runes (staveless runes)

Hlsinge runes are so named because in modern times they were first noticed in the Hlsingland region of Sweden. Later other runic inscriptions with the same runes were found in other parts of Sweden. They were used between the 10th and 12th centuries. The runes seem to be a Staveless runes simplification of the Swedish-Norwegian runes and lack vertical strokes, hence the name 'staveless.' They cover the same set of staves as the other Younger Futhark alphabets. This variant has no assigned Unicode range (as of Unicode 4.0).
Descendant scripts
Medieval
In the Middle Ages, the Younger Futhark in Scandinavia was expanded, so that it once more contained one sign for each phoneme of the old Norse language. Dotted variants of voiceless Medieval Runes signs were introduced to denote the corresponding voiced consonants, or vice versa, voiceless variants of voiced consonants, and several new runes also appeared for vowel sounds. Inscriptions in medieval Scandinavian runes show a large number of variant rune-forms, and some letters, such as s, c and z, were often used interchangeably (Jacobsen & Moltke, 194142, p.VII; Werner, 2004, p.20). Medieval runes were in use until the 15th century. Of the total number of Norwegian runic inscriptions preserved today, most are medieval runes. Notably, more than 600 inscriptions using these runes have been discovered in Bergen since the 1950s, mostly on wooden sticks (the so-called Bryggen inscriptions). This indicates that runes were in common use side by side with the Latin alphabet for several centuries. Indeed some of the medieval runic inscriptions are actually in the Latin language.
Early modern
According to Carl-Gustav Werner, "in the isolated province of Dalarna in Sweden a mix of runes and Latin letters developed" (Werner 2004, p.7). The Dalecarlian runes came into use in the early 16th century and remained in some use up to the 20th century. Some discussion remains on whether their use was an unbroken tradition throughout this period or whether people in the 19th and 20th centuries learned runes from books written on the subject. The character inventory is suitable for transcribing modern Swedish and the local Dalecarlian dialect.
Younger Futhark
278
References
[1] Barnes, Michael P. (1998). "The Transitional Inscriptions" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=KYqsisEVQHEC& printsec=frontcover& cad=0#v=onepage& q& f=false). In Beck, Heinrich; Dwel, Klaus. Runeninschriften als Quellen Interdisziplinrer Forschung. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp.44861. ISBN3-11-015455-2. . p. 451.
Other sources
Jacobsen, Lis; Moltke, Erik (194142). Danmarks Runeindskrifter. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaards Forlag. Werner, Carl-Gustav (2004). The allrunes Font and Package (ftp://tug.ctan.org/pub/tex-archive/fonts/ allrunes/allrunes.pdf).
External links
Runes found in the Eastern Viking (http://www.arild-hauge.com/ru-e-rusland.htm) An English Dictionary of Runic Inscriptions in the Younger Futhark (http://runicdictionary.nottingham.ac.uk/) (Nottingham University)
Article Sources and Contributors
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Algiz Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=490215491 Contributors: Almerv, Arch dude, Arthur Warrington Thomas, Asatruer, Berig, Bloodofox, Cbdorsett, Craig Pemberton, Dbachmann, Deville, Dezidor, Dictionaric, DocWatson42, DopefishJustin, Erud, FirefoxRocks, Frietjes, GoingBatty, Holt, J. Finkelstein, Kanin P, Keresaspa, Kwamikagami, LilHelpa, ORG618, Phil Boswell, RedAugust, Reinyday, Saint Vlad, Sascha47, Sceptre, Switchercat, The Nut, Theoldanarchist, Velella, Wakuran, WeniWidiWiki, Wiglaf, 16 anonymous edits Anglo-Saxon runes Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=500026340 Contributors: 4meter4, Aadri, Alphasinus, Anaxial, AnonMoos, BabelStone, Bloodofox, CaradocTheKing, Cassowary, Cethegus, Chroniclev, CommonsDelinker, DARTH SIDIOUS 2, Dazzsa, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, Donidhabohebv, DopefishJustin, Evertype, FilipeS, Gaius Cornelius, Gottescalcus, GraemeLeggett, Grantb, Grutness, Hayden120, Holt, Hulk500, ImperatorExercitus, J. 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List of runestones Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=381235950 Contributors: A930913, Algkalv, Borsum, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, Holt, Martonic17, Mceder, Mmcannis, NHRHS2010, UnitedStatesian, 4 anonymous edits Maeshowe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=495646703 Contributors: AOPTechie, Adrazahl, Alaniaris, Auntof6, Awotter, Ben MacDui, Bigglescat, Billreid, Bk0, Bloodofox, Brendandh, Calvin08, Colonies Chris, Conversion script, Cuchullain, DGJM, Dbachmann, Deb, Dmitri Lytov, Docu, Dweir, Eurleif, Fantoman400, Finavon, Fuzheado, Glenn, Graham87, Guyd, Hauganm, Haywire, Heirpixel, Hmains, Hugo999, Hydrargyrum, Jak86, Jalo, Jan1nad, JeremyA, Jim1138, Jllm06, John, Johnmarkh, Jonathan Webley, Kpjas, Laurel Bush, Lianachan, LilHelpa, LokiClock, Magister Mathematicae, Mais oui!, MaliNorway, Mhockey, Mrwojo, Nickshanks, Pasicles, Paul A, Penfold, Queenmomcat, Rafmarham, Sandius, Santiperez, Seth Whales, Shandris, Sjc, Sliggy, St.Trond, Tbc2, Tobacman, Visite fortuitement prolonge, Wangi, Warofdreams, Woohookitty, Yak, Yath, Zacherystaylor, 25 anonymous edits Mannaz Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=491164119 Contributors: Ahoerstemeier, Amikake3, Amovrvs, Angr, Anthony Appleyard, Aranel, Art LaPella, Ashley Y, Bloodofox, Brianjd, Cbdorsett, Cecil, DESiegel, Dbachmann, Dezidor, DopefishJustin, Groucho NL, Hawkster, Holt, Jpbrenna, Lockesdonkey, LokiClock, Lordmetroid, Luvcraft, Parallel or Together?, Peak, QuartierLatin1968, Rich Farmbrough, The Anome, Ustroh, WeniWidiWiki, 10 anonymous edits Manx runestones Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=492015077 Contributors: BabelStone, Ben MacDui, Berig, Bloodofox, Dadadaddyo, Deanlaw, Dimitrii, FinnWiki, LokiClock, Mboverload, Rmhermen, Robertgreer, TwoMightyGods, 1 anonymous edits Medieval runes Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=492016152 Contributors: Berig, Chris the speller, CommonsDelinker, Dazzsa, Dbachmann, Firsfron, Kingpin13, Kwamikagami, LokiClock, Mr0t1633, Olaus, Sardanaphalus, Skysmith, Srnec, Tasnu Arakun, 6 anonymous edits Naudiz Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410658200 Contributors: Angr, Bloodofox, Candhrim, Cecil, Dbachmann, Dezidor, DopefishJustin, Frietjes, Groucho NL, Grutness, Holt, Khukri, Kwamikagami, Obersachse, Pharillon, Szyslak, WeniWidiWiki, 1 anonymous edits North Germanic languages Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=498134017 Contributors: 9E2, Aaker, Accentman, Adde, AlexKarpman, Alexlykke, Alkarex, Andr Devecserii, Angela, Angr, Anielica, Antonio Lopez, Ary29, Bayang, Bdoxey, Bennyman, Berig, Bjolf, Branddobbe, Brilliantwiki, Bruvssa, CambridgeBayWeather, Carewolf, CatBoris, Charles Matthews, Civil Engineer III, Clarifer, CodeCat, Cwlq, Cybercobra, Dale Arnett, DanMS, Davidcannon, Dbachmann, Dbmag9, Deleet, Dewritech, Dijhndis, Dimotika, Donarreiskoffer, Doric Loon, Dylansmrjones, Eddideigel, Epf, Euchiasmus, Explendido Rocha, Facts707, Family Olofsson, Fiet Nam, Flitzer, Florian Blaschke, Fobos92, Francvs, Freelance Intellectual, Gdm, Germanic75, Gimmetrow, Gurch, HJJHolm, Haleyga, Hans-AC, HansM, Haukurth, Hayden120, Henrik, Hibernian, Hr oskar, Hunef, Ihcoyc, Inge, Iridescent, Isebito, Isnow, Itreius, Ivank1993, Ivarercool, J. 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Lorriew, Mild Bill Hiccup, Pigman, Rich Farmbrough, Rjwilmsi, Septegram, Smiloid, SpiderMum, Sweyn78, Wakuran, WikHead, Xena-angel, 54 anonymous edits Runic transliteration and transcription Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=491317917 Contributors: Al tally, Berig, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, Droob, Gravitone2, Hsaunders24, Jonkerz, Mark Arsten, Mild Bill Hiccup, Robertgreer, Sinr, Varoon Arya, 4 anonymous edits Runology Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=498305100 Contributors: Angr, Arthur Warrington Thomas, Bloodofox, Cbdorsett, Conrad Johansson, Dazzsa, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, Deville, FarisL, Holt, Jhendin, Khukri, LinaMishima, Nixdorf, Pdraic MacUidhir, RJFJR, Rogper, Skysmith, The Thing That Should Not Be, Warofdreams, Welcome to Heaven, Wiglaf, 10 anonymous edits Ruthwell Cross Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=497903629 Contributors: AA Hovey, Berig, Bloodofox, Brianann MacAmhlaidh, CecilWard, ChrisGualtieri, Chroniclev, Courcelles, CraigNKeys, Crosbiesmith, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, Declan Clam, Djnjwd, Dougsim, Dr Aaij, DuncanHill, Favonian, Fayenatic london, Felix Folio Secundus, Finn Bjrklid, Gaius Cornelius, Haeleth, Holt, ISeneca, J.delanoy, JamesAM, Johnbod, Kevin B12, Kwamikagami, Lordaraq, Mattis, NSR, Nedrutland, Notuncurious, Rjwilmsi, Romuald Wrblewski, Rwnorman, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, Smb1001, Sparkit, Stevens1, Symkyn, Tagishsimon, Travelbird, Wikipediarules2221, 15 anonymous edits Schretzheim sword Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=379081430 Contributors: Alex earlier account, Bloodofox, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, GoingBatty, IndieRect, JustAGal, Kwamikagami, Zevious, 6 anonymous edits Scythe sword Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=485236079 Contributors: Dbachmann, Deanlaw, Vincenzo80 Seax of Beagnoth Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=497240431 Contributors: BD2412, BabelStone, Ceola, Claritas, Dbachmann, F, Iridescent, Johnbod, Koavf, Mattgirling, Nev1, PatrickFisher, Piledhigheranddeeper, R'n'B, Rich Farmbrough, S Marshall, TheFeds, Triskele Jim, Victuallers, WAS 4.250, Wikipeterproject, 1 anonymous edits Setre Comb Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=490886234 Contributors: Bloodofox, Brewcrewer, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, Holt, PamD Sigtuna box Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=492056793 Contributors: Berig, Boston, Deanlaw, Free Software Knight, Johnbod, Kernel Saunters, Mais oui!, 2 anonymous edits Sowil Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=496346437 Contributors: Anypodetos, BabelStone, Berig, Bloodofox, Colonel Tom, Davidrei, Dbachmann, E-Kartoffel, Frietjes, Glanthor Reviol, GoingBatty, Gravitone2, Groucho NL, Hayden120, Holt, JHunterJ, Jerzy, Kwamikagami, Leasnam, Nigel Barristoat, Open2universe, Smeagol 17, The Man in Question, William Avery, 5 anonymous edits St Cuthbert's coffin Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=491338633 Contributors: Bloodofox, Ceoil, Cuchullain, Dbachmann, Felix Folio Secundus, Johnbod, Lesnail, Leszek Jaczuk, Matthewcgirling, MrDolomite, Nyttend, StAnselm, WAS 4.250, Walgamanus, 1 anonymous edits Sveriges runinskrifter Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=470493892 Contributors: Adamrush, Deanlaw, Emk, Holt, Rich Farmbrough, 3 anonymous edits Sb sword Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=499493740 Contributors: Attilios, BabelStone, Bloodofox, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, Dr. Blofeld, JDDJS, Jalo, Vegard Vike, Victuallers, Wikipeterproject, 3 anonymous edits Thurisaz Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=470584983 Contributors: Asatruer, Bloodofox, Chick Bowen, David Gerard, Dbachmann, Deror avi, Dezidor, DopefishJustin, Eluchil404, Firsfron, Frietjes, Gizmo II, Gravitone2, Groucho NL, Holt, Hthth, J04n, Obersachse, Prefixcaz, Rjwilmsi, Russophile2, Salleman, SudoGhost, Vegaswikian, Wahoofive, Wakuran, WeniWidiWiki, William Avery, Ziusudra, 14 anonymous edits Tiwaz rune Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=496488407 Contributors: 67-21-48-122, Berig, Bloodofox, Cecil, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, Dezidor, Dictionaric, DopefishJustin, Frietjes, Gravitone2, Groucho NL, Holt, Leuko, LokiClock, Nwbeeson, Quisquillian, Rjwilmsi, Sigurd Dragon Slayer, SudoGhost, Trusilver, Varlaam, WeniWidiWiki, 9 anonymous edits Torpo stave church Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=490989466 Contributors: Agtfjott, Ahoerstemeier, Arsenikk, Deanlaw, Grutness, Hauganm, HeartofaDog, Jay1279, Leifern, Micha L. Rieser, TU-nor, Warofdreams, 2 anonymous edits Undley bracteate Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=472967459 Contributors: Babbage, BabelStone, D6, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, Holt, Interocitor, Iridescent, JaGa, Jalo, Widsith, 1 anonymous edits Ur (rune) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=471311219 Contributors: Aesopos, Bloodofox, Cecil, Dbachmann, Deror avi, Dezidor, Dictionaric, DopefishJustin, Explosius, Frietjes, Gravitone2, Groucho NL, Holt, Loggie, Pgk, Reinyday, Shaun144, Sherool, Wakuran, WeniWidiWiki, 8 anonymous edits Vang stave church Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=482002702 Contributors: Agtfjott, BD2412, Belovedfreak, Curps, Darwinek, Deanlaw, EncycloPetey, Grumpy444grumpy, Grutness, Hergilfs, Hmains, Jadran91, Jjjjc, Joy, Leifern, Micha L. Rieser, Niceguyedc, Nidator, Pietras1988, Roede, Severo, TimBentley, Ulf Heinsohn, Ulric1313, Upior polnocy, Vegaswikian, Warofdreams, Woohookitty, 14 anonymous edits Westeremden yew-stick Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=472967040 Contributors: AjaxSmack, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, J04n, John of Reading, Leandrod, Rmhermen, 1 anonymous edits Wynn Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=499947208 Contributors: Angr, Anrion, Asatruer, B9 hummingbird hovering, Barticus88, BjKa, Crissov, Dbachmann, Dbenbenn, DePiep, Dezidor, DopefishJustin, DrBob, Drjon, Estoy Aqu, Evertype, Fibonacci, FilipeS, Frietjes, Gravitone2, Haeleth, Hayden120, Hlnodovic, Holt, J.delanoy, Jor, KelisFan2K5, Ko'oy, Koavf, Kwamikagami, Lairor, Merovingian, Morwen, Mzajac, Nickshanks, Nonsequiturmine, OlEnglish, OwenBlacker, Phil Boswell, PigFlu Oink, Poccil, Robert A West, Saforrest, Schneelocke, Seanver, Shrine of Fire, Sl, Sonjaaa, Spikey, TalkHard, Trappist the monk, Vasi, WeniWidiWiki, Wilmer Wynn, Zeimusu, var Arnfjr Bjarmason, , 36 anonymous edits Yngvi Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=496500104 Contributors: Akulo, Berig, Cecil, ClockworkSoul, Danny, Dbachmann, Dbenbenn, Deanlaw, Dezidor, Dream of Nyx, Fennec, Flammingo, Flibjib8, Frietjes, Gaius Cornelius, Glanthor Reviol, Gravitone2, Groucho NL, Haukurth, Hemmingsen, Holt, Inge, Jallan, Jalo, Kbh3rd, Kenneth Alan, Khukri, KuatofKDY, OwenBlacker, Per Hedetun, Rbreen, Rich Farmbrough, Rmhermen, Sardanaphalus, Satanael, Sigo, Sigurd Dragon Slayer, SimonP, The Mummy, Thnidu, Twthmoses, Varlaam, WeniWidiWiki, Wetman, Wiglaf, Yngwin, 16 anonymous edits Younger Futhark Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=496482745 Contributors: Alphasinus, BabelStone, Barend, Berig, Boivie, Charles Matthews, Closedmouth, Dazzsa, Dbachmann, Deanlaw, DopefishJustin, Dougweller, Emk, EuTuga, FilipeS, Finn Bjrklid, Future Perfect at Sunrise, Hayden120, Holt, John, Kwamikagami, Leandrod, LokiClock, MarcusMaximus, Max Naylor, Nasz, Nikopolis1912, OpenFuture, Rbarreira, Reinyday, Sardanaphalus, Skysmith, Srnec, Stephan Leeds, Tasnu Arakun, Thomas Blomberg, WP Editor 2011, Wakuran, Walgamanus, WeniWidiWiki, Yendor1958, 15 anonymous edits
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Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
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Image:Evolution of Sowilo rune.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Evolution_of_Sowilo_rune.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: myself Image:Long-branch Kaun.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Long-branch_Kaun.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Skadinaujo Image:Sowilo.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sowilo.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Bloodofox, Dbachmann, 4 anonymous edits File:Durham - St Cuthberts arms.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Durham_-_St_Cuthberts_arms.png License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Tim Packer / TSP at en.wikipedia File:St Cuthberts Tomb.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:St_Cuthberts_Tomb.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: John Hamilton File:Saebo sword Bergen Museum.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Saebo_sword_Bergen_Museum.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.0 Contributors: Viking_swords_at_Bergen_Museum.jpg: Arild Nyb from Frde, Norway derivative work: Dbachmann (talk) File:Thurmuth Rune Sword.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Thurmuth_Rune_Sword.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: George Stephens (1813-1895) File:Thurmuth Rune Sword Inscription.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Thurmuth_Rune_Sword_Inscription.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: George Stephens (1813-1895) File:Saebo sword blade inscription.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Saebo_sword_blade_inscription.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.0 Contributors: Saebo_sword_Bergen_Museum.jpg: *Viking_swords_at_Bergen_Museum.jpg: Arild Nyb from Frde, Norway derivative work: Dbachmann (talk) derivative work: Dbachmann (talk) Image:B1622_Lorange_1889_Tab_IV.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:B1622_Lorange_1889_Tab_IV.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Anders Lorange (1888) File:Runic letter thurisaz.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Runic_letter_thurisaz.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: ClaesWallin Image:Gothic letter thiuth.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Gothic_letter_thiuth.svg License: unknown Contributors: Jlio Reis and David McCready File:Runic_letter_tiwaz.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Runic_letter_tiwaz.png License: Public Domain Contributors: BK File:Short-twig t rune.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Short-twig_t_rune.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Skadinaujo File:Stacked Tiwaz.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Stacked_Tiwaz.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Skadinaujo File:U 1163, Drvle (Sigrdrfa).JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:U_1163,_Drvle_(Sigrdrfa).JPG License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Contributors: Berig File:03040026.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:03040026.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:ToB File:Torpo kyrkje og Torpo stavkyrkje.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Torpo_kyrkje_og_Torpo_stavkyrkje.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Contributors: Erwin Winkelman Image:03040024.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:03040024.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:ToB Image:JLM4Torpo.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:JLM4Torpo.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Jean-Louis MALPERTU Image:Torpo03040028.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Torpo03040028.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:ToB Image:Torpo03040031.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Torpo03040031.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:ToB Image:Torpo Stavkyrke, Hallingdal, portaldetalj.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Torpo_Stavkyrke,_Hallingdal,_portaldetalj.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.5 Contributors: Agtfjott, Jeblad, Jorunn, Kurpfalzbilder.de Image:JLM3Torpo.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:JLM3Torpo.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Jean-Louis MALPERTU Image:JLM1Torpo.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:JLM1Torpo.JPG License: Public Domain Contributors: Jean-Louis MALPERTU Image:Torpo stavkyrkje.jpeg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Torpo_stavkyrkje.jpeg License: Public Domain Contributors: Jeblad, Jorunn File:Runic letter uruz.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Runic_letter_uruz.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: ClaesWallin File:Futhorc_Yr.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Futhorc_Yr.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Skadinaujo File:Karpacz Swiatynia Wang.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Karpacz_Swiatynia_Wang.JPG License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Agtfjott, Cruizer File:Vang stavkirke 1841.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Vang_stavkirke_1841.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:Agtfjott File:Vang stavkirke location.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Vang_stavkirke_location.JPG License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.5 Contributors: User:Agtfjott Image:Rune-Stan2.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Rune-Stan2.png License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Dbachmann, Holt, Razorbliss Image:Long-branch Kaun2.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Long-branch_Kaun2.png License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Dbachmann, Holt Image:Rune-Stan.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Rune-Stan.png License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Adam Cuerden, Holt, Ilmari Karonen, SKvalen File:Runic letter wunjo.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Runic_letter_wunjo.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: ClaesWallin Image:Wynn.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wynn.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Holt, Kenmayer, Sl Image:Yngve Frey bygger Gamla Upsala tempel by Hugo Hamilton.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Yngve_Frey_bygger_Gamla_Upsala_tempel_by_Hugo_Hamilton.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Hugo Hamilton (18021871) File:Runic letter ingwaz.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Runic_letter_ingwaz.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: ClaesWallin File:Runic letter ingwaz variant.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Runic_letter_ingwaz_variant.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Dbachmann, Koavf, Razorbliss File:Runic letter ingwaz variant.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Runic_letter_ingwaz_variant.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Glanthor Reviol Image:ing bindrune.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Ing_bindrune.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Dbachmann Image:Ing bindrune variant.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Ing_bindrune_variant.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Dbachmann Image:Ogham futhark ballymote.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Ogham_futhark_ballymote.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Dbachmann Image:Hlsingerunor.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Hlsingerunor.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Tasnu Arakun
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Runes and Runestones (Wikipedia Compilation)

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Runes and Runestones (Wikipedia Compilation)

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Runes

Westeremden yew-stick Wynn Yngvi Younger Futhark

269 271 272 275

*Algiz(?) "elk"(?) Elder Futhark

Unicode Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row

[ks](?) [], [r]

Modern runic divination

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols.

IPA [f], [v] [u], [u] [], []

[k], [k] [], [j] [w] [h], [x] [n]

wen hegel nea inc geu{a}r sigel peor uu pro h ac a n lc i yr y ear ge eo p x

lagu mann l ing {m}

Related manuscript texts

Anglo-Saxon runic rings

Anglo-Saxon runic rings

Bramham Moor Ring

Linstock Castle Ring

Anglo-Saxon runic rings

Interpretation of the rkriu charm

Anglo-Saxon runic rings

*Ansuz "god" Elder Futhark

Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row

*Berkanan "birch" Elder Futhark

Unicode Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row

, whence also the Latin letter B.

Bewcastle: the south and east faces of the cross

Bewcastle Cross Inscription

Christ treading on the beasts

The falconer/St John figure

Bewcastle cross south perspective view

Bewcastle Cross - east and north faces

Bewcastle cross and church

North and west faces

The a and the runes in ligature on the Rk Runestone

Bluetooth logo (21st-century bind rune of and (Hagall) (Berkanan) )

Examples found at Bryggen or nearby

B001 ystein:ami hrmar harmr hrmar maria B003 auema

Eysteinn mi[k] Herrmar Herrmar Herrmar Maria. Ave Maria

B005 rexiudeorum innomini patrisnazarenus

Rex Judorum In nomine Patris Nazarenus

Bottom piece of a wooden bowl Shoe

Flat wooden stick

[14] Image [15] Image

[18] Image [19] Image

B015 iuairfuo B016 a

B017 ost min kis mik fuorkhniastbmly

st min, kyss mik Fuorkhniastbmly

My love, kiss me Fuorkhniastbmly (Younger futhark alphabet)

B020 blm[- fuorkhniastblmy

B149 kya: shir : atu: kakhim: (an)sak: (ab)akist(an): ris

Gya segir at gakk heim

Gya tells you to go home

Structure of the ciphers

Tent runes for the name Thorvald

Branch runes for ek witki "I, Magician"

*Dagaz "day" Elder Futhark

Unicode Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row

Unicode Transliteration IPA Position in rune-row

*Ehwaz "horse" Elder Futhark

Unicode Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row

Anglo-Saxon rune poem

Ehwaz and it is ever a source of comfort to the restless."

*2haz / *2waz "yew" Elder Futhark

Unicode Transliteration Transcription IPA Position in rune-row

2haz / 2waz "yew" Elder Futhark

Laguz/Laukaz "lake"/"leek" Elder Futhark