Leaf (f. 27r.) of Codex Runicus, a vellummanuscript from c. 1300 containing one of the oldest and best preserved texts of the Scanian Law, written entirely in runes
The medieval runes, or the futhork, was a Scandinavianrunic alphabet that evolved from the Younger Futhark after the introduction of stung (or dotted) runes at the end of the Viking Age. These stung runes were regular runes with the addition of either a dot diacritic or bar diacritic to indicate that the rune stood for one of its secondary sounds (so an i rune could become an e rune or a j rune when stung). The medieval futhork was fully formed in the early 13th century. Due to the expansion of its character inventory, it was essentially possible to have each character in an inscription correspond to only one phoneme, something which was virtually impossible in Younger Futhark with its small inventory of 16 runes.[1]
Medieval runes were in use throughout Scandinavia during the Middle Ages, and provided the basis for runology beginning in the 16th century.
History
A church bell from Saleby, Västergötland, Sweden, containing a runic inscription from 1228
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 wooden 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]
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]
At the end of the 10th century, or the early 11th century, three stung runes were added in order to represent the phonemes in a more exact manner. Rather than create new runes for the /e/, /ɡ/ and /y/ phonemes, stings were added to the i, k and u runes.[5]
Around the mid-11th century, the ą and the ʀ runes took on new sounds. In Western Scandinavia, the sound of the ʀ rune merged with the sound of the r rune. Since the ʀ rune's name was yr, and since this name began with /y/, it was no stretch to begin using the rune to stand for /y/. The practice of using the ʀ rune to stand for /y/ then spread to the rest of Scandinavia.[6] Meanwhile, when the nasal /ɑ̃/ changed into /o/, this became the new phoneme for the ą 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 stings to the t and b runes.[5] A second /p/ rune with a shape similar to an uppercase K, and transliterated as ᴘ, begins to appear around the 13th century. This rune may have been invented because stinging a consonant rune usually marks it as voiced, and the stung b rune violated this norm by being unvoiced.[7]
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 /æ/. The short-twig ą rune represented /o/, whereas the long-branch form represented /ø/.[5]
Medieval rune-variations in ABC-order. More variations exists.
As the two alphabets were used alongside each other, there was a mutual influence. The Latin alphabet early borrowed the þ rune to represent the /θ/ and /ð/ phonemes, but in Denmark it was rarely used. In the 15th century, Norwegians and Swedes also stopped using the þ 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 fuþorkniastblmy (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 Hávamál it appears 43 times.[8]
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.[8]
Early modern legacy
A 16th-century depiction of children taught to use runic calendars (Olaus Magnus)
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.[8] It appears that in many parts of Sweden, people considered Latin letters to be a foreign practice throughout the Middle Ages.[9] Still in the 16th century, the runes were engraved on official memorials or as secret writing in diaries.[8] In the mid-16th century, the parson of the parish of Runsten[10] on Öland wrote a sign on the 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.[11] 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.[8] Many manuscripts written in Iceland through the 16th to 19th centuries featured Medieval runes, Rune Poems and secret rune sets.
When Linnaeus visited the province Dalarna in 1734, he noted the common use of runes,[12] 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 Dagö in 1766 before the Swedish settlement was deported on a forced march to the steppes of Ukraine.[9] For 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.[12]
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.[11]
The above continues the younger futhark rune order. Although this order was still used in the medieval period, it became increasingly common to arrange the runes in the order of the Latin alphabet.[13] The names listed come from the manuscripts Stowe MS 57, AM 461 12o, and AM 749 4to with slight alteration. The name meanings are inferred from the Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems.
A hallmark of medieval runes was the optional sting or bar diacritic which was often used to indicate when a rune stands for a secondary sound; ᚡ gave /v/, ᚤ gave /y/ and /ø/, ᚧ gave /ð/, ᚵ gave /g/ and /ɣ/, ᛂ gave /e/ and rarely /j/, ᛑ gave /d/, ᛔ gave /p/.[14][15] Of these, ᚡ and ᚧ were rarer than the other stung runes, and show up later in the timeline.[16]
Other runic characters besides the stock 16 were also used. ᛕ existed as an alternative to ᛔ.[17] In some cases, short-twig and long-branch variants of the same rune became distinct; ᚯ and ᛅ were often used distinctly from ᚮ and ᛆ.[18] Special runes were sometimes used for Latin words.[19] Three additional stung runes are found on Gotland, though two of them are only attested in one inscription.[16]
↑ The parish name is homonymous with the Swedish word for "runestone", but is actually of different origin. "Runsten [församling]", Nationalencyklopedin,
↑ MacLeod, Mees, Mindy, Bernard (2006), Runic Amulets and Magic Objects, Woodbridge: Boydell, p.135{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Related Research Articles
Othala, also known as ēðel and odal, is a rune that represents the o and œ phonemes in the Elder Futhark and the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc writing systems respectively. Its name is derived from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic *ōþala- "heritage; inheritance, inherited estate". As it does not occur in Younger Futhark, it disappears from the Scandinavian record around the 8th century, however its usage continued in England into the 11th century, where it was sometimes further used in manuscripts as a shorthand for the word ēðel ("homeland"), similar to how other runes were sometimes used at the time.
A rune is a letter in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write Germanic languages before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised purposes thereafter. In addition to representing a sound value, runes can be used to represent the concepts after which they are named (ideographs). Scholars refer to instances of the latter as Begriffsrunen. The Scandinavian variants are also known as fuþark, or futhark; this name is derived from the first six letters of the script, ⟨ᚠ⟩, ⟨ᚢ⟩, ⟨ᚦ⟩, ⟨ᚨ⟩/⟨ᚬ⟩, ⟨ᚱ⟩, and ⟨ᚲ⟩/⟨ᚴ⟩, corresponding to the Latin letters ⟨f⟩, ⟨u⟩, ⟨þ⟩/⟨th⟩, ⟨a⟩, ⟨r⟩, and ⟨k⟩. The Anglo-Saxon variant is known as futhorc, or fuþorc, due to changes in Old English of the sounds represented by the fourth letter, ⟨ᚨ⟩/⟨ᚩ⟩.
The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet and a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, with only 16 characters, in use from about the 9th century, after a "transitional period" during the 7th and 8th centuries. The reduction, somewhat paradoxically, happened at the same time as phonetic changes that led to a greater number of different phonemes in the spoken language, when Proto-Norse evolved into Old Norse. Also, the writing custom avoided carving the same rune consecutively for the same sound, so the spoken distinction between long and short vowels was lost in writing. Thus, the language included distinct sounds and minimal pairs that were written the same.
The Elder Futhark, also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Period. Inscriptions are found on artifacts including jewelry, amulets, plateware, tools, and weapons, as well as runestones, from the 1st to the 9th centuries.
Algiz is the name conventionally given to the "z-rune" ᛉ 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 via Verner's law.
The Kylver stone, listed in the Rundata catalog as runic inscription G 88, is a Swedish runestone which dates from about 400 AD. It is notable for its listing of each of the runes in the Elder Futhark.
The Bryggen inscriptions are a find of some 670 medieval runic inscriptions on wood and bone found from 1955 and forth at Bryggen 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 recent as the 14th century. Previously it was believed that the use of runes in Norway had died out long before.
Jera is the conventional name of the j-rune ᛃ of the Elder Futhark, from a reconstructed Common Germanic stem *jēra- meaning "harvest, (good) year".
The Einang stone is a runestone located east of the Einang Sound near Fagernes, in Oppland, Norway, notable for the age of its runic inscription. The Einang runestone is located within the extensive Gardberg site. It is placed on a grave mound on a ridge overlooking the Valdres valley. There are several other grave mounds nearby. Today the runestone is protected by glass walls and a roof.
Anglo-Saxon runes or Anglo-Frisian runes are runes that were used by the Anglo-Saxons and Medieval Frisians as an alphabet in their native writing system, recording both Old English and Old Frisian. Today, the characters are known collectively as the futhorc from the sound values of the first six runes. The futhorc was a development from the older co-Germanic 24-character runic alphabet, known today as Elder Futhark, expanding to 28 characters in its older form and up to 34 characters in its younger form. In contemporary Scandinavia, the Older Futhark developed into a shorter 16-character alphabet, today simply called Younger Futhark.
This runestone, listed in Rundata as runic inscription U 1011, was carved in the 11th century and was originally located at Örby, Rasbo, Sweden.
Cipher runes, or cryptic runes, are the cryptographical replacement of the letters of the runic alphabet.
Uppland Runic Inscription 701 or U 701, and also known as Kynge stone, is a runestone that is now lost. It was recorded in a drawing in the 17th century by Johan Hadorph and P. Helgonius, as well as Johannes Haquini Rhezelius. Richard Dybeck took up the search for the missing U 701 in 1860 but was not able to find it. It is believed that U 701 was carved by the artist who made runic inscriptions U 700 and U 702. The recorded text ends with a prayer that uses the Norse word salu for soul, which was imported from English and first used on a different inscription during the tenth century.
A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of Elder Futhark, Anglo-Frisian Futhorc and Younger Futhark.
The Dynna Stone is a runestone from the late Viking Age that was originally located in Gran, Norway.
The Granavollen stone is a runestone located behind Nikolaikirken at Granavollen in Gran, Oppland county, Norway. This church is also known as one of the two medieval Sister Churches. The inscription is classified as being carved in runestone style RAK, which is the oldest style. This classification is used for those inscriptions where the ends of the runic text bands are straight and do not have any animal or serpent heads attached.
The t-rune ᛏ is named after Týr, and was identified with this god. The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is *Tîwaz or *Teiwaz. Tiwaz rune was an ideographic symbol for a spear.
A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones.
The Skåäng Runestone, designated as Sö 32 under Rundata, is an Iron Age runestone located in Skåäng, Södermanland, Sweden, which is inscribed in Proto-Norse with the elder futhark. During the Viking Age, a second runic inscription was added in Old Norse using the younger futhark.
The Dalecarlian runes, or dalrunes, was a late version of the runic script that was in use in the Swedish province of Dalarna until the 20th century. The province has consequently been called the "last stronghold of the Germanic script".
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