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RUNES, RUNIC LANGUAGE AND INSCRIPTIONS

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 853 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RUNES, RUNIC See also:LANGUAGE AND See also:INSCRIPTIONS . The See also:art of See also:writing with an See also:alphabet appears to have been introduced into Germanic See also:Europe in the See also:Iron See also:Age. Something See also:hieratic and mysterious was involved in the See also:idea of letters as used to convey thought, and from the earliest recorded times they were called runes, from the See also:Gothic runa (rim, in Icelandic), which originally means a See also:secret thing, a See also:mystery, and was later used to describe a See also:letter of the See also:ancient language (see ALPHABET and SCANDINAVIAN See also:LANGUAGES). The Iron Age is supposed to have existed from circa 200 to circa 65o, and it is to the See also:close of this See also:epoch that the beginning of the writing on Scandinavian memorials is attributed. There are runes which have been discovered in See also:England, and some also on the Germanic mainland of Europe, but it is in the Scandinavian See also:peninsula that the vast See also:majority of inscribed monuments have been discovered. The See also:custom of erecting runic monuments, i.e. stones engraved with more or less See also:literary statements, over the bodies of the dead, was practised first, there can be no doubt, in See also:Norway and See also:Sweden, then spread to See also:Denmark and over the whole See also:North of Europe. It is remarkable, however, that two of the three runic alphabets from which our knowledge of the whole range of rune literature is founded, were discovered outside Scandinavia. These three alphabets exist, the first on a thin See also:gold bractea found in 1774 at Vadstena, in Sweden; the second on a See also:bracelet, dug up at Charnoy, in See also:Burgundy; the third on a See also:knife, found in the See also:Thames in 1857, and now in the See also:British Museum. There are two See also:principal runic alphabets, the older consisting of 24 letters, and beginning with f; the later of 16 letters. During the. last See also:century before the introduction of See also:Christianity, the larger alphabet was increased by 3 letters. The See also:oldest runes which have been examined are those found on the Thorsbjerg See also:Shield-See also:buckle, which is at See also:present in the See also:Kiel Museum; here the writing, which runs from right to See also:left in straight lines, is of the.See also:fourth or fifth century. Other invaluable See also:sources of runic knowledge are the. diadem of Straarur, the Vimose See also:comb and the See also:brooch of Himlingoje, which was found in the Vier Fen.

Still greater importance has the See also:

Golden See also:Horn, discovered at Gellehuus, near See also:Tondern, in 1734; this See also:monument was stolen by thieves and melted down, but fortunately not until a careful copy of it had been made, which is now in the Museum at See also:Copenhagen. It is not until the 6th century that the runic stones begin. ' The most ancient are believed to be those of Einang, of Tune, of Strand, of Varnum, of Tanum and of Berga. Perhaps a little later are the stones at Vaanga, Skarkind, Skaaang, Torvik, Bo and others, too numerous to mention, but all, as seems likely, erected between 550 and 600. On the famous Tune-See also:stone, the name of the author of the inscription is preserved, "I Wiwar made these runes," and this is not an isolated instance. The See also:original direction of the runic writing was from left to right, like Latin, but quite See also:early the See also:reverse method was introduced. A unionmuch was left to the individual See also:taste. From the. earliest times uninscribed memorial stones in Scandinavia, bautasteinar, were raised to preserve the memory of the dead, and these certainly partook of a more or less religious and sacrificial See also:character. It is evident that, during the Iron Age, stones continued to be erected which had no inscriptions, after the runic alphabets had been invented, and that at first the runes were 'added only in cases of See also:great importance or solemnity. These runic stones were as a See also:rule posed on the See also:top of the See also:grave, or by the See also:side of it, on mounds, of which only one example survives, that of the stone of Einang, in Norway. But runic stones were not infrequently placed in the grave itself. These were smaller than those erected outside the grave, and they did not lend themselves to lengthy or elaborate inscriptions.

The majority of See also:

graves containing such small rune-stones, bearing merely the name of the deceased or a magical See also:sentence, have been found in Norway. But the antiquity of most of these is questioned, that of Vatn, which is the oldest, being now placed no earlier than the 8th century. The very important stone of Valdby, which is the oldest See also:Norwegian monument employing the shorter alphabet, is attributed by Wimmer to See also:heathen times, indeed, but to a, date no earlier than the second See also:half of the 9th century. It is supposed that the most ancient of the runic stones of Sweden, those respectively of V&nga, Skarkind and Kinnevad, must have come from the interior of graves, but there is no certain See also:proof of this. The latest See also:criticism tends to the belief that when runes were first inscribed on Scandinavian monuments, they were placed both upon and inside graves, but that after the runic letters had been used for about a century, the latter custom tended to exclude the former. About the See also:year 800 both customs began to invade Denmark, the practice of placing the rune-stones inside, however, soon getting the upper See also:hand. It is a curious fact that in See also:Iceland not a single rune-stone which can be referred back to heathen times is known to exist; the Icelandic rune-stones all date from a See also:period well advanced in the See also:middle ages. It was the old theory that the ancient stones had mouldered away under stress of See also:weather, but that is abandoned, and it is now supposed that the aristocratic exiles from Norway, who settled in Iceland, had not yet adopted in their old See also:home the practice of inscribed monuments to their dead. There were bautasteinar in Iceland, as we know, but there is no See also:evidence that these See also:bore runes upon them. It is in Denmark that the runic inscriptions exist which possess the highest literary See also:interest. These are all attributed to the beginning of the 9th century. The Kallerup Stone was discovered in 1826 at the See also:village of Hojetostrup, a Danish mile E. of See also:Roskilde; it has been lifted and placed in its original position.

This monument contains a statement in old Danish, to the effect that it marks the grave of Hornbora, son of Swidi. The Stone of Snoldelev was discovered in 1768, not far from the spot where the Kallerup Stone was found; it is now in the Archaeological Museum at Copenhagen; this has a See also:

long and important inscription in a See also:form of old Scandinavian, allied to the classical Icelandic. The Stone of Helnaes was found on the islet of that name in 186o, and is now at Copenhagen. The other most famous runic monuments are those of Flemlose, Orja, NOrrenaeI&, Glarendrup, Fryggevaelde and Ronninge; of all of which Wimmer has published full See also:analytical descriptions. These inscriptions are of • remarkable value as See also:historical documents, from a period of which no other definite records remain in existence. From a literary point of view, they re-present what Germanic language was up to the point at which See also:Ulfilas created a new alphabet for his version of the See also:Bible; by adapting to the runic alphabets a number of See also:Greek letters. It was an See also:error, now exploded, to suppose that the notae impressae, which See also:Tacitus describes in his Germania, were written runes; these were simply signs, or mystic marks, which had no linguistic significance. These are described in the staves of the See also:Edda as having been revealed to mankind by the See also:god See also:Odin, of these forms produced more complicated systems, in which and they were of a hieratic character. The See also:suggestion is that the written runes were introduced from the See also:south of Europe by a Phoenician agency, and that they were copied from Greek or See also:Roman coins which had found their way to Scandinavia. In several of the sagas it is recorded that runes were inscribed on See also:round pieces of See also:wood, called kefli, or runic sticks. It has been suggested that the Eddaic poems were preserved in this way, but the only authority for this is that the Sonatorrek is said to have been taken down on a kefli. In See also:Christian times runes came to be regarded as an archaic curiosity, and were engraved on sticks, chairs and spoons; a loto stick with runes on it is preserved in the Bodleian library.

In the Fornsogur runes are mentioned as carved on the blade of an See also:

oar. Even cases occur in which the normal Latin alphabet was called rftnamdl or a language of Runes. A runic letter was called a runastafr in Icelandic. AuTxoRITIEs: See also:Ludwig F. A. Wimmer, Runeskriftens oprindelse og udvikling i See also:Norden (Copenhagen, 1874) ; L. F. A. Wimmer, See also:Die Runenschrift (See also:Berlin, 1887) ; J. See also:Taylor, Greeks and Goths: a Study on the Runes (See also:London, 1879); G. See also:Stephens, The Old-See also:Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England (Copenhagen, 1879); See also:Bugge, Tolkning of runeindskriften pd Rokstenen i Ostergotland (See also:Stockholm, 1878); Cleasby and Vigfussen, Icelandic-See also:English See also:Dictionary (See also:Oxford, 1874); Wilhelm See also:Grimm, Ueber deutsche Runen (See also:Gottingen, 1821) ; Olsen, Runerne i den oldislandske Literatur (See also:Christiania, 1891). (E.

End of Article: RUNES, RUNIC LANGUAGE AND INSCRIPTIONS

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