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Elder Futhark

The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark), 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 in Scandinavia, from the 2nd to the 10th centuries.

Elder Futhark
Script type
Time period
1st to 8th centuries
Directionleft-to-right, boustrophedon 
LanguagesProto-Germanic, Proto-Norse, Gothic, Alemannic, Old High German
Related scripts
Parent systems
Child systems
Younger Futhark, Anglo-Saxon futhorc
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Distribution of pre-6th century Elder Futhark finds

In Scandinavia, beginning in the late 8th century, the script was simplified to the Younger Futhark, while the Anglo-Saxons and Frisians instead extended it, giving rise to the Anglo-Saxon futhorc. Both the Anglo-Saxon futhorc and the Younger Futhark remained in use during the Early and the High Middle Ages respectively, but knowledge of how to read the Elder Futhark was forgotten until 1865, when it was deciphered by Norwegian scholar Sophus Bugge.[1]

Description

The Elder Futhark (named after the initial phoneme of the first six rune names: F, U, Þ, A, R and K) has 24 runes, often arranged in three groups of eight runes; each group is called an ætt[2] (pl. ættir). In the following table, each rune is given with its common transliteration:

  f       u       þ       a       r       k       g       w    
  h   n   i   j   ï   p   z   s
  t   b   e   m   l   ŋ   d   o

þ corresponds to [θ] (unvoiced) or [ð] (voiced) (like the English sequence -th-).[3]

ï is also transliterated as æ and may have been either a diphthong or a vowel close to [ɪ] or [æ]. z was Proto-Germanic [z], and evolved into Proto-Norse /r₂/ and is also transliterated as ʀ. The remaining transliterations correspond to the IPA symbol of their approximate value.

The earliest known sequential listing of the alphabet dates to 400 AD and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland, [ᚠ] and [ᚹ] only partially inscribed but widely authenticated:

[ᚠ] [ᚹ]
[f] u þ a r k g [w] h n i j p ï z s t b e m l ŋ d o

Two instances of another early inscription were found on the two Vadstena and Mariedamm bracteates (6th century), showing the division in three ætts, with the positions of ï, p and o, d inverted compared to the Kylver stone:

f u þ a r k g w; h n i j ï p z s; t b e m l ŋ o d

The Grumpan bracteate presents a listing from 500 which is identical to the one found on the previous bracteates but incomplete:

f u þ a r k g w ... h n i j ï p (z) ... t b e m l (ŋ) (o) d

Origins

Derivation from Italic alphabets

The Elder Futhark runes are commonly believed to originate in the Old Italic scripts: either a North Italic variant (Etruscan or Raetic alphabets), or the Latin alphabet itself. Derivation from the Greek 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 (whereas the Goths were 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   j) and   (from Uruz   u).

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 4th century BC Negau helmet inscription features a Germanic name, Harigastiz, 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.[4] 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" 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 (= ś) in Lepontic where it seems to represent the sound /d/.[5]

The g, a, f, i, t, m and l runes show no variation, and are generally accepted as identical to the Old Italic or Latin letters X, A, F, I, T, M and L, respectively. There is also wide agreement that the u, r, k, h, s, b and o runes respectively 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, p. 163 suggests that all 22 Latin letters of the classical Latin alphabet (1st Century, ignoring marginalized K) were adopted (þ from D, z from Y, ŋ from Q, w from P, j from G, ï 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 ?), þ (D ? or Raetic Θ ?), w (Q or P ?), ï and z (both from either Z or Latin Y ?), ŋ (Q ?) and d runes.[6]

Of the 24 runes in the classical futhark row attested from 400 (Kylver stone), ï, p[a] and ŋ[b] are unattested in the earliest inscriptions of c. 175 to 400, while e in this early period mostly takes a Π-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.

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: these appear in the case of e (mentioned above), but also in t, l, ŋ and h.

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,[7] 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 c. 160. If either ï 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.[8][9] Pedersen (and with him Odenstedt) suggests a period of development of about a century to account for their assumed derivation of the shapes of þ   and j   from Latin D and G.

The invention of the script has been ascribed to a single person[10] 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. Bæksted 1952, p. 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, p. 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 according to the principle of acrophony.

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 7th 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[by whom?] that the names go back to the Elder Futhark period, 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 runes had their name before that time.[original research?]

This concerns primarily the runes used magically, especially the Teiwaz and Ansuz runes which are taken to symbolize or invoke deities in sequences such as that on the Lindholm amulet (3rd or 4th century).[citation needed]

Reconstructed names in Common Germanic can easily be given for most runes. Exceptions are the þ 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 from Old English tradition). The 24 Elder Futhark runes are:[11]

Rune UCS Transliteration IPA Proto-Germanic name Meaning
  f /f/ *fehu "cattle; wealth"
  u /u(ː)/ ?*ūruz "aurochs", Wild ox (or *ûram "water/slag"?)
  þ /θ/, /ð/ ?*þurisaz "Thurs" (see Jötunn) or *þunraz ("the god Thunraz")
  a /a(ː)/ *ansuz "god"
  r /r/ *raidō "ride, journey"
  k (c) /k/ ?*kaunan "ulcer"? (or *kenaz "torch"?)
  g /ɡ/ *gebō "gift"
  w /w/ *wunjō "joy"
    ᚺ ᚻ h /h/ *hagalaz "hail" (the precipitation)
  n /n/ *naudiz "need"
  i /i(ː)/ *īsaz "ice"
  j /j/ *jēra- "year, good year, harvest"
  ï (æ) /æː/[12] *ī(h)waz "yew-tree"
  p /p/ ?*perþ- meaning unknown; possibly "pear-tree".
  z /z/ ?*algiz "elk" (or "protection, defence"[13])
    ᛊ ᛋ s /s/ *sōwilō "sun"
  t /t/ *tīwaz "the god Tiwaz"
  b /b/ *berkanan "birch"
  e /e(ː)/ *ehwaz "horse"
  m /m/ *mannaz "man"
  l /l/ *laguz "water, lake" (or possibly *laukaz "leek")
    ŋ /ŋ/ *ingwaz "the god Ingwaz"
  o /o(ː)/ *ōþila-/*ōþala- "heritage, estate, possession"
  d /d/ *dagaz "day"

Each rune derived its sound from the first phoneme of the rune's respective name, 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 ʀ, and finally merged 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.
  • Daily life and human condition: Man, need/constraint, wealth/cattle, horse, estate/inheritance, slag/protection from evil, ride/journey, year/harvest, gift, joy, need, ulcer/illness.[citation needed]

IPA vowels and consonants

Vowels Front Central Back
Close /i/ /u/
Close Mid /e/ /o/
Near Open /æ/
Open /a/

[14]

Consonants Labial Dental Coronal Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal /m/ /n/ /ŋ/
Plosive /p/, /b/ /t/, /d/ /k/, /g/
Fricative /f/ /v/ /θ/ /ð/ ᛊ ᛋ /s/, /z/ ᚺ ᚻ /h/
Trill /r/
Approximant /l/ /j/ /w/

Inscription corpus

 
[ek go]dagastiz runo faihido inscription on the 4th century "Einang stone"[15]

Old Futhark inscriptions were found on artifacts scattered between the Carpathians and Lappland, with the highest concentration in Denmark. They are usually short inscriptions on jewelry (bracteates, fibulae, belt buckles), utensils (combs, spinning whorls) or weapons (lance tips, seaxes) and were mostly found in graves or bogs.

Scandinavian inscriptions

Words frequently appearing in inscriptions on bracteates with possibly magical significance are alu, laþu and laukaz. While their meaning is unclear, 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. An example of a longer early inscription is on a 4th-century axe-handle found in Nydam, Jutland: wagagastiz / alu:??hgusikijaz:aiþalataz (wagagastiz "wave-guest" could be a personal name, the rest has been read as alu:wihgu sikijaz:aiþalataz 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.[16] The inscription reads harja, either a personal name or an epithet, viz. Proto-Germanic *harjaz (PIE *koryos) "warrior", or simply the word for "comb" (*hārijaz). 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 Björketorp or Stentoften stones. In the early 9th century, both the older and the younger futhark were known and used, which is shown on the Rök runestone where the runemaster used both.

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 raïhan "deer" is notable as the oldest inscription of the British Isles, dating to 400, the very end of Roman Britain.

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"),[17] 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 peoples. 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"[18] 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 81 known inscriptions from the South (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and 267 from Scandinavia.[19][20] 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). As of 2021, one inscription was found in a settlement associated with Slavs.[21]

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.[22]

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, p. 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.

List of inscriptions

After Looijenga 1997, Lüthi 2004.

Unicode

The Elder Futhark is encoded in Unicode within the unified Runic range, 16A0–16FF. Among the freely available TrueType fonts that include this range are Junicode and FreeMono. The Kylver Stone row encoded in Unicode reads:

ᚠᚢᚦᚨᚱᚲᚷᚹᚺᚾᛁᛃᛇᛈᛉᛊᛏᛒᛖᛗᛚᛜᛞᛟ

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, bind runes are considered ligatures and not given Unicode codepoints. The only bind rune that can arguably be rendered as a single Unicode glyph is the i͡ŋ bindrune or "lantern rune", as , the character intended as the Anglo-Saxon Gēr rune.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Speculated by Looijenga 1997 to be a variant of b.
  2. ^ Westergaard 1981 postulates occurrence in 34 Vimose and 23 Letcani, rejected by Odenstedt 1990, p. 118.

References

  1. ^ Vänehem, Mats, (article), Stockholms Lans Museum, archived from the original on 2010-08-22, retrieved 2009-07-23.
  2. ^ Elliott 1980, p. 14.
  3. ^ Page 2005, p. 15.
  4. ^ Gippert, Jost, The Development of Old Germanic Alphabets, Uni Frankfurt, from the original on 2021-02-25, retrieved 2007-03-21.
  5. ^ Stifter 2010, p. 374.
  6. ^ Odenstedt 1990, pp. 160ff.
  7. ^ Moltke 1976, p. 54: "the year 0±100".
  8. ^ Askeberg 1944, p. 77.
  9. ^ Odenstedt 1990, p. 168.
  10. ^ Moltke 1976, p. 53.
  11. ^ Page 2005, pp. 8, 15–16. The asterisk before the rune names means that they are unattested reconstructions.
  12. ^ also rendered /ɛː/, see Proto-Germanic phonology
  13. ^ Ralph Warren, Victor Elliott, Runes: an introduction, Manchester University Press ND, 1980, 51-53.
  14. ^ Painter, Robert (May 2014). "An Acoustic Investigation of R-Umlaut in Old Norse". An Acoustic Investigation of R-Umlaut in Old Norse. 26 – via Google Scholar.
  15. ^ "Runic", Nordic life, from the original on 2020-04-23, retrieved 2005-03-05.
  16. ^ Ilkjær 1996, p. 74 in Looijenga 2003, p. 78.
  17. ^ Martin 2004, p. 173.
  18. ^ Martin 2004.
  19. ^ Fischer 2004, p. 281.
  20. ^ Lüthi 2004, p. 321.
  21. ^ Macháček, Jiří; Nedoma, Robert; Dresler, Petr; Schulz, Ilektra; Lagonik, Elias; Johnson, Stephen M.; Kaňáková, Ludmila; Slámová, Alena; Llamas, Bastien; Wegmann, Daniel; Hofmanová, Zuzana (March 2021). "Runes from Lány (Czech Republic) - The oldest inscription among Slavs. A new standard for multidisciplinary analysis of runic bones". Journal of Archaeological Science. 127: 105333. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2021.105333.
  22. ^ Lüthi 2004, p. 323.
  23. ^ Jansson, Sven Birger Fredrik (1962), The runes of Sweden, Bedminster Press, pp. iii–iv, The oldest known runic inscription from Sweden is found on a spearhead, recovered from a grave at Mos in the parish of Stenkyrka in Gotland. The inscription, consisting of only five runes, might be dated to the end of the third century of our era.

Bibliography

  • Bæksted, A (1952), Målruner og troldruner, Copenhagen.
  • Elliott, Ralph Warren Victor (15 January 1981), Runes: An Introduction, Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-0787-9
  • Fischer, Svante (2004), "Alemannia and the North — Early Runic Contexts Apart (400–800)", in Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska; et al. (eds.), Alemannien und der Norden, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 266–317, ISBN 3-11-017891-5
  • Ilkjær, Jørgen (1996), "Runeindskrifter fra mosefund i Danmark – kontekst og oprindelse", Frisian Runes and Neighbouring Traditions, Rodopi.
  • Looijenga, Jantina Helena (1997), Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150–700 (dissertation), Groningen University.
  • Looijenga, Tineke (2004), Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 90-04-12396-2
  • Lüthi, Katrin (2004), "Von Þruþhild und Hariso: Alemannische und ältere skandinavische Runenkultur im Vergleich", in Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska; et al. (eds.), Alemannien und der Norden, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 318–39, ISBN 3-11-017891-5
  • Martin, Max (2004), "Kontinentalgermanische Runeninschriften und 'Alamannische Runenprovinz'", in Naumann, Hans-Peter; Lanter, Franziska; et al. (eds.), Alemannien und der Norden, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 165–212, ISBN 3-11-017891-5
  • Nowak, Sean (2003), Schrift auf den Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit (PDF) (diss), Göttingen.
  • 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 Ian (2005) [1987], Runes, The British Museum Press, ISBN 0-7141-8065-3.
  • Rix, Helmut (1997), "Germanische Runen und venetische Phonetik", in Birkmann; et al. (eds.), Vergleichende germanische Philologie und Skandinavistik, Festschrift für Otmar Werner, Tübingen, pp. 231–48, ISBN 3-484-73031-5.
  • Robinson, Orrin W (2004), Old English and its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-08169-6
  • Stifter, David (2010), "Lepontische Studien: Lexicon Leponticum und die Funktion von san im Lepontischen", in Stüber, Karin; et al. (eds.), Akten des 5. Deutschsprachigen Keltologensymposiums. Zürich, 7.–10. September 2009, Wien, pp. 361–76.
  • Westergaard, Kai-Erik (1981), Skrifttegn og symboler : noen studier over tegnformer i det eldre runealfabet, Osloer Beiträge zur Germanistik (in Norwegian), vol. 6, Oslo: Germanistisches Institut der Universität Oslo, ISBN 978-82-90389-02-9.

External links

  • Runenprojekt inscription database at the University of Kiel
  • Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Older Runic". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  • Omniglot.com – Elder Futhark
  • Rune Converter hosted by Viking Rune
  • Futhark Hávamál Select stanzas of the Hávamál rendered in Elder Futhark and English

elder, futhark, fuþark, also, known, older, futhark, futhark, germanic, futhark, oldest, form, runic, alphabets, writing, system, used, germanic, peoples, northwest, germanic, dialects, migration, period, inscriptions, found, artifacts, including, jewelry, amu. The Elder Futhark or 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 in Scandinavia from the 2nd to the 10th centuries Elder FutharkScript typeAlphabetTime period1st to 8th centuriesDirectionleft to right boustrophedon LanguagesProto Germanic Proto Norse Gothic Alemannic Old High GermanRelated scriptsParent systemsPhoenician alphabetGreek alphabet Cumae variant Old Italic alphabetLatin alphabet Elder FutharkChild systemsYounger Futhark Anglo Saxon futhorc This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA For the distinction between and see IPA Brackets and transcription delimiters This article contains runic characters Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of runes Distribution of pre 6th century Elder Futhark finds In Scandinavia beginning in the late 8th century the script was simplified to the Younger Futhark while the Anglo Saxons and Frisians instead extended it giving rise to the Anglo Saxon futhorc Both the Anglo Saxon futhorc and the Younger Futhark remained in use during the Early and the High Middle Ages respectively but knowledge of how to read the Elder Futhark was forgotten until 1865 when it was deciphered by Norwegian scholar Sophus Bugge 1 Contents 1 Description 2 Origins 2 1 Derivation from Italic alphabets 2 2 Date and purpose of invention 3 Rune names 4 IPA vowels and consonants 5 Inscription corpus 5 1 Scandinavian inscriptions 5 2 Continental inscriptions 5 3 Distribution 5 4 List of inscriptions 6 Unicode 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 Bibliography 11 External linksDescription EditThe Elder Futhark named after the initial phoneme of the first six rune names F U TH A R and K has 24 runes often arranged in three groups of eight runes each group is called an aett 2 pl aettir In the following table each rune is given with its common transliteration f u th a r k g w h n i j i p z s t b e m l ŋ d oth corresponds to 8 unvoiced or d voiced like the English sequence th 3 i is also transliterated as ae and may have been either a diphthong or a vowel close to ɪ or ae z was Proto Germanic z and evolved into Proto Norse r and is also transliterated as ʀ The remaining transliterations correspond to the IPA symbol of their approximate value The earliest known sequential listing of the alphabet dates to 400 AD and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland ᚠ and ᚹ only partially inscribed but widely authenticated ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ ᚷ ᚹ ᚺ ᚾ ᛁ ᛃ ᛈ ᛇ ᛉ ᛊ ᛏ ᛒ ᛖ ᛗ ᛚ ᛜ ᛞ ᛟ f u th a r k g w h n i j p i z s t b e m l ŋ d oTwo instances of another early inscription were found on the two Vadstena and Mariedamm bracteates 6th century showing the division in three aetts with the positions of i p and o d inverted compared to the Kylver stone f u th a r k g w h n i j i p z s t b e m l ŋ o dThe Grumpan bracteate presents a listing from 500 which is identical to the one found on the previous bracteates but incomplete f u th a r k g w h n i j i p z t b e m l ŋ o dOrigins EditSee also Runes Derivation from Italic alphabets Edit This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Elder Futhark news newspapers books scholar JSTOR September 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Elder Futhark runes are commonly believed to originate in the Old Italic scripts either a North Italic variant Etruscan or Raetic alphabets or the Latin alphabet itself Derivation from the Greek 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 whereas the Goths were 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 j and from Uruz u 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 4th century BC Negau helmet inscription features a Germanic name Harigastiz 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 4 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 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 s in Lepontic where it seems to represent the sound d 5 The g a f i t m and l runes show no variation and are generally accepted as identical to the Old Italic or Latin letters X A F I T M and L respectively There is also wide agreement that the u r k h s b and o runes respectively 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 p 163 suggests that all 22 Latin letters of the classical Latin alphabet 1st Century ignoring marginalized K were adopted th from D z from Y ŋ from Q w from P j from G i 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 th D or Raetic 8 w Q or P i and z both from either Z or Latin Y ŋ Q and d runes 6 Of the 24 runes in the classical futhark row attested from 400 Kylver stone i p a and ŋ b are unattested in the earliest inscriptions of c 175 to 400 while e in this early period mostly takes a P 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 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 these appear in the case of e mentioned above but also in t l ŋ and h Date and purpose of invention Edit The general agreement dates the creation of the first runic alphabet to roughly the 1st century Early estimates include the 1st century BC 7 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 c 160 If either i 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 8 9 Pedersen and with him Odenstedt suggests a period of development of about a century to account for their assumed derivation of the shapes of th and j from Latin D and G The invention of the script has been ascribed to a single person 10 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 Baeksted 1952 p 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 p 171 in the light of the very primitive nature of the earliest 2nd to 4th century inscription corpus Rune names EditEach rune most probably had a name chosen to represent the sound of the rune itself according to the principle of acrophony 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 7th 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 by whom that the names go back to the Elder Futhark period 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 runes had their name before that time original research This concerns primarily the runes used magically especially the Teiwaz and Ansuz runes which are taken to symbolize or invoke deities in sequences such as that on the Lindholm amulet 3rd or 4th century citation needed Reconstructed names in Common Germanic can easily be given for most runes Exceptions are the th 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 from Old English tradition The 24 Elder Futhark runes are 11 Rune UCS Transliteration IPA Proto Germanic name Meaning ᚠ f f fehu cattle wealth ᚢ u u ː uruz aurochs Wild ox or uram water slag ᚦ th 8 d thurisaz Thurs see Jotunn or thunraz the god Thunraz ᚨ a a ː ansuz god ᚱ r r raidō ride journey ᚲ k c k kaunan ulcer or kenaz torch ᚷ g ɡ gebō gift ᚹ w w wunjō joy ᚺ ᚻ h h hagalaz hail the precipitation ᚾ n n naudiz need ᛁ i i ː isaz ice ᛃ j j jera year good year harvest ᛇ i ae aeː 12 i h waz yew tree ᛈ p p perth meaning unknown possibly pear tree ᛉ z z algiz elk or protection defence 13 ᛊ ᛋ s s sōwilō sun ᛏ t t tiwaz the god Tiwaz ᛒ b b berkanan birch ᛖ e e ː ehwaz horse ᛗ m m mannaz man ᛚ l l laguz water lake or possibly laukaz leek ᛜ ŋ ŋ ingwaz the god Ingwaz ᛟ o o ː ōthila ōthala heritage estate possession ᛞ d d dagaz day Each rune derived its sound from the first phoneme of the rune s respective name 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 ʀ and finally merged 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 Daily life and human condition Man need constraint wealth cattle horse estate inheritance slag protection from evil ride journey year harvest gift joy need ulcer illness citation needed IPA vowels and consonants EditVowels Front Central BackClose ᛁ i ᚢ u Close Mid ᛖ e ᛟ o Near Open ᛇ ae Open ᚨ a 14 Consonants Labial Dental Coronal Palatal Velar GlottalNasal ᛗ m ᚾ n ᛜ ŋ Plosive ᛈ p ᛒ b ᛏ t ᛞ d ᚲ k ᚷ g Fricative ᚠ f v ᚦ 8 d ᛊ ᛋ s ᛉ z ᚺ ᚻ h Trill ᚱ r Approximant ᛚ l ᛃ j ᚹ w Inscription corpus EditMain article Elder Futhark inscriptions ek go dagastiz runo faihido inscription on the 4th century Einang stone 15 Old Futhark inscriptions were found on artifacts scattered between the Carpathians and Lappland with the highest concentration in Denmark They are usually short inscriptions on jewelry bracteates fibulae belt buckles utensils combs spinning whorls or weapons lance tips seaxes and were mostly found in graves or bogs Scandinavian inscriptions Edit Words frequently appearing in inscriptions on bracteates with possibly magical significance are alu lathu and laukaz While their meaning is unclear 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 An example of a longer early inscription is on a 4th century axe handle found in Nydam Jutland wagagastiz alu hgusikijaz aithalataz wagagastiz wave guest could be a personal name the rest has been read as alu wihgu sikijaz aithalataz 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 16 The inscription reads harja either a personal name or an epithet viz Proto Germanic harjaz PIE koryos warrior or simply the word for comb harijaz 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 Bjorketorp or Stentoften stones In the early 9th century both the older and the younger futhark were known and used which is shown on the Rok runestone where the runemaster used both 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 Continental inscriptions Edit 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 17 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 peoples 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 18 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 Edit There are some 350 known Elder Futhark inscriptions with 81 known inscriptions from the South Germany Austria Switzerland and 267 from Scandinavia 19 20 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 As of 2021 one inscription was found in a settlement associated with Slavs 21 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 22 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 p 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 List of inscriptions Edit After Looijenga 1997 Luthi 2004 Scandinavia Period I 150 550 Vimose inscriptions 6 objects 160 300 Ovre Stabu spearhead c 180 raunijaz Illerup inscriptions 9 objects Mos spearhead c 300 gaois 23 Golden horns of Gallehus c 400 Einang stone 400 Kylver Stone 400 Ro Runestone 400 450 Kalleby Runestone 5th century Mojbro Runestone 400 550 Jarsberg Runestone 500 550 Hogganvik runestone 5th century Bracteates total 133 see also Alu Seeland II C 500 Vadstena bracteate Tjurko bracteate Period II 550 700 Skaang Runestone 6th century Bjorketorp 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 Bulach fibula Charnay fibula Nordendorf fibula Pforzen buckle English and Frisian 300 700 44 see futhorcUnicode EditFurther information Runic Unicode block The Elder Futhark is encoded in Unicode within the unified Runic range 16A0 16FF Among the freely available TrueType fonts that include this range are Junicode and FreeMono The Kylver Stone row encoded in Unicode reads ᚠᚢᚦᚨᚱᚲᚷᚹᚺᚾᛁᛃᛇᛈᛉᛊᛏᛒᛖᛗᛚᛜᛞᛟEncoded separately is the continental double barred h rune ᚻ A graphical variant of the ng rune ᛝ 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 bind runes are considered ligatures and not given Unicode codepoints The only bind rune that can arguably be rendered as a single Unicode glyph is the i ŋ bindrune or lantern rune as ᛄ the character intended as the Anglo Saxon Ger rune See also EditRune poem Runic script Younger FutharkNotes Edit Speculated by Looijenga 1997 to be a variant of b Westergaard 1981 postulates occurrence in 34 Vimose and 23 Letcani rejected by Odenstedt 1990 p 118 References Edit Vanehem Mats Forskning om runor och runstenar article Stockholms Lans Museum archived from the original on 2010 08 22 retrieved 2009 07 23 Elliott 1980 p 14 sfn error no target CITEREFElliott1980 help Page 2005 p 15 Gippert Jost The Development of Old Germanic Alphabets Uni Frankfurt archived from the original on 2021 02 25 retrieved 2007 03 21 Stifter 2010 p 374 Odenstedt 1990 pp 160ff Moltke 1976 p 54 the year 0 100 sfn error no target CITEREFMoltke1976 help Askeberg 1944 p 77 sfn error no target CITEREFAskeberg1944 help Odenstedt 1990 p 168 Moltke 1976 p 53 sfn error no target CITEREFMoltke1976 help Page 2005 pp 8 15 16 The asterisk before the rune names means that they are unattested reconstructions also rendered ɛː see Proto Germanic phonology Ralph Warren Victor Elliott Runes an introduction Manchester University Press ND 1980 51 53 Painter Robert May 2014 An Acoustic Investigation of R Umlaut in Old Norse An Acoustic Investigation of R Umlaut in Old Norse 26 via Google Scholar Runic Nordic life archived from the original on 2020 04 23 retrieved 2005 03 05 Ilkjaer 1996 p 74 in Looijenga 2003 p 78harvnb error no target CITEREFLooijenga2003 help Martin 2004 p 173 Martin 2004 Fischer 2004 p 281 Luthi 2004 p 321 Machacek Jiri Nedoma Robert Dresler Petr Schulz Ilektra Lagonik Elias Johnson Stephen M Kanakova Ludmila Slamova Alena Llamas Bastien Wegmann Daniel Hofmanova Zuzana March 2021 Runes from Lany Czech Republic The oldest inscription among Slavs A new standard for multidisciplinary analysis of runic bones Journal of Archaeological Science 127 105333 doi 10 1016 j jas 2021 105333 Luthi 2004 p 323 Jansson Sven Birger Fredrik 1962 The runes of Sweden Bedminster Press pp iii iv The oldest known runic inscription from Sweden is found on a spearhead recovered from a grave at Mos in the parish of Stenkyrka in Gotland The inscription consisting of only five runes might be dated to the end of the third century of our era Bibliography EditBaeksted A 1952 Malruner og troldruner Copenhagen Elliott Ralph Warren Victor 15 January 1981 Runes An Introduction Manchester University Press ISBN 0 7190 0787 9 Fischer Svante 2004 Alemannia and the North Early Runic Contexts Apart 400 800 in Naumann Hans Peter Lanter Franziska et al eds Alemannien und der Norden Berlin Walter de Gruyter pp 266 317 ISBN 3 11 017891 5 Ilkjaer Jorgen 1996 Runeindskrifter fra mosefund i Danmark kontekst og oprindelse Frisian Runes and Neighbouring Traditions Rodopi Looijenga Jantina Helena 1997 Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150 700 dissertation Groningen University Looijenga Tineke 2004 Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions Leiden Brill ISBN 90 04 12396 2 Luthi Katrin 2004 Von THruthhild und Hariso Alemannische und altere skandinavische Runenkultur im Vergleich in Naumann Hans Peter Lanter Franziska et al eds Alemannien und der Norden Berlin Walter de Gruyter pp 318 39 ISBN 3 11 017891 5 Martin Max 2004 Kontinentalgermanische Runeninschriften und Alamannische Runenprovinz in Naumann Hans Peter Lanter Franziska et al eds Alemannien und der Norden Berlin Walter de Gruyter pp 165 212 ISBN 3 11 017891 5 Nowak Sean 2003 Schrift auf den Goldbrakteaten der Volkerwanderungszeit PDF diss Gottingen 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 Ian 2005 1987 Runes The British Museum Press ISBN 0 7141 8065 3 Rix Helmut 1997 Germanische Runen und venetische Phonetik in Birkmann et al eds Vergleichende germanische Philologie und Skandinavistik Festschrift fur Otmar Werner Tubingen pp 231 48 ISBN 3 484 73031 5 Robinson Orrin W 2004 Old English and its Closest Relatives A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages Routledge ISBN 0 415 08169 6 Stifter David 2010 Lepontische Studien Lexicon Leponticum und die Funktion von san im Lepontischen in Stuber Karin et al eds Akten des 5 Deutschsprachigen Keltologensymposiums Zurich 7 10 September 2009 Wien pp 361 76 Westergaard Kai Erik 1981 Skrifttegn og symboler noen studier over tegnformer i det eldre runealfabet Osloer Beitrage zur Germanistik in Norwegian vol 6 Oslo Germanistisches Institut der Universitat Oslo ISBN 978 82 90389 02 9 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elder Futhark inscriptions Runenprojekt inscription database at the University of Kiel Hammarstrom Harald Forkel Robert Haspelmath Martin eds 2017 Older Runic Glottolog 3 0 Jena Germany Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Ancient Scripts Futhark Omniglot com Elder Futhark Rune Converter hosted by Viking Rune Futhark Havamal Select stanzas of the Havamal rendered in Elder Futhark and English Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Elder Futhark amp oldid 1120469960, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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