Runic inscriptions from the British Isles

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Rune ring from Kingmoor near Carlisle

In the runic inscriptions of the British Isles, there are around 220 Viking Age inscriptions in Old Norse in addition to the Old English . These expand the spectrum of Scandinavian runic inscriptions . They can be found on the British Isles in England , Ireland and the Isle of Man , as well as in Scotland on Orkney and the Shetland Islands . The inventory of runic inscriptions is divided into three categories:

  • Older Futhark in Scandinavian (267) and South Germanic (81) on 348 objects from the 2nd to 8th centuries AD,
  • Anglo-Frisian Futhark (around 100 items from the 5th to 11th centuries)
  • Younger Futhark (nearly 6,000) items, 8th-12th centuries. The majority can be found on everyday objects and memorial stones, but there are significant special cases. For one thing, the Isle of Man has a large number of inscriptions carved into stone crosses. On the other hand, on the inner walls of the Maes Howe burial chamber, runic inscriptions on Orkney that were scratched as graffiti were discovered.

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man's Ogham and rune stones are a small heterogeneous group of six stones that originated before the 12th century. Example of the amalgamation of Irish and Nordic cultures on the island ( Vikings -Kingdom of Man and the Isles), are two monuments that combine runes and Oghamin inscriptions on the same stone. The other inscriptions are on stone crosses (Maughold I and II on slate) and are named after the place where they were found. They are dated between 930 and the 11th century. The formula "X" built this cross after "Y" is the normal case on the crosses. In contrast to the Scandinavian tradition, the formula always uses “cross” instead of “stone”.

Orkney

In 1861, the hobby archaeologist James Farrer opened the prehistoric monument Maes Howe and found numerous runic inscriptions on the interior walls, which have reached a secure status with the edition by Michael P. Barnes: "The Runic Inscriptions of Maeshowe, Orkney 1994". In terms of content, the scratches are often based on the formula: "X scratched these runes", or just a name. But there are also longer inscriptions with mixed contents. There is talk of a treasure that one was looking for. A rune scorer praises his rune art. Another praises a woman's beauty. Even obscene is not missing.

It is the largest collection of runic inscriptions in situ that has been found to date. They represent all known spellings: default font, branch runes ( English twig runes ) and the tree-like style ( English tree runes ); the deciphering of the latter was only possible through this discovery. They document the cultural-historical interdependencies in the North Atlantic area and testify to how precise the traditions of the saga literature can be, and they shed new light on the position of women in that time (e.g. the runic Lifolf as a member of the crusader troops ). Michael P. Barnes writes that the people are the Crusader troop of the Earl "Rögnvald Kali Kolsson" (St Rognvald of Orkney) mentioned in the Orkneyinga saga , who gathered men around Orkney in the winter of 1150–51 15 ships to go on cruise. If that's true, we have an exact date for the opening of the hill.

Michael P. Barnes believes that spelling, phonology, and certain grammatical forms suggest Norwegian speakers quite clearly. The typical Icelandic phrase “ fyrir sunnan land ” (in the south of the country) is an exception for him. There are no great grammatical peculiarities in Maes Howe, as can be found on the crosses of Man.

The fragment of the "Runestone of Naversdale" found in 2013 in Orphir on the Orkney island of Mainland was collected by the father of the archaeologist Sarah Jane Gibbon on a farm as a reading stone. The 19 runes on the 24 × 8 cm piece of stone are part of a Latin prayer "who are sanctified in heaven". A Latin runic inscription on Orkney or Shetland is quite unusual.

See also

literature

Tineke Looijenga: Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions . Leiden: Brill 2004. ISBN 90-04-12396-2 .

Web links

Commons : Runestones on Great Britain  - Collection of images, videos and audio files