Title 'Runes' in The Encyclopedia of British Medieval Literature Author(s) Birkett, Thomas Editor(s) Echard, Siân Rouse, Richard

Publication date 2017-08 Original citation Birkett, T. (2017) 'Runes', in Echard, S. and Rouse, R. (eds.) The Encyclopedia of British Medieval Literature, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. isbn: 978-1-118-39698-8

Type of publication Book chapter

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Item downloaded http://hdl.handle.net/10468/5088 from Downloaded on 2018-08-23T18:56:22Z Runes underwent several changes, being reduced from 24 to 16 characters in the Scandinavian TOM BIRKETT younger futhark (before being expanded in University College Cork, Ireland the later medieval period), and modified with the addition of several new characters There is still considerable uncertainty about in Anglo-Saxon England, a reform perhaps the origin of the runic writing system, but undertaken by seventh-century ecclesiasts it was almost certainly developed by a Ger- (Parsons 1999). manic community in contact with the Roman The script was used in a variety of ways in Empire in the first or second centuries CE,and early Anglo-Saxon England, from informal wasinspiredbyoneoftheMediterraneanal- scribbles to runic coin legends. Despite a phabets (see Moltke 1985; Barnes 2012). The number of popular books stating the con- script is angular in nature and was probably trary, there is very little evidence for pagan intended for engraving into wood, and it is ritual associated with Anglo-Saxon runes: unusual for a derivative writing system in the alu stamp on the Spong Hill cremation having a nonalphabetic arrangement, the first urns is one of only a few inscriptions credibly letters in the sequence of the oldest alphabet linked to pre-Christian religious practice giving us the name futhark.Thescriptwas (Page 1999). Perhaps the best evidence that originally used for only very limited purposes, runes were treated as little more than an often inscriptions of ownership on portable alternative writing system is the fact that they objects, but these laconic inscriptions never- occur on such overtly Christian monuments theless provide important information about as the Ruthwell and Bewcastle Crosses, with early Germanic languages and culture. Older objects such as the Franks Casket represent- futhark inscriptions have been found as far ing an ambitious synthesis of Christian and apart as central Norway and Ukraine, though Germanic traditions. However, runic inscrip- the earliest examples cluster around southern tions could also be informal and personal – a Scandinavia. prayer, partly in Latin, is found inscribed on The runic script was first brought to the a seventh-century bone comb from Whitby, British Isles by Germanic peoples migrating whilst the inscription on the reverse of the from Continental Europe, and early inscrip- Harford Farm Brooch simply reads “Luda tions from Anglo-Saxon England have a repaired the brooch.” particular affinity with the small corpus of Inscriptions in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc Frisian runic inscriptions. The runic system are found predominantly in the north and originally followed a phonemic principle, but east of England, though new finds continue due to linguistic changes this one-to-one cor- to refine our understanding of runic activity respondence between letter and sound was in the British Isles. The question of how eventually lost. It was perhaps in response to long the runic script continued in use in these linguistic shifts that the runic system Anglo-Saxon England is a more difficult one,

The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain, Edited by Siân Echard and Robert Rouse. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781118396957.wbemlb370 2 RUNES not least because informal inscriptions – or scattered sporadically throughout areas of what Parsons refers to as “ephemeral literacy” Viking settlement in Britain and Ireland, (1994) – may be unlikely to survive in the and often attest to cultural integration, as archaeological record. There are few monu- well as connections with the wider Viking mental inscriptions produced after the ninth world. century,andthelatestAnglo-Saxonrunic Runes have a long postmedieval history coinsalsodatefromthisperiod.However, of appropriation for a variety of purposes, several critics have cautioned against de- including in the iconography of Nazi Ger- marking a clear cut-off point for the tradition many and in the fantasy writing of Tolkien in England or a fundamental division be- and his many imitators: an area of reception tween the epigraphical tradition and runes that is gaining increasing scholarly attention. recorded in the scriptorium (see Derolez Neopagan appropriations of the runic script 1983; Parsons 1994). Indeed, runes contin- mostly ignore the fact that the runes were first uedtobecopiedinmanuscriptsuptothe and foremost written letters, and take much end of the Anglo-Saxon period, and whilst inspiration from the mythological poems theseoftenhaveadistinctlyantiquarian of the Poetic Edda, including the account character, the ingenious use of runes in the of Odin’s self-sacrifice to gain knowledge Exeter Book riddles suggests that the reader of runes. However, the evidence of the in- was expected to be able to understand the scriptions suggests that such associations script. The so-called runica manuscripta hadlittleimpactontheeverydayuseofthe include the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem,which script. givesusaninsightintothecommonnames given to individual runes, a feature of the SEE ALSO:FranksCasket;Rune Poem; script also exploited by Cynewulf in his Ruthwell Cross runic colophons. A further way in which thescriptsurvivedinAnglo-SaxonEngland REFERENCES is through the incorporation of the runes Barnes, Michael P. 2012. Runes: A Handbook. named wynn and þorn into the Insular script Woodbridge: Boydell Press. system (as and þ) – characters that con- Barnes, M.P.,and R.I. Page. 2006. The Scandinavian tinued in use well into the post-Conquest Runic Inscriptions of Britain.Uppsala:Institutio- period. nen för nordiska språk. The runic tradition in Scandinavia endured Derolez, R. 1983. “Epigraphical versus Manuscript for much longer – into the early modern pe- English Runes: One or Two Worlds?” Academiae Analecta 45: 69–93. riod in some parts of Sweden. During the Moltke, Erik. 1985. Runes and Their Origin: Den- Viking Age, Scandinavian settlers brought mark and Elsewhere. Translated by P. Foote. knowledge of the younger futhark with them Copenhagen: National Museum of Denmark. totheBritishIsles,andthereisagrowing Page, R.I. 1999. An Introduction to English Runes, corpus of Scandinavian inscriptions from 2nd ed. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. Britain (see Barnes and Page 2006). Partic- Parsons, David N. 1994. “Anglo-Saxon Runes ularly impressive is the runic graffiti from in Continental Manuscripts.” In Runische Maeshowe in Orkney. These inscriptions Schriftkultur in Kontinental skandinavischer und angelsächsischer Wechselbeziehung, edited by include boasts of runic dexterity and sexual Klaus Düwel, 195–220. Berlin: De Gruyter. conquest, as well as references to “Jerusalem Parsons, David N. 1999. Recasting the Runes: The farers” breaking into the Neolithic tomb Reform of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc.Uppsala:In- (Barnes 2012). Scandinavian runes are found stitutionen för nordiska språk. RUNES 3

FURTHER READING Looijenga, Tineke. 2003. Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions. Leiden: Brill. Derolez, R. 1954. Runica Manuscripta: The English Tradition.Bruges:DeTempel. Elliott, Ralph W.V. 1989. Runes: An Introduc- tion, 2nd ed. Manchester: Manchester Univer- sity Press.