DOCSLIB.ORG

3 Ruined Landscapes

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
3 Ruined Landscapes 3 Ruined Landscapes Introduction Contemporary ecocriticism sees landscape, and our ecosystems, in constant flux, in contrast to earlier literary analysis, which typically understood the places across which textual characters move as ‘setting.’ Setting is understood to constitute an unchanging background for the actions and emotions of the characters. If setting changes, non-ecocritical literary analysis understands this as occurring in response to the actions of a hu- man ‘character’ or in metaphorical reflection of a character’s spiritual or emotional state. Locations described in several Old English poems – Heorot and the dragon’s barrow in Beowulf, the Tower of Babel in Genesis A, and the crumbling structure(s) of The Ruin – are anything but static, and this mutability is in some cases described in terms of non-human forces. The sea in the Old English Exodus, discussed with these other ruins because it is transformed in the poem into a stone fortification, is another very changeable environment. All of these texts concern people and events far in England’s past and, other than The Ruin, also geographically remote. Yet they also reflect the physical reality that Anglo-Saxon England contained a large number of ruins, unmaintained structures left behind by the Romans. Christine Fell writes that, during the Anglo-Saxon period, ‘there must have been a fantastic number of ghost-towns or ghost-villas’ surviving from the Roman occupation (179-80). Much as the occupants of England who preceded the Anglo-Saxons left behind traces in earth and stonework, the people who traveled from Scandinavia to become the Anglo-Saxons retained literary and linguistic traces of their pagan past(s) in their names for places, epic heroes, and days of the week. The nature of individual dwellings and community structures gives significant but indirect insight into relationships with the natural (non-human) world. Anglo-Saxon descriptions of their own buildings, and particularly their focus on ruins, gives us a view into a culture that sees itself as built on the remains, literary and physical, metaphorical and literal, of previous cultures. The description of God’s interventions in the poetic adaptations of the Tower of Babel episode in Genesis A and the Red Sea crossing in Exodus contrast with depictions of naturally occurring decay and human destruction in Beowulf and The Ruin. Taken together, these works suggest that the Anglo-Saxons had a sense of place as fluid and mutable, whether because of divine, human, or natural forces, rather than as fixed and stable. 62 ANGLO-SAXON LITERARY LANDSCAPES Nicholas Howe demonstrated that the Anglo-Saxons understood the Exodus passage across the Red Sea as a precursor to their own migration to England. The layering of Jewish, Christian, and English interpretations of Hebrew Scripture, and the complex interactions of Geats, Danes, and Grendel as occupants of the hall, suggest a hybrid sense of place. In a survey of recent ecocritical work on place in American literature, Karen Halttunen calls for an understanding of place that is ‘open … hybrid … progressive … dynamic’ (2). The sense in Old English poems of dwelling as impermanent, threatened by human as well as inhuman forces, interacts interestingly with contemporary ecocritical theories of place shaped by global commerce and migration. Julia Hell and Andreas Schönle point out that ‘ruin can embody both continuity and rupture, thus inspiring contradictory ideologies and programs…. Narratives of ruination imply human agency’ (9-10). Old English poems about ruins suggest different kinds of human agency in the construction of an edifice or in the destruction of the society that built it. But they also describe ruins as the result of natural forces causing decay over time, as well as of divine intervention. The Anglo-Saxon descriptions of ruin in Genesis A, Exodus, Beowulf, and The Ruin suggest that the writers and scribes had already developed an understanding of environmental change across both short- and longer-term time frames. The depictions of decay as a result of the actions of nature and time suggest a sense of the earth as a living organism, not static, subject to its own processes outside of human activities or concerns. The Anglo-Saxons use the idea of ruin as a way of commenting on their own relationships with dwelling, with landscape, with questions of ter- ritorial alienation and belonging. Hell and Schönle write that ruins exist only if there is someone to see them: ‘The beholder defines the ruin, and the ruin could not exist without such creative appropriation. As a result, the ruin is often the playground of speculative strategies that tell us more about the beholder than about the ruin or its original environment’ (7). The poems discussed in this chapter concern themselves with pasts that the Anglo-Saxons have adopted as parts of their own history: they consider themselves heirs to Hebrew, Christian, and Roman traditions. Genesis A and Exodus appropriate (imagined) Jewish and Hebrew/Israelite pasts; Beowulf recalls the Anglo-Saxon tribal past in Denmark; The Ruin evokes the Roman occupants of England prior to the Anglo-Saxon settlement. As Helmut Puff observes about post-war Germany, a discussion of ruins is ‘a discourse that ultimately is not about the material remains themselves but about self-assurance and alienation…. The fact that ruins are versatile matter, discursively speaking, is one of their most enduring features’ (253). Similarly, RUINED LANDSCAPES 63 Anglo-Saxon poems about ruins from distant pasts and/or remote regions concern themselves with the Anglo-Saxons’ own anxieties about loss and displacement. The existence of ruins, whether visible in stone or imagined in poems, challenges how the Anglo-Saxons think about themselves and their relationships to dwellings and to other features of their lived environments. Hell and Schönle argue that ‘catastrophe, real and imagined, underpins modernity’s multilayered sense of history’ (9). As with many claims about modernity, this too is anticipated within the partially ruined poetic rem- nants of the Anglo-Saxon period. Poems about the abandoned cities of Babel and Bath, the imagined ruins of stone walls within the crashing waves of the Red Sea, and the burning of a hall like Heorot demonstrate a complex and multi-layered sense of history: the Anglo-Saxons remember their own past in Denmark and interpret it in terms of the Israelite and Roman pasts. They also display a sense of human dwelling as embodied within the natural world, both human and natural intertwined as part of a living organism subject to its own processes beyond human activities or concerns that include natural environmental dynamics across the slow creep of time, or acts of God. Various chronological layers interact with literal and symbolic understandings of time and its meanings. Roman Past and Mutable Present The Romans had built cities and fortifications around England, including London, Colchester, York, Gloucester, Lincoln, Canterbury, Worcester, and Exeter (Palliser 18-20), but these fell into ruin when their armies and ad- ministrators withdrew. This resulted from a decrease in population leading to the abandonment of buildings as well as from a shift in construction materials and technologies: Romans built with tile and stone, Anglo-Saxons with timber. Early Anglo-Saxons settled near the Roman city of London, rather than within its ruin-filled Roman walls. During much of the period, Anglo-Saxon settlements remained small and non-urban in character, with political and economic activity distributed in various regions rather than centralized in one or a few major cities. By the time of the Domesday Book, there were perhaps three dozen towns in England with a population greater than 1000 (Holt passim). London became a center of trade and commerce in the eighth century, reaching a peak population of somewhere between five and ten thousand inhabitants (Keene 188). Only in the tenth century did the city shift back to its Roman location, occupying the walled Roman enclosure, with streets linking several market areas within the town. 64 ANGLO-SAXON LITERARY LANDSCAPES As the Anglo-Saxon period was coming to a close, London began a period of rapid expansion in size alongside the development of its political and economic importance. This continued under the Normans, so that in the late Middle Ages ‘London was certainly a major city of the Latin West’ (Keene 195). But that takes us well beyond our period. Rome, in contrast, had been a city of a million at its imperial peak and had shrunk to a fragment of its former size, but with an estimated population of somewhere between thirty and fifty thousand at the end of the first millennium, it was still several times the size of London. Moreover, it was in many ways central to European political, religious, and economic life; in contrast, England tended to avoid centralization of various functions in any single location so that its towns did not become true urban centers until the later Middle Ages. The Old English poem known as The Ruin survives in only one manuscript copy, itself badly damaged in what Donoghue calls ‘an uncanny instance of form mimicking content’ (47). Much of the poem, in fact, cannot be reconstructed, but it is clear that it concerns a ruined stone building or perhaps even a city containing baths, which are mentioned more than once in what survives of the poem. Scholars have suggested that the poem refers to the ruins of Bath, but London or another city is also possible – or, indeed, an imagined conflation of various Roman ruins still visible in many places in Anglo-Saxon England. The Ruin is first described as the work of giants, broken by fate. This is followed by a description of time and storm and freezing weather damaging the mortar between the stones, according to the dictates of fate: Wrætlic is þes wealstan, wyrde gebræcon; burgstede burston, brosnað enta geweorc.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Cambridge Old English Reader
    The Cambridge Old English Reader RICHARD MARSDEN School of English Studies University of Nottingham published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom cambridge university press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarc´on 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org c Cambridge University Press 2004 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2004 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeface Times 10/13 pt System LATEX2ε [TB] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Marsden, Richard. The Cambridge Old English reader / Richard Marsden. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 45426 3 (hardback) – ISBN 0 521 45612 6 (paperback) 1. English language – Old English, ca. 450–1100 – Readers. 2. Anglo-Saxons – Literary collections. 3. Anglo-Saxons – Sources. I. Title. PE137.M46 2003 429.86421–dc21 2003043579 ISBN 0 521 45426 3 hardback ISBN 0 521 45612 6 paperback Contents Preface page ix List of abbreviations xi Introduction xv The writing and pronunciation
    [Show full text]
  • Medieval Medievalisms in the Old English Ruin
    • Via Rome: Medieval Medievalisms in the Old English Ruin Rory G. Critten University of Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland The recent publication of The Cambridge Companion to Medievalism under the editorship of Louise D’Arcens marks a crowning moment in the history of a discipline whose institutional backing has not always been so strong.1 For some time now, medievalism studies have been enjoying increasing respect for the insights that they can offer into matters ranging from periodization, colonization, and nationalism, to the potentially mutual imbrication of good scholarship and good fun.2 Since the majority of the contributors to the new Cambridge Companion work both in what we might call traditional medieval studies as well as in medievalism studies, the volume also serves as evidence for the rapprochement between these two fields. A significant facilitating factor in this regard has been a willingness shared across the disciplines to conceive of time not solely in linear terms. Researchers in both camps have met over the recognition that the present, in Carolyn Dinshaw’s words, “is not a singular, fleeting moment but comprises relations to other times, other people, other worlds.”3 Viewed from this perspective, the procedures of both medieval and medievalist texts can be seen to correspond, and the distinc- tion between what is medieval and what comes afterwards is blurred. These intertwining ideas have a rich history of their own. Even in their earliest iterations, medievalism studies highlighted the extent to which paying attention
    [Show full text]
  • Anglo-Saxon Literary Landscapes Literary Anglo-Saxon
    ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES IN PRE-MODERN CULTURES Estes Anglo-Saxon Literary Landscapes Heide Estes Anglo-Saxon Literary Landscapes Ecotheory and the Environmental Imagination Anglo-Saxon Literary Landscapes Environmental Humanities in Pre‑modern Cultures This series in environmental humanities offers approaches to medieval, early modern, and global pre-industrial cultures from interdisciplinary environmental perspectives. We invite submissions (both monographs and edited collections) in the fields of ecocriticism, specifically ecofeminism and new ecocritical analyses of under-represented literatures; queer ecologies; posthumanism; waste studies; environmental history; environmental archaeology; animal studies and zooarchaeology; landscape studies; ‘blue humanities’, and studies of environmental/natural disasters and change and their effects on pre-modern cultures. Series Editor Heide Estes, University of Cambridge and Monmouth University Editorial Board Steven Mentz, St. John’s University Gillian Overing, Wake Forest University Philip Slavin, University of Kent Anglo-Saxon Literary Landscapes Ecotheory and the Environmental Imagination Heide Estes Amsterdam University Press Cover illustration: © Douglas Morse Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Layout: Crius Group, Hulshout Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by the University of Chicago Press. isbn 978 90 8964 944 7 e-isbn 978 90 4852 838 7 doi 10.5117/9789089649447 nur 617 | 684 | 940 Creative Commons License CC BY NC ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0) The author / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2017 Some rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, any part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise).
    [Show full text]
  • Treebeard's List – Maxims II
    Pre-print extract from S. Lee and E. Solopova, The Keys of Middle-earth: Discovering Medieval Literature through the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien (Palgrave, 2005). To purchase full book go to: http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=27039 0. 4.9 Treebeard’s List – Maxims II (TT, ‘Treebeard’) 4.9.1 Plot Summary Merry and Pippin, having escaped the Orcs, flee into Fangorn’s forest, where they encounter Treebeard, the Ent. Treebeard is puzzled as to what the two Hobbits are and recites an ancient poem which lists the various flora and fauna of Middle-earth. Christopher Tolkien (Treason, pp. 411-21) notes that the character of Treebeard, and the Ents themselves, seem to have come late to Tolkien, and he puzzled over how they would fit into the story. 4.9.2 Medieval Text: Maxims II Maxims II is found in a British Library manuscript – Cotton MS Tiberius B.i (ff. 115r-v). It’s dating is troublesome, and the nature of the poem suggests ancient folklore passed down from generation to generation (as indeed Treebeard’s poem was). Cassidy and Ringler argue that it ‘probably reached its present form in the tenth century or slightly earlier, though some of the material in it may be much older’ (1974, p. 373). It is called Maxims II because a very similar poem (Maxims I) appears in ‘The Exeter Book’. A ‘Maxim’, according to the OED is: ‘A rule or principle of conduct. Also: a pithily expressed precept of morality or prudence (spec. occurring in Old English verse); such a precept as a literary form.’ Marsden (2004, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Intertextuality of Deor
    Vol. 4(8), pp. 132-138, October, 2013 DOI: 10.5897/JLC11.080 Journal of Languages and Culture ISSN 2141-6540 © 2013 Academic Journals http://www.academicjournals.org/JLC Review Intertextuality of Deor Raimondo Murgia Tallinn University, Narva mnt 25, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia. Accepted 22 November, 2012 The Deor is a poem found in the Exeter Book and included in the Old English elegies. The main purpose of this contribution is to highlight the possible intertextual links of the poem. After an outline of the old English elegies and a brief review of the most significant passages from the elegies, this short poem will be analyzed stanza by stanza. An attempt will be made to demonstrate that the various interpretations of the text depend on particular keywords that require that the readers to share the same time and space coordinates as the author. The personal names are the most important clues for interpretation. The problem is that they have been emended differently according to the editors and that the reader is supposed to know the referent hinted by those particular names. Key words: Old English elegies, Exeter Book, Deor, intertextuality. INTRODUCTION OF THE OLD ENGLISH ELEGIES It must be underlined that the term „elegy‟ applying to old definition of Old English elegy is Greenfield‟s (1965): “a English (hereafter OE) poetry could be misleading since relatively short reflective or dramatic poem embodying a one would expect the meter of such poetry to be the contrastive pattern of loss and consolation, ostensibly same as the Greek and Latin Elegies, in which their based upon a specific personal experience or observa- elegiac distich (Pinotti, 2002) points out that in the fourth tion, and expressing an attitude towards that experience”.
    [Show full text]
  • Abstract Old English Elegies: Language and Genre
    ABSTRACT OLD ENGLISH ELEGIES: LANGUAGE AND GENRE Stephanie Opfer, PhD Department of English Northern Illinois University, 2017 Dr. Susan E. Deskis, Director The Old English elegies include a group of poems found in the Exeter Book manuscript that have traditionally been treated as a single genre due to their general sense of lament – The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Riming Poem, Deor, Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wife’s Lament, Resignation, Riddle 60, The Husband’s Message, and The Ruin. In this study, I conduct a linguistic stylistic analysis of all ten poems using systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and a variety of computational and linguistic tools: Lexomics, Voyant, and Microsoft Excel. My results focus on three characteristics of the poetry: (1) the similarity of the linguistic style within the poems, measured by Lexomics; (2) an oscillation between first- and third-person clausal Themes, measured using SFL analysis; and (3) themes in the lexical categorization, measured through detailed lexical analysis. In the end, my methodology creates a new and more nuanced definition of the elegy: a relatively short reflective or dramatic poem, similar in style and content to other elegiac poems, that alternates between first- and third-person perspectives and includes (1) themes of exile; (2) imagery of water or the sea, the earth, and/or the weather; and (3) words expressing both joy and sorrow. Ultimately, I argue for a recategorization of only five poems as “Old English elegies”: The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wife’s Lament, and The Riming Poem. NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY DE KALB, ILLINOIS MAY 2017 OLD ENGLISH ELEGIES: LANGUAGE AND GENRE BY STEPHANIE OPFER ©2017 Stephanie Opfer A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH Doctoral Director: Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Old English Literature: a Brief Summary
    Volume II, Issue II, June 2014 - ISSN 2321-7065 Old English Literature: A Brief Summary Nasib Kumari Student J.k. Memorial College of Education Barsana Mor Birhi Kalan Charkhi Dadri Introduction Old English literature (sometimes referred to as Anglo-Saxon literature) encompasses literature written in Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) in Anglo-Saxon England from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066. "Cædmon's Hymn", composed in the 7th century according to Bede, is often considered the oldest extant poem in English, whereas the later poem, The Grave is one of the final poems written in Old English, and presents a transitional text between Old and Middle English.[1] Likewise, the Peterborough Chronicle continues until the 12th century. The poem Beowulf, which often begins the traditional canon of English literature, is the most famous work of Old English literature. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has also proven significant for historical study, preserving a chronology of early English history.Alexander Souter names the commentary on Paul's epistles by Pelagius "the earliest extant work by a British author".[2][3] In descending order of quantity, Old English literature consists of: sermons and saints' lives, biblical translations; translated Latin works of the early Church Fathers; Anglo-Saxon chronicles and narrative history works; laws, wills and other legal works; practical works ongrammar, medicine, geography; and poetry.[4] In all there are over 400 survivingmanuscripts from the period, of which about 189 are considered "major".[5] Besides Old English literature, Anglo-Saxons wrote a number of Anglo-Latin works.
    [Show full text]
  • J.R.R. Tolkien's Use of an Old English Charm
    J.R.R. Tolkien's use of an Old English charm Edward Pettit .R.R. Tolkien wanted to create - or, as he saw it, rediscover - a A smith sat, forged a little knife (seax), mythology for England, its native heathen tales having been Badly wounded by iron. Jalmost entirely lost due to the country's relatively early Out, little spear, if you are in here! conversion to Christianity and the cultural and linguistic Six smiths sat, made war-spears. transformation initiated by the Norman Conquest.1-2 Apart from Out, spear! Not in spear! the English treatment of the Scandinavian pagan past in the Old If a piece of iron (isenes dcel) is in here. English poem Beowulf, scraps of lore in other Anglo-Saxon heroic The work of a witch (liceglessan), heat shall melt (gemyllan) it! poems, chronicles and Latin histories; 'impoverished chap-book If you were shot in the skin, or were shot in the flesh, stuff from centuries later;3 and inferences Tolkien could make using Or were shot in the blood. his philological expertise and knowledge of Old Norse literature, he Or were shot in the limb, never may your life be injured. had little other than his imagination to go on - barely more than the If it were shot of gods (esa), or if it were shot of elves (ylfa), names of a few gods, mythical creatures and heroic ancestors.4 Or if it were shot of witch (hxglessan), now I will help you. However, a few Anglo-Saxon charms do provide tantalising This is your cure for shot of gods, this is your cure for shot of glimpses of something more.
    [Show full text]
  • Unit I, Module II, P 1 MODULE II Features of Anglo-Saxon Poetry
    MODULE II ELEGIAC POETRY In this module you are going to learn: Features of Anglo-Saxon lyrical poetry with special reference to Widsith and Deor’s Lament Introduction to elegiac poetry Instances of elegiac poetry: The Seafarer, The Wanderer, The Wife’s Lament, The Husband’s Message, The Ruin and, Wulf and Eadwacer. Features of Anglo-Saxon Poetry You have already learnt a few aspects of the Anglo-Saxon society. You must have realised the importance of literature in their culture. The verse form that is used in the Anglo-Saxon poetry originates in the continent. It was brought along by the migrating tribes of the fifth century. This poetry was oral in nature and was sung in the courts of the kings or the mead halls as shown in the heroic literature. Primarily, these stories served the purpose of history as they told the stories of great German heroes, local kings; later after Christianization, Biblical stories were also added to the repertoire. However, as time passed by, the clerics began to keep a written record of the poems. This preserved the pagan songs but in many ways compromised their tone as the Christian philosophy was interpolated. Earliest instances of writing, which was related to Christian theology, could be found around eighth century. Remember, the clerics who wrote were the descendents of heroic society, thus the Christian verses would have images and words that are associated with their heroic past. The Anglo-Saxon literature or Old English literature (many scholars prefer the term ‘Old English’ because the society was not just composed of Angles or Saxons but a number of other races) thus is an odd mixture of both pagan and Christian wisdom.
    [Show full text]
  • MEETING the OTHER in the SEAFARER and the RUIN Thesis
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
    [Show full text]
  • Female Representations of Heroism in Old English Poetry
    University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-2018 Breaking with tradition(?) : female representations of heroism in old english poetry. Kathryn A. Green University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Green, Kathryn A., "Breaking with tradition(?) : female representations of heroism in old english poetry." (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2971. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2971 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BREAKING WITH TRADITION(?): FEMALE REPRESENTATIONS OF HEROISM IN OLD ENGLISH POETRY By Kathryn A. Green B.A., University of Louisville, 1987 M.A., University of Louisville, 2012 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Humanities Department of Comparative Humanities University of Louisville Louisville, KY May 2018 Copyright 2018 by Kathryn A. Green All rights reserved BREAKING WITH TRADITION(?): FEMALE REPRESENTATIONS OF HEROISM IN OLD ENGLISH POETRY By Kathryn A. Green B.A., University of Louisville, 1987 M.A., University of Louisville, 2012 Dissertation Approved on April 19, 2018 by the following Dissertation Committee: ___________________________________________ Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Manusanvisningar För Scripta Islandica
    The alysendlecan rune: Runic abbreviations in their immediate literary context. Thomas Birkett Runic abbreviations in manuscripts constitute something of a curiosity in runic studies, representing what one might call the practical afterlife of the script, transferred from the epigraphical world to the scriptorium. This practice makes use of the logographic component of the script, whereby each character bears a meaningful name, whose initial sound typically corresponds with the phonetic value of the rune. Although the earliest witness to such a naming system is the Abecedarium Nordmannicum, usually dated to the mid ninth century (Bischoff 1950: 45; Derolez 1954: 82-3), there is little doubt that this is an early tradition, supported both by cognate names in North Germanic sources (Halsall 1981: 3) and by the suggestion that certain Elder Fuþark inscriptions make use of ideograms, including the proposed deployment of the *oþala rune on the Pietroassa neck-ring to represent the concept of possession (Düwel 2001: 28). Whilst such Begriffsrunen are rather rare, and there are few ‘convincing’ examples in Old English inscriptions (Page 1999: 79), the manuscript practice exploits an original feature of the script, and is not simply an antiquarian invention. Only a small number of runic characters are used as abbreviations. The maðr rune is found regularly in Icelandic manuscripts, the fé rune somewhat less frequently, whilst in Anglo- Saxon manuscripts the runes mon, dæg, wynn and eþel are all used on occasion. These are some of the most functional of the rune names, occurring relatively often in written language, unlike the elusive peorð, for example, which would be of little or no use as an abbreviation because of its rarity.
    [Show full text]