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XII. On Anglo-Saxon Runes. By John M. Kemble, Esq.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

John M. Kemble Esq.
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Extract

The particular object of the following remarks are the Runes of the Anglo-Saxons, whether as to their use in inscriptions, or the manner in which they are introduced into manuscripts. I shall therefore have but little to say of the Scandinavian or old Norse characters of the same description, unless by way of illustrating the indigenous alphabet: and indeed these require less attention from us, inasmuch as they have been profoundly and successfully studied by those who had the most right to take an interest in them, the antiquaries of Scandinavia and Iceland.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , 1840 , pp. 327 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1840

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References

page 332 note a So, Old Norse Tein.

page 334 note b It is an interesting coincidence that in Welsh the Alphabet was called “The lot of the Bards,” Coelbren y Beirdd.

page 335 note c See also the following stanzas of the Runa Capitul, and particularly the Brynhild. Quid. I. 13.

page 336 note d So Odinn says in the Runa Capitul,— “That kann ek fiorda, ef mer fyrdar bera bavnd at boglimom. Sva ek gel at ek ganga ma, sprettr mer af fotumm fiöturr, en af havndum hapt.”

page 336 note e So Odinn says in the Runa Capital,—” Eggiar ek deyfi minna Andskota bitaþ þeim vapn ne velir.”

page 345 note f This obscure and mythological word appears to be one of the names of Ziu, Tiw, Tyʼr, the Old German, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse Mars. In some parts of Germany, Ertac is in use for Tuesday, (Tiwesdaeg, Zistac,) and Eresberg is Mons Martis. (See, however, Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 133, 134.)

page 345 note g Were not Sigel neuter, the passage might still be construed properly; but the hî hine feriað, probably for hî him farað, renders it impossible, without correcting the text, to suppose that the writer meant anything but Segel. It is, however, to be observed that the genders are almost continually neglected in the latter lines of each stanza.

page 346 note h Rynas Dryhtnes, which some one suggested, and which has been translated Mysteria Domini, labours under the disadvantage of not being Anglo-Saxon.

page 347 note i Burug and byrug are the usual Northumbrian forms of the West-Saxon burh.

page 348 note k The reading of the inscription in Hickes is as follows: ✠ Aeðred mec ah. Eanred mec agrof. ✠ That is, Æðred owns me, Eanred carved me.

page 352 note h These letters have been left entirely out of consideration, partly because it is very questionable whether they formed part of the original inscription: but still more because, from the ruined state of the stone, their connexion with any other Runes is now impossible to be made out.

page 358 note i This has been attributed to Danish influence, because about the beginning of the ninth century the Danes began to ravage Northumberland. To this I answer, that it is universal in the Northumbrian monuments anterior to the Danish invasion. For its Frisic origin much more may be said; but it is generally forgotten that Procopius names the Frisians among the earliest Teutonic colonists of Britain. Throughout this paper I beg to observe that I use Northumbrian in the Anglo-Saxon, and not the English, meaning of the word.

page 362 note e The Anglo-Saxons believed the world to be inclosed within four (or two seas), fresh and salt, hence the constantly recurring phrase, be sæm tweonum, etc, etc.

page 365 note f Professor Finn Magnusen, in an essay on the Runic Inscription at Blekingen, states that those Runes also are to be read from right to left. This may be: but I do not at all subscribe to the professor's readings, which appear to me to rest solely on a total misconception of a passage in Saxo Grammaticus. This, their proper business, I leave to the antiquaries of Denmark.

page 366 note g There are inscriptions in Anglo-Saxon Runes, but in no Teutonic language. The Runic legend on two rings, mentioned in the twenty-first volume of the Archæiologia, are certainly not in Anglo-Saxon or any cognate tongue. Rask supposed them to be Celtic, a conclusion adopted by the Welsh antiquaries. Vide Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, vol. i. p. 318.