Senioren Academy

... writing, one automatically has to face the questions: why was this special script designed at all ... long runic period, covering the earliest inscriptions (2nd c. - 5th c.), the bracteate period (around ... In England, people also ceased to provide the dead with funerary gifts, but this had no ...

This paper was presented at the meeting of the Runes, Monuments and Memorial Carvings at Galsgow, in April 2015.
Absract: In South Portugal, between the plains of Lower Alentejo and the mountain ridge that separates this region from the Algarve, lies an area which has preserved about a hundred large stones with inscriptions, originally stelae with a monumental function. They are known as Tartessian Monuments, although the region called Tartessos in ancient times is in southern Spain.

In 1996 a scabbard mouth with a runic inscription was found in the Betuwe, the estuary of Rhine and Meuse. Its dating is early fifth century - and it is therefore one of the very few runic items discovered outside Scandinavia in that period. The inscription shows an anomalous rune. There are no typical anglo-frisian runes.

This paper deals with a most remarkable find from a village near Sarajewo. It concerns a semi circular half column with a futhark carved in it. The column dates from about the 6th century. The question is who might have written a futhark in this region, why and in what kind of buidling?

Bracteate Fyn-C 1 bears a runic inscription which might bear the name and cognomen of a Roman Emperor. If that is the case, it would illustrate the Germanic fascination for the cult of the Roman Emperor and their willingness to imitate Roman culture.

The recently found ring-sword of St Dizier (Champagne-Ardennes, France) with a runic inscription 'alu' has urged a more profound research into the runic knowledge of the Merovingian Franks. Inscriptions in two other ring-swords from Grenay and Fréthun in Pas de Calais, France, added to the idea that there may have been more runic usage in early medieval France than we may think of in our philosophy. The enigmatic rune-word 'alu' combined with its occurrence in an elite sword may add to the impression runes were used in high circles.

ABSTRACT
In 2015, a belt buckle (fig. 2a and 2b) was discovered in western Ukraine with a runelike inscription on the back. The buckle has no known context, but the find spot is between the Ukrainian villages of Sukhodil and Shydlivtsy (Husiatyn district in Ternopil oblast). The buckle was part of an illegal dig and is in private hands.
Unfortunately, its whereabouts are unknown. A profound examination of the material and the inscription was therefore not possible. Yet we thought it appropriate to publish this find. According to its style, the buckle can be dated to the early part of the 5th century. In this article the buckle is compared to other buckles from Eastern Europe (Szabadbattyán, Bar, Yalta) and to parallels (Sösdala, Airan/Moult,
Untersiebenbrunn) elsewhere in Europe. All buckles are dated to AD 420-440. The archaeological background in section 1 is written by the archaeologist Maxim Levada, while in section 2 the rune-like signs are described and discussed by runologist Tineke Looijenga. Although a transliteration is proposed, an interpretation is still lacking.

This paper offers a survey of the oldest runic inscriptions of the northern parts of Europe. Runic writing is attested from the second century onwards to the Middle Ages, and was in use in several parts of northern Europe during different periods. The language used is formulaic, making the impression that inscriptions in runes were for special occasions and not for daily use. Germanic society was a non-literate society until Christendom arrived and with it a literate culture. Runes are applied epigraphically; only in ecclesiastical contexts they are used in manuscripts, thus offering very useful secondary information about rune-names, for instance. Runes had names for mnemonical and symbolical purposes. Resumen: Esta contribución ofrece una aproximación a las más antiguas inscripciones rúnicas de las partes septentrionales de Europa. La escritura rúnica se atestigua desde el siglo II d. E. hasta la Edad Media y fue empleada en distintas partes de Europa durante diferentes periodos. El lenguaje empleado es formular, lo que da la impresión de que las inscripciones rúnicas fueron para ocasiones especiales y no para un uso diario. La sociedad germánica permaneció ágrafa hasta la llegada del cristianismo y con él una cultura escrita. Las runas se usaron epigráficamente; solamente en contextos eclesiásticos las runas fueron usadas en manuscritos, lo que ofrece una muy útil información secundaria, por ejemplo, sobre los nombres rúnicos. Las runas poseían nombres con propósitos memorísticos y simbólicos.

Inleiding In het rijke repertoire aan niet-religieuze grafpoëzie nemen de zogenaamde wormenverzen een bijzondere positie in. Onder wormenverzen versta ik een groep gedichten die met kleine variaties in de tekst op grafzerken voorkomt en die als conclusie heeft dat de overledene nu "een prooi der wormen" zal zijn. Het is een opvallende tekst, die een zeer sombere kern heeft, maar waaraan men een optimistische draai kon geven door zich alvast te verheugen op de opstanding. Er zijn in de provincie Groningen en in de grensstreek met Drenthe bijna twintig gevonden uit de periode van de late negentiende en het begin van de twintigste eeuw.

Abstract: This paper deals with the runic alphabet, the indigenous script
of Germanic people, attested from the 2nd century AD onwards to the Middle Ages. Origin and application of the runes are discussed, as well as the
spread of the runes throughout northern, eastern and western Europe. Runes
eventually fell into disuse but were never completely forgotten. The renaissance resulted in renewed interest from the scientific side. The history of runology is therefore treated in brief.

General introduction
This chapter discusses runes and runic writing in the Early Middle Ages in general, and in Frisia in particular. Objects with runes on them have been found in the Frisian terp-area dating from around the sixth to the ninth century. In this paper I aim to discuss how should we assess ‘Frisian’ runes and their relation with other runic traditions. Although our oldest known runic objects date from the second century, it is assumed that the runic alphabet was created sometime in the first century AD.  But why, when and where runes were developed from an archaic Mediterranean model is still an unsolved question.
Runic writing, the exclusive indigenous script of Germania, emerged in a period when Germanic-speaking people grew increasingly in touch with the Roman Imperial world, a literate world. Many Germanic men served as mercenaries in the Roman army. They received Roman citizenship after 25 years’ service, and we may assume that some of them returned home after this service. Because this citizenship was hereditary, the sons of these auxiliaries were also Roman citizens, even before entering the army. Some of them made a career in the army, and learned to read and write. This became increasingly common in the second and third centuries AD, exactly the period in which we infer runic knowledge to have spread across a large part of northern Europe (Stoklund 2006, 358).