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Norse runes elder futhark4/9/2024 ![]() Historical Context in Ancient Germania and ScandinaviaĪs in regards to the place of origin of the runes it is generally assumed today that they originated somewhere in or around the Danish Isles, as this is where the oldest inscriptions have been found (cf. Then the theses described above and their arguments are put forward and criticized individually, and finally the current state of research is summarized and an outlook on future research opportunities is given to solve the problem of the origin of the runes.Īs a basis for this work, mainly scientific introductory books on runology, as well as essays in runological, historical and scriptural journals and specialist books were used. To begin with, I will briefly introduce the reader to the relevant historical context and mark out the time frame in which the Elder Futhark could have been created, whereupon I present an overview of the runes themselves. ![]() This particular theory is not necessarily more plausible than the Greek one, and it’s struggling with some of the same problems, such as centuries of virtually no archaeological proof between the proposed time of origin and actual archaeological finds, but it is able to answer many of the questions that the previously put forward theories could not. ibid.), I would instead like to include the Phoenician hypothesis, which has mainly been represented by Theo Vennemann in the recent past. Since the Greek thesis has lost many of its supporters to the Latin and North Etruscan variants (cf. Traditionally, a comparison has often been made between the Latin, North Etruscan and Greek thesis, mostly in this order from the most probable to the most improbable (cf. This article is to deal specifically with the origin of its oldest form, the so-called Elder Futhark, and to present, compare and criticize the arguments of two prominent and one rather controversial, yet intriguing, theory in regards to its origin in detail. The Runes are the oldest form of writing in Northern Europe (cf. Picture of the Icelandic Codex Regius, one of the “original” copies of the Poetic Edda. In contemporary historical research, however, no consensus in regards to their actual origin has been able to be established yet (cf. This shows that the people writing the runes themselves believed in a “divine origin” (ibid., p. Such was the creation of the runes, the mythical signs of the Vikings, according to their very own legends, documented in 13th century Iceland in form of the Elder or Poetic Edda, as Klaus Duewel and many others have noted before (cf. Mythological Beginnings in the Viking Age I know that I hung on that windy tree, Note: All translations from German in this text, including quotes, are the authors. Historical Context in Ancient Germania and Scandinavia.Mythological Beginnings in the Viking Age. ![]() Note that this technique is handy for recalling the runes, but it doesn’t always coincide with the way they’re meant to be pronounced as a single sound. There’s F - Fehu, U - Uruz, Th - Thurisaz, A - Ansuz, R - Raidho and K - Kaunaz. For example, ‘ Futhark’ makes up the first 6 runes (which is where it gets the name from). Using this aid makes it easier to recall the names of the Runes since every letter is the first letter of its corresponding Rune. Here we condense the three Aetts into small ‘phrases’ Futhark-gw, H-niji pas, and Tbem-ling-do. A handy way to remember the names of the Runes and to which Aett they belong to is to use the following:į-u-th-a-r-k-g-w - h-n-i-j-ï-p-a-s - t-b-e-m-l-ing-d-o The first is Freyr/Freyja’s Aett, the second is Heimdalls Aett and third is Tyr’s Aett. The Elder Futhark is ‘traditionally’ put in 3 parts or ‘Aetts’. * Eihwaz is not sufficiently correct for the letter ‘ Y’ as it is more accepted as an ‘ae’ sound. This list is just what I have gathered so far from multiple sources and compiling it into something that I feel makes sense.įire, Torch - Beacon, Illumination, Understanding, Knowledge ᛈ - is one of these runes that are far from clear as to their meaning. Note that many sources have differing interpretations of some of the more vague runes. Here’s the notes I’ve made on the Elder Futhark after studying and researching them online.
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