[gothic-l] Re: Gothic Runes

[llama_nom]

I have to concur with Francisc.  Only a handful of Gothic 
inscriptions survive: while there may be some quirky forms, for 
example the box-shaped D-rune on the Kovel spearhead, nevertheless 
Gothic runes are essentially the Eldar Futhark, and don't really 
differ from the standard runerow any more than other individial 
early inscriptions do from each other.  The "Gothic Runes" at this 
Omniglot page

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/runic.htm

contain doubtful forms that I don't recognise from any of the 
inscriptions.  You are right to be suspicious.  The terms you 
mention "Fraujo's ahtu" etc. are not recorded in any ancient 
historical source relating to the Goths, nor does the form *ahtu 
work as a cognate of Old Icelandic 'ætt'.  They're presumably a 
modern invention.  On the Omniglot page about the Gothic alphabet, 
<e> and <o> only stand for long sounds; *aihvus should read *aihvs 
or *aihws--depending which spelling convention you adopt; and the 
Lord's prayer is slightly garbled by internet-transmission...  But 
still, hats off to Omniglot for bringing together all these amazing 
writing systems.  Have you seen this one: 
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/nushu.htm ?  Anyway, here is a 
useful table comparing several futharks and lists of rune-names.

http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/didact/idg/germ/runennam.htm

The column on the far right lists the names of the Gothic letters 
recorded in a 10th(?) century manuscript.  These are the source for 
the reconstructed names at the Omniglot page.  They were apparently 
written according to Old High German spelling conventions, so the 
<z> should probably be sounded [s].  Quite a lot do match the 
corresponding names in English and Norse tradition, as you can see, 
though some have been changed, e.g. thyth (='þiuþ'(?) "blessing").  
Curious that the Gothic differs here, and with 'chozma', at a point 
where English and Norse differ from each other.  You may have heard 
the hypothesis that OE 'þorn' replaced the demonic (Norse) 'þurs' 
for euphemistic reasons.  It has been questioned whether these are 
in fact Gothic (RI Page, An Introduction to English Runes), but I 
can't see what else they can be.  It's easy to match some to the 
Biblical Gothic equivalent, but others like AZA have inspired 
various guesses.

Here are photographs of three Gothic runic inscriptions:

http://www.gotica.de/

The runes on the top spearhead (Dahmsdorf) are not very clear in 
this picture, but read RANJA, which has been interpreted as a name 
(for the spear) *Rannja "the one who puts to flight".  The next 
reads right-to-left TILARIDS, a name (of the owner?, maker?, the 
spear?), perhaps "Good/appropriate Councel"--but some interpret TILA-
 according to its modern German cognate Ziel "goal, target", and 
RIDS as "rider", and the whole as "target-pursuer", "attacker".  The 
final picture here is probably the most famous Gothic inscription of 
all, the golden neck-ring from Pietrioassa, Romania--GUTANI ? WI 
HAILAG--interpreted: Gutane ? weih hailag "the Goths' ?, sacred 
[and] holy."  The single uncertain rune is thought to be a concept 
rune, representing its own name, but was damaged when looters sawed 
it in half.  The grammar requires a neuter noun in the singlar.  
Often taken to be O = 'oþal' "inheritance".

These and others are discussed in an online book "Runes around the 
North Sea and on the Continent AD 150-700; texts & contexts", by 
Jantina Helena Looijenga.  She interprets the damaged Pietrioassa 
rune as 'jer' "year" (i.e. [good] harvest, a fruitful year).  See 
especially Chapter 5 for early south-east European inscriptions, 
including the Letcani spindlewhorl also pictured in Peter 
Heather's "The Goths".  This is another Romanian find, and most 
likely Gothic too.

http://www.ub.rug.nl/eldoc/dis/arts/j.h.looijenga/

Chapter 7, no. 11 is the Charnay brooch (fibula) inscription, 
thought to be Burgundian--an East Germanic language similar to 
Gothic.  Along with the Kylver runes mentioned by Tore, this is one 
of the earliest (near) complete futharks.

Some pictures (early inscriptions from southern and eastern Europe: 
Charnay, Kowel, Pietroassa, Breza, Bezenye--the others here are 
later, from Viking times).  Looijenga has suggested Lombardic 
authorship in the case of the Breza futhark.

http://www.arild-hauge.com/europe-rune.htm

A discussion of many early inscriptions including some mentioned 
above:

http://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/runic.htm

A German database of inscriptions in the Eldar Futhark, including 
those attributed to the Goths.

http://www.runenprojekt.uni-kiel.de/

Hope there's something of interest in that lot.

Llama Nom





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