Mirror Runes?

llama_nom 600cell at OE.ECLIPSE.CO.UK
Wed Aug 13 14:49:11 UTC 2008


As with other early European alphabets, it's not unusual for runes to
be written right-to-left. And when they are, the individual characters
are horizontally flipped in comparison to how they would appear when
written left-to-right. The following examples include inscriptions
that were obviously carved, so it's not just a matter of casting. I
suppose that might have inspired the practice, or maybe the direction
of writing just wasn't considered something you needed a standard for
in those days. The examples include whole sentences which make good
sense read from right-to-left, but which would be meaningless read the
other way, and words and traditionally constructed names which follow
the phonetic rules of Ancient Nordic when read from right-to-left, but
which would violate those rules if read the other way; e.g. the letter
'z' (sometimes transcribed with a capital 'R') is restricted to
certain positions and could never occur at the beginning of a word.
They include common formulas and magic words like 'alu' "ale", which
are recorded written in either direction (or even both superimposed,
as in the Spong Hill inscription from England). In short, I don't
think this is a conspiracy of photographers!

Einang stone: '(...)dagazþazrunofaihido' "-dagaz wrote these runes".
http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/no-rune-einang-txt.gif
http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/no-rune-einang.jpg

Elgesem stone: 'alu' "ale".
http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/no-rune-elgsem.jpg

Kjølvik stone: 'hadulaikaz - ekhagusta(l)daz - hlaaiwidomaguminino'
"Hadulaikaz: I, Hagustaldaz, buried my son."
http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/no-rune-kjoelvik-drawing.jpg
http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/no-rune-kjoelvik.jpg
http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/117_Niaer19-Kjoelevik_Oslo_blinder_UB.jpg

Fløksand knife: 'linalaukazf(ehu)' "linen, leek, livestock".

Lindholm amulette: 'ekerilazsawilagazheiteka ... alu' "I erilaz am
called sawilagaz ... ale".
http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/se-rune-lindholm.jpg

Illerup shield-handle mount: 'niþijotawide' "Niþjo made it".
http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/099_DR-MS1995-336B_Illerup-mount-shield-handle-2_MM.jpg
http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/de-rune-illerup.jpg

Illerup shield-handle mount: 'laguþewa' "Laguþewa" (a name).
http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/100_DR-MS1995-336C_Illerup-mount-shield-handle-3_MM.jpg



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/gothic-l/attachments/20080813/ff70b837/attachment.htm>


More information about the Gothic-l mailing list