Michael P. Barnes (Author)
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Boydell Press; 2013 (2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1843837781
ISBN-13: 978-1843837787
Runes, often considered magical symbols of mystery and power, are in fact an alphabetic form of writing. Derived from one or more Mediterranean prototypes, they were used by Germanic peoples to write different kinds of Germanic language, principally Anglo-Saxon and the various Scandinavian idioms, and were carved into stone, wood, bone, metal, and other hard surfaces; types of inscription range from memorials to the dead, through Christian prayers and everyday messages to crude graffiti. First reliably attested in the second century AD, runes were in due course supplanted by the roman alphabet, though in Anglo-Saxon England they continued in use until the early eleventh century, in Scandinavia until the fifteenth (and later still in one or two outlying areas).
This book provides an accessible, general account of runes and runic writing from their inception to their final demise. It also covers modern uses of runes, and deals with such topics as encoded texts, rune names, how runic inscriptions were made, runological method, and the history of runic research. A final chapter explains where those keen to see runic inscriptions can most easily find them.
Professor Michael P. Barnes is Emeritus Professor of Scandinavian Studies, University College London.
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The origin of the runes
- 3 The older futhark
- 4 Inscriptions in the olderfuthark
- 5 The development of runes in Anglo-Saxon England and Frisia
- 6 The English and Frisian inscriptions
- 7 The development of runes in Scandinavia
- 8 Scandinavian inscriptions of the Viking Age
- 9 The late Viking-Age and medieval runes
- 10 Scandinavian inscriptions of the Middle Ages
- 11 Runic writing in the post-Reformation era
- 12 Cryptic inscriptions and cryptic runes
- 13 Runica manuscripta and rune names
- 14 The making of runic inscriptions
- 15 The reading and interpretation of runic inscriptions
- 16 Runes and the imagination: literature and politics
- 17 A brief history of runology
- 18 Where to find runic inscriptions
- 19 Glossary
- 20 Phonetic and phonemic symbols
- 21 The articulation of speech sounds
- 22 Transliteration conventions
- 23 The spelling of edited texts
- 24 Index of inscriptions
