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Saga-Book of the Viking Society
discussion in the First Grammatical Treatise about whether one
should write iarn or earn 20 ) . In Scandinavian languages the
development of eu does not seem to be affected by the quality of
a following vowel. The distinction j6 : ju in West Norse is due to
the quality of the following consonant. In East Norse we find
only iii.
One could produce a great many more examples of lack of
system and general theoretical considerations in Krause's book,
but let these suffice. There is a similar absence of clear and
systematic terminology. Dotted throughout the book are terms
such as: "hellern Vokal" (p. 31), "dunklen Vokalen" (p. 37) and
phrases of the type: "eine besondere Affinitat des I zu d" (p. 34),
"die Aussprache ungefahr eines fliichtigen 0" (p. 83). These
seem to me to convey no linguistic information at all. They are
of the same order as the statement (p. 48): "Die Vielzahl der
Komposita in den urnordischen Inschriften erklart sich wesentlich
aus dem magischen und heroischen Gehalt vieler dieser
Inschriften", which seems at the very least to need amplification,
and the argument (p. 81) that the e of the patronymic suffix -ee
in Hronea on the By stone (Kr, 71) was "weakened" to i in
hxeruwulafin on the Istaby stone. I t may be possible to define
weakening in a linguistic sense in different ways (Krause gives no
definition), but one would hardly expect the term to cover the
change [eJ > [iJ or [1J.
Questions of systematisation and theory are not the only
matters in Krause's book which require comment. The author
occasionally shows a lack of familiarity with the development of
the Scandinavian languages after the early runic period. On
p. 16 we are told that the Eggjum stone (Kr. 101) shows certain
traces of Old Swedish influence. Evidence of "East Norse"
influence on the inscription is given on p. 143, and consists of
(I) vowel harmony (e after A or a, i after i and u), (2) the form
huwxa, (3) the form kam, (4) the word hi, (5) the form fok].
Outside Norwegian it is in the medieval dialects of Vastergotland
and Skane that vowel harmony is generally considered to have
existed. But in the written form of these dialects 'a' (in
Vastergotland when representing raJ and [a i], in Skane raJ) in
a stressed syllable is usually followed by 'i', not 'e' n Itis in most
Norwegian varieties of vowel harmony we find 'e' after 'a'.22
It is not certain that the Eggjum stone has vowel harmony at all.
We find solu and skorin in the well-known first sentence, both of
'0 Cf, Hreinn Benediktsson (1972), '55-62.
21 Cf, Elias Wessen, Svensk sprdkhistoria I (1965), 61; Johs. Brandum­
Nielsen, Gammeldansk Grammatik I (1950),402.
" Cf. Didrik Arup Seip, Norsk Sprdkhistorie (1955). 128.