Rune Poems - House of Dubhros

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the Runic Poems 5 memory of Gorm his father and Thyre his mother, that Harold who conquered all Denmark and Norway and christianised the Danes.) From the beginning of the eleventh century, however, the alphabet was supplemented by the so-called "dotted runes" (stunginn k, i, t, b = g, e, d, p). The later Runic alphabet was known in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroes, the Orkneys, Man and England, in every part of the Scan dinavian world ; even in the South of Russia an inscription has been found. In Denmark there are something less than 200 inscriptions, few of which are later than 1150 ; in Sweden there are nearer 2000, some of which can scarcely be earlier than the fifteenth century. Scandinavian also in language and i^i character are the inscriptions from the Orkneys and Man. In England, too, there are a few relics of the Danish conquest, such as the sculptured stone in the library at St Paul's (c. 1030) and the porfastr comb from Lincoln in the British Museum 1 . In Norway and Iceland, however, the Runic alphabet is never found on monumental stones of the Viking Age, though it was used commonly enough for other purposes. The later Norwegian inscriptions date from the period 1050-1350, the Icelandic are not earlier than the thirteenth century. Generally speaking we may say that the Runic alphabet, always connected more or less with magical practices, fell under the suspicion of witchcraft in the Scandinavian countries and perished in the great outburst of superstitious terror which followed the establishment of the reformed religion, though there is some little evidence to show that in Sweden it lingered on into the nineteenth century 2 . 1 The Bridekirk font (Cumberland) bears a twelfth century English inscrip tion in the Scandinavian Runic characters of that time with a few additional letters borrowed from the Anglo-Saxon book-hand. 2 There is not much evidence for the magic use of runes in this country. Bede (H.E. iv. 22) tells the story of a Northumbrian noble captive to the Mercians at the battle of the Trent (679), whose chains were mysteriously loosened, whenever his brother, who thought him dead, celebrated masses for the repose of his soul. His gaoler in ignorance asked him whether he had
6 Introduction to THE ANGLO-SAXON RUNIC POEM. The Anglo-Saxon Runic Poem is taken from the Cot- tonian MS. Otho B X, which perished in the fire of 1731. It had, however, been printed by Hickes in his Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus, I. 135 (London, 1705), from which the present text is derived. It consists of short stanzas, 29 in all, of two to five lines each, at the beginning of which stand the Runic characters described, preceded by their equivalents in ordinary script and followed by their names. It has been suggested, however, that in Otho B x, as in the Norwegian poems, the Runic characters alone were found, the names being added from some other MSS. At any rate Hempl, Mod. Phil. I. 135 ff., has shown that the variant runes, etc., were taken from Domitian A IX, and some such theory is needed to account for the frequent discrepancy between the stanzas and the names which they describe. This may be due in part to the lateness of the MS., which from linguistic criteria can scarcely have been earlier than the eleventh century, e.g. v. 37, underwrepyd for -od (-ed), and vv. 32, 91, 8on, &onn for ftonne. The poem must, however, be far earlier, pre-Alfredian at least (with traces perhaps of an original from which the Scandinavian poems are likewise derived); for there is not a single oc currence of the definite article, &one in v. 70 being demon strative. The versification is moreover quite correct. Of. Brandl, Grundriss der germanischen Philologie z , THE NORWEGIAN RUNIC POEM. n. 964. The Norwegian Runic poem was first printed (in Runic characters) by Olaus Wormius, Danica Literatura Anti- quissima, p. 105 (Amsterodamiae, 1636), from a law MS. in litteras solutorias, de qualibus fabulae ferunt, concealed about his person. These litterae solutoriae are doubtless to be compared with Havamal, CL : pat kannk et fjdrpa ef mer fyrpar bera bond at boglimum Svd ek gel at ek ganga md sprettr of fotum fjgturr en of hpndum haft.
Page 2 and 3: edited by BRUCE DICKINS Allen Schol
Page 4 and 5: PREFACE TN preparing this edition I
Page 6 and 7: Preface most substantial kind from
Page 8 and 9: THE RUNIC POEMS CONTENTS PAGE INTRO
Page 10: THE RUNIC POEMS Building the Runic
Page 13 and 14: 2 Introduction to survivor of such
Page 15: 4 Introduction to score (principall
Page 19 and 20: 8 Introduction alliteration, the th
Page 21 and 22: 10 Bibliography Of the Swedish insc
Page 23 and 24: THE ANGLO-SAXON EUNIC POEM i Feoh b
Page 25 and 26: 14 The Anglo-Saxon Runic Poem 13 Ra
Page 27 and 28: 16 The Anglo-Saxon Runic Poem 32 Ge
Page 29 and 30: 18 The Anglo-Saxon Runic Poem 48 Ti
Page 31 and 32: 20 The Anglo-Saxon Runic Poem 67 In
Page 33 and 34: 22 The Anglo-Saxon Runic Poem 81 JS
Page 35 and 36: THE NORWEGIAN RUNIC POEM 1 F6 vseld
Page 37 and 38: 26 The Norwegian Runic Poem 8 NauSr
Page 39 and 40: THE ICELANDIC EUNIC POEM 1 F^ er fr
Page 41 and 42: 30 The Icelandic Runic Poem 7 Hagal
Page 43 and 44: 32 The Icelandic Runic Poem 14 MatJ
Page 45 and 46: Abecedarium Nordmannicum. APPENDIX
Page 48 and 49: INTRODUCTION WALDHERE In the year 1
Page 50 and 51: the Heroic Poems 39 After a formal
Page 52 and 53: the Heroic Poems 41 different. Cont
Page 54 and 55: the Heroic Poems 43 to one of these
Page 56 and 57: the Heroic Poems 45 at in Beowulf a
Page 58 and 59: the Heroic Poems 47 3. Orig. d beco
Page 60 and 61: the Heroic Poems 49 and in Asmundar
Page 62 and 63: Bibliography Miiller, W. Zur Mythol
Page 64 and 65: of the Heroic Poems 53 Schilling, H
Page 66 and 67:
of the Heroic Poems 55 v. d. Leyen,
Page 68 and 69:
WALDHERE A. Eagerly she (sc. Hildeg
Page 70 and 71:
Woldhere 59 press home thy martial
Page 72 and 73:
Waldhere 61 was minded to send it t
Page 74 and 75:
Waldhere 63 Yet victory can be give
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FINN Then cried the king young in w
Page 78 and 79:
Finn 67 Then up rose many a knight
Page 80 and 81:
Finn 69 shatter the horned helm. Th
Page 82 and 83:
DEOK Weland, the steadfast warrior,
Page 84 and 85:
Deor 73 evil days after Nithhad had
Page 86 and 87:
Deor 75 Maethhild passed all bounds
Page 88 and 89:
Deor 77 He who is anxious and distr
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HILDEBKAND I have heard it said tha
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Hildebrand 81 by, have told me that
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Hildebrand 83 Hadubrand, the son of
Page 96 and 97:
Hildebrand 85 should refuse thee th
Page 98 and 99:
General Bibliography ten Brink, B.
Page 100 and 101:
General Bibliography Wright, T. and
Page 102 and 103:
General Bibliography Fornmanna Sogu
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Rune Poems - House of Dubhros

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