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'
GREEKS AND GOTHS: A STUDY ON THE KUNES.
BY
ISAAC TAYLOR,
M.A., LL.D.
RECTOR OF SETTRINGTON,
AUTHOR OF 'WORDS AND
PLACES,' 'ETRUSCAN RESEARCHES,' ETC. ETC.
Honfcon
:
MACMILLAN AND 1879.
[All rights
reserved.']
CO.
OXFORD: PICKARD HALL,
M.A.,
AND
J.
H. STACY,
PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
PREFACE. IN following out certain inquiries as to the history and
connection
became necessary that
of
early Alphabets,
should
I
it
make myself
acquainted with what had been written on the origin of the Kunes. fest
that none
It
of the
speedily became mani-
on the
current theories
subject were sufficient to explain
the
A
facts.
re-examination of the conditions of the problem gradually led clusions
the
to
which are
set
wholly forth
unexpected in
the
con-
following
pages.
I have thought
best to publish these results
it
in a separate form, instead of including
them
in
a larger forthcoming work on the History of the Alphabet, because forth
a theory so
it
seemed needful, in putting
entirely
argument with greater
novel,
to
state
fullness of detail,
the
and in
iv
Preface.
a more technical form, than would be desirable or proportionate in a more comprehensive work.
When
book was ready
this
the press I
that Eask, the greatest
discovered
accidentally
for
of Scandinavian scholars, believed that the view
which
I
have advocated would ultimately prove
be the true solution of the problem of the
to
Eunes.
I
do not
worked out the
find,
details
of the
theory or even
it.
formally propounded I
however, that he ever
have included in the volume a subsidiary into
investigation
the Origin
of the
Oghams,
which are intimately connected with the Eunes. In
my
expressing
Stephens, and
my
work, I
am bound
wearied
toil
and
obligations
to
Professor
admiration of his monumental to acknowledge that his un-
his
minute accuracy have made
easy a task which would otherwise have been difficult,
if
not impossible.
CONTENTS. 1.
The Runes.
The
THE FUTHORCS.
various Futhorcs
Gothic
Scandinavian.
Anglian
The Mceso-Gothic Alphabet
THE DATED MONUMENTS.
2.
Buzeo Torque.
p. I
Nordenhoff Broach
Arrows.
Date of the
Vi Moss
Tools.
Nydam Moss Ruth well
Vadstena Bracteate.
Charnay Broach.
earliest Inscriptions
3.
p. 7
THE PHOENICIAN HYPOTHESIS. Difficulties of the
Opinions of Stephens, Lenorrnant, Peile, Dieterich.
Hypothesis
p. 15
4.
Its
Advocates.
THE LATIN HYPOTHESIS.
Chronological
and
Geographical
Retrograde and Boustrophedon Inscriptions. Kirchhoff's Argument. scientific
Evidence of Tacitus.
A
preliminary Test
Difficulties.
The
Inadequacy of Dr.
of Alphabetic
Change.
Un-
Detailed Examination of his
The Guttural Test
5.
A
Principles
method of Dr. Wimmer.
Argument.
Cross.
p. 19
THE GREEK HYPOTHESIS. priori probability of the
Greek Hypothesis. P-
33
vi
Contents.
THE CHRONOLOGICAL CONDITIONS.
6.
The
The Boustrophedon
Chronological Tests. phical Test.
The Paheogra-
Test.
Characteristics of the Alphabet of the Isles.
of the Persian Invasion on the Thraciau Alphabet
The Thracian and Euxine
Colonies.
The
Getae.
and Extent of the Gothic Realm. Evidence of Herodotus.
9.
10.
The
of the
Greek Alphabet
THE LIQUIDS AND
.
.
43
.
p. 51
and Arrest
.
p.
Disuse of Alpha.
m
and n Runes.
Change by
Correlation. P-
e
The
Aspirate.
Omega.
The Thirteenth Rune
.
Mutes
13.
The Lautverschiebung.
The Early p.
61
p.
70
THE MUTES.
12.
Classification of the
Iota.
Unstable Letters.
Developments of Eta.
Rune.
57
THE VOWELS.
Developments of Epsilon.
Twelfth Rune.
56
SIBILANTS.
Rune
forma of the
p.
Resemblances between the Thracian and
The
11.
How
Position
.
.
of Alphabetic Development
tailed r.
Italian Alphabets. s
Goths.
of the Dnieper.
THE FUTHORC AND THE ALPHABET. Laws
Phonetic Changes.
The
The
Commerce
Olbia and Gerrhos
The Three Stages
Kune.
37
Alphabet of the Mother Cities of the Colonies in
Thracian Coins.
I
p.
THE THRACIAN ALPHABET.
8.
The
.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS.
7.
Thrace.
Influence
.
THE DENTALS. The Chronological Hypothesis.
Grimm's Law.
did Debilitation begin?
.
.
.
.
.
.
p. 71
Contents.
THE LABIALS.
14.
Disuse of Pi.
Gothic Labials developed out of Beta.
Names and Forms.
of
velopment
Stages of the
Gamma
Runes.
of r
The
final.
of
for the
New Runes
for ra
and
The Arabic and
Runes.
Development
The Stan Rune
h.
.
Attempt
88
to account P-
Wales and
Ireland.
by
Oghams
in
Oghams.
Date of Oghams.
replaced
Traditional arrangement.
Their
The Oghams derived from the Runes.
Comparison of Rune and
Bethluisnion.
99
THE OGHAMS.
Geographical distribution of
The
p.
Causes of Alphabetic Dis-
Syriac Alphabets.
Order of the Runes
Inscriptions
Later
Anglian Futhorc.
Gamma
THE ORDER OF THE RUNES.
18.
Runic
79
Simplification of the Scandi-
the
Survivals of the Order of the Greek Letters. location.
Rune.
Gradual Disuse of Runes
Letters.
the Epsilon and
17.
Ilix
THE LATER RUNES.
Elaboration
of
The
P-
Denmark, Sweden, and England.
Developments
Evolution of the ng
Thrace and Italy.
The Runes superseded by the Latin navian Futhorc.
74
THE GUTTURALS.
The Koppa Runes. and Cen
16.
in
Labials. P-
The
Debilitation of Gutturals.
Wen
Parallel de-
The Mceso-Gothic
Development
15.
Kune.
vii
Ogham Names.
The ng Ogham.
Restoration of Primitive Values and Arrangement
of the Oghams.
The Tree Runes.
of
Ogham
of
Ogham and Runic
construction.
invented in Wales.
De Danann.
The Ogham
Classification of
Classes.
Runes.
Trees.
Principle
Correspondence
The Lautverschiebung. Oghams The Tuatha
Date of Scandinavian Invasions.
The Jutes
P-
108
GREEKS AND GOTHS A STUDY ON THE RUNES.
1.
$
AT
THE FUTHORCS.
when
the time
Koman
the
alphabet was in-
troduced by Christian missionaries into Northern
Europe some of the Teutonic nations had been for several
centuries in possession of a peculiar
alphabet of their own.
by the Scandinavians, the Northum-
chiefly used brians,
This ancient alphabet was
and the Goths.
The
characters are called
RUNES, and the alphabet bears the name of the
FUTHORC, from the F",
h
H,
first six
#, *,
K,
runes, f, u, th,
The one unsolved problem the Alphabet
o, r, c.
in the
History of
the origin of these Runes.
is
That-
they should have been independently invented by the Teutons
is
a solution which
B
must be regarded
The Futhorcs.
The
as quite out of the question.
history of the
invention of alphabetic writing shows the enor-
mous
difficulty of
the
only through
such an undertaking. slow
developments of
and the
races of the
rating
a
Greeks,
many
Phoeni-
centuries that the united genius of the cians
was
It
two most cultured
the
South, succeeded at last in elabo-
pure
out
alphabet
picture writing of the
of the
cumbrous
Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
That an equivalent result should have been tained off hand tribe
is
such
striking
at-
by any semi-barbarous Teutonic There
quite incredible.
resemblances
are,
between
moreover, several
of
the runes and the corresponding letters of various
Mediterranean alphabets, that the mathematical chances against such a series of accidental coincidences are absolutely overwhelming.
grounds
it
On
these
has been universally admitted that
the Kunes must, in some
unknown manner, have
been derived from that one great parent alphabet to which
modern research has
every other alphabet of the
affiliated
world
almost
Ethiopic,
Arabic and Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Etruscan, Indian and Tibetan, Mongol and Malay.
The Gothic Futhorc. Eunic inscriptions have been found scattered
Danube
over a vast region extending from the to the Orkneys. scriptions
are
The most
date
in
earlier
ancient of these inat
by
least
thousand years than the most modern. this
long
period
a
that
pected,
and of
the
we
was
to be ex-
different
countries
find, as
runes
During
development was
constant
going on, and hence
a
of
different periods present very considerable
They may all however be classified the Gothic, the three main divisions
variations.
into
and
Anglian, teristic
runes
of
The
Scandinavian.
the
these
three
charac-
are
classes
here
tabulated for handy reference.
In this Table the for convenience the
twenty- four
first
column, which
styled
GOTHIC FUTHORC, contains the
primitive
runes,
indifferently in all countries scriptions.
is
These early
which in
the
inscriptions,
are
used
earliest in-
which are
about 200 in number, range from the third to the sixth centuries of our era.
Twenty- three
of these runes appear in their order, as a Futhorc,
on a golden Bracteate or medal, from Vadstena, in East Gothland (Sweden),
B
2
which may be assigned
The Futhorcs.
TABLE OF EUNES.
NAMES.
The Anglian Futhorc. Nine-
to the middle of the fourth century A.D.
them appear
on a
Futhorc
a
teen
of
fifth
century broach, found at Charnay in Bur-
also
as
gundy.
The second column contains the corresponding runes of the ANGLIAN FUTHORC, which is used on the Ruth well Cross and on several Northum-
monuments
brian
It
centuries.
MSS.
of
the
given as a Futhorc in sundry
is
eighth
and
ninth
the
centuries,
form appearing on a sword of the sixth
earliest
seventh
or
seventh and following
of the
Thames,
century,
near
which was found
London.
The Anglian
the
in
Futhorc
usually contains from four to twelve supplement-
ary runes, which are either survivals or develop-
ments of the primitive Gothic runes.
The most
important of these additional runes are fr,
ce\
and
&
o;
fa,
y; Y, ea and q
;
|^,
Y, k; M,
a; st
ss.
In the third column
is
SCANDINAVIAN FUTHORC.
given the It attained
latest, its
or
final
form about the tenth century, and contains only sixteen runes.
on a slab
in
We the
find
Picts'
it
given as a Futhorc
House
at
Maeshowe
in
The Futhorcs. Orkney, and on a twelfth century font at Bserse in
Some 2000
Denmark.
runic inscriptions, nine-
tenths probably of the whole
number
extant, are
written in this Scandinavian Futhorc, which was
used
in
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Cumberland, and the Isle of Man.
The fourth column contains ALPHABET, which was
Orkney,
the McESO-GoTHic
compiled in
the
fourth
century by Ulphilas, Bishop of the Goths. evidently based
It is
upon the ancient Gothic Futhorc,
with two or three additions and several modificaderived from the contemporary Byzantine
tions
Alphabet. All the evidence, internal
and external, goes to
prove that the Gothic Futhorc exhibits the earliest forms of the runes. later Futhorcs,
be seen that Nos.
others,
n,
10,
Nos.
in
form or value
9,
12,
20,
it
with the
4, ;
will
17, 18, 21,
remained almost
7, 8, 13,
23, fell into dis-
14,
15,
22,
were modified
while in a few cases,
new developments have
ancient characters.
it
of the original runes, such as
unchanged, some, Nos. use;
we compare
Anglian or Scandinavian,
many
i, 2, 3, .5,
If
Nos.
replaced the
The Buzeo Torque.
THE DATED MONUMENTS.
2.
any investigation into the origin of the runes must start from the Gothic It is manifest that
Futhorc, and
it
consequently becomes a matter
of great importance to ascertain as accurately as possible the dates of the earlier inscriptions.
It
be needful to devote a few pre-
will therefore
liminary paragraphs to a
summary
of the evidence
on which the dates of certain standard inscriptions
have been approximately determined.
From
the
historical
point of view the most
monument yet discovered is a massive gold torque, which is now in the Museum important runic
at
Bucharest.
at
Buzeo
in
This torque was found in 1838 Wallachia,
and formed part of a
treasure buried within a ring-mound, which seems to have been the site of a heathen temple. intrinsic
of the
value
The torque bears an
gold was about
The 4000
l .
inscription in unmistakable
runes of the early type, which reads
XAt *
*
+ * >i 1
H
M
r
fr
X,
Dedicated to the temple of the Goths/ Zacber,
Das
Gothische AlpJiabet, p. 47.
Here,
The Dated Monuments. then,
we have a very
century a portion of the Goths
homes
In the second
definite date.
east of the Vistula,
Caracalla had reached
left
their early
and by the time of
The torque evidently belongs
Danube.
heathen period.
Lower
the plains of the
to
the
In the second half of the third
century the Mcesian Goths were converted by Ascolius
in
;
325 Theophilus, one of their bishops,
attended the council of Nice
and not long
;
after-
wards the Gothic runes were superseded by the alphabet of Ulphilas,
who was born
Buzeo torque must belong
to the
in 311.
The
period
when
the Goths were recent settlers in Dacia and heathens. points
to
The great the
camp
of the
intrinsic value of the gold
dedication of the
great triumph
the
it
plunder
spoils
may
or the
Emperor Decius,
the wealthy city of Marcianopolis.
probable
date
still
seems
to
be
of some
be
of the
ransom of
The
most
between 210 and
250 A.D.
Another dated monument of nearly equal importance
Danube.
comes
also
The Roman
now Druisheim,
from
the
station
region of
of the
Drusomagus,
near Augsburg, was established
The Nordenhoff Broach.
by
Tiberius,
and was
convulsions of the
finally
fifth
in
destroyed
At
century.
the
the neigh-
bouring village of Nordenhoff, the cemetery of the third Italian legion has been discovered, and
362 graves have been excavated.
In these graves
Roman
coins,
ranging in date from Augustus to Valens.
The
were found no
less
than forty- six
interments, with few exceptions, are pre-Christian,
and extend from the year 200
A. D. to 400.
one of these graves, along with of jewellery,
articles
many
In
v.aluable
was found a large
silver
broach, bearing on the back three separate runic inscriptions of ownership or donation.
of the
three
four
German
owners of this
successive
men and
The names
a woman,
are
all
broach,
of the
Low
The grave was that of a woman, probably the Gothic wife of some Eoman officer. The broach can hardly have been or
Gothic type.
deposited in the grave later than the year 400,
probably
it
was much
earlier,
and, allowing for
the four successive ownerships, the earliest of the three inscriptions carries us
much
further back.
Judging from the character of the runes, two of the inscriptions
seem
to
be
earlier,
and one
The Dated Monuments.
io
later,
than the inscription on the Buzeo torque.
The most probable date seems
to
be between
finds'
of the early
200 and 300 A.D. There are also two dated
'
Iron age, from Danish
peat bogs, which were
formerly shallow lakes.
From
Vi Moss,
the
Fyn, was exhumed a collection of 3000 such
as
swords, spear-heads,
evidently the
which was
A
hoard
lost
comb and a wooden
bone
silver coin of
to
and combs,
chief
or
trader,
names of
were
tool-handle
their former owners.
Faustina the younger,
in 175 A.D. gives
200
of some
articles,
hidden in the ancient lake.
or
inscribed with the
A
tools,
in
who
died
us an approximate date, say
300 A.D.
The other Jutland,
is
'find,'
from the
of about the same date.
of the contents of three or battle.
Nydam
The
war
ships,
Moss, in
It consisted
sunk
in storm
skeletons of the horses
still
tained the iron bits between their jaws.
re-
Along
with arrows inscribed with runes were bronze broaches, silver clasps, iron swords, knives, spears,
together with thirty-four
dating from 69 to 217 A.D.
Roman
and
coins,
The Charnay Broach.
1 1
Second only in interest to the Buzeo torque is
the silver-gilt broach which
was found
in 1857,
together with a great quantity of ornaments and
weapons, on the battle-field of Charnay, at the confluence of the Saone and the Doubs.
It
was
Burgundians were defeated with
here that the
immense slaughter by the Franks under
Clovis.
This broach, which no doubt belonged to one of the slain chieftains of the Burgundian host, bears, in addition to a runic inscription of
ship, a Futhorc, of
are legible.
which the
nineteen runes
The Burgundians were
nected with the Goths.
and Burgundians and at a
first
as
later period
owner-
closely con-
Pliny associates Goths
dwelling near the Vistula,
we
find
Burgundians shar-
ing the fortunes of their Gothic kinsmen in Moesia, Italy, Illyria,
and Asia Minor.
The Burgundian
Futhorc on the Charnay broach
be regarded as
therefore
may
essentially a Gothic alphabet of
a date not later than the end of the say 450 to 480 A.D.
fifth
century,
Great importance must be
attached to the Charnay runes, not only because of
their
because,
very
precise
and
definite
date,
though they are substantially
but
identical
The Dated Monuments.
12
with the runes on the Buzeo torque, they exhibit in
forms which
cases
several
more modern
M
notably
distinctively
H
instead of
The forms
instead of A.
are
of the
,
and
runes in the
Futhorc of the Vadstena bracteate, already ferred
are
to,
obviously of intermediate
Taking the date of the Buzeo torque 2~o A.D., and that of the
re-
date.
as about
Charnay broach
we may with some
about 460,
f)
as
confidence assign
the Vadstena bracteate to the year 350 or there-
abouts
*.
But these few runic some fortunate assign
accident,
forms
of the
Some
by
has been possible to
possess.
runes
The most primi-
occur
upon undated
From Jutland we have
monuments.
1
it
approximate dates, are by no means the
most ancient which we tive
inscriptions to which,
the Thors-
monuments are of use in enabling us subsequent developments of the Runic writing,
other dated
to trace the
Such are the Collingham Cross, erected to the memory of King Oswin, murdered at Collingham, on August aoth, 650 ; the Bewcastle Cross, a memorial of King Alcfrith, who died and
though not least, the magnificent Ruthwell Cross, on which Csedmon inscribed, not later than 680,
in
670;
last,
a portion of his
Dream
of the
Holy Rood.
Prehistoric Inscriptions.
13
diadem bjerg Moss weapons and the Dalby
;
arid
from Norway the Tune stone and the Frohaug bronze,
all
of which bear inscriptions which
well belong to the second, or even the
tury of our
first,
In these inscriptions we
era.
may cenfind,
among
other signs of great antiquity, the runes
H,
and
E3,
which are the remote prototypes
,
of the third century runes M,
The foregoing evidence
Dd,
and
Y.
establishes the existence,
at a very early date, of a definite runic alphabet,
which must have been a common possession of Gothic tribes before the commencement of
the
their dispersion.
of the
movement
the southward
Goths down the valley of the Dnieper before
began
Now
the
end of the
second
century,
while their northward migration to the
shores
much
earlier
of
Sweden must be assigned
to a
period.
In connection with this question of date
it is
important to notice that this ancient and widespread Gothic alphabet nite,
and uniform.
is
wonderfully firm,
To decipher the
defi-
inscription
on the golden torque of the Moesian Goths by the help of the alphabet stamped on the golden
The Dated Monuments.
14
Bracteate from Swedish Gothland, it
as easy as
is
would be to read an Australian tombstone by
the aid of a spelling-book from the United States.
common
Distant colonies employ the
alphabet of
the mother country.
That the runic alphabet of the third century should be so widely diffused, and so uniform in its
character,
But
antiquity. letters of
a
indicates
these
considerable
early
runes
previous
are not the
any other known alphabet.
The dated
runes of the third century must already have
had a long great
history,
and must have undergone
and
developments
Their
modifications.
resemblances to the letters of the Mediterranean alphabets are sufficiently close fact of a
common
blances are
parentage,
such as to
period for their evolution.
to
establish
the
while the dissem-
demand a
considerable
Just as the geologist
postulates his needful milleniums for the develop-
ment of the Horse from the Hipparion, student of Alphabets claims at of some of the
centuries
as
forms of the
of any other
requisite earliest
known Alphabet.
once for
the
so the
a period
growth
extant runes
out
The evolution of
Early the
Theories.
15
Greek Alphabet from the Semitic, of the Latin
from the Aramaic, of the
Arabic
from
the Greek, are processes which afford some sort of measure of the time that would be required
development of the Gothic Futhorc out
for the
of any other alphabet
Greek, Latin, Phoenician,
or Carthaginian.
After carefully weighing the whole evidence before us, it may, I think, be affirmed that the
Eunes must be placed a century or two, at the very least, before the commenceorigin of the
ment of the Christian
THE PHCENICIAN HYPOTHESIS.
3.
We
era.
now
are
investigation,
by
prepared,
to
the
discuss
this
preliminary
possible
sources
from which the Goths could have obtained the elements
of their to
of
last
Cadmus
'
Alphabet.
We may
begin with, the pre-scientific belief
dismiss,
the
ancient
century,
the celebrated
ingenuously suggests
some
Scandinavian
Woden/
as one writer
that
either brought the runes
from Asia, or constructed
a
new alphabet on
The Phoenician Hypothesis.
16
eclectic
borrowing some
principles,,
letters
from
the Greeks, some from the Eomans, others from the Hebrews, and inventing the remainder as
it
pleased him.
At the present time the most generally
ac-
cepted opinion seems to be that the runes were derived
directly
This view Professor still
is
from
Phoenician
alphabet.
upheld by the great authority of
Stephens
greater
the
name
and
1 ,
is
supported
of Lenormant,
who
by the
specifically
derives the Eunes from the Sidonian type of the
Phoenician Alphabet 2
Mr. Peile, the most recent
.
writer on the subject 3 , soberly sums
valent view in these words
with
:
some confidence that
'It if
up the
may be the
pre-
asserted
runes
were
genuine Alphabets (which there seems no reason to deny) they must have been derived from the Phoenicians
in
process
of commerce.
quite sufficient similarity in racters to
make
this
Runic Monuments,
2
JEssai su/r la propagation
9
and
is
several of the cha-
view antecedently probable,
1
table v,
There
pp. 94, 834.
de I'Afyhabet Phenicien, vol.
p. 112.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, pth edition, Art. Alphabet.
I,
Historical Proof wanting.
but
not
if
difficult,
proof would
historical
any
impossible/
1
be
extremely
The only
definite
attempt to give any such 'historical proof believe, that
Dieterich
.
uncritical, that
it
is
however,
may
attempt.
The
affiliated
definite
state them.
This much,
runes, in their earliest forms,
must
to the Phoenician alphabet of
some
Place.
If,
as Mr. Peile sup-
runes were obtained from Phoenician
traders, they
must have come
either from Sidon,
This must have been either
Tyre, or Carthage.
before the destruction of Sidon or of Tyre
wholly
be said with regard to any such
Time and
poses, the
so
unnecessary to discuss his
arguments or even to
be
I
of this learned Professor
unfortunately written in a spirit
is
is,
which has been made by Professor
The essay
J
7
by Alexander,
by the
Persians,
or of Carthage
Komans, conditions which limit us
by the
to those Phoe-
nician alphabets which were prior to the fourth
century B.C.
It
is
also
plain
that
the
more
primitive forms of the Phoenician letters, which are earlier in date than the 1
great extension of
Entrdthselung des Odinischen Futhork durch das Semitisclie
Alphabet.
Stockholm, 1864.
C
1
The Phoenician Hypothesis.
8
the Phoenician commerce, as well as
must be excluded
developments of the runes,
from the comparison. dispose of almost
all
be drawn from a
These obvious conditions the arguments which might
comparison of the
superficial
tables of Phoenician
the later
all
and runic
letters
Thus we can no
1
given by Professor Stephens
which are
.
H
and
longer compare the Semitic letters :,
with the late runes of similar form and value. it
Moreover,
Greeks
all
probability
and
suppose that developments of the
analogy to Semitic
contrary to
is
letters
should
which have
took
among
the
precisely
and
place
been again
independently repeated in the case of the Gothic runes.
It
for instance, impossible
is,
that the remarkable
to believe
evolution of Aryan vowels
out of certain Semitic gutturals and breathings should,
course
by mere
among
chance,
the
civilized
semi-barbarous Baltic tribes stance or two from in
the
highest
1
;
Hellenes or,
among the
degree
run a
have
to take an in-
consonants, it
improbable
Runic Monuments, pp.
parallel
and the
95, 116.
that
is
both
Improbability of the Hypothesis.
and
Greeks evolved
the
Goths '
independently have
should
forms
fc,
Phoenician letters 9>
$,
W,
19
H
and
and
out
of the
^.
Several of the runes are, no doubt, capable of
explanation from Semitic
letters,
but even
allow the utmost latitude of interpretation
if
we
it will
be found that more than half of the twenty-four primitive
runes
are
left
unexplained
by the
Phoenician hypothesis.
At calls
present,
however,
this
and sober scholar
Till
some competent
shall succeed in
Gothic Futhorc, rune by rune,
been evolved out of the Phoenician is
hardly
for serious refutation, for it has never yet
been seriously propounded.
the
hypothesis
showing how
might have letters,
there
really nothing substantial to be refuted.
The
mere assertion of a
*
possibility/
which
is all
that
has yet been given us by the propounders of the Semitic theory, affords no solid material for
argument. 4.
A
THE LATIN HYPOTHESIS.
second hypothesis, which derives the runes
from the Latin Alphabet, stands upon a different c 2
The Latin Hypothesis.
2O
It is obviously
footing.
suggested by the striking
resemblance of the runes corresponding
and
is
it
Koman
letters
supported,
of vague generalities
I,
fr,
to the
C, F, H,
B,
the
by
I,
R;
allegation
but
possibilities,
by
arguments, brought forward by writers
definite
of
not
and
P, H,
<,
,
repute,
which
can
be
with
grappled
and
weighed.
The Latin theory was broached by Dr. Kirchhoff, five
and twenty years ago l and has recently ,
been worked out in considerable
Wimmer 2
,
arguments
MM.
a
Danish
have
been
scholar,
by Dr.
detail
whose
favourably
elaborate
regarded
by
Earle, Rhys, Vigfusson, and Sweet, and by
several
Dr.
German
Wimmer
scholars of repute.
supposes
that
the
Runes were
obtained from the Romans, through the Gauls, 3
In order to
in the time of the
early empire
account for certain
Runes which plainly cannot
.
be of Latin origin, he assumes that his hypo1
2
Das
Goihische Runenalphabet.
Berlin, 1854.
Runeskriftens Oprindelse og Udvikling
havn, 1874. 3
Op.
cit. p.
150.
i
Norden.
Kopen-
The Chronological
21
Difficulty.
thetical Gaulish alphabet contained letters derived
from the Massilian Greeks, and others descended from the old North-Etruscan alphabet
The
difficulties
two
.of
kinds
which
general
beset this
and
!
theory are
Passing
special.
over the wholly unwarranted assumption as to
the nature of Dr. Wimmer's imaginary Gaulish alphabet, the first objection that presents
that
is
bringing
time
sufficient
about the
not
is
obtainable
changes which
taken place in several of the
itself
for
must have
letters.
It
has
been already shown that the Goths possessed a
uniform
and well-established
alphabet
in
the
second century, before they migrated, one body
northwards to the
to
the
closely
Roman
letters,
them very
teen differ from century,
so
if
Wimmer's theory
much, for
the
Vistula,
and
ten
resemble
runes the
of ten
yet the other four-
considerably.
Barely
obtainable
on Dr.
is
the spread of the runes,
through a host of hostile to
although
Futhorc
corresponding
a
Now
Danube.
Gothic
another southwards
Scandinavia,
for
of form and value which
tribes,
the
from the Rhone
extensive changes
must have taken place
The Latin Hypothesis.
22
in several of the letters if the runes are to be
with
connected
Latin
the
Setting
alphabet.
aside for the present certain fatal phonetic culties,
which
will
to
believe
possibly suffice
for Dr.
difficult
is
be
hereafter
a
that
;
of
M
out of E
;
considered,
,
or of
it
could
century
Wimmer's supposed
velopment of the runes X,
C
diffi-
de-
and N out of runic vowel
Y, a
and guttural, out of Z, a non- Roman
sibilant,
the existence of which in his Gaulish alphabet Dr.
Wimmer
fails satisfactorily to explain.
The geographical
great as the
difficulty is as
If the runes were obtained from
chronological.
we ought
find
them
in the possession of those Teutonic tribes
which
the Romanized Gauls,
bordered
came is,
upon
Gaul,
or
which
into early contact with the
we should
look for
to
in
some way
Romans
;
them among the
of the Rhineland or of the
that tribes
Upper Danube.
In German lands numerous inscribed stones have been found, dating from the
first
century
v
downwards, but none of them bear runes are written in
unmistakable
Roman
;
they
characters,
which exhibit no trace of any tendency towards
The Geographical
23
Difficulty.
the development of the characteristic runic forms.
The regions
which runic stones abound are
in
lands which
were
never
part
Roman
the
of
empire, and which are as remote as can be from
the
Roman
It
frontier.
not
is
the
in
Agri
Decumates, or in Vindelicia, or in Rhaetia, that runic stones occur, but in Norway, in
and more
of Gothland and
Swedish provinces
the
in
especially
Upland.
Denmark,
It
the Jutes in
is
Jutland, the Goths in Gothland, and the Mceso-
Goths on the Euxine,
far
remote,
all
of them,
from the frontiers of Gaul, who were acquainted with the runes at a time when they were un-
known
to
the
frontier
the Alemanni,
the
tribes
Istevones,
of the
the
Cherusci,
Chatti,
and
the Franks.
Out of
stones which
have been discovered not one
claimed by
Germany
all
the two thousand runic
or France.
of the runic treasures
of
The catalogue
Germany
two broaches, a spear -head, and a the
possessions,
wanderers
German
or
in
exiles
all
is
of
finger-ring
probability,
who chanced
consists
of to
Gothic die
on
soil.
The preceding geographical evidence may be
The Latin Hypothesis.
24
held to prove that the
come
from
the
chronological
.must
have
shews
evidence
before they had
Gaul
of
frontiers
been
could not have
runes
;
that
Goths
the
them
with
acquainted
the
while
long
any opportunity of acquiring a
knowledge of the Latin alphabet. There
which
is
is
another argument of a general nature
not without
its
A
weight.
large
number
of the most ancient runic inscriptions are written in the early direction,
Greek
fashion, either in a retrograde
from right to
left,
The gradual abandonment
or boustrophedon.
of
this
method
of
writing can be traced in the runic inscriptions as plainly as in the Greek.
Now
if
the runic writing
had been acquired from the Eomans nothing can be
more certain than
inscriptions
that
the
earliest
runic
would have been written from
to right according to the
Koman
method.
left
It is
contrary at the same time to probability and to experience that any nation which had once become
acquainted with the more convenient method of writing should have forthwith
reverted to
the
inconvenient archaic system.
Although the foregoing general considerations
The Retrograde
by themselves
are probably sufficient
Wimmer's
of Dr.
at
hypothesis,
to
dispose
events
all
form in which he broaches
the
25
Inscriptions.
may
it
yet
it,
in
be as well to inquire whether, supposing these preliminary obstacles to be in any
Latin alphabet
the
is
way
evaded,
of affording
capable
an
adequate explanation of the origin of the individual runes.
Dr.
Kirchhoff's
to
attempt
an
supply such
explanation must at once be set aside as insuf-
Indeed he does not seem to be aware
ficient.
of the real nature of the problem to be solved.
He
contents
from
himself with taking fifteen runes
Futhorc
Scandinavian
the
of
the
tenth
and comparing twelve of them with
century,
the corresponding letters of the Latin alphabet.
He
ought rather
Gothic
Futhorc
which the
The
to
the
of
to
deal
hand the
century,
was
from
derived.
when
with the characteristic early ^,
of which, as will
be
4,
Futhorc
in
of the case only arise
runes, such as X,
p.
third
Scandinavian
real difficulties
we come
have taken
\
disappeared from
,
M, Y,
seen
the
D0,
,
,
from the table later
all
on
Scandinavian
The Latin Hypothesis.
26
These early runes Dr. Kirchhoff passes
Futhorc.
1 by without a word
Dr.
Wimmer, however,
Futhorc
the
.
the
alphabet
to
is
is
fully
aware that
if
be derived from the Latin
difficulty
must be faced
of
ac-
counting for the forms of the earlier runes. therefore deal
will
than with those
with his arguments, rather
of
Dr.
Kirchhoff,
examine the accordance of sults
In
with
general
his
scientific principles
alphabetic
tracing
principles
many
and
briefly
methods and
and
re-
possibilities.
certain
developments
have to be borne in mind.
The laws which govern the resemble in
I
of letters
origin
respects those which regulate
the origin of species and the origin of words.
In
Palaeography,
Philology,
variations
present,
in
Zoology,
Botany,
or
no arbitrary or violent changes are
The
to be expected.
the
as
are
of
the
variations of letters, like
sounds which
slow and gradual,
they re-
and take place
in accordance with phonetic laws, and in obedience
to
general principles
1
Dai
:
the chief of which are
Gothische Munenalphabet, pp. 4-8.
The Principles of Alphabetic Change.
The
(i)
Principle
Principle
are
Greek
exemplified
in
developments of
G
of
n,
U, V, Y,
W
alphabets these
the
principles
and necessary
gradual
out of C, of J out of
We
out of O.
were retained, and how additional
were
gradually
and the
So again, on
order
to
it
manifest
is
B gradually acquired
R
letter
when
by means
developed
the Principle of Sufficient Reason
loop,
how
letters
letters,
of slight differentiations of form.
that the letter
and
I,
here see
on the Principle of Least Effort the old
required,
The
(2)
In the Latin,
of Sufficient Keason.
and
English,
and
of Least Effort,
27
developed
its
its
lower
tail,
in
confusions with
prevent inconvenient
the letter P.
These
fundamental
principles
change are constantly neglected
of
alphabetic
by Dr.
Wimmer.
His method assumes that the inventors of the runes arbitrarily discarded a certain number of the Latin letters, and then without any Sufficient
Reason invented other places.
of the like
letters to
supply the vacant
If his explanations are correct, several runes, instead
the letters of
all
of having other
been evolved,
alphabets,
by the
The Latin Hypothesis.
28 action of slow
and natural
been invented
off
giver,
who had
of Grimm's
processes,
must have
hand by some alphabetic law-
the power to suspend the action
Law, and whose arbitrary behests
were promptly obeyed over a vast region extending from the Rhone to the Baltic, and from the Baltic to the Danube. If
we
we compare
the Latin and the Kunic letters,
see that in nine cases there
close
have
a sufficiently
Latin
BCFHIMRST
Runic
*
But there
c
f
li
i
We
and value.
form
in
correspondence
is
m
r
s
t
are fifteen runes which cannot so easily
We
be explained.
have
Latin
ADEGLNOPUVX
Runic
frNMX
r *
*
K h
l>
a d
I
n
o
p u
v x
e
g
Dr. Wimmer's task
is
Y
l>
'V h
ik eo
$
y ng
to explain from the Latin
Alphabet the origin of these explanation which he gives
is
fifteen runes.
The
as follows.
The Latin A was dropped, without
Sufficient
Dr. Wimmers Argument.
disused for centuries, took
The
became
its place.
and acquired the value
^,
was then doubled, and one half of
It
th.
D
letter
which had been
A,
Eeason, and the Etruscan
was turned round, ^^,
new rune
with the value of d
DQ,
The
to obtain
in order
1 being contrary to phonetic law
M, though
the existing letter
any
the
of
inscription
the
.
E was turned upon
letter
it
both changes
;
its
face,
no Sufficient Reason usurped the
for
in
29
there
is
and
form of no trace
hypothetical
inter-
mediate form m.
The
G, without
letter
and
disused,
a
new
invented to supply
The
sign,
The
letter L, for
letter
no reason at
In Gothic
for
O,
the
contrary to
1
become
no
Principle
all,
was written
h.
Sufficient
of Least
1*.
Reason, and Effort,
took
.
th should
In Welsh dd becomes th th
arbitrarily
N, for no Sufficient Reason, became
letter
the form
X, was
was
its place.
upside down, and became
The
Sufficient Reason,
d.
become th,
d, instead
of
d becoming
th.
but in no known language could
The Latin Hypothesis.
3O
The
P changed
letter
value to
becomes
v,
its
contrary to the phonetic law that
A
f.
new p was then
placing two
's
thetical rune, of inscription,
form to ^, and
its
which there
forthwith
this
p by
hypo-
no trace in any
is
five
lost
and
fcH,
vis-h-vis,
invented
strokes,
and be-
came K.
The
letter
V,
for
no reason at
was written
all,
upside down, and became H.
The character
X
having been invented to supply
the place of the disused letter G, the Latin letter
X
consequently became unavailable to
the sound x.
Hence the
a true Latin
letter
at
letter
express
Z, which
is
but Etruscan and
all,
Greek, was taken over and transformed into
with the values x and
i,
and
also, as
contends, with the value of r
This Greek or Etruscan those
who
1
and
Dr. R,
Dr.
Wimmer
l .
Z was
so familiar to
was made the parent, not only of
also of the rune
Wimmer
\
or s/^ with the values
assigns the value of r to the
two runes
even when they stand side by side in the same
scription.
Y,
constructed the runes out of the Latin
letters that it
Y, but
not
y in-
Dr. Wimmer's Argument. i
and
eo,
31
without Sufficient Eeason, and contrary
to phonetic law.
The remaining runes
a
more
still
crucial
adequacy of Dr. Wimmer's theory.
of the
test
offer
Identifying the rune
<
(k)
with the Latin runes
considers that
the three
which denote
respectively g, y,
X,
ij,
C
he
,
and
,
and ng, were
formed by three different reduplications of the
How
rune <.
the debilitated sounds g and
could be obtained by the reduplication strengthening)
But
not explain. constructed
of the if
(i.
e.
y
the
hard guttural k he does these runes had been thus
we should expect
to find transitional
forms in the earlier inscriptions.
Now
X
from the very
appears, firm
and well
defined,
while the earlier forms of H are
first,
then 5
,
which certainly do not look
cations of <.
The ng
first ^,
it
rune, however,
We
find
was un-
as
we
on the earlier monuments through
successive
stages
of the
process
such early forms as
'O',
and
like redupli-
doubtedly formed by reduplication trace
the rune
can
many
of formation.
O,
*,
fcj,
Z,
%> Q> *>, the last of which settled into the final form J$ about the sixth century A. D. Dr. Wimmer
The Latin Hypothesis.
32 is
therefore plainly right in considering this as
a
double
rune,
from
derived
But
<.
is
it
equally plain that the ng sound must have arisen
out of gg and not out of
In Greek 77
kk.
is
equivalent to ng, and Ulphilas, as in the words
juggs the
young, and huggrfan, to hunger, employs
y
symbols
rr
to
(gg)
express the
Teutonic
sound ng, either following in this respect the law of the
familiar
Greek
probably, retaining the
phonesis,
usage
in the Gothic Futhorc on
or,
more
which he found
which he modelled
his
Not only must ng come from gg, but by Grimm's Law a Gothic k represents a Alphabet.
primitive
It
g.
follows therefore
ginal value of the symbol as thus,
and thus
the two runes <
Now
in the
third symbol,
g
to
c,
that the ori-
< was g and not
k,
only, can the origin of both of (k),
and
(
n 9\ be explained.
Latin alphabet the power of the
C, had already been changed from
and hence, independently of
phical or chronological considerations,
all
geogra-
it is
obvious
that no modification of the conditions of the Latin
Hypothesis
is
of the runes.
capable of accounting for the origin
Difficulties
of the Latin Hypothesis.
33
In the way of the Latin theory stand a whole host of insuperable difficulties
chronological, geo-
graphical, phonological, and morphological.
only does
to
fail
it
account
Not
the origin of
for
fourteen out of the twenty-four primitive runes,
but
it
leaves
entirely
unexplained
the
order
which
they occupy in the Futhorc. Why, be asked, should the Futhorc begin with
may
and end with
o,
z
any
have deemed
not
?
Wimmer's argument appears
so destitute of
it
needful to
to
be
it
in
had not obtained the approval
of so
scholars of high repute.
From one
me
examine
if it
5.
to
solid foundation that I should
such detail
many
f
instead of beginning with a and
ending with x or Dr.
it
THE GREEK HYPOTHESIS. passage only, in any ancient writer,
do we obtain information as to the nature of Tacitus had heard a report of the
the runes. existence,
the
somewhere
North
1
Tacitus, frontiers
of
1 ,
far
away
in the regions of
of certain inscriptions which were
The vague references to the Germania, 3. and to the place called and Rhsetia, Germany
The Greek Hypothesis.
34 written
Greek
in
characters
tumulos quosdam, Graecis
him
report seemed to either
vouch
to
explanation
mormmenta
:
literis
inscriptos.
so strange that
worth, the current conjecture.
The
he declines attempt an
for its truth or to
but he gives, for what
;
et
it
Some
might be
persons, he
says,
have supposed that Ulysses in his wander-
ings
must have
Germany, and
visited
left
the northern coasts
of
behind him these inscriptions
:
quaB neque confirmare argumentis, neque refellere in
animo
est
:
ex ingenio suo quisque demat vel
addat fidem.
Modern
writers have
Tacitus as an criticism
may
may supply
*
scouted the account of
absurd story;'
a more sagacious
perhaps discover in the true
it
a hint which
explanation of the runic
mystery.
Asciburgium, where Tacitus localizes these inscriptions, may perhaps be reconciled by the supposition that the Asciburgium is really the 'Ao-Kifiovpyiov opos of Ptolemy, which undoubtedly the Biesengebirge on the frontier of Silesia. Tacitus may have transferred his Asciburgium to the lower Rhine in order to harmonize with the current Odyssean
of Tacitus
is
legend the reports which he had heard as to the Ascibergian inscriptions.
The Evidence of
Tacitus..
35
It is manifest that if the Phoenician
solutions
and Latin
have both to be rejected, one other
possibility alone
remains
the runes must have
been derived from the Greek
letters,
since
the
Greeks were the only other people in possession
who
of an alphabet
could
have anywise come
into contact, commercial or colonial, with any of
the Teutonic tribes at a period as early as the If the Greek
circumstances of the case require.
alphabet will not afford a solution of the problem,
must, apparently, be given up as finally
it
insoluble.
It
is
at once obvious that the chief difficulties
which stand in the way of a solution from the Latin Alphabet do not apply equally to the Greek. If the
Teutons the
runes
were
from, the
chronological
.should
obtain
acquired by the Eastern
Greek colonies on the Euxine difficulty
disappears,
several centuries
for
as
we
the needful
developments.
The geographical
assumes a
formidable shape, as in this case
the
less
difficulty
South-Western Teutons would be the
instead of the
the runes.
first,
also
last,
to acquire a knowledge of
Nor does any D 2
difficulty arise
from
The Greek Hypothesis.
36
the retrograde or boustrophedon direction of the primitive
runic writing, as the early Greek in-
scriptions
are written in the
same manner.
It
has just been shown that Dr. Wimmer's theory
down conspicuously
breaks
the
in
account for the origin of the runes
We
<.
,
which
may
have
never
Law
H
Hence
be
been
yet
or
M, which
rune for
Greek
g,
%.
Y
is,
But
as
it
Law
X
of
#,
,
%.
ought to
as the
so
the
ancient
Hence X, the simply the
be,
for ch.
symbol
the at
g
Greek alphabet we
signs,
have acquired the value of
As
X, acquired in other,
Y, might
in Scandinavia.
In
by Grimm's Law, a Greek 7 Hence from the Greek a Gothic k.
place,
answers to or
d.
also gives a Gothic
Greek
one of these equivalent Italy the value
or
El
in the early
as well as
the next
By
are the old runes for d,
with
Grimm's
0.
ex-
a sort of preliminary test
as the equivalent of a
F
satisfactorily
a Greek 6 answers to a Gothic
identified
forms of
find
Y, X,
adequacy of the Greek hypothesis.
Grimm's
may
DO,
therefore take these five runes,
plained, as affording
of the
to
attempt
f we
obtain
in Scandinavia,
as in Italy,
A preliminary <
the symbol
for c
(k).
Test.
37
Also since gg expresses
the sound of ng in Greek and in Ulphilas, the
double rune <> or
&
for
ng
is at
once explained.
It will be noticed that all these correspondencies,
of contravening
instead entire
phonetic
laws,
harmony with them, while the
peculiarities
explicable
are
in
distinctive
of the runic system, which are in-
on
the
Latin
hypothesis,
receive
a
simple and natural explanation from the Greek alphabet.
The foregoing arguments, which can be stated in a single paragraph, seem sufficient to justify a more detailed investigation of a theory which,
though
it
seems to be the obvious solution of
the problem, and accords with the only state-
ment of any ancient author on the not hitherto, so far as I
am
subject, has
aware, undergone
the test of a serious examination.
6.
THE CHRONOLOGICAL
CONDITIONS.
But before thus examining the Futhorc
to see
by legitimate processes it can be derived, rune by rune, from the Greek alphabet, it is needful
if
The Chronological
38
to state, as briefly as
may
Conditions.
be, the
geographical
and chronological conditions of the problem, and to determine the forms which were assumed by the Greek letters at the time and at the place at which
runes
it
would seem that the
may most
origin of the
probably be sought.
First, as to the chronological possibilities.
We
have already seen that there
is
reason to
must have originated
believe that the runes
a considerable period before the year 200
Now
amount
the
separates
the
of
Greek
phonetic letters
at
A. D.
which
change
from the
earliest
runes occupied in the case of Keltic speech about eight centuries
1 .
It seems then to be not un-
reasonable to postulate a somewhat similar period
development of corresponding changes in
for the
the Gothic and Scandinavian languages.
what more
definite date is given
cant peculiarity in the runic
writing,
a
A
by the
some-
signifi-
direction of the earliest
circumstance which
points
to
the conclusion that the runes must have been obtained from the Greeks at the very time
*
Rhys, Lectures on Welsh Philology,
p. 45.
when
The Boustrophedon
Test.
39
Greek writing was in its transition state, and was passing from the retrograde direction in which it was received from the Phoenicians, the
through the intermediate
boustrophedon stage,
the ultimate direction from
into
left
to
right.
This consideration would indicate the sixth century B.C. as an approximate date for the origin of the runes.
The
palseographical tests agree in pointing to
the same date.
The Greek
alphabet from which
the
runes
were derived must have been distinguished, as will be seen hereafter, characteristics
1-3.
and
The introduction
The use of H
and the 5-9.
w l
:
of the
new
letters
X, Y,
fl.
4.
of
by the following fourteen
;
and of
to
denote both the vowel
aspirate.
The use of R of
A
10-12.
V or the
instead of
instead of
P
0; of ^
;
of
M
instead
instead of
A;
and < instead of F.
The use of h later
A
;
of $
in place of the earlier
instead of the earlier
The Chronological Conditions.
40
M
or the
B
earlier
13,
Z
later
The
instead of the
K
or the later
14.
H
and of
;
retention
of the
gutturals
and Y. These fourteen runic tests are also the characteristic
marks
of the
alphabet
of
Ionia
and
the Isles at the end of the sixth century B.C.
To obtain a
limit of time
superior
the following dates
we have
:
Before the
X
Introduction of
4oth Olympiad. 6oth
Introduction of fl
Use
of
B
as a
Change of B
....
Y
Introduction of
vowel
to
H
.
Hence of the 4
it
R
.
p to h
Change of P* Change of
.
....
Introduction of the tailed
Change of
.
47th
M
to to
40 th 45th 55th
4oth
M ....
55th
....
4oth
$
appears that the specially runic forms
Greek alphabet were acquired between the and 6oth Olympiads.
The Palceographical For the
inferior limit of
Tests.
time
41
we have After the
H
Disuse of
for aspirate
Change of
of * to
A 5
Change
^
A
Change of
to
to
Final disuse of
These
.
8oth 75th
.
.... .... Y
forms
runic
75th
8oth 75th
.
.
dates
approximate
characteristic
85th
.
.
.
.
and
^
84th Olympiad.
....
O
to
Change of h
....
R
Disuse of tailed
show that
disappeared
several
between
the 75th and 85th Olympiads. It appears therefore that the Ionian
and Island
alphabet exhibits a remarkable approximation to runic
between
forms
Olympiads, that
480
B.C.
is,
the
6oth
and the
75th
between the years 540 and
This date for the origin of the runes,
which has
been
graphical grounds,
arrived is
at
solely
on
curiously confirmed
palseo-
by
his-
torical considerations.
In the sixth century
B.C.
the shores of Thrace
and of the Black Sea were thickly studded with colonies
from
the
Isles
and
the
Ionian
cities.
The Chronological Conditions.
42
Just at the close of this century the rapid progress of the Persian arms isolated
all
these
must have
northern
effectually
from their
colonies
parent states, and thus have stereotyped for a considerable period the alphabet which they pos-
The Persian expedition
sessed.
to the Danube,
the conquest of Thrace, the capture of Miletus, Teos, Lesbos, Samos, Naxos, Thasos, Chios, Lemnos,
Tenedos, and Chalcis, are events which took place
Thus
between the years 510 and 490. year 500
B.C.,
at the very time
characteristics of the Ionian
had attained
their
when
in the
the runic
and Island alphabet
maximum
development, the
Ionian and Island colonies on the Euxine were temporarily, and in some cases permanently, cut off
from intercourse with the parent
an
of colonial
isolation
perpetuate case
in
of the
them
Saxon
cities.
dependencies
Such
tends
archaic peculiarities.
to
The
colonists in Transylvania, of
the French habitans in Canada, or of the Dutch boers
at the
Cape, are
sufficient
to
shew that
isolated colonists are likely to conserve for centuries the fashions of speech, dress,
which were
prevalent
in
the
and writing
parent countries
Isolation
at the time
of the Thracian
when
Colonies.
43
the severance took place.
default of any direct evidence
it
may
In
therefore
be regarded as probable that those special runic characteristics of the
Greece
itself
Greek alphabet, which in
were but transient, lasting
more than half a century, might have been preserved
colonies
in the
for a
Euxine
much
period, very possibly for a century or
little
longer
two
after
the Persian invasion.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS.
7.
We now
come
to deal with the
possibilities of the problem.
We
whether any Teutonic people
geographical
have to inquire could
have had
such intercourse with any of the Greek colonies in the sixth or following centuries as to enable
them
to
call the
Now
acquire a knowledge of
what we may
runic type of the Greek alphabet.
the Greek colonies on the shores of Thrace
and of the Euxine were derived almost exclusively from Ionia and the liarities
Isles,
where the runic pecu-
of the Greek alphabet are chiefly found.
Samothrace was colonized from Samos, Chalcidice from Chalcis, Thasos from Paros, while Miletus
The Geographical
44
had numerous
colonies
Conditions.
on
the
in
Hellespont,
Thrace, in the Crimea, and at the mouths of the
Don, the Dniester, and the Dnieper. If the Thracian Getse were of Gothic race the
problem receives
an
immediate
solution.
The
Getse are found not only south of the Balkans in the valley of the Maritza,
but they were spread
over the Wallachian and Bessarabian plains from the
Danube
to
were Goths we
the
If
Dnieper.
should thus
have
the
Goths
Greeks dwelling in absolute contact.
and Jornandes, Jerome
The
and
Procopius
and Spartian, agree
identifying Getes and Goths. is
Getes
in
identification
supported by the high authority of
W. Grimm,
whose argument, drawn from the Teutonic character of the Dacian plant-names in Dioscorides,
has
been re-stated with
recently
by Mr. Douse. to
affirm that
Canon Rawlinson goes
certain
1
1
."
It
so far as
"the identity of the Getse with
the Goths of later times conjecture.
great ability
may
is
more than a plausible
be regarded as historically
But, weighty as are the opinions of
Rawlinson's Herodotus,
vol.
iii.
pp. 69, 180.
Getes
these authorities,
and
Goths,
45
must be admitted that the
it
ethnic affinities of the Getse are
so far
still
mat-
ter of controversy as to be unfitted for the basis
of an
the Gothini,
extreme
The
induction.
historical
who
ethnology of
placed by Tacitus in the
are
south-west of Germany,
is
still
more
uncertain.
But of the traders,
to the north-west of the
Euxine, and within reach of the Greek
an universal consensus of ancient and
modern writers
places
a
dubitably of Gothic race.
people
amber country was (Guttones)
who
which must be
tells
us that the
lived on the
Bantomannian l Bay, with the Frische
identified either
Our next
authority
whose information, not being derived
like that of
1
in-
in the territory of the Goths
Haff or the Gulf of Dantzig. Tacitus,
who were
Pytheas of Marseilles,
a contemporary of Alexander,
is
Greek colonies
Pytheas from Baltic mariners, would
I take this to be the probable reading of the well-known
passage in Pliny.
The Low-German word
appears in Bra-bant, and other names.
bant, a 'district/
Thus the name of the
Banto-manni would not be a true ethnic term, but a misapprehension of Phoenician navigators, and would '
people of the district,' the
'
country-folk'
mean simply
the
The Geographical
46
Conditions.
apply to the south-western rather than to the northern frontier of the Goths.
Tacitus places
the Goths (Gothones) nearly in the same region,
but somewhat farther to the south, east of the Lygii,
who
inhabited Silesia and the western part
of modern Poland.
The testimony of Ptolemy
harmony with the statements both of Pytheas and of Tacitus. He puts the Goths (IY0oi/e?) east of the Vistula, and the (about 150 A.D.)
Tovrai (Jutes
we may
?)
is
in
in the
'
island of Scandia/ which
identify with the
Swedish province of
Gothland \ It
would seem therefore that the northward
migration across the Baltic of a portion of the
Goths must have taken place at some considerable
there
period is
before the
ample ground
time for
of
Ptolemy.
believing
But
that the
residue of the Gothic nation which remained to
the south of the Baltic was very numerous.
To
say nothing of the vast hosts which followed the standards
we
of Athanaric,
Alaric,
are told that the Gothic
1
and Theodoric,
army which defeated
See Zeuss, Die Deutschen, pp. 134, 511-513.
Extent of the Gothic Realm.
47
the Emperor Decius in the year 250 numbered
70,000 warriors, while the host which nineteen
to
was routed by Claudius amounted
later
years
no
than 320,000.
less
However much the
numbers may have been exaggerated,
it
is
ob-
vious that these great armies constituted only the
vanguard of the Gothic array which kept rolling
on from the North upon the South, it
spent
its
kingdoms in Gaul,
at last
founding powerful Gothic
in
force
till
Italy,
and Spain.
It
seems
therefore to be a very moderate computation if
we
reckon the population of the original Gothic
realm to the east of the Vistula at a million of
At
souls.
this
region
the present time the population which is
able
to
support
is
very sparse.
In the governments of Minsk and Volhynia the present density
is
about forty to the square mile.
But the Goths, when they occupied
this district,
were a thinly scattered pastoral people, and we are probably under the
present
agricultural
four times as dense.
Goths
mark
if
population
we suppose to
To support a
in their original seats
the
be at least million
of
with a density of
ten to the square mile, a territory of 100,000
The Geographical
48
Conditions.
square miles would be required.
It follows that
the Gothic realm must have stretched southwards for
some 400 or 500 miles from the Baltic
coast.
This inference, which agrees with the testimony of Pytheas, Tacitus, and Ptolemy,
by the recent discovery
is
supported
in Volhynia of a spear-
head bearing an inscription written in Gothic This spear-head was runes of the early type. found near the town of Kovel, which stands on the
Pripet,
distant
an
affluent
of the Dnieper,
and
is
about 300 miles from the Baltic coast,
and about 400 miles from the Black Sea.
Here in the
then,
on the upper waters of the Dnieper,
Eussian governments of Grodno, Minsk,
and Volhynia, we may place the southern limit of the Gothic tribes before they commenced their great historical migration
down
the valley of the
Dnieper to the Euxine and the Danube.
But a nation which held possession of the amber coast of the Baltic, and also extended so far
southward as
to
occupy the upper basin of
the Dnieper, would almost necessarily be in commercial intercourse with the traders
who had
the
enterprising
command
Greek
of the commerce
The Dnieper.
From
of this great river.
49
the earliest times the
trade route between the Baltic and the Euxine
was by the waterway of the Dnieper, which rises within 200 miles of the Baltic coast. It was this
by the
route, the Austrvegr
from
Varangian vikings
East way, that
or
Swedish Gothland
descended from the North and swarmed along the coasts of the Black Sea, and even laid siege to
The Dnieper (Borysthenes)
Constantinople.
known
was
to
the
seventh century
B.C.,
this great natural
Greeks
early
as
the
and the valuable trade of
highway was
in the possession
which were
of the
Greek
near
southern outlet.
its
as
colonies
The importance of the
Greek commerce of the Dnieper the statement of Herodotus,
is
evident from
who had
himself
Greek colony
visited Olbia, the flourishing
blished at its mouth.
established
esta-
Herodotus speaks of the
Borysthenes as being, next after the Nile, the greatest and most valuable
He
adds that
it
trict
of Gerrhos,
sea.
Now
river
was known forty
days'
of the
earth.
as far as the
dis-
journey from the
the distance in a straight line between
the Black Sea and the Baltic
E
is
not more than
The Geographical Conditions.
5O
700
miles,
lay,
as
and the northern half of
we have
Gothic
seen, within the limits of the
the
realm,
this space
southern
of which
frontier
would not be more than 400 miles from Olbia, or about the distance of Olbia from Byzantium.
Now
since
Greek
the
merchants
from
Olbia
ascended the river for a distance of forty days
and
journey, fifteen
the
we reckon
if
and make
miles,
windings
of
the
7
a day's journey at
allowance for
sufficient
will
this
stream,
bring
Gerrhos into close proximity with the southern border of the Gothic occupancy, within
it
1 .
It
may
the sixth and
in
sufficient
therefore
if
be assumed that
following centuries
opportunity
Pripet to acquire a
the
for
knowledge
for the
there
was
on
the
Goths of
alphabet from the Greek merchants
on the Dnieper
not actually
the
Greek
who traded
amber, and other pro-
ducts of the Gothic realm. 1
The name Gerrhos may be '
the Gothic yards, which in
midjun-gards, the world. a Kiev stockaded denoted In Norse the word trading-post. Ulphilas denotes a
was is
called
district/ as
in
by the Northmen Koenu-garthr (Ship-ton).
If
Kiev
the Gerrhos of Herodotus, then the river Pripet, on which
Zeuss places the Goths, would be the 'river of Gerrhos.'
Thracian Coins.
J
The
8.
next
51
THE THRACIAN ALPHABET. step
our
in
investigation
to
is
ascertain the characteristics of the alphabet
which
was used by these Greek
direct
traders.
The
evidence as to the Olbian and Thracian alphabet is
The Greek
very meagre.
Nogai steppe
only a fragment, arid the great
is
Olbian inscription 1 belongs to
it
inscription from the
a
is
very
useless for our purpose, as
much
later
period.
We
have to rely mainly on the evidence of a few Thracian coins, notably a large gold coin of Geta,
King of the Edoni, now which B.C.,
is
believed
and several
the same date.
2
in the British
Museum,
to belong to the sixth century
coins of the Orreskioi of about
But there
is
no lack of inscrip-
tions of the required date belonging to the cities
and islands from which the Thracian and Euxine alphabet
much
must
have
been derived.
early pottery from Thasos
3 ,
We
have
together with
1
Bockh, No. 2058. This coin was found in the bed of the Euphrates, and may have been brought from Thrace by a Persian soldier of Darius. 2
3
Dumont, Inscriptions Ceramiques de
E
2
Grece.
Paris, 1872,
The Thracian Alphabet.
52
the celebrated inscription from
Sigeum, several
from Miletus, the mother city of Olbia, and
many
more from Paros, Siphnos, Naxos, Melos, Samos, and Chalcis, all of them belonging to the end 1
of the
The evidence of the
sixth century B.C.
Thracian coins goes to show that the Thracian alphabet was identical with the alphabet of the
mother
cities
usually
designated
of the Thracian colonies, which
Ionia and the Isles
The following piled
from
three
successive
The
the
is
1
See
of
has been carefully com-
original
types
to
sources,
of the
Greek
the
contains
show the alphabet.
earliest
Greek
CADMEAN ALPHABET,
obtained mainly from the Inscriptions
The second column,
of Thera and Abousimbul.
which
alphabet
.
alphabet, usually called the
which
second
the
2
table
column
first
as
is
for
convenience
Kirchhoff,
may
be designated
Studien zur Gesckichte
des
the
Griechischen
alphabets, passim. 2
This alphabet was probably introduced into Thrace by means of the Parian colony of Thasos, the Chalcidian colony See of Chalcidice, and the Samian colony of Samothrace. Kirchhoff, op.
cit.,
Dictionnaire, p.
and Lenormant,
202.
art.
Alphabet in Daremberg's
The Three Greek Alphabets.
53
THBACIAN ALPHABET, has been compiled from the legends on
Thracian coins, on the pottery
of Thasos, and from inscriptions of the mother
Thracian colonies.
of the
cities
It
shows the
forms which were in use during the half century
which preceded the Persian invasion.
column contains the Alphabet
which It
may will
of the
later
or
Standard
and following
fifth
The
third
Greek
centuries,
be called the ATTIC ALPHABET. be noticed
that those
special
letter-
forms which have already afforded us a chronological test (see p. 39) fulfil also the geographical
conditions.
The
characteristic
runic
forms
of
the Greek letters which point to the end of the sixth century as the period of the origination of
the
runes, are
also
Thracian alphabet.
of the
local
The most important of
these
characteristic
test forms are
On
the page opposite to the Table of Greek
Alphabets the Table of Runes, which has already
been given on page
4,
has been reproduced, for
the purpose of facilitating convenient reference.
54
The Thracian Alphabet.
TABLE OF GREEK ALPHABETS.
The Futhorcs.
TABLE OF EUNES.
NAMES.
55
The Futhorc and
56
THE FUTHORC AND THE ALPHABET.
9.
To
close the
remaining links in the chain of
now a comparatively easy task. have only to examine how the runes of the
the argument
We
is
earliest
Gothic Futhorc,
column
of
the
connected, one
Thracian
page
Table
by
Alphabet
one,
as
of
in
given the
first
Eunes, can
with the
which
the
are
be
of the
letters
tabulated
on
54.
The
six centuries
Alphabet from the tions
the Alphabet.
which separate the Thracian earliest extant runic
inscrip-
must necessarily have produced considerable
variations in the forms and powers of the indi-
vidual runes.
These developments will however
be in accordance with those general Principles of Alphabetic change which have been at
work
in the formation of all other alphabets, and
which
have already been formulated.
We
must expect
to find the special phonetic developments of the
Gothic and Scandinavian languages accompanied
and connoted by corresponding changes in the powers and forms of the runes. The develop-
ment of new runic forms would
also occasionally
The Laws of Alphabetic Development.
57
necessitate correlative changes in other runes, in
order to obtain clearer distinction between forms
which were approaching an inconveniently
close
resemblance. It
may
letters
be laid
down
as a general rule that
which represent the most stable sounds
are the least subject to variation. for
instance,
constant of ease
letter
M,
which represents one of the most
all
through
The
sounds, all
the
be traced with great
may
alphabets
the world.
of
Hence, in those cases in which the Low-German languages have retained unchanged the primitive
Indo-European sounds, one of the most
efficient
causes of alphabetic variation can not operate,
and the correspondence between the runes and the Greek letters will follows
and
be the most
close.
It
that the affiliation of the runic liquids
sibilants
therefore
be
ought to be easy to convenient
to
trace.
begin
with
It will
these
letters.
10.
L.
LIQUIDS AND SIBILANTS.
The lambda of the Thracian alphabet has
the characteristic form
h,
which
is
clearly dis-
Liquids arid Sibilants.
58
tinguished on the one hand from
which
grew up on
source
of our
own
Italian
L, and
A and A
from the forms
soil
form
the
and
1
U the
is
on the other hand
which characterise the
standard alphabet of Hellas.
The
constant and uniform in
form, both in the
and
inscriptions
changed from
its
rune
I
is
most
in
the Futhorcs, retaining un-
first
to last the precise shape of
the Thracian h. R.
The
strongest
argument
favour of a
in
Latin origin for the runes, and a chief reason, probably,
found
hitherto tailed
Greek
the
an advocate,
hypothesis
But
not
is
either
ft
in the Thracian alphabet, during 'the
century before
the
Persian
tailed
r
closed
and open, which we
appears
inscriptions.
has
the western or
is
form of the r rune, which
or R. half
why
The
precisely
tailed r is
in
invasion,
two
the
find
in
the
forms,
the runic
found on the coins
of the Thracian Orreskioi, and also in the parent
alphabets
In
this,
of Paros, in
as
1
Thasos, Melos, and Chalcis.
some other
cases,
See Kirchhoff, Or. Alph.
the
p. 140.
delusive
The Liquids*
59
resemblance between the runes
must be attributed
letters
the
from
the
standard
to the
and Thracian
Italian
both
fact that
descended
alphabets
the
of
Alphabet
and the Latin
Isles,
Greek alphabet represents
while the
the Eolo-
Dorian alphabet of the mainland of Hellas.
M.
It
was only when the Cadmean symbol
had ceased the
to be
employed to denote
early form of mu, could develope
which
is
the character used for
The
cian alphabet.
m
rune
is
of form can be easily explained. will
s
m
that t" into
H
to
M.
,
M,
in the Thra-
M.
The change The e rune, as
presently be shown, gradually changed
form from
M
its
This change necessitated,
to avoid confusion, a correlated differentiation in
the form of the m, which was effected, on the Principle of Least Effort,
by a
two
cross
prolongation
of the
slight
downward
strokes,
M
be-
coming M.
The Thracian nu appears in the forms The derived rune was *h, with K, N, and N. N.
the variants
the
m
change.
rune,
The
J
and
K
Here, as in the case of
we have an
instance of correlated
third stroke of the Thracian letter
60
The Liquids.
must have been discarded the n from the
H and
h,
in order to distinguish
which had assumed the forms
But the former
N.
existence of the third
stroke in the primitive rune
curiously attested
is
by the juxtaposition of the h and n runes
in the
This singular change in the primitive
Futhorc.
order of the letters seems to have been effected, as
in
some other
similar cases, for the sake of
easy comparison of two runes which must at one
time have been nearly identical in form. at last this inconvenient resemblance
When
had caused
the differentiation of the n rune into 1% and of the
h rune into
position
the
of
result
the
N, the reason for the juxta-
two runes was
remained to
attest,
as
removed, it
but
were, the
similarity of the primitive forms.
S. like
In the the
Teutonic languages the
liquids,
retained
the
sibilant,
power which
possessed in the holethnic speech, and
we
it
con-
sequently find that the forms of this letter are identical
in the
Thracian and
Kunic alphabets.
In both of them the normal shape
is
$, with J
as a variant.
Thus
it
appears
that
in
the
case
of
five
61
The Vowels.
where no changes arising from phonetic causes were to be expected, no such changes have
letters,
The runes
taken place.
s I
,
fc,
$, are
unchanged, while the variations in accounted
be
as
for
cases
M
absolutely
and
of change
t-
can
due
to
correlation.
THE VOWELS.
11.
We
now come
Futhorcs
we
that
find
complicated vowel
but in the
tolerably simple
fr,
I,
most has
inscriptions
elaborate
and
been developed, the vowels
are
and constant.
The vowel runes eight,
a
system
earlier
In the later
the vowels.
to
of the
*, 1, n,
Gothic Futhorc are
\, Y, A.
Of these the
two were developed out of the Greek gutturals y, ch, and A, #, and will be treated of
last
when we come other six
may
Greek vowels
consider the
to
gutturals.
The
be regarded as descendants of the fc,
I,
P, Y, H.
The Greek alpha disappeared from the Futhorc at a very early period, being superseded fc,
first
by
a development of epsilon, which by normal
debilitation acquired the successive values a,
rf?,
The Vowels.
62
and
o,
and afterwards by A, a development
The descent of the rune
gamma. Thracian
is
conclusively
fc
of
from the
established
by the
three inscriptions on the Nordenhoff broach
(p. 9).
In two of these inscriptions, which are probably the earliest in date,
we have
Thracian alphabet.
bar retained, as in the the third inscription
|, with the third
we
find
,
which
is
In the
normal runic form.
The
disuse of the third bar affords a curious
argument in favour of the opinion that the f rune Y was not, like the Latin F, a descendant of the digamma, F. of the in
In that case the third bar
E would, as in Latin, have been retained
order
to
the
distinguish
when, at a
later
the
period,
two
new
letters.
f
But
rune was
developed, a distinction was needed, and the E
being unable to regain
been
lost
and
its
third bar,
which had
forgotten, a simple differentiation
was obtained by varying the inclination of the and Y being as easy to bars, the two runes fr
distinguish as the Latin letters E and F.
The rune Thracian
I
iota.
retains the
form and value of the
The Greeks having reduced
this
The Twelfth Rune.
63
letter to
the last stage of simplicity, there
no room
for modification.
A
very obvious identification
with
rune
the
Greek
that of
o,
has the power of
o,
but a shorter
into disuse, being replaced
and afterwards
rune
Ultimately this
ce.
Thrace
in
In the early inscriptions
and more open sound.
&
that of the
which
ft,
usually denoted not the long
the rune
is
was
fell
entirely
a development of
by
epsilon.
The twelfth rune
the
in
Futhorc occurs so
seldom in the early inscriptions, and varies so greatly that its
it
parentage.
Futhorc are N, in
by no means easy to discover The chief forms in the Gothic
is
If,
N,
'I,
the Anglian Futhorc
with the values
with the value of y\
we have +,
g, gg, gee,
Q,
j,
in
the
or y.
(J),
<(>,
and y\ in the Scandi-
navian Futhorc the runes are /K while
^,
Mceso- Gothic
,
y,
and
alphabet
/|
,
a
;
we have
The two Scandinavian runes seem
to be descendants of the
Greek gamma, as
hereafter be explained, but
it
will
does not seem to
be so easy to refer the Gothic forms to the same parentage.
The most primitive of
all
the forms
The Vowels.
64 of this rune
and
stone,
^, which
is
is
found on the Berga
on a very early golden bracteate,
also
in both cases with the
power of
y
These two
1 .
inscriptions are written from right to is
a
stone
two,
of
sign 2 ,
which
we
also
is
this
which
Y,
The
X.
written
found
Istaby
form h, also with the
The source of
is
the
probably later by a century or
Thracian
the
inscription
which
is
On
antiquity.
find the derived
value of y.
bably
great
which
left,
N rune in
the
closed
is
pro-
Sigean
form
,
on the Vadstena bracteate,
very ancient, and
may
is
be regarded as the
parent of the other closed forms, which are of considerably later date.
Y
Thracian
The rune
It
is
probable that the
was developed from
O
through V.
be regarded either as derived
may
from a Greek form intermediate between
V, or as a development from O, or been obtained from prolongation of the
V
it
O
may have
by the curvature and
two
strokes.
An
and
slight
argument,
of no very great weight perhaps, in favour of
the
last
1
8
view
is
derived from the Alphabet of
Stephens, Runic Monuments, pp. 176, 545. Ibid. p. 173.
Unstable Forms.
TJlphilas, in
for v has the
which the symbol
V and
equivalent forms
65
two
one open and the
t?,
other closed, which correspond to the open and closed forms of the
the
This looks as
rune.
y
if in
Futhorc from which Ulphilas compiled his
and
alphabet the forms N
were descendants
of equivalent value from the Greek equivalents
Y
and V.
The Greek H was seemingly unrelated Thracian
H,
as
power of
TI
and
common parent of the runes M, N, and /\/. The the
we have h.
It
seen,
may
had the double
be regarded as a
palseographic axiom that a character which bears
two values as
is
essentially unstable in form.
the double values of
evolution
Greek
new
of the
H was
I
Just
and C involved the
letters
J and G, so the
differentiated in form in order to
avoid the confusion which was caused
by the
vowel and the aspirate being represented by the
same symbol. different
character
This differentiation was effected in
modes by
H was
different nations.
In Italy the
retained to denote the aspirate,
while in Greece the vowel continued to be expressed by the unaltered symbol H, out of which,
66
The Vowels.
by successive curtailments, the
and
signs h, r, c,
were developed to denote the
c
Among H
aspirate.
Goths the two powers of the Thracian
the
came
to
be
by the simple and
distinguished
obvious device of changing the position of the cross
stroke.
To denote
the vowel
the
cross
its
hori-
was moved upwards, retaining
stroke
zontality, while to express the aspirate the cross
was written
stroke
direction.
In the very
more or
a
in
less
oblique
earliest runic inscriptions
Thus
these changes can be observed in progress.
on the Thorsbjerg scabbard, the Dalby diadem, the
or
form
PI.
But
in
this
with
the
and hence we
find
confusion
what
in
has
was
liable
to
which denoted
u>
e it
shape
rune
h,
the
rune
the
stone,
Krogstad
inscriptions
of
a
some-
later date that the cross stroke begins to
be drawn with a very slight downward curve or bend,
and we get
PI
for
e,
as on the knife
handle from the Kragehul Moss, and the plane
From
from the Vi Moss. is
easy to the
this
final
this
shape
M.
form the transition
The adoption of
form involved the correlated change of the
m rune
from
M
to
M,
as has been already noted.
Evolution of the Aspirate.
67
The h rune preserved the greatest resemblance to the form of the parent letter, affording another
instance of the
rived
from
way
which the alphabets de-
in
and
Thracian
the
Italian
colonies
agree in their divergence from the standard Greek
On
forms.
stands
the Buzeo
and
unaltered,
H
early forms are
the fifth century
the
denotes
h.
N
H, and
or
we
torque
Thracian
Other
H
very-
About
or H.
get N, and finally the old
h rune derived from eta was altogether dropped,
and a new h rune, of
debilitation
or
a
was developed by the
>r,
primitive
guttural,
X, into a simple aspirate.
the h rune from
H
N
to
either
Y
The change of
brought about, as has
already been noted, the correlated change of the
n rune from
N
to *K
The thirteenth rune indifferently
these
'V and s/\
two forms can
N and
in the Futhorc
is
written
It will be observed that
easily
be
obtained
from
M, the early forms of the h rune, by
shortening
the
two upright
strokes,
and then
bringing the cross bar into a more nearly vertical position.
In the oldest of the
MS. Futhorcs
(Isidore Codex, Brussels), the value of this rune
F
2
The Vowels.
68
is
stated to be
M
as
was
ih,
that
at first eh, an
famous Vienna Codex second
stands
an aspirated
is,
in
rune A/ bears the name
and
ih,
and
the power of h as well as of
used indifferently, like H, both
its
values
and
A
i,
and
h,
eo,
authority,
said to have
is
that
i,
the
is,
it
was
parent the old Greek
and as an
MSS. the rune has
later
1
a vowel
as
No. 140), which
(Salisb.
antiquity
In the
e.
aspirated
just
i,
aspirate.
In
to
the
assigned
and the
form
it
melts
into
I.
confirmation
these runes
is
their names. principle,
of the
common
parentage of
obtained from the consideration of It
which
down
may
be laid
will
hereafter
as a general
abundant
receive
illustration, that the relationship of related runes
will
usually be indicated by the relationship of
their names, as well as of their forms.
Obviously,
when two runes have proceeded from
a
common
parent rune, the development of the names will usually
have
proceeded pari passu
with
development of the forms and powers. in
the
fr,
I*,
case F*,
of the
three
late
Anglian
the
Thus runes
which bear respectively the powers of
Development of Rune Names.
ce,
and
a,
names
the relationship between the three
o,
and
as,
cesc,
69
as plain
is
0s,
as
the con-
nection of the forms.
This general principle
M, H, \.
three runes
In the earliest of the
M
MS. Futhorcs the runes closely
names
related
MSS. we
and
and
hcec
and
eeh
get
be applied to the
may
eoh
;
'V bear the hie
the
;
in
most
later
usual
names being eh and ih. The common parentage of these names is even more obvious than the
common parentage of the
names
of the forms, and the oldest indicate
clearly
that the
parent
rune had the power of an aspirated vowel, pro-
The name of the h rune has
bably he.
way
acquired a final
hegl,
,
and
hagal, hegil, but
hcegl,
names heih and
he,
the h rune with the
We
Z
1
thus
arrive
is
in
some
variously written
we have
also
the
which connect the name of
two vowel names eh and at
the
result
that
of
ih.
the
twenty-four primitive runes, twelve, namely, h,
1
fr,
M,
t,
*,
fr,
I,
*, N, H, M, A/,
Probably the accidental resemblance in the form of the h, and h s, may have caused an assimilation of their
runes M,
,
names, hegil and segiL
The Mutes.
;o
descended with comparatively
are
from the ten Thracian
h
M, h,
ft,
It
change
letters
*,
fe,
i,
a
x> H.
THE MUTES.
12.
The
little
easier half of our task is
now
completed.
remains to deal with the characters which
still
represent the mutes, sounds which are specially subject
phonetic change, and which,
to
in
the
Teutonic languages, have undergone those systematic modifications which are formulated under
the designation of Grimm's Law.
Following the familiar nomenclature, which, not strictly
any three
other,
scientific,
we may
families
more convenient than
divide
the mutes into the
of dentals, labials, and gutturals,
and into the three Aspirate.
is
if
classes
of Hard,
Following this division HARD.
Soft,
we have
ASPIRATE.
SOFT.
and
The Dentals.
71
In the Teutonic languages, as a rule, dentals only interchange with dentals, labials with labials,
and gutturals with gutturals.
It will therefore
be convenient to discuss separately each of the
as
beginning with the dentals,
of mutes,
families
offer
they
less
than
difficulty
the
other
families.
13.
The
dentals
T, ^, and
.
THE DENTALS.
of the
Thracian Alphabet were
In the earliest Runic inscriptions
the dentals appear in the forms 1^,
1 ^, and E3
-
The resemblance of form between the three Greek and the three Kunic dentals it is difficult
is
so striking, that
to doubt the descent of the one set
from the other.
But we are confronted with the
difficulty that the
runic characters have not re-
tained the powers which
they possessed in the
Greek alphabet, while the changes which they have undergone are not in accordance with the changes prescribed by Grimm's Law. 1
This very primitive form occurs on the Frohaug bronze,
which I take to be the oldest runic monument in existence.
The usual
early form of this rune
is
M>
and the
later
form
The Dentals.
The problem may be three
Greek
dentals,
The
stated as follows.
T,
,
>,
must have come
into the possession of the
Goths several centuries
before the Christian era.
We
for
six
lose sight of
them
when they emerge from
centuries,
the
darkness with altered values, but with forms so
changed that there can be no doubt as
little
The values
their identity.
stead of d,
th,
t
t,
th,
d
as
as required
Here we
have a which
importance,
siderable light
in
the
are
now
t,
d, th,
to in-
Greek alphabet, or
by Grimm's Law. of great interest and
fact
cannot
to
fail
throw
con-
on recent controversies as to the
date and nature of the changes which go by the
name result
of Grimm's Law. is,
I
think, quite
belief that the
In the fatal
first
to
the
and
that
time of
Grimm's own
Gothic Lautverschiebung did not
commence before the middle of the A.D.,
place our
it
was
TJlphilas.
fully
first
century
completed before
In the next place our
result is difficult to reconcile with the prevalent
conception as to the
way
in
which the Lautver-
schiebung took place, the so-called Chronological Hypothesis.
On
the Chronological Hypothesis
it
Grimm's Law.-
73
would, I suppose, be necessary, in order to ac-
count for the
facts,
assume with Mr. Sweet
to
was the
that T, the strongest of the dentals, to be attacked
first
by
bore in succession the values
changed from d through
^
changed simply from
and that
debilitation,
t
to
t
d,
th,
t,
the supposition that
is
the easiest of the dentals, was the
be
attacked
by debilitation, that the most difficult sound,
changed from
that
;
while
th,
^,
t,
it
th to d.
Obviously inadmissible
through
l
to
th
T
and
d,
it
first
to
changed
to th
;
while
retained
its
power throughout.
The most simple explanation with
G.
with
,
that
Curtius
with
phonetic
must have been from
value
of
suppose
commenced
debilitation
the most unstable of the dentals.
accordance
Principle
to
is
of th,
Cross
th
law to
the
debilitation
Then, by the
d.
Compensation
In
2 ,
^
while T, a very stable
took the sound, re-
mained unchanged. 1
that
Mr. Sweet lays '
it
down
as 'an
important phonetic law'
general weakening tendencies attack the strongest articu-
lations
first.'
2
See Douse, Grimm's Law,
p. 38.
The Labials.
74
This explanation, which seems to be simple,
and
rational,
concile I
with
the
difficult
though
adequate,
re-
Hypothesis,
Chronological
think, consistent
to
is,
with Mr. Douse's ingenious
theory as to the nature of the Lautverschiebung.
THE
14.
We
now come
LABIALS.
to the labials,
b,
p,f.
It
might
naturally be supposed that the three runic labials, K,
fc,
Greek
1^,
were derived directly from the three
labials,
fc,
l"l,
Further consideration
F.
does not tend to
commend
the
can hardly be affirmed that the
first
place
it
In
this supposition.
Thracian alphabet possessed an
f, or
the Gothic
The digamma, which was the source of the Latin F, had the power of v rather language a p.
than of /, and it
passed at
new
letter
struggling
it is
all
(J),
into
more than doubtful whether
The
into the Thracian alphabet.
which
replaced
existence,
of ph rather than of /.
On
it,
was
only
and had the power the other
scarcely be claimed as a true
hand
Low German
p
can
sound.
In Fick's Wortschatz der germanischen Spracliein-
Rimic Labials all derived from Beta. words only,
heit six
all
of which are
75
probably
loan words, begin with p, and in Caedmon and
Beowulf, taken together, there
only three
are
Ulphilas uses the Greek letter IT
such words.
for the transliteration of such foreign
words as
and
prophet,
Pontius
Pilate,
Paul,
presbyter,
but his adoption of the Greek letter cation that in his time the
unknown
p
an indi-
rune was either Goths.
unfamiliar to the
or
is
The p
rune does not occur in any early runic inscription it
retained
labial
it
place
in
the
Futhorcs,
but,
seems to have been disused.
practically, it
Hence
its
would appear that
b
was the only
which was familiar both to Thracians and
Goths at the time when the runes originated.
The epigraphic evidence points also to the conclusion that the p and / runes were not independently derived from the Greek alphabet, but
were gradually developed out of
The forms labials
are
as well as the
suspiciously
constant,
s ,
names of the runic
similar,
unstable,
and
In the case of the dentals the
interchangeable.
three forms 1
.
f>,
M, are singularly
and their names,
TIB,
distinct
and
THORN, and DAG
The Labials.
76
But with the
are manifestly unrelated words. labials
both the names and the forms seem to
diverge from a single primitive source, as in the case of the groups of runes derived from
H
(pp. 68, 69). First,
The
as to the
and
shews no
such
p
rune
f
rune
runes.
:
:
bearic,
sufficiently diverse,
numerous
clear
variations in the :
fe, are
of the
comparison
b rune
names of these three
forms into which the names crystalized,
final
berc, peorth,
a
E and
MS. Futhorcs The
distinction.
names are
but
as follows
beorc, berc, berch, brita,
typical
:
berith, bira.
perc, perch, peorth, perd, pear, peoih. fech, fehc, fer, feoli, fek, feu, fe.
These names
may
be easily accounted for as
successive debilitations of three primitive names,
BERIC, PERIC, and
FERIC, and of these
we may
consider BERIC as the ultimate source from which
the names have been derived.
all
The forms of the three runic
labials,
no
less
than their names, indicate a development out of a single are
The following forms a much larger number as
primitive rune.
selected
out of
representatives
of the
principal
types.
Parallel Development of Names and Forms. b rune
:*'BlEUKt#1
rune
p
77
:&&BKKRKKKK BtfKPKPr
/rune:
All these forms can be explained as develop-
ments out of a primitive form of them are
a b
Thus M
especially significant.
which has reached the
development into an
Some
or B.
is
half-way stage of
B
f, while
an
is
which
/
has only partially divested itself of the characteristics
of
b.
Forms of the
/
type such as V,
are sometimes used for
monuments,
as
6,
or K,
,
both in early and late
heathen
the
4
,
Forsa
the
ring,
heathen Eok stone, the Largs broach, and the runic stones in the Isle of Man.
The development of the
labials
completed in the time of Ulphilas.
was
hardly
This
is
indi-
cated by his adoption of the Greek II for p, as well as
by
his use of
His half-opened b
is
K
for
6,
and of
arrested in the
fc
for f.
first
stage
of the development into /, and the curved hooks of his
f
are survivals, as
it
were, of the complete
loops of the B. It is not
difficult
to perceive the process
by
The Labials.
78
which the
p and /
rune
parent
has a vertical
The
oblique bars.
that the
,
and four
stroke
transitional forms
rune, K
p
The
runes were developed,
K
In
,
show
has retained the vertical
together with the second and third of
stroke,
B
the oblique bars, while the transitional forms
and
\!>
show that the
/ rune, P
the vertical stroke of the
or p', has retained
together with the
,
second and fourth of the oblique bars. It will be
and
observed that the runes for the
6 occupy in
Futhorc the approximate
places of the Greek letters
the
new rune
p,
/,
/3,
TT,
and
That
<.
V with its new power/ should have
taken the place of the Greek
proves that the
,
development of the new symbol accompanied and connoted in
other words,
efficient
cause
the
of the
portant principle. third
and
relative
and
phonetic
new
There are other
ment.
E.
of the
the development
fourth
positions
But
in
new sound
change was
alphabetic
;
the
develop-
illustrations of this im-
In the earliest Futhorcs the runes,
^ and
of their
fr,
retain
the
Greek prototypes,
the later
new development, ^, with
Futhorcs the
we
new
^
find a
value
o9
Stages of the Development.
79
occupying the fourth station, while the old rune ,
with
its
old value,
a
or
is
<^,
relegated to
the end of the Futhorc as No. 26.
The probable stages by which the development and rearrangement of the labials was effected
may be
tabulated as follows
2nd
& *
B
ist stage
letter.
1
5th
letter.
:
2ist letter.
P(p)
(b)
2nd stage '
3rd stage
(/)
4th stage
(/)
p
5th stage
ist rune.
$
1
*
(-P)
G
(p)
4th rune.
*(&)
li
(6)
i8th rune.
THE GUTTURALS.
15.
All the primitive runes have
now been
traced
to their Thracian prototypes with the exception
of six, A, <, X,
h
Y, $.
These represent the
The tendency breaths and vowels
gutturals and their developments.
of gutturals to is
illustrated
weaken
into
by the development of the Greek
breaths and vowels out of the Semitic gutturals,'
and
is
exhibited in Teutonic languages by the
8o
The Gutturals.
Gothic words galeiks, ganohs, gavaknan, lagms,
which are represented in English by awake, learn ye,
yea,
Saxon
eage, ge,
We
gea
the
eye,
Anglo-
gemang, gelang.
geoc,
y
regard as an instance
therefore
may
from
among, along,
yoke,
enough,
by the descent of the words
or
;
alike,
"of
normal debilitation the descent from the Greek
gamma
of the rune H, which had the power of
u and afterwards of
In the earlier runic
y.
and the Thorsbjerg
clasp, this
the form A, which
is
Thracian
g.
The
It retains the exact
Y
and
^,
present respectively beta and delta. case with the
new sound guttural
<,
/
Runic and
confirmed by the position
is
between
gamma
and
which
b runes, the
the
retains
in
precisely the shape of the
of the rune in the Futhorc. of
u rune appears
identification of the
A
Thracian symbol
place
Buzeo torque
such as those on the
scriptions,
in-
also
old
which
re-
As was the
symbol of the
station,
the
runic
descended from gamma,
being moved to another place in the Futhorc.
The rune
X
has already been explained \
1
See
p. 36,
supra.
In
The
Gamma
Runes.
81
the Greek alphabet this symbol had the power of ck, and in the
change involves no
Gothic Futhorc of
The
g.
by phonetic law
difficulty, as
a Greek x regularly corresponds to a Gothic g.
This debilitation,
by the Principle of Cross
Compensation, would the
g
into k or
a
a Gothic c
Greek
hardening of
a change which
M,
is
usually
by the statement that by Grimm's
expressed
Law
the
involve
is
(Jc)
Now
y.
the regular equivalent of
gamma was
Thracian
the
written in the two forms
A
and
We
<.
have
of these forms,
by the
regular process of debilitation, gives us
A, the
just seen that the
early form
of the
first
u
rune, while
<,
the other
form of the Greek gamma, gave birth to the Latin
C,
and
became
also
regular c rune in the
the
fourth
forms, A, u,
and
fifth
and <,
c,
which
is
the
earliest
inscriptions.
In
centuries
the two
<,
began to
fall
early
into disuse,
and we can trace their gradual replacement by h and H for u and by h, A, h, k, for c, forms 9
which are obviously akin to the normal or
A
form of the Thracian gamma. It has already been suggested that the puzzling
82
The Gutturals.
twelfth rune
Greek Y. rune
y,
also
may
may
be descended from the
however quite possible that
It is
be a descendant of gamma.
made more probable by
is
supposition ger,
>|,
the
this
This
name
which seems to be akin to ur the name of )
the u rune, and also by the fact that the later
Scandinavian runes for y and
and A>
ar, clearly
namely A,
a,
belong to the
of runes, being descended from
yr,
gamma family the A form of
the c rune.
Eespecting the development of the ng rune, &,
nothing need be added to what has been said already.
&>
^
The numerous N>
X'
s s >
>
early variants,
such as
0> *>> and other similar
1 by Professor Stephens can leave was developed by a no doubt that the rune reduplication of the < rune, a development which
forms given
,
an
argument which is as cogent in favour of the Greek origin of the runes as it supplies
is
difficult
reconcile with
to
the
Latin or any
other hypothesis.
The eighth and the 1
fifteenth runes,
Runic Monuments,
p. 149.
^ and Y,
Derivatives
from
They ^re probably
are less easy to deal with.
to
be referred to the Greek letters
two
83
Koppa.^
differentiated forms of the
and Y,
Semitic letter p
These two gutturals established them-
(koph).
selves in the
Greek
colonies of Italy
and Thrace,
but in the alphabet of Hellas they were
K and X,
mately supplanted by
ulti-
derivatives of
the Semitic D (kapli).
In the standard Greek
alphabet the letter
M, or H survived only
H or h.
as the numeral Jcoppa,
pears
as
the
Slavonic runes,
alphabet
as
the
letter
ap-
guttural
,
it
it
Q, and from through the medium of
the labialized
the Thracian alphabet 1
In Italy
passed into the Russian *[
descendant of koph, which
(tsherv). is
written
The other
Y
or
V
in
the early Greek inscriptions, had the power of the aspirated guttural. in the standard
disused symbol
This letter was replaced
Greek alphabet by X, and the
Y
was afterwards employed to
The koppa was retained in the Alphabet of the Isles, and seems to have been introduced into Thrace from the Parian 1
See colony of Thasos and the Chacidian colony of Chalcidice. des Dictionnaire in Daremberg's Lenormant, art. Alphabet, Antiquites, p. 202.
G
2
The Gutturals.
84
But Y, with the
denote the double consonant ps. value ch, continued, like Italy
and Thrace.
syllabarium
and
established
itself
It
is
in
Upper
Umbrians and Etruscans 1
Y
alphabet the letter the
found
From
.
,
which
Eussian letter
The rune
is
m
Y
which
is
but to
letter,
the Thracian
its
the
in
form and
Old Slavonic
1
that
is
frequent in the early Scandi;
it
is
very constant in
exactly that
a most
in
modern
the parent of the
of the
perplexing
variable or uncertain in its value.
doubted
its
(shcha).
navian inscriptions form,
Caere
as a guttural passed into
power may be recognized 4*
the
among the
Italy
Slavonic runes, and both
letter
in
Bomarzo alphabet, and
the
in
to be used both in
some
extent
121.
Greek it
is
It cannot be
inscriptions
Fabretti, Osservazioni Paleografiche,
old
its
it
has the
As
in the case
of the letters r and h, so with regard to the parentage of the gutturals
it
will be observed that the Italic
common
and Runic alphabets
which they both differ from the Greek. The conjecture has already been put forward that this may be due to the fact that both Italy and Thrace were colonized
exhibit
features as to
from the over-peopled Greek islands, the alphabet of which differed from the alphabet of the mainland which became the parent of the standard Greek alphabet.
The Ilix Rune.
power of a vowel.
85
Munch
Professor
the
it
gives
power of a neutral vowel, Finn Magnusen takes it
as equivalent to
maintains
i9
iu,
y,
must be
a.
has assigned to
it
that
Futhorcs
it
kalk,
make
it
and
x,
ing names of
and
it
k,
c,
while Professor Stephens
T/,
ilix,
iolx,
These
halach.
manifest that the
values
of
correspondelux,
eolhx,
Y
MS.
the
the values
bears the
it
ilcs,
In
calc,
names
and
rune must have
originally descended from a guttural, which, like
the other primitive gutturals, developed a vowel
sound
side
which
it
value
of
aspirated
power
guttural
also acquired the
same way that X, which the Greek alphabet as the
the
in
Y
supplanted
the
The rune
retained.
x
with
side
by
in
guttural,
came
to
denote
x
in
the
Latin alphabet.
A rune
further indication
from
worthy
fact
koph that
through koppa
Y
s
and
The other Greek koph were
descent is
of this
the
note-
retains in the Futhorc the
of koph, following next after
original station
and preceding
of the
and H.
p
t.
derivatives
of the
To these forms
Semitic
I venture,
86
The Gutturals.
not without considerable hesitation, to refer the
two runes, ^ and K.
The early rune ^ or P bears the names wen, ven, uyn, and huun, and has the power of
v,
w, and uu.
century A.D. the c rune < or in Scandinavia
About the seventh
^ was
by the rune Y or P
,
supplanted
which was
by the names cen, ken, chen, chon, and The qhon, and had the power of c, k, and q. names and powers of these two runes ^ and K, called
iven
and
cen,
seem
to point to a
common
descent
from a labialized guttural qven, with the power of kv.
That a primitive kv might yield either
a semi-vowel or a pure guttural related pairs of words
is
shown by the
venire and come, garden
and yard, guardian and warden, kin and wean, curb and warp,
Korepos,
and web, cheese and
The evidence is,
uter and whether, gable
yeast, question
of the
and whisper.
Mceso- Gothic alphabet
on the whole, in favour of the origin of the
two runes ^ and Y from the Greek koppa, or H.
The
employed values
80,
three symbols IT (p) H, and
]
(r) are
by Ulphilas as numerals, with the 90, and TOO, thereby showing that
the second of these symbols tj
is
the represen-
Wen and
87
Greek koppa and the Latin Q.
of the
tative
Cen.
Although the power of this symbol (^ is not alphabetic, but solely numerical, we have also the slightly differentiated form phabetic power of q
alphabet
has
power of
hv,
also
1
(Jcv)
the
therefore
may
letters
bearing the
which can best be explained
consider
al-
The Moeso- Gothic
symbol
descendant of the Greek
We
.
with the
Cl,
or
as a
(koppa).
Mceso- Gothic
the
u, kv, and O, hv, as the representatives of
the runes K and P.
Our
investigation into the origin of the twenty-
four runes of the primitive Gothic Futhorc
is
now
must be frankly acknowledged that the affiliation of the eighth and twelfth runes, It
complete.
^ and N 1
It
may
i? or t? (v)
of from
name
Y
,
open to considerable doubt, but
is
be a question whether the Moeso -Gothic letter may not be descended from (koppa) instead
O
as has
uuine, which
suggests
a
The been previously suggested (p. 65). it bears in the Vienna Codex, certainly
connection with the
also a question
wen and
whether the Mceso-Gothic
cen runes.
Q
(j)
It is
which some-
times transliterates the Greek iota (2 Tim. iii. 8) may not be But its name jer, and the balance derived from ^p (koppa). of the evidence, is, I think, in favour of a connection with the twelfth rune
N
GEB,
The Later Runes.
88 as
the remaining twenty-two runes I trust
to
that the evidence which
it
has been possible to
may be deemed reasonably especially when it is remembered that produce
of the
monuments
tions from
is
not continuous
other,
being
turies of epigraphic
in the
the record
the inscrip-
;
which we derive the Thracian
on the one hand, and the on the
conclusive,
earliest runic
by
separated
silence.
It
forms cen-
five
this
is
letters
chasm
evidence which has hitherto guarded so
effectually the secret of the runes.
THE LATER RUNES.
16.
The foregoing
investigation has been confined
to the runes of the early Gothic Futhorc.
words, however, must
development
of the
nine-tenths of the
be
said
later
A
concerning
Futhorcs,
in
few the
which
extant runic monuments are
written. It
was an
object with
Christian
missionaries
to substitute the Latin alphabet for the runic writing, which
dom.
In
was regarded
spite,
as a sign of heathen-
however, of this powerful in-
Gradual Disuse of
the Runes.
89
was long before the use of the runes The use of the Visiwas entirely suppressed. fluence
it
condemned by the In Denmark and 1115.
Spain was
gothic runes in
Council of Toledo in
Iceland the runes were not formally super-
in
seded by the Latin alphabet
In Sweden the runes were
century.
replaced
the fourteenth
till
by the Latin
letters
in
officially
the
eleventh
century, but they continued in popular use for
Thus
a considerable time. there
is
at
Haide (Sweden)
a runic inscription which records the
1 burning of the church in the year I397
in
Lye Church (Sweden)
runic
I449
sepulchral
slabs
there
which
,
and
are
two
large
bear
the
date
2 .
In England the practical disuse of the runes took place at a longest
The
much
among
latest
the
earlier time.
Northmen
They survived of Cumberland.
dated examples which I have been
able to discover are a runic inscription in Carlisle
Cathedral which dates from the year 1092
1
Stephens, Runic Monuments, p. 711.
2
/&., p.
752.
;
a
The Later Rimes.
90
twelfth century runic font at Bridekirk in
berland
and a rock
;
Barnspike treacherous
in
*
engraved with runes at
Cumberland,
which
of Gillhes
slaughter
Cum-
records
the
Bueth, owner
by a Norman knight, Eobert de Vaux, a deed which must have taken of the lands of Lanercost,
place between
1160 and 1170 A.D.
stones of the Isle of
Man
The runic
are usually assigned to
The MS. Futhorcs, which
the eleventh century.
commonly contain only the
are very numerous,
Anglian runes, and belong mostly to the ninth, tenth,
and eleventh
centuries,
though one Futhorc
seems to be as early as the eighth, and another as late as the fourteenth century.
The runes of these
later Futhorcs
and
inscrip-
tions naturally differ very considerably from those
of the
earliest
period.
In fact the differences
between the Gothic runes of the third century,
and either the Anglian or Scandinavian runes of the tenth, are at least as considerable as those
which separate the
earliest
Gothic runes from
the Greek alphabet.
1
Stephens, Runic Monuments, p. 648.
Simplification of the Scandinavian Futhorc.
The changes which took
91
place in the Scandi-
navian and Anglian Futhorcs were in opposite In Scandinavia, where the runes con-
directions.
tinued so long in practical use, the changes were
Of the twenty-
in the direction of simplification.
four primitive Gothic runes,
Y, M,
'V,
F",
,
M,
eight, namely,
X,
disappeared altogether
,
from the Scandinavian Futhorc, while in other old runes were
cases the
or
velopments,
A, A
K, K, for
,
by more simple
Y,
1
h,
,
by new de-
replaced
forms,
such as
which are well adapted
Thus not more than
engraving on stone.
nine or ten of the original Gothic runes continued practically to be employed.
In
England,
on the
other
the
hand,
Latin
letters rapidly superseded the runes for all pur-
poses of ordinary use, and the runes were regarded either
as
merely
magical
as
symbols, of
subjects
as
curiosity.
changes take the form of an plication
of symbols,
cryptograms,
Hence
arbitrary
of fantastic
or
the
multi-
developments
and inventions, or of blunders of ingenious or ignorant penmen. extensive
These developments were so
and so complicated that
it
would be
The Later Runes.
92
impossible, .within
any moderate
them adequately,
or
From
genesis.
to
limits, to discuss
attempt to trace their
MS. Futhorcs of the ninth
the
and following centuries
have, as a matter of
I
and catalogued as many as
curiosity, extracted
eighty-four different varieties of Anglian gutturals
and vowels which may ultimately be traced back to three only of the Greek letters, gamma, Icoppa,
and
chi.
In attempting to trace and
classify these late
runes considerable difficulty arises from the confusion
between the descendants of
tive types
;
different primi-
forms belonging to one type having
acquired features, names, or values, which appertain to
Thus
some other type.
the d rune,
M, has assigned
in one
to
it
the
MS. Futhorc
name
thorn
instead of dceg, evidently from a confusion as to
the phonetic value called
man
;
in
another Futhorc
it
is
instead of dceg, the confusion having
in this case arisen from the close resemblance to
the form of the
m
rune,
M
;
in a third case,
from
a similar cause, the values of the two runes
and easily
are interchanged.
be multiplied by the
Such instances could score.
Elaboration of the Anglian Futhorc.
Not a few mere
of these late forms are
arbitrary
fancies
or
93
evidently
'
elegancies';
some,
however, are of exceptional interest or importance, either because, as in the
Anglian Futhorc,
they throw light on the phonetic tendencies of the
English language in
because,
in
as
the
its
case
earlier
of the
or
stages,
Scandinavian
runes, they were ultimately accepted as perma-
nent modifications of the older Futhorc.
As examples
may
of these later developments
take some of the
secondary runes which
were derived from the epsilon and bols.
It will
we
gamma
sym-
be observed that here, well within
the range of historic proof,
we have
illustrations
of those principles of co-ordinate change of forms,
names, and powers, which as
regulating
the
have been assumed
pre-historic
development of
two or more runes from a common parentage.
The Later Runes.
94
The
may
chief developments
of the
be tabulated as follows:
VALUES.
epsilon runes
r.
Development of final
95
Noteworthy, from the phonetic point of view, are the
by which the Greek
processes
gave birth to the form powers of Jeer (?)
k,
and
y,
be
may
A,
and the Scandina-
<,
vian
y
rune, yr, through the stages
A.
In the eighth century this y rune,
h,
rune
Jc
successive
its
through
stages
H,
threefold
its
The Anglian
r.
traced
A,
with
\\
gamma
rf,
A, A, /K,
/K>
began
to be used to denote the r final.
Thus on the
1
we
Snoldelev Stone fr
and
and
rK
final
is
and
get
usage afterwards became
The development interesting as an
known tendency the
this
find
side for the medial
employed side by r,
general.
of y
about 750 A.D.)
(date
of this
r
out
final
example of the well-
of a final open vowel to acquire
Thus from the Spanish palavna we palaver, and from el lagarto we obtain,
trill.
through Ben Jonson's alligarta, our modern gator.
Other
vulgarisms
instances
taters,
potatoes, fellow,
feller,
chigoe,
academical training does
1
are
by
the
Jemimer,
for
supplied
jigger,
Jemima
;
alli-
and even an
not always
Stephens, Runic Monuments, p. 345.
suffice
to
The Later Runes.
96 our
protect
on
ears
Sunday
from
'Victorier
our Queen/
Perplexing as are the various powers of the
rune Y, which stands in the Anglian Futhorcs for
y,
i,
c,
Jo,
a further element of confusion
x,
is
introduced by the employment of the same symbol to denote
m
inscriptions.
m
can
tural.
and
in the later Scandinavian
Manx
no legitimate phonetic process
By
be derived from either a vowel or a gutDr. Wimmer's characteristic allegation of an
M
arbitrary transformation of the symbol
into
Y
through the intermediate stages F"1, "1^, ^, Y, being obviously inadmissible,
we must
Now
seek some other origin for this rune.
tendency of / and b to become is
m
therefore
the
by assimilation
Thus the Latin formica corthe Greek ^vp^ and the Norse
well known.
responds
maur.
words
to
We
have
also
/Bporos, fjiopro?,
and immortalis
plumbum, and
;
the
related
mors and murder
nop^u and formido blei.
groups ;
of
a
;
This interchange
is
more
Keltic languages, especially characteristic of the it is chiefly in
the Isle of Man, and in Scan-
dinavia at a time
subsequent to the Irish and
and
The new Runes for
m
and
h.
97
Hebridean conquests of the Northmen, that we
Y
find the
rune standing for m.
I
would
fore venture to suggest, in default of
speculation has been expended,
through Keltic influence rune
sitional
for
b
Orkney we
so
much
may have
arisen
out of the
Other early forms of the
which are
Y
old tran-
At Maeshowe
or /.
form
find the transitional
^, f, and
any better
rune, on which
explanation, that this
there-
symbol
in
^
for
m.
for
m
are
easily connected
with
B or ^. On the Holm stone again we have an m which is almost identical in form with the ordinary
/
rune.
The Anglian rune M, which the Charnay broach, grew out the earlier h rune H.
>K,
cannot be derived from H. in
which
from is
X
this
^
or from
also
)|C,
1
and supplanted
of,
a development which
There are two ways
may have arisen, either On the Skaag stone, which
rune
Y.
1 assigned to the third century
and
appears on
In Scandinavia, however,
new h rune was
the
first
,
we
find
X,
g,
which has the power of gi or ge
Stephens, Runic Monuments, p. 887.
H
t
The Later Rimes.
98
and
is
inscriptions
f
and
>(c
of #, sometimes of h,
have the power sometimes
and often of
phonetic developments
from the A.
A.
also
are
These
or a.
ce
as
regular,
we
see
ge-mang, which became hi-mong
S.
in Northern
So
In later
apparently a bind-rune for XI.
and a-mong
Southern English.
in
be-ge-ondan became bi~M-onda in
S.
the north of England and be-y-ond in the south.
The evidence point to the
of the
monuments thus seems
f
evolution of
evidence of the Futhorcs
is
from
X
I
,
to
but the
In
the other way.
the Futhorc on the Charnay broach the fifteenth
rune
is
written
Y, and
X,
instead of in the usual form
some Anglian Futhorcs the rune has assigned to it the power of k or g, and in
and
called gilc, gilch, chilch,
kalk,
% is
names which
indicate a descent from the cede or ilix rune
by a downward prolongation of the two
Y,
cross
strokes.
The mysterious rune M, the power of
st
on account of
and its
ss,
called stan,
may
which has
here be noticed, not
importance
in
the Futhorc,
but as affording a very curious record of the operation
of one
of the
laws of Gothic
pho-
The Stan R^me. In Gothic, d
nology.
become
and
st,
praet. is bau-s-t for
to
vissa
;
ss,
in
juxtaposition
*bau-d-t
2nd
the
bid, ;
also
Thus
ss.
pers. sing.
from the root
know, through *vit-da and *vista we get and from vad, to bind, comes gaviss,
Hence the
through *gavisti. or
t
frequently becomes
st
from the root bud, to
vit,
and
99
is
easily explained
the old rune
rune H,
st
as a differentiation of
d.
IXI
THE ORDER
17.
late
OF THE RUNES.
The Mediterranean alphabets have preserved, essentially,
the
The
letters.
deviation
Futhorc from this subject of never,
I
order
of the
of the
runes
primitive
many believe,
ancient
Semitic in
the
order has been
the
ingenious speculations, but has
been
accounted
satisfactorily
for.
It is obvious that the order of the
runes in
the Futhorc presents certain points of agreement
with the
order
alphabet.
Thus the Futhorc ends with
is
manifestly the
of
the
letters
in
Greek
the ,
which
descendant of the Greek f\.
H
2
The Order of
ioo It has
the
the Runes.
been shown in the foregoing pages that
first. four
are the direct descendants of
second,
fourth,
third,
Greek alphabet.
we have s
$,
1
>,
T.
,
V
rimes in the Futhorc,
and
fc,
fifth
H,
9
t>,
fc,
A,
E, the
letters
of the
f,
In the middle of the Futhorc
a similar sequence, the runes
corresponding to the letters P,
T,
DC,
[ft],
that such remarkable corres-
It is impossible
pondencies can have been wholly accidental
;
they
must be surviving traces of the primitive order of the runes, which must have been that of the Greek alphabet.
seems therefore to be worth
It
while to pursue the investigation a step farther,
and to endeavour locations
in
to ascertain
accounted for on
of
order
the
whether the
the
runes I
scientific principles.
dis-
can
be
am
not
aware that these principles have ever been formulated, lish
it
will therefore
them by an
which
have
order
of
be necessary to estab-
examination
produced the
other
known
instance,
as
the
Turkish,
or
Arabic.
An
;
Armenian, easy
causes in
the
such,
for
dislocations
alphabets
Ethiopic,
the
of
Persian,
illustration
is
I
Causes of Alphabetic Dislocation.
101
The Arabic by the Arabic alphabet. the alphabet was derived from the Aramaic
afforded
;
order of the letters has suffered very consider-
owing to the retention of the ancient names, and also of the primitive able dislocation, but,
numerical values,
becomes extremely easy to
In the Syriac alphabet, another
identify them.
descendant
it
of
the
Aramaic,
the letters has been preserved.
Arabic and
the
of
Arabic
letters
thus the
obtain
become the
connections
in
changes
by
at
the
by
side
the
of
the
order
once manifest.
following
dotted
in
table,
lines
of
placing the
By
Syriac alphabets side
reasons
order
old
the
We which
shew which
of the Arabic letters have not been shifted from their original places.
The bracketed
letters are
differentiated forms, evolved subsequently to the dislocations.
IO2
The Order of
SYRIAC.
the Runes.
Arabic Alphabet.
Dislocations in the
It
will
be
observed
that
Arabic
the
cations have been brought about
by two
103 dislo-
causes.
Certain letters have been placed side by side the
for (i)
purpose
of
on account of a
forms
easier
resemblance in their
close
or (2) because
;
either
comparison,
of the similarity of their
values.
Thus Ta has been brought from the
end
the
of
alphabet
the
into
third
Ba
because of the resemblance in form to
Ra,
places,
juxtapositions
and of
and Fa, are due
;
while
been moved up four-
for a like reason, has
teen
station,
next
placed
to
The
Zay.
Qaf and Kaf, and
of
Waw
to the similarity of their powers.
Both causes have co-operated in bringing about the
peculiar
arrangement of the four
sibilants,
Zay, Sin, Shin, and Ssad.
These two causes, similarity of form, and similarity
of value,
which
have
effected
such
an
extensive re-arrangement of the Arabic letters, are
sufficient
to
account for the differences
in
the order of the Greek letters and of the runes. It will be observed that in the Arabic alphabet
ten only out of the twenty-two
have retained their places
;
it will,
Syriac letters, therefore, be
The Order of
IO4
THBACIAN ALPHABET.
the Runes.
GOTHIC FUTHORC.
1.
A
2.
l>
r
2
A >
A
3
t>
4
Mr
IV
3-
4 5-
6,
7
fc
I H
^
5
fr
18
<
3
X
10
a.
17
a.
a.
8.
9 10.
I
X
K,
n.
I"
^
12.
M
H
.3.
N
14-
I
15.
.
.
.
+
9
I
O,
Y
5, 1
A/ 16.
PI
7
.3
,6
7 a.
C\
16, 2 a.
T
17
$
19
^
20
\lx
T ?\lx ,
18.
fc
19.
^
20.
T
21.
<1>
.
.
V
21, 2 b.
M M I
s
M 22.
ft
7 b.
12 ii
8
Dislocations in the Futhorc.
no matter
105
for surprise to find that in the case
of the Futhorc the same causes have produced
a somewhat similar amount of change.
The
table
on the opposite page shews that the Futhorc has suffered
even
less
than the Arabic
dislocation
Greek
alphabet, thirteen out of the twenty-two letters
having retained their
places.
The small
and the connections by dotted
numerals,
lines
will enable the reader easily to trace the corres-
pondencies.
If these changes
of position, which
have taken several centuries to into
two
or
three
effect,
hypothetical
be more easily seen that they
all
it
must
are divided
stages,
it
will
follow naturally
from the two Principles to which the changes in the order of the Arabic
are due.
and other alphabets
Subscript numerals are added in order
to facilitate the identification of the letters.
The Order of
io6
CX
CC
the Runes.
'
3
8
e- s -e- s
I-
<- 8
8
z
o-
O-s
c.
-s
c.
^
r> 5
9 o
M
to
Z
S
s
ON
I 1
X v^
t3
I
o
0> bJO
-S
I H
-
"=
X V
*>
UJ
m
A
*
OQ
V
2 ft
the Fiithorc.
Rearrangement of
107
First set of changes.
Omission of superfluous
letters
6, 14.
i,
Development of gutturals and vowels 10,
15,
3,
7,
17.
18 and 10.
Collocation of similar forms
the Moeso-Gothic forms Result
:
J
(Cf.
and R.)
Stage II.
Second
set
of changes.
Collocation of similar forms
7
b and 22
7
and
and 10;
7 a,
;
13; ii and 20. Collocation of similar sounds 9,
3 a
and 15 a; 17 a and 10 a. Development and replacement 1
2,
6,
of
21.
Result:
Stage III.
Third
set
of changes.
Omission of superfluous letters
10, 15.
forms
of similar
Differentiation
7,
j
22,
labials
7 b,
13,
12.
Simplification of forms
8,
5,
Collocation of similar forms
17
a.
sb and
8 and 7 b.
Collocation of liquids
Result: Stage IV.
n
and
12.
22
;
12,
io8
The Oghams.
THE OGHAMS.
18.
The
Scandinavian
Cumbria,
and
behind them
so
Isle
of
Northumbria,
Man,
runic
many
may seem
it
presence,
the
in
settlers
left
having of
records
their
strange that not a single
runic stone should have been discovered in the
Scandinavian colony of Ireland, for
where Scandinavian chieftains bore sway
many
ford,
Pembroke, or even in
years in the cities of Dublin, Water-
and
Wales
and
silver
coin,
Limerick.
runic legend
Ireland struck 1 .
.The are in
runic
limited
Dublin,
But the
treasures to
one
of
small
which bears a
fact of this
remarkable
absence of runic monuments in certain regions
where they might have been looked be taken in
conjunction with
for,
must
another circum-
stance, equally remarkable, that it is exactly in
those
regions
where the expected runic stones
are wanting that
Ogham
stones abound.
These
facts will be explained if it can be established
that the mysterious
1
Ogham
character, in
Worsaae, Danes and Norwegians,
p. 338.
which
Replacement of Runes by Oghams.
109
the most ancient records of Wales and Ireland are written,
conjectures
and respecting which so many wild have been made, was originally
nothing more or
less
than a very simple and
obvious adaptation of the Futhorc to xylographic necessities, the
individual runes being expressed
by a convenient notation
consisting
of notches
cut with a knife on the edge of a squared
staff,
instead of being cut with a chisel on the surface
of a stone. to
Some such method
of notation seems
be implied by the words book and buch-staben sticks),
(bee'ch
and may probably be referred to
in the often quoted lines of Venantius Fortunatus-,
a sixth century poet,
who
says,
Barbara fraxineis pingatur rhuna
Quodque papyrus
The geographical
agit,
distribution
inscriptions raises a strong
districts
of the
Ogham
presumption in favour
of the Scandinavian origin of the
The Ogham
tabellis,
virgula plana valet.
Ogham
writing.
of Wales and Ireland were,
without exception, regions of Scandinavian occu-
As
pancy.
1
I
have elsewhere pointed out 1
Words and
Places, fifth edition, pp. 117, 118.
,
the
no
The Oghams. of a
existence
ment
very early Scandinavian
in Pembrokeshire
is
settle-
by a dense
indicated
names of the Norse type which
cluster of local
surrounds, and radiates from, the fiords of Milford
and
Wales
The Ogham
Haverford.
is
conterminous with
nearly
in
limits
by
Seventeen out of the twenty
the local names.
Welsh Ogham
the
colony as determined
Scandinavian
of this
district
inscriptions are in the counties of
Pembroke, Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Glamorgan, nine out of the seventeen being in Pembrokeshire
There are also two
itself.
Ogham
inscriptions in
Devon, and one in Cornwall, and there are said to
be one or two
extant
Ogham
in
Scotland
inscriptions
But
1 .
more than
of
the
five-sixths
are in Ireland, and these, with four or five exare
ceptions,
Irish coast
avian
found
which
colony in
attested
by such
along
lies
part
of
the
opposite to the Scandin-
Pembroke, local
that
names
and which,
as
as Waterford
is
and
Smerwick, was frequented and settled by the
Northmen.
No
1
less
than 148 out of the 155
Rhys, Lectures, pp. 288-303.
Distribution of the Irish
found
are
Oghams
Ogham
counties
four
the
in
ill
Inscriptions,
of Kilkenny, Waterford, Cork, and Kerry
1 ,
or,
roughly speaking, they fringe the line of coast
which stretches between the two Scandinavian
kingdoms of Waterford and Limerick. It
may
be
safely
affirmed
where
the
inscriptions
are
that
Northmen never came Ogham never found. Strong as external
the presumption raised by the
is
the internal
evidence,
evidence
is
still
more convincing.
The key from
the
the
to
Book
Ogham
of
writing
Ballymote,
obtained
is
MS. of the
a
fourteenth century, which, in addition to sundry Irish
Alphabets and Scandinavian Futhorcs, con-
Oghams. This from internal evidence, must have been
tains a transcript of a tract on tract,
composed at some time between the years 704 and 909, and early
part
Ogham century
is
ninth
the
of
writing
may
assigned by Dr. Graves to the
is
.
That the
at least as old as the eighth
therefore be taken as certain, but
2
1
Rhys, Lectures,
2
century
p. 376.
Hermathena,
vol.
ii.
p.
449-
The Oghams.
112
how much far
is
may be
older the earliest inscriptions
more
to
difficult
The best
determine.
authorities, Dr. Graves, Mr.
Whitley Stokes, and
Professor Rhys, consider that some of
not be later than the
fifth
them
canI
or sixth century.
accept this very early date with some misgiving,
but without discussion, seeing that
it
depends
on the antiquity to be assigned to certain grammatical
forms occurring
matter
as
scholar
can
to
which be
in
only
the
a
competent
inscriptions,
professed to
a
Keltic
pronounce
an
opinion.
The Ogham
characters in their primitive form
of a
probably consisted the
edge
system of notches
of a squared stick
or
stone.
were afterwards written on a plane either side of a central line. to
this
the
*
druim, shows that
arrangement
medieval
the
'groups/
Ogham
aicme,
characters.
They
surface,
on
The name given it
ridge' of the primitive squared
The to
line,
on
represented staff.
of the
Irish
each
We
Oghams, according tradition, was in four
group have
comprising
five
The Ogham Alphabet.
Group
I.
Group
II.
113
The Oghams.
114
denotes a letter which was in constant use. again -/////-
It
-///-
is
some
never occurs in the inscriptions, while
perpetually employed.
will
Ogham
be
then
safe
alphabet was
rule of
alphabet.
constructed
thumb out
What
conclude
to
that
the
according
to
of some familiar existing
could this alphabet have been
we have
Geographical considerations, as seen,
So
?
already
point to the Futhorc, the only reasonable
alternative
being the Latin alphabet advocated
by Dr. Graves,
as
we may
tion
the
hypothesis
that
the
Ogham
of
dismiss from considera-
Captain B. F. Burton
descends, through
the
Arabic
Mushajjar, from the Nabathseo-Chaldeans of the Plains of Shinar. If then
the
choice
between the Latin
as
lies,
alphabet
it
seems to do,
and the Futhorc,
a strong presumption in favour of the latter afforded p.
75),
is
by the absence of an Ogham p (see and the still more significant fact of the
existence of the unnecessary and unused symbol for ng,
a peculiarity with respect to which the
Ogham and
the
Futhorc
European alphabets.
stand
alone
among
Oghams and
Connection of the
But
the Runes.
115
these presumptions, derived from internal
evidence, are
raised to certainties
by an exam-
ination of the Irish Bethluisnion alphabet, which
forms
a
between
link
connecting
the
Ogham
on the one hand and the Futhorc on the In the Bethluisnion alphabet, so Alphabet letters
from
itself,
with which
like the
called,
names
the
of
other.
two
the
commences, we find on the
it
one hand that the order of the letters
is
exactly
the same as the traditional order of the Oghams, the
Bethluisnion
the
same four groups, containing the same
characters
sounds in each group
we
that
find
letters
for
are,
being
most
the
in five
but on the other hand
;
names of the
the
arranged
part,
Bethluisnion
obviously mere
Keltic adaptations of the
names of the Scandin-
avian runes.
that
It
follows
the
Bethluisnion
names must have been the names by which the Ogham characters were designated before they were superseded by the Irish adaptations of the
Eoman
uncials.
adapted
But
from the
if
the
Oghams
bore names
names of the runes, there
seems to be no escape from the conclusion, to
which
all
other considerations I 2
also
point,
that
n6
The Oghams.
the
Ogham
alphabet
was
based
the
upon
Futhorc.
The Bethluisnion is
form,
as follows
in
alphabet,
mediaeval
its
:
THE BETHLUISNION ALPHABET. VALUES.
Group
I.
II.
.
.
.
.
beith
birch.
I
.
.
.
.
luis
rowan.
/
.
.
.
.
fearn
alder.
....
sail
sallow.
n
.
.
.
.
nion
ash?
7i
.
.
.
.
huath
hawthorn?
d
Group
III.
.
duir
oak. 1
c
.
.
.
.
coll
q
.
.
.
.
m
......
hazel.
....
apple.
queirt
muin
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
gort
.
ngedal
.
st
.
r
.
.
.
.
.
vine? ivy?
....
1
.
straif
sloe
.
ruis
elder, (privet?)
?
fir ?
(palm
onn
furze,
.
ur
heath
?
.
eadhadh
aspen
?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
....
Bethluisnion
?
.
.
has
reed
.
a .... ailm
e
the
.
tinne
u
Graves
.
....
ng
Dr.
.
t
g
Group IV.
MEANINGS.
b
5
Group
NAMES.
pointed
names,
.
.
.
....
idhadh
out
(ash
?)
?)
yew.
that
those which
some I
of
have
The Bethhdsnion Alphabet.
by a note of interrogation, are names in ancient Irish. It would
distinguished
not true tree
seem that
later
meanings assigned
fancifully
grammarians
fanciful
117
of
notion
to
have
been
arbitrarily
some of the names
in
order '
the
to
by the
complete
in
trees'
the
'
or
Ogham
forest/
Let
us
now compare
Ogham
names
names.
We
with
Bethluisnion or
these
the
corresponding
have RUNE NAMES.
OGHAM NAMES. braut, beith
b
berith, brita.
I
luir, luis
I
logr, laaz.
s
suil, sail
s
sol. sigil, sihil, sil, tir, tyr.
6
d
duir, dair
t
m
mum
m
man.
rait, ruis
r
rehit, rat.
r
q
queirt
g
gort
ch,
h
sgeith,
huath
t
trom, tinne
e
egui, edad
i
iechua, idad
w,f
ng
q
g,
th,
.......
gifu, quith. calc.
ur, oir, or
onn, uinseann, fearn, ferns
d
u, .
thorn, dorn.
e
hsec, ech, eth, eh.
i
hie, ih.
arm.
a
ailm
ngedal
ger, quor.
c
c
a
querth.
q
g,q
coll
u, oi y o o, u,
rune
o,
y
ur, oyr, yr,
w,f
wen,
ng, o
ing (odal).
fer.
n8
The Oghams.
To
the standard names, as given in the
Book
of Ballyinote, I have added from other sources
a few variants which seem to approximate to the more ancient forms before they were
I have also selected
significant as Irish words. for
made
comparison several runic variants, taken chiefly
from the Scandinavian Futhorcs.
The coincidences between Runic names are too be
close
the
and too numerous to
That the Ogham
accidental.
Ogham and names were
derived from the rune names, instead of the rune
names from
the
Ogham
names,
proof be thought needful, by the
the name of the
Ogham
word seems
to
be
signification
of
'reed'
merely an
the ng rune,
,
respectively ing
being
Now
and the
and
proved,
odal,
if
word ngedal, This
character for ng. in
meaningless
attribution.
is
Irish,
the
most
probably
the
Futhorcs
in
o rune,
,
are called
but their names and
powers are constantly confused and interchanged,
owing to the
and
their
Futhorc.
close
resemblance of the
juxtaposition It
at
the
end
forms,
of
the
would seem that the word ngedal
was produced by some one who was doubtful
Ogham names
derived from
Rune
names.
1
19
whether ing or odal was the true name of the rune
,
and who solved the
by comone word the two names which difficulty
pounding into he found attributed to the rune.
From
with
clude
we may
the foregoing arguments
some
alphabet was, by some unknown structed discover
out
of
the
that
confidence
the
Futhorc.
what was the
principle
con-
Ogham con-
process,
In
order
to
of construction
be needful to restore, as far as possible,
it will
the primitive powers of the
Ogham
characters.
Three of the Oghams, J -///-////-, do not occur on
any of the
ng,
st,
monuments
1 ;
their values,
h,
being those assigned to them by tradi-
tion, as
recorded in the book of Ballymote, and
confirmed by the evidence of the Bethluisnion
and
Bobeloth
shown that
A,
Professor
alphabets.
the traditional value of
from the debilitation of a
primitive
which he takes to have been
ch.
that the value of
1
that
Rhys has
-////-
was
He
Monuments may prove
of
Mr. Brash
on
arises
guttural, also
originally not
I take this assertion from Professor Rhys.
the forthcoming work
j_,
shows st
but
It is possible
the
the statement to be incorrect.
Ogham
I2O
z,
The Oghams,
and that
Ogham
f
9
of
T
as well as b
or
w,
and
Welsh
the
in
value
the character
v
f
shows that
which in Ireland has the value
TFT,
retains
primitive
/
then proves that an Irish
a Welsh
represents
of
must be a reduction of a
z
He
s.
primitive
the
this
He
w.
must
its
inscriptions
considers
also
that
originally have represented
1 .
In addition to these restorations of the primi-
Oghams, which have been
tive values of the
tablished
by
a Lautverschiebung
That
the
a runic
t,
among
Ogham is
we must
Prof. Ehys,
d,
es-
expect to find
the mutes and vowels.
for
answers
instance,
to
proved by a comparison of their
names, duir and
tir.
But the
of this Lautverschiebung
it
precise
will be
amount
more easy to
determine hereafter.
Taking then the primitive values of the Oghams so far as they have been restored
by
we may
values by the
replace
the
traditional
Prof.
Rhys,
following scheme, in which the later values are
distinguished by brackets.
1
Rhys, Lectures on Welsh Philology, pp. 273-277, 286.
Restoration of the Primitive Values.
Group
n
I.
Group
1
III.
Group IV. Dr.
as
this
observed,
primitive order tion
based
is
s
n
--U--LJi__LlU d
-
LJ1LL
c
t
q
+-ff-W--ffff-lfft{-
m
Now
nT
-1
II.
ch(h)
Group
m w(f)
ry
f(b)
121
H
g
ng
s,z(st)
r
- -H- H
and
Graves
Prof.
Khys have
clearly not
is
arrangement of the
H+H-
I+H
Oghams
upon' form, and
;
the the
the
classifica-
collocation
of the vowels in a group
by themselves indicates the revision of a grammarian. The constructor
of the
Oghams would most
certainly have
gun by employing the more simple and
be-
easily
written forms, and would only have resorted to
the more complex characters combinations were
exhausted.
when
the simpler
We may
safely
assume that the primitive arrangement was in five Classes,
each containing four Oghams, instead
of in four Groups of five Oghams. clusion
is
supported
by
the
Welsh
This contradition
that in the time of Beli the Great there
only
1
6
'
awgryms/ that they were
were
afterwards
The Oghams.
122 increased finally,
to
20,
Irish
(the
number) and that
Fardd Glas, the
in the time of Geraint
number was Resolving five Classes,
raised to 24.
the
we
four
traditional
Groups
into
obtain as the primitive arrange-
ment Class
i.
-rf(b)
Class
2.
-I
3.
4.
d
g
t
ng
-TTT
w Class
-mi
If the
we must
u
"" / c
Class
a
LL_
n 1
Class
+-
/
m
ch(h)
z
5.
Ogham mystery seek for some
is
to
be
principle
cleared
by means of
which the Futhorc can be rearranged in classes of
four
runes, so
as to
up
five
correspond with
the five classes of four Oghams.
The arbitrary and complicated rearrangements of the Latin and Phoenician alphabets by means of which Dr. Graves and Prof. to evolve the order of the
Ehys endeavour
Ogmic
characters are
Restoration of the Primitive Arrangement. 123 so obviously inadmissible that
some other principle
must be sought.
A child,
on being shown such runes as
P f, ,
immediately pronounce them to be
)K, will
The Scandinavian and Keltic
or
trees.
with
races, looking
awe on the mysterious Runes and Oghams, seem to have regarded them as representations of a sort of alphabetic forest or
trees, constituting
In several cases the names of the
arboretum.
runes are actually names of trees the
birch,
times
this
and thorn the thorn device
of
;
beorc being
In ]ater
tree.
nomenclature
was more
extensively employed, ac, the oak, and ash, being
added to the runic
cesc,
the
trees.
This notion of the Northmen that the runes
were a
sort of trees is exhibited in their ingenious
invention of the
out in a
'
tree runes/
struction of the forms
spoken
of
it
more elaborate method
still
characters,
and
was
in the con-
and names of the Ogham
which were invariably regarded and as
trees.
The Book of Ballymote
speaks of the twigs and branches of the tree,
carried
the individual characters are called
feada, the consonants are called
'
Ogham '
trees,' '
side trees
tao-
The Oghams.
124
bomna, and each cross stroke
A
1
fleasg
.
of the
idad,
ailm and onn,
in ancient Irish gort,
a twig,
names
characters, such as sail, duir,
ruis,
ceirt,
muin,
called
considerable proportion of the
Ogham
names
is
are
true
in other cases,
;
and ngedal, tree
significations
coll,
tree
such as
seem
to
have been assigned to words which were adopted from the names of the Scandinavian runes.
The
resemblance
it
to the
was afterwards.
The Oghams, according
Book of Ballymote, were
n,
t,
g,
e,
originally written,
but on vertical stems,
lines,
were denoted by p
which
symbols urn
in
the
>
=t
" " '
it
would
by the side
by
seem '
to
have
tree runes/
been
Ogham symbols
directly
suggested
which are occasionally found
side with the ordinary runes, as at
Kok
Sweden, Maeshowe in Orkney,
and Rotbrunna
in
and Hackness
in Yorkshire
1
Ed
Ogham become
later
These primitive forms of the
2
their
was much more obvious
not on horizontal thus
in
Oghams,
trees
to
earliest forms,
than
the
of
Graves, Hermathena, vol.
ii.
p.
2 .
The
principle on
457.
See Stephens, Runic Monuments, pp. 228-240, 467, 468.
The Tree Rimes.
125
which the tree runes were constructed
is
very
The runes of the Futhorc were divided
simple.
common
into families headed
by
division being,
Frey's family, containing the
runes from
(i)
ftoh;
(3) Tyr's family,
certain letters, the
Hagl's family, from h to
(2)
from
t
stem or tree trunk was
number family, in that
of branches
Thus
family.
denoted
the
left
to the right the station
^
as a tree rune first
all
yet
it
probability suggested is
would family
\
Although the notion of the Ogham in
upright the
represent u, the second rune in the of the Futhorc
;
then taken, and the
to
and the number
An
to the end.
t
by the
trees
tree
was
runes,
manifest that no modification of the
principle on which the tree runes were constructed will
suffice
to
explain the
Oghams.
We
must
therefore seek for some other device, which, like
1
The same principle was applied by the Arabs, after they had come in contact with the Varangians in the ninth century, to the construction, out of the Arabic alphabet, of the very simple cryptograms called
231
Mushajjar and El Shajari, the
'branched' or 'tree shaped/ of which
has been made.
much
needless mystery-
The Oghams.
126
the key to the tree runes, ought to be simple,
and easy to remember.
arbitrary,
Now
we
if
bear in mind that both the Runes
and the Oghams were regarded as constituting a mysterious alphabetic forest in which grew trees
of
twenty Species,
most obvious and
easily
by which the runic
what
remembered
Ogham
be
the
principle
trees could be arranged in
five Genera, so as to correspond
of the
would
with that division
trees into the five classes of four
Oghams, which a system of notation by notches
made imperative
?
In such a case the principle most likely to
be adopted by an uncultured people would,
I
think, be to arrange the trees of the runic ar-
boretum according to a sort of rough botanical classification,
putting together in the same class
those runes which most resembled each other in
shape and general appearance.
Now
if
any
one,
unacquainted with the Oghams, will try the ex-
periment of taking the Futhorc and endeavouring to class the runes according to their shapes, con-
sidered as imaginary trees, he will find that they
naturally
resolve
themselves
into
five
classes,
Plan on which Oghams were
constructed.
127
which correspond, with singular exactitude, to the five classes in which the primitive
Oghams
were arranged.
The inventor of
Oghams, proceeding on
the
would naturally begin with the
this principle,
rune in the Futhorc.
first
such as
tree like forms,
Y
a general resemblance to
and
expressed by the
Y> the
or
first
h
-f
From
would
markedly
which bear rune in
first
this type
would
simplest class
Oghams, those with one twig, H.
I*,
The four runes of
the Futhorc.
be
first class
branched runes with
those
comprise
His
of
such as
(fleasg)
+
,
A, he would obtain a
the second rune,
type for his second
class,
which would consist
of the runes with a single fork or elbow, such s
as
I
1,
,
and
These would be denoted by
<.
Oghams with two The
twigs,
third rune,
^,
b,
=j,
=ji,
a conspicuous and
gives
well-marked type for the third
These would be
and
might
be
the
closed
conceived
^.
to
or
class
of runes.
looped
forms,
represent
either
hollow trunks, or trees with interlacing boughs:
Such runes as
^,
^,
,
&,
would
therefore
128 be
The Oghams.
by Oghams with
represented
The fourth
rune
having
appropriate place in the
on
to
the
fifth
or
an
he would go
which would
ft,
supply a type for a well-marked
twigs,
found
already
first class
R
rune,
three
fifth class,
con-
taining trees with diverging roots, such as K and rf.
Either because the
fifth
type, or because the root
is
rune supplied the
the last and lowest
characteristic feature of a tree, these root runes
would naturally be represented by the of Oghams, those with five twigs,
The most
striking rune forms
fifth class
\
now
being
ex-
hausted, the four remaining runes would form a sort of residuum, to be
remaining
class.
thrown together into the
They bear a general resemblance
to trees with crooked stems, such as,
$,
%,
I/I,
and would be represented by Oghams of the fourth
class,
Thus the
those with four twigs. characteristics of the five classes of
the rune trees would be (3) loops
;
(4)
crooks
beginning with the
;
(i)
branches
(5) roots
branches
;
at
;
(2) forks
;
a classification the
top,
and
The Five
of Rune
Classes
Trees.
129
thence proceeding regularly downwards, and end-
That
ing with the roots. is
its
no objection to favour
it,
scheme
this
is
fanciful
but rather an argument in
when we remember
of the whole system of the
the
fancifulness
Oghams and
their
names. This theory as to the ideas which
may have
passed through the mind of the contriver of the
Oghams must now be
tested
whether
to
it
will
suffice
by ascertaining the
explain
actual
facts.
The
five
classes of
Oghams would correspond
as follows to the five classes of runes
:
FIKST CLASS.
Type.
The
first
Y
rune,
One -twig
Substitution.
Oghams
for
Branch
Runes.
Oghams.
Runes.
Y f,
b
X Y g,
k,
K
X
M ^ Y
h
m
fc
a
The Oghams.
130
SECOND CLASS. Type.
The second rune, A.
Substitution.
Kunes. \SUIl/lA/llt,O,
Two -twig
Oghams
for
Fork
HIM
The Oghams.
132
Oghams and
of the
of the corresponding runes
do not present any insuperable equivalence of the
Welsh broga and the Teutonic
frog, and the uniform use of the
denote b on the Keltic the
explain
The
difficulties.
soil
representation
f
P, to
rune,
Man
of the Isle of of the
f
(b)
rune
by the b (f) Ogham. Also the names duir and tir show that the Ogham d represented a runic i.
This
is
primitive into
dl
t
in
being normally debilitated in Welsh
The
.
accordance with phonetic law, a
Compensation
runic
take
might then by Cross
th
the
of
power
In
t.
like
manner a Welsh g represents a primitive c 2 and a primitive g might then become c by pro,
vection.
Thus the changes among the Mutes,
from offering any
difficulty,
supply a convincing
confirmation of our hypothesis as to the in
which
Runes.
the
We
Oghams were are
Law
mode
derived from the
brought, by an
method, to the exact
far
independent
of the Lautverschiebung
between Old Welsh and Gothic, according to which
O.W. d corresponds 1
2
to G.
t,
O.W.
t
to G.
th,
O.W. g
Rhys, Lectures on Welsh Philology, Lecture II. Ibid.
The Oghams Invented to G.
Jc
(c),
and O.W.
Wales.
in
G. g or h 1
c to
133
Nor can the
.
interchange between the two throat vowels o and
and the two
u,
vowels
lip
and
e
be deemed
i,
we remember
a matter of importance when
the
vague uncertainty with which the vowel sounds are denoted in runic inscriptions
On
it
phonetic grounds
that the
Oghams
2 .
would seem probable
originated in the Scandinavian
colony of Pembrokeshire, and were thence carried across
to
the opposite
Irish
ITT,
retained
Welsh
f
to
its
which stands
is
f
in Ireland, has
w
power of v or
original
inscriptions.
for
Now 3 .
Hence
if
the
in
w
this change of
or v
and does
peculiar to the Erse language,
not take place in Welsh
chief
The Ogham
reasons for this belief are as follows.
symbol
The
coast.
the
Oghams
had originated in Ireland, and had thence passed over to Wales, this Ogham would have had the
power of
/
or
b,
instead of w, in the
Welsh
inscriptions. 1
Rhys, Lectures, p. 17. In runic inscriptions found in the single province of Upland (Sweden) the vowel sound in the word sten (stone) is expressed 2
in
no
less
ae, ce, oi.
than twelve different ways, 3
e,
a,
i,
o,
u,
ei, ia, ai,
Rhys, Lectures, p. 280.
au,
2^* Oghams.
134
On
we may
these grounds
Pembrokeshire colony was
conclude that the in date than
earlier
the settlements on the opposite Irish coasts
;
or,
at all events, that the
Oghams must have been
employed in Wales
some considerable period
for
before they were introduced into Ireland.
But here we are confronted with some importand
ant date
startling
the
of
Wales and
considerations
earliest
Teutonic
On
Ireland.
touching settlements
grammatical
the in
grounds
Mr. Stokes and Professor Khys have been driven to the conclusion that the invention of the
writing must be placed
An
equally early date
Ogham left,
'
Ogham
before the fifth century/
is
indicated
by the older
inscriptions being written from right to
a fact which would lead us to infer that
Oghams were derived from the runes at a time when the direction of the runic writing
the
was It
still
retrograde.
would therefore appear that Scandinavian
immigrants must have established themselves in
Wales and Ireland
commencement
The harrying
of
several
the
centuries before the
inroads
of
the vikings.
of the Irish coasts did not begin
Probable Date of the Oghams. till
135
nearly the end of the eighth century, and the
rule of the
Ost-men Kings
in Ireland dates only
from the middle of the ninth.
It
manifest that
is
a knowledge of the Ogham, a character derived
from the runes, could not have been acquired by the Irish and
Welsh Kelts from mere bands of
plundering marauders, but must have been obtained from established settlers on their shores,
with
whom
up.
Moreover the tract on Oghams, contained
had been
peaceable intercourse
set
in the book of Ballymote, appears to have been
written about the year 800, at which time the writing must have been already of con-
Ogham
siderable antiquity, as the tract contains internal
the
was
evidence
that
materials,
some of which he only
stood
compiler
older
partially under-
*.
From
these considerations
the introduction of the their
using
anterior
colony,
century
must be
when the
1
Oghams
invention earlier
it
in
probable that
is
into Ireland, and
Pembrokeshire
the
than the end of the eighth
inroads of the vikings
Graves, ffermathena, vol.
ii.
p.
first
450.
began.
The Oghams.
136
We
are thus brought to the conclusion that the
legends as to an earlier Scandinavian colonization in
Wales and
worthy
may
a
of
basis
annals and traditions
between
distinction
rauders
has come
historical record
contain
Ireland
the
no
trust-
down
to us,
The ancient
truth.
of
of the ninth
to which
as
Ireland,
make a
clear
Danish
ma-
historical
who
century,
are
called
Dubhgalls, the 'Black Strangers/ and the earlier
Tuatha De Danann, whose
invaders called the arrival
Irish
is
placed far It
legend.
away
seems
I
much
to
have been obtained. asserted in
also
the
Indeed
Ballymote that this was the If
it
tract
a further conjecture
these
and from them,
suggest, the
Ogham
that
Danes, belonging
earlier immigration,
would venture
dim period of
probable
Tuatha De Danann were to a
in the
Oghams may is
in
categorically
the
book
case.
may
be ventured I
should be inclined to identify the Tuatha
Danann with settlement in
the
Jutes
of
De
from Jutland, whose
Kent and the
Isle
of
Wight
is
the earliest Teutonic migration into Britain which
can be called
historical.
The Tiiatha de Danann. In favour of this conjecture
it
137 be urged
may
that the Saxons, like the kindred confederations
Franks and Lombards, seem to have
of
been
unacquainted with the runes, as thus only can
we
account for the entire absence of runic stones
scriptions
Saxon parts of England. Eunic inhave been found in no inconsiderable
numbers
in
from the
Durham,
Yorkshire,
Northumber-
and Cumberland, but not one in Wessex,
land,
Sussex, Essex, Mercia, or even in East Anglia.
The only Southumbrian region which can
boast
of any runic
Kent
was
which
of
ancient
inscriptions
settled all
the
is
by the runic
that part Jutes.
stones in
one found at Sandwich, which
Isles is
to the fifth century.
great burying place
of
The most the is
British
assigned
One of the graves at
Gilton,
near
in the
Sandwich,
contained a sword, whose silver hilt was inscribed
with runes of an equally early date.
At Dover
also there is a runic stone of the early Christian x
period
.
Hence
1
it
would appear that the Jutes were
Stephens, Runic Monuments, pp. 363, 370, 465.
L
The Oghams.
138
the only tribe belonging to the
swarm
first
of
who were
the Teutonic immigration into Britain
acquainted with the runes, an inference which
monuments
agrees with the abundance of runic
of the oldest type in Jutland, and their remark-
absence from the Fatherland of the Saxons
able
and the Angles. There seems to be no valid reason to prevent us from supposing that the Jutish adventurers of the fourth century
Kent and the
Isle of
may have
crept
on,
from
Wight, along the southern
England as far as the fiords of Pembrokeand from thence have crossed over to the
coast of shire,
The
sheltered havens of Munster.
which
local
names,
afford the chief evidence as to the existence
of a Scandinavian colony in Pembroke, are certainly not opposed to this view.
region of South
Wales we
as Helwick, Oxwich,
the
and
Ogham
;
and
Romney.
Ogham names
Kamsey, and Gateholm
in
Southumbrian England we gate and
find such local
region of Ireland
Smerwick
In the
the
it
in
we have Helvick runic
region
find Sandwich,
If then
;
of
Rams-
be allowable to
conjecture that in the fourth or fifth century the
The Jutes. Jutes
may have
and Ireland,
139
established settlements in Wales
as well as in
Wight, the remaining
Kent and the
Isle of
difficulties
as to the date
and origin of the Ogham writing
will disappear.
In no other way can the apparently conflicting conclusions of Palaeography, Philology, and History so easily be reconciled.
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