What causes
a major issue when seeking out the origins of the runes is that the oldest
runes are found in far northern territories, but the only direct contact we
know about between literate peoples and Germanic tribes happens at the limes of
the Rhine, the limes make up the border between Germanic
tribes, and the Roman empire. As discussed earlier the only places that offer a
viable matrix alphabet are the Alphabets of Rome, and the Mediterranean in
general.
There are
three main possible categories for people who could have developed runes. 1. A
Romanized tribe of Germans living along the Roman Border. 2. Mercenaries
serving in the Roman Army. 3. Merchants, of which Germans had plenty.
The
earliest Runic inscriptions are found far north, in Denmark and Scandinavia.
this punches a slight hole in the theory involving mercenaries or a Romanized
tribe developing futhark. Taking that into consideration we do find a large
amount of Roman goods in far northern Denmark and Scandinavia, there are
examples of weapons, armor, drinking and eating utensils, all of these can be
found around the first century AD, suggesting that even though there are no records of Mercenaries being pulled
directly from these regions, there is still ample trade and communication carried
out between Roman culture, and the citizens of these regions.
If we look
at the words written on the earliest runic inscriptions we can find clues to
their origins, aside from their resting places. The comb dating from about 160
AD with the runes “Harja” on it may be a reference to a tribe name. there is a
tribe from the lower Rhine called Harii. Furthermore the name Harja is a
Germanic name common of the lower rhine region, and not found further north.
The weapons
that have the smiths names carved in, or even in one case stamped into their
blades represent a copying of Roman traditions. It was very common for Roman
soldiers to put their names into their weapons. These spear heads and weapons
(wagnijo on spear heads, and nithijo on a shield handle) were found in war
booty that was deposited in bogs far north. This is probably an example of
tensions temporary tensions between southern and northern Germanic tribes.
The major
bog finds ranging from 160-450 AD have a massive amount of Roman military goods
in them, these weapons and armor were clearly not made in Scandinavia, showing
a serious roman context for runes (because a lot of the weapons and armor had
runes on them) and showing there was ample trade going on between the lower
Rhineland and Scandinavia.
All early
Runic inscriptions have either a military influence (weapons and armor) or a
luxury influence (combs, cups, jewelry) most of the luxury goods we find are
once again influenced by Roman culture, before the influence of Roman culture
Germans didn’t tend to drink out of Goblets, or wear Romanized jewelry
(bracteates).
It is also
known that many Germanic Personal Names are derived from Germanic Tribal names.
Most of the names that are found on the runes can correlate best with names
with a west Germanic Origin, suggesting that weather it came from Merceneries,
Merchants, or a Romanized Tribe, it happened first in western Germany, and
spread from there.
Runes and
rituals: it is unclear what rituals were involved with runes. It is true that
many scholars believe the runes were used for magic, but there is no
unambiguous text to help support this theory. There is some evidence in how
many rune writings have sequences of letters like aaaaazzznnnn or bwseeekkkkkaaaaa.
It could be these were phonetic examples for chants, or runes written for
magical purposes.
Bracteates
may have had a magical purpose, seeing as they were basically used as amulets,
and made of Gold, both suggesting a Roman connection. They also tended to be
found in bogs, peat layers, and hoards. If you recall from my transcription exercise,
one of the bracteates had a letter sequence of aaaa this is an example of a
possible ‘magical’ purpose of that bracteate.
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