ARKTOS

London2018

Copyright©2018byArktosMediaLtd.

Allrightsreserved.Nopartof thisbookmaybereproducedorutilized inanyformorbyanymeans(whether electronicormechanical), includingphotocopying, recordingorby any information storageandretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher.

ISBN

978-1-912079-11-7(Print)

978-1-912079-10-0(Ebook)

Translation

JeanBernard

Editing

MartinLockerandMelissaMészáros

Design

TorWestman

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DedicatedtoFrançois-XavierDillmann.

PARTI

F U Q a R k g W

f u þ a r k g w

h n i j $ p y Ø

h n i j ë p z(R) s

t B e m l 5 d o

t b e m l ng d o

THEOLDERrunic“alphabet”(Fuþark),comprisingtwenty-fourlettersgroupedintothree“ættir.”

F U Q a R ß

f u þ ą r k

J n i N S

h n i a s

t B l y 7

t b l m R

THEMODERNfuþark,16letters.

“A

1

WritingandOralTradition

NYCONCEPTIONOFCULTUREthatwoulddesignatethepropensitytowriteasanindicatorofaculture’swealthandcomplexityshouldbediscarded,”writesEricA.Havelock.“Aculturecanrelyentirelyon

some kind of spoken communication and nevertheless be a culturewith allthatitentails.”1

ThatpreliminaryremarkisusefulinunderstandingwhythereisnocommonIndo-European termtorefer towriting, inspiteof theearlydevelopmentofseveral writing systems by ancient Near-Eastern cultures for administrativeand utilitarian purposes. The Indo-European tradition is indeed essentiallyoral, and most Indo-European people seem to have voluntarily ignoredwriting, in its contemporary sense.BernardSergent describes that “singularphenomenon”asfollows:

Writing isnotcategoricallyrejected,but it isput to the side toprioritizeoralitywhichcomesfirst and foremost. Inall ancient Indo-European cultures, or almost all of them, there is thatrejection or marginalization, its use is very specific. It is that way because writing has anambiguousstatus:ontheonehandithascons,writtencultureisperceivedbythosepeopletobeofinferiorqualitycomparedtospokenculture[…]butontheotherhandithaspros,aswriting

isalsoperceivedtobesomewhatmagicalbecauseitmakesthingslastandpopularizesthem.2

Itisworthrememberingthatlastpoint.

ThatiswhywritingplaysnopartinVedicreligion.TheBrahmins’roleistopreservetheVedasbyrecitingthetextandlearningitbyhearttokeeptheoraltransmissiongoing.ThesacredscripturesoftheIndo-Aryanculturearearevelation confided to the ear, literally a “hearing” (shruti). While theBrahmin traditionexalts the strengthof the spokenword (theverynameofthe Brahmins comes from bráhman “poetic spell”), it neglects scriptural

activities,but itdoesnotmean that theyare ignored. In theVeda language,thereisnoverbalrootfor“theactofwriting.”IntheSanskritvocabulary,thetermfor“letter”(verna)originallymeantakindofsound,itwasaphoneticsterm. The earliest Sanskrit manuscripts only date from the 5th century[Editor’s Note: All dates are AD unless specified], with their Asokachancelleryinscriptions.TheVedas,whichhavebeentransmittedorallyforatleast4000years,haveonlybeenwrittendowninthe18thcentury.

InIran,theAvestahadalsoonlybeenwrittendownintheSassanidperiod.TheCeltssharedthedruidicteachingsexclusivelyorally(thisiswhythereareno remains of it).Arbois de Jubainvillewrites about druids fromGaul that“weknowthattheirteachingcomprisedmakingtheirstudentslearnbyheartalongdidacticpoemthattheysangandthatwasactuallymemorizedcorrectlybysomestudentsonlyaftertwentyyearsofstudying.”3Cesaralsoemphasizedthe hostilitywhich druids showedwhen theywere told towrite down theirknowledge:

novicedruidslearnedalotofverses;manyofthemstudyforovertwentyyears;theydon’tthinktheirreligionallowsthewritingdownofverses(nequefasesseexistimanteaslitterismandare)

buttheydouseGreeklettersforallkindsofpublicandprivateuses.4

ChristianJ.Guyonvarc’h,accordingtowhomtheconversiontoChristianismimpliedaconversiontothewrittentradition,tellsusthat“therearenonativewordsinanyCelticlanguagefortheactofwritingorreading.”5Headdsthatthere is no ancient Celtic epigraphy for the regions far from theMediterranean,aswellasnowritings inGaulish innorth-easternGaul.TheCeltic name for writing (Old-Irish: scrib-) comes from Latin scribo. InScandinavia,theskalds’arthadalsobeentransmittedorallyforalongtime.

PlutarchsaidaboutNumathat,accordingtohim,“itwaswrongtopreservereligioussecretsininanimateletters,”whichexplainswhyhewasthoughttobe the father of an “‘unwritten tradition’ by Rome.”6 So too thoughtPythagoras (“religious secrets should not be entrusted to inert things”) andLycurgus, the legendary lawgiverofSparta,whomadenever thewritingoflawsaconstitutionalprinciple.7

Theimportanceoforaltraditionmustbekeptinmindwhenonedelvesintowriting.

R

2

RunicWriting

UNIC WRITING IS THE writing system that was used to transcribedifferentGermaniclanguagesbeforetheLatinscript,andthenalongsideit.Itseemstohaveappearedroughlyinthe1stcenturyADand itwas

stilluseduptothe14thcentury,whenitbegantofalloutofuse.However,itwasstillusedmarginally in the17thand18thcenturies insomepartsof theSwedish and Norwegian countryside (Dalarna, Härjedalen, Telemark,Gotland, etc.) Its oldest variety comprises twenty-four signsor runeswhichforman“alphabet”whichwasgiventhenameFuþark(“Futhark”)becauseofits particular order. Those twenty-four runes, materialized by vertical oroblique strokes, transcribe twenty-four sounds or phonemes. The Fuþarkcompriseseighteenconsonantsandsixvowels.Runesintheavailablebodyofinscriptions manifest a striking unity. Most of them are almost always thesame;thereareonlyminorvariationsandtheyrarelyareisolated.

The formerFuþark that had twenty-four signs stopped being used in the8thcentury.AnewFuþarkreducedtosixteensignsappearedinthebeginningofthe9thcenturyintheDanishislesandinsouthernSweden.8Thatwas theoneusedin theso-calledVikingera.Weknowof threemainvariations: the“long stroke runes,” the “short stroke runes” and the “Norwegian (ancient)runes.”Thetransitionfromtheoldtothenewsixteen-runeFuþarkisoneofthemosttalkedaboutissuesofrunology.9Didithappenthroughavoluntaryreformorwasitratheraprogressiveevolution?Somespecialistssimplydon’tbelieve that the new Fuþark comes from the old. Some others accept thederivation but they explain it through othermeans. There’s a disagreementbetweentheupholdersofthe“utilitarian”hypothesisandthoseofthestrictly

linguistic theory. The former think that the “reform” comes strictly from awishtosimplify,whichisquitedubious;thelatterclaimthatitistheresultofphonetic disruptions that affected the Proto-Scandinavian system. Lastly,some suggest (without any precise argument) a desire tomake theFuþarkmoreincomprehensibleintheageofthefirstChristianmissions.RenéL.M.Derolezwritesthat

thatreformcouldnothavebeenintroducedforpracticalpurposes:readingthenewalphabetismuchharderthanreadingtheoldone,becausemanysoundscan’tbeexpressedaccuratelybythenew one. It may be a reaction against Christianism, which was making an entrance at theboundariesofScandinavia.ItwaspreciselywhenCharlemagnegothisarmiestothebordersof

Denmark.Thatpendingdangercouldhaveprovokedarevivalofthepaganculture.10

Sincewearestudyingtheoriginsofrunicwriting,weareonlyinterestedintheOldFuþark,notthesixteensignsonenortheotherrunicwritingsystemsthatwereconfirmedlateron,likethetwenty-eightsignAnglo-SaxonFuþorcthatwas developed in theBritish Isles after theAngles, Jutes and Saxons’invasion,theFrisiansystem,theFuþorcusedaround800inNorthumbriaandinnorth-westernEngland, thepointedrunes, theRökrunes, theHälsinglandrunes,themedievalFuþark,etc.

C

3

TheCharacteristicsofFuþark

OMPAREDTOOTHERWRITINGSfromwesternEurope,runicwritinghassomenotable features thatmustbe taken intoaccount todetermine itsorigins. The first one is the order of the letterswithin the “alphabet.”

FuþarkiscalledFuþarkbecauseitsfirstlettersaref,u,þ(th),a,r,k,theng,w,n,i,j,ï,p,z(orR),s,t,b,e,m,l,ŋ(ng),dando.So,theorderistotallydifferentfromtheorderofMediterraneanalphabets.Specialistsnoticeitbutseldomtry toexplain it.“There isno theory thathaseverbeenputout thatcan satisfy the needs of linguists when it comes to explaining why theGermanschosethatparticularsequence,”explainsTerjeSpurkland.11

Fifteen runic inscriptions give us all or almost all of the Fuþark in itscanonicalorder.Almostallof themdateback to the5thor6th century.Theoldest one is the one from the Kylver stone, found in 1903 in its tomb inGotland, which seems to date back to the beginning of the 5th century (c.400).TheGrumpanbracteate (c.475–500), found in1911 inVästergötland,givesusacompleteFuþarkthatistwolettersshortofbeingidenticaltothatfoundontheKylverstone.AnotherSwedishbracteate,theVadstenabracteate(c.550),foundin1774inÖstergötland,bearsasimilarsequencebutitreadsfromrighttoleftstartingatthesupporthole,whereastheGrumpanbracteatereads from left to right. The fibula of Charnay (Saône-et-Loire), found in1858anddatingbacktoc.580,bearsanincompleteFuþarkforlackofspace.The fibulawithgolden silver fromAquincum inHungary (c.500)givesusthefirsteightrunes.Thereisalsotheinscription(c.535)discoveredin1930onamarblecolumnofaByzantinechurchfromBreza,twenty-twokilometersnorthwest of Sarajevo, the Beuchte fibula found near Goslar, the Lindkær

bracteate(Denmark),etc.

Anotherveryimportantcharacteristic — probablythemostimportant — isthedivisionofFuþark letters.Runesdon’t formacontinuoussequence liketheGreekorLatinscripts,buttheyaregroupedtogetherintothreeeight-letterlong immutablesequences(FromF toW,fromh toS, fromt too).That isconfirmed by the bracteates of Grumpan and Vadstena. They show thecompleteFuþarksequencedividedupintothreeeight-lettergroups,separatedby six lined-up dots (Grumpan) or two dots, one on top of the other(Vadstena).Those three runicsequencesarecalledættir (singularætt).Thatdenominationcanbefoundina17thcenturyIcelandictext,butalsoinan11th

centurymanuscript(Isruna-Traktat).Thatterm,whichmeans“awholemadeofeightparts,”isa*ti-derivativefrom*ahtawhichmeans“eight”inGerman(seeOldHighGermanahti-“eight,”OldNorseátta,samemeaning).Thefactthat it is a homophonewithætt“family” (geschlecht) seems fortuitous:ættcomesfrom*aih-tiwhichmeans“property”inGerman,anditsverbalbasisisaih “I own” (see aihts in Gothic). In Icelandic manuscripts from the 17th

century, everyætt is under the authority of a god: Freyr (Frøysætt, whichbeginswiththeF=frune),Heimdallr(Hagalsætt,whichbeginswiththeh=hrune)andTýr(Týsætt,whichbeginswiththet=trune),butthispatronagemayhavebeenaddedposthoc.Thefactthattheættirgroupingswerekeptinthe sixteen signFuþark gives us reasons to believe that it goes back to theoriginsofthesystemandthatitwasregardedastraditional.

Runicwriting is also acrophonic,meaning that every rune bears its ownname,anditsphoneticvalueisdeterminedbythefirstphonemeofitsname.12

Everyrunefollowsthatacrophonicprincipleexceptrunesfifteenandtwenty-two,z/R(y)andŋ(5),whosephonemesareneverthefirstwhenspoken;then,therunebearsthenameofthelastphoneme.Thenamesofrunesarealwayssingular.Evenwhentheformoftherunechanges,thenamestaysthesame.The first rune’s sound, /f/, is associated to theword*fehu, which refers tocattleorwealth (OldNorse fē,Gothic faihu).That term isderived from theIndo-European term *péku, which turned into pecus in Latin (see

“pecuniary”). Then came *ūruz “aurochs,” *þurisaz “giant,” *ansuz “Asa”(ferula), *raidō “ride,” etc. That characteristic indicates thatFuþark lettersmight have been initially somepictographic signs that depicted figurativelythewordaccordingtoitsmeaning.Then,thepictogramscouldhavelosttheirfigurativevalueandbecomebut thesignof the first letterof theword theyusedtodepictfiguratively.

Sincenorunicinscriptiongaveusthenamesofrunes,wegotthemthankstofairlyrecentdocuments(theoldestonesdatebacktothe9thcentury),buttheir consistency confirms how ancient and stable the names are.13LucienMusset stresses that “there is a substantial consistency among all thenomenclatures, which gives us reason to believe that they share fairly oldorigins.”14 He adds that “the runes got their names at a time when theGermanicworldwasstillunanimouslypaganandrelativelyunited.”15

ThenamesofrunesarementionedinseveralmanuscriptsfromtheMiddleAges (calledRunicamanuscripta) and four great runic poems.16The oldestone is theAbecedariumNormanicumorNord (mannicum), a textwritten inFuldabetween801and819atRabanusMaurus’school(780–856)inamixofLowGerman,HighGerman,Anglo-Saxon andNorse. It relates the sixteenrunes of the newFuþark and gives their names in alliterative verses: “Feuforman,/Urafter,/Thuristhrittenstabu,”etc.ThenthereistheOldEnglishrunicpoemfromthe9thcentury,theNorwegianrunicpoemfromtheendofthe 12th century or beginning of the 13th, and the Icelandic runic poemwrittenatmostaround1400.TheOldEnglishpoemwasburnedin1731butitstextwassavedbya1731copyconstitutedbyJohnHickes(ThesaurusI).Thatpoemgivesusthenamesofthetwenty-eightrunesoftheAnglo-SaxonFuþorc.TheNorwegianpoemwasalsoburnedinafirein1728,butweholdcopies of it and that gives us the names of the sixteen runes of the newFuþark. The Icelandic Poem also gives us the names of the sixteen runeFuþark under the kenningar form, a kind of paraphrasal frequently used inskaldicpoetry.Thenamesof runes thatweremissing from the sixteen signFuþark have been figured out from a manuscript attributed to Alcuin of

Salzburg-Vienna.Itdatesbacktothe9thcenturyandithasGothicsources.

Thelastcharacteristic:sinceitsorigins,runicwritingcanbewrittenfromleft to right, from right to left, from bottom to top, from top to bottom, invertical or horizontal lines. It can also be written in boustrophedon mode(meaningthatitchangesdirectionsateverylinelikeoxeninploughing).Theoldest inscriptions are more often from right to left, while those from theViking days aremostly from left to right. That detail is important when itcomestofindingtheoriginsofrunicwriting.

W

4

RunicInscriptions

E HAVE COME ACROSS 6900 runic inscriptions, and most of them,upwardsof6000,werefoundinScandinavia(4000inSweden,1600inNorway,850 inDenmark). inscriptionscarved in theOldFuþark,

numberingnomorethan360,aretheoldest,and250ofthemwerefoundinScandinavia, especially in southern Sweden, Jutland, Schleswig, and theDanishIsles(ZealandandFunen).ThefamousGoldenHornsofGallehusthatdatebacktothe4thcenturyorthefirsthalfofthe5thcentury,discoveredin1639and1734 inDenmarknearTondern, are theoldest runic “monument”thatweknowof.TheoldestengravedstoneistheonefromMöjebro.Itseemstodatefromaround400.Newrunicinscriptionsarediscoveredregularlyandtheyhavebeenpublishedsince1986intheNorwegianpaperNyttomruner.Meldingsbladomruneforskning(itisadigitalpublicationsince2005).

Older inscriptions are usually very short and hard to decipher.Many ofthemseemtobesomepeople’snames.Onlyaroundfiftyofthemarelongerthana coupleofwords, if they evenarewords.Outof the121oldFuþarkinscriptionsthatwecanmakesenseof,seventy-nineareonlyoneline long,forty-fourarewrittenfromlefttoright,andthirty-fivefromrighttoleft.Outoftheforty-twothatarelongerthanaline,twenty-fourarewritteninthesamedirection, and eighteen arewrittenboth from left to right and from right toleft.

Half of those inscriptions are written on bracteates. Bracteates are thingolden disks with a hole pierced through them so that they can be wornaround theneckaspendants.Oneof their sidesbearadecoration,and theywere used as jewels, but mostly as amulets. They started being produced

around450.SomeoftheCtypebracteates,themostcommontype(weknowof at least 400 of them), could depict the godÓdhinn, sometimeswith hiseight-legged horse, Sleipnir, or with his two ravens, Hugin and Munin.Upwardsofahundredbracteatesbeararunicinscription.17

A

5

TheOldestInscriptions

TTHEENDOFthe19thcentury,LudwigF.A.Wimmerwasconvincedthatnorunic inscriptionpredated the4th century.Not so longago,wethought that no inscriptionwent as far back as the 3rd century. In the

1920s,MauriceCahen thought that runicwriting “could not be dated backfurtherthanthe2ndcenturyAD.”18In1937,WolfgangKrauseknewofonlytwelve texts anterior to the end of the 3rd century. Their location indicatedthat runicwritingcame intobeing in the areaof currentDenmarkand thenspread to Norway and Sweden, as previously thought. In the 1980s, mostpeople thought roughly thesame: thatno runic inscriptionswereanterior totheendofthe2ndcentury,butthingshavesubsequentlychanged.

Thedatingoftheoldestinscriptionsisbynomeanseasy.NoinscriptioninoldFuþarkcanbedatedhistorically,whichmeansthattheirdatingreliesonarchaeology,butalsoonlinguisticdata.Inmanycases,thereremainsafairlylargedegreeofuncertainty.19

Around1970,therunicinscriptionthatwasconsideredtobetheoldestwasØvre Stabu’s spearhead, found in aNorwegian tomb around 1890. It bearsraunijaR as an inscription andwe date it back to roughly 150–200 (on thebasisofaRomanswordfoundinthesametomb).ThentherewasthecombofVimose, found in Funen (around 150–160) which bears the word harja(“warrior”),thetwopiketipsfoundinIllerup,Denmark(around200),andtheVærløsefibula(around200).Intheperiod250–300,wehavetheinscriptiondiscoveredinMos(Gotland)in1916,thetipofasheathfromTorsbjerg,theDahmsdorfspearhead(ranja)discoveredin1865intheBrandeburgtomb,theKovelspearheadfoundsouthofBrest-Litovskin1858,etc.

That classic chronology was completely disrupted when in February of1979, the Meldorf fibula was found in the stockroom of the Schleswig-HolsteinregionalmuseuminSchleswig.Thisbronze8.5cmlongfibuladatesbacktothefirsthalf,potentiallythefirstquarter,ofthe1stcentury.Itbearsaninscriptionthatcouldbe“iþih”or“iwih,”oreven“hiþi”or“hiwi,”dependingon the way you read it, but it the meaning is not apparent. Nevertheless,according to KlausDüwel theword hiwi is an etymon for heiwa-frauja inGothicwhichmeans“headofthehousehold”(seealsohifrya,“femaleheadof the household”). But “iþih” could also be another name for the godÓðinn.20

Does theMeldorf fibula bear a runic inscription?We have several goodreasonstobelieveso.Firstly,thereisthefactthattheGermanicfibulaseemsto exclude Latin in favor of runes. However, Bengt Odenstedt claimed in1983thatitisLatin(idin,thedativecaseforafemalenoun),21whichwouldbesurprisingsincethatinscriptionismostlikelyreadfromrighttoleft,unliketheLatinofthattimeperiod(whichisreadfromlefttoright,aswedotoday).Klaus Düwel, who remained cautious for a long time, has described it as“proto-runic,”22andsodoesHenrikWilliams.BernardMeesbelievesthat

theinscriptionmustatleastbeconsideredtobeproto-runicbecauseitiswrittenonaGermanicfibula,whichisanitemsimilartothefirstrunicartefacts,andbecauseitwritteninadecorativefashionjustlikeotherrunicinscriptionsfromlaterperiods.Wecan’tfindLatininscriptionsonsuchitemsorwithsuchdecorations(thesamegoesforGreekinscriptionsorinscriptionsfrom

northernItaly).23

If the Meldorf fibula proves to bear runic inscription, its discovery is abreakthrough.Itwouldmeanthatwenowknowofarunicinscription100or150yearspriortotheonethatwasconsideredtobetheoldest,and400yearsolder than theoldest inscription found in northernGermany.24There is alsotheshortinscription(twoletters)writtenonapotterysherdfoundinthe1990sinOsterrönfeld,nearRendsfordinSchleswigHolstein,25andwhichdatesbackto51–100.Thesetwofinds,bothfromGermanSchleswig“constituteaclearproofthatadegreeofliteracywasalreadypresentinnorthernGermanyinthefirstcenturyAD.”26Itisalsoaproofthat,unlikewhatwaspreviouslythought

notsolongago,runicwritingwasalreadybeingusedinthe1stcentury.27

Ofcourse,itstandstoreasonthattherunespredatetheoldestartefactsinwhichwefindthemengraved.Itiscommonpracticetodatetheappearanceofascripttypetoahundredyearsbeforeitsfirstknownmanifestation.So,inthecaseofrunes,a100or200year-long“genesis”periodforrunicwritingseemsplausiblepriortotheinscriptionsofOsterrönfeldandMeldorf.Therefore,therunescouldhavebeencreatedbeforetheturnofthemillennium.

T

6

InscriptionsonWood

HE VAST MAJORITY OF OLDER INSCRIPTIONS we have found are onspearheads, amulets, bracteates, fibulas, tools or stones. Very few ofthem(e.g. Illerup,Nydam,Kragehul,Neudingen-Baar)are inscribed in

wood. However, many runologists believe that runic inscriptions wereoriginallyinscribedinwood.Thatwouldexplaintheangularshapeofrunesandwhytheyareonlymadeofverticalordiagonalstrokes:horizontalstrokeswouldlikelyhitthewoodgrainorfibers,andcurvedshapeswouldsimplybetoohardtoengrave.ChristopheBordwritesthat

thematerialusedtowriterunictextsismostfrequentlymetalorstone,butwe’vegotreasonstobelieve that those kinds of material, especially stone, were dedicated to commemorativeoccasions,andwoodwasusedforotheroccasions.Sincewoodrotsaway,wemust relinquish

hopeofeverfindingoutthemajorityofwhatwaswritteninrunes.28

That theory makes sense, but it does not make a consensus. Some runicinscriptions inscribed in wooden items found in the swamps of Illerup,VimoseandNydam(from200–350)havecurvedshapes.Nonetheless,thoseexamples are very rare. Linguistics also indicate many etymological linksassociatingtheFuþarkwithwood.

Besidetheword“rune,”themostcommonwaytodesignateruniccharactersisstabaRinOldNordic,stafrinOldNorsemeaning“stick,”asfoundintheinscriptionofGummarp,fromthebeginningofthe7thcentury.TheGermanwordStabmeans“stick,wand,branch.”ItscombinationwithBuche“beech,”turneditintotheOldHighGermanwordbuohstaborbuochstap,intobokstafin Old Saxon, bocstæf in Anglo-Saxon meaning “beechstick,” then intobokstaf in Swedish, and finally Buchstabe in German meaning “letter,” orliterally“pieceofbeechwood.”Supposedly, runeswereoriginally inscribed

onwands, tablets, or pieces of beechwood, and that is the reason that themodernwordforlettersisBuchstaben.SinceJakobGrimm,mostGermaniststieboka/bokos,whichmeans“letter,writingcharacter”inGothic,to*bōksor*bōki(o)s, which means “beech” in common German, and its meaningsupposedly changed to “beechstick bearing runes,” and then to “book” (inGermanBuch, inEnglish “book”).That explicationhasbeenusedby somepeopletoclaimthattherewasaculturalconnectioninancienttimesbetweenwritingandbeechtrees.29However,thisclaimiscontested,notablybyEduardSievers,becauseinmostGermaniclanguagesthewords“beech”and“book”aregendereddifferently.

There also is the possibility that the triple alliteration, a characteristic ofantiquatedGermanpoetry,comesfromthethreeættir.ThatinternalrhymeiscalledStabreim inGerman,asubstantivethatcombinesreim,“rhyme,”withStab,“stick,wand.”

We should also note that using the verb “to engrave” is the usual way toexpresstheactof“writing,”whichcomesfrom*wreit-ainGerman,*writaninOldNorse,rita inOld Icelandic,written inOldSaxon,wrítan inAnglo-Saxon,rizzan inOldHighGerman,writs inGothic (writesharesacommonrootwithreissenandritzenwhichmean“toengrave”inGerman).Allofthesewords seem tocome froman Indo-European rootwhichmeans“makinganincisioninsomething,makinganotch insomething,engraving.”TheGreekwordgrapheinwhichmeans“towrite”alsooriginallymeant“engrave,trace”(seegrebjuinLatvian,zerebejiinRussian,etc.).

VenantiusFortunatuswholivedintheMerovingianera,wasthefirstwriterto unequivocally report on the use of runes byGermanic peoples after thecollapse of the Ostrogoth Kingdom of Italy (535–553). After having beenappointedtheBishopofPoitiersaroundtheendofthe6thcentury,hewritestohisfriendFlavius:“Maythebarbaricrunebepaintedonashwood!/Thepapyrus’ use can also be the polished plank’s” (Barbara fraxineis pingaturrhuna tabellis /Quodque papyrus agit, virgula plana valet).30That accountshowsthatatthattime,engravingrunesinwoodwasstillacustom.

Theoriginal linkbetweenrunesandwood(orwoodengraving)seemstobewellestablished,soit’snotastretchtothink — inspiteofeverythingwrittenagainstthathypothesis,andevenifanargumentumexsilentioisalwaysrisky — thatahugeamountoftheolderrunicinscriptionshavebeenlostpreciselybecausetheywereengravedinthisperishablematerial.Someauthorsarenotafraidtoshift thegenesisofrunicwritingfurtherbackintimeonlybecauseall of the first inscriptions were systematically engraved on wood.31 Thehypothesisthatsome“runicliterature”engravedonwoodexistedbutwaslosthas been defended by Ivar Lindquist32 and Elias Wessén.33 Lucien Mussetwritesthatsome“textstracedinperishablematerials,mostlywood;becausetheir preservation comes only from very exceptional archaeologicalcircumstances,we are unable to assess the real importanceof this groupofengravings.It isnotastretchto thinkthat theymadeupthemajorityof thetexts.”34 “What we know,”writes Raymond I. Page, “is that what we havenowisbutaverysmallfragmentofthewholeoriginalruniccollection.”35

RenéDeroleznotesthatiftherewereadozenruneengraverswhoengravedonaverageoneinscriptionamonth,whichseemstobeaminimumifwetakeintoaccounthowlargetheancientGermanicworldwas,thatwouldmeanthattherewouldhavebeenupwardsof40,000inscriptionsengravedoverthespanof threecenturies,whichgoes toshowhowmuchwearemissing,since theforty or fifty runic inscriptions that we have found from the first threecenturiesarebut1%ofthattotal.36

N

7

TheOriginIssue

O SINGLE RUNOLOGICAL ISSUE is more discussed than the origin ofrunic writing. If we concede that this system of writing is a derivedsystem, thenwhat script does it derive from?Where andwhen did it

becomeappropriated?Whywasthatwritingcreated?WhoisresponsibleandhowdidtherunesmaketheirwaytoScandinavia?François-XavierDillmanlaysout theproblemthusly:“Does runicwritingcomefroman imitationofNorthEtruscanscriptsthatwerestillaroundinthefirstcenturyADneartheAlps?WasitacopyofthesystemsinplaceinalotofLatincapitals?OrdiditcomefromtheingeniousmindofoneorseveralGermanswhobecamemoreor less inspired by theMediterranean alphabetical system,modified it, andadded some made-up signs to some existing alphabetical signs, or evenrepurposed a potential stock of symbolic strokes from prehistory?”37 Thosearethequestionsleftunanswered.

Raymond I. Page noticed that “for every runic inscription, there are asmany interpretations as runologists studying it.”38 Indeed,many inscriptionsare hard to decipher, and the results are seldom unanimously agreed upon(especiallysincefewrunologistscanstudyinscriptions“inperson”sincetheyare unable to examine them insitu). In thatmatter,KlausDüwel adds that“everythingisthinkable,alotofthingsareintherealmofpossibility,afewareplausible,nothingiscertain.”39Thesamegoesfortheirorigins.“Thereisnothingweknow for sure about the origins of the runes,”writesWolfgangKrause.40Insuchcircumstances,itisobviousthat“theonlywiseapproach…istostickasmuchaspossibletotheobservablefacts.”41However,whenthose“observable facts” arenot enough to answer thequestionswekeep coming

across,whenwehavetorelyonconjectures,itisnotonlywarrantedbutalsonecessary to form hypotheses to figure out which of them is the best atexplainingthatwhichwedonotknow.Inductivelogiccanbeveryusefulinthatmatterbyhelpinginsortingouttheplausibleandlikely.Nonetheless,wemust not give in to political pressure that sometimesobfuscates debates — like(butnotlimitedto)whathappenedin1920sand1930sGermany42 — aswell as completely wild suppositions that keep the minds of amateur“runologists”heated.43

TheideathattheFuþarkderivesfromanotherscript,whichcontradictstheautochthonous theory that was still held in 1929 by the Germanist GustavNeckel,44 relies on the proposition that runic writing appeared immediatelyunder an “alphabetical” formwhen every otherwriting seems to have firstgone through pictographic, ideographic or syllabographic stages. The greatresemblancebetweenrunesandlettersfromMediterraneanscriptswhicharemucholderthanrunicwriting(andalsoderivefromthePhoenicianalphabet)wasnotedsincethebeginningsofrunology.Sonaturallytherearethreemaintheories: they either explain runic writing by an appropriation of the Latinscript,theGreekscript,orofscriptsfromnorthernItaly(“NorthEtruscan”).

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8

TheLatinTheory

HETHEORYTHATRUNICWRITING isderivedfromLatinwasfirstheldbyLudwigF.A.Wimmerin1874,amanconsideredtobethefatherofmodernrunology.45Accordingtohim,runicwritingwascreatedbetween

theendofthe2ndcenturyandthebeginningofthe3rdcenturybyaGermanwholivednexttotheRomanlimesinsouthernGermanyandwasinspiredbythecityofRomeinitsImperialperiod.Theissuethenisthattheolderrunicinscriptionsof that time (theKowel spearhead, thePietroassabracelet, etc.)werefoundineasternEuropeandwrittenintheGothiclanguage.“Howcoulditbe thatrunesshowupso late inwesternEurope,whichissupposedtobetheirbirthplace?”asksMauriceCahen.46

HolgerPedersengoesover theLatin theory in1923,47buthe thinks that theCeltswereprobablyanintermediarybetweentheRomansandtheGermanicpeople, which is why he emphasizes the similarities between runic writingandOgham: theirpeculiarorders compared toMediterraneanalphabets, thegroupingsoftheirletters,thefactthatlettersbearacrophonicnames,thefactthatboth theFuþark andOghamhavea sign for theŋ letter.48He thereforethinks thatboth theGermanicand Irishpeoples created their alphabets in aCelticenvironmentinfluencedbyLatin.Thatborrowingissupposedtohavetaken place in the beginning of the 1st century in the Rhine region. Thattheory of an alphabet which served as a common model for Fuþark andOghamwasapprovedbyFernandMossé.Twentyyearslater,FritzAskebergbelievesthatbasedonnewrunicinscriptionsfromeastGermany,PolandandRussiait’sveryunlikelythatrunicwritingcamefromaterritoryoccupiedbytheRomansandthatitmusthavecomefromtheGothslivingneartheVistula

inthesecondcenturyandinspiredbytheLatinalphabet.49

ThankstoAskeberg’swork,ErikMoltkedevelopedin1951thetheorythatrunicwritingwascreatedbyDanishmerchants fromLatin.50Heargues thatrunicwritingcouldn’thavecome“fromanyEtruscanterritoryoranyterritoryunderEtruscaninfluence,”citinghowDenmark(especiallyScania)wasverylikelytobethebirthplaceofrunicwriting,andalsotheundeniablefact thatlasting relations existed between Rome and Scandinavia. The runes wouldsupposedlycomefromtheRomanuppercasewritingfromtheimperialperiodand would supposedly have been created at a time when trade with theRomans was increasing.51 They would supposedly be more or lesscontemporaryoftheexistenceofJesus,withamarginoferroroffiftyyearslater and 100 years before. Moltke’s theory, which suggests a Rhinelandintermediary, assumes that the invention of runic writing served purelyutilitarian purposes, but then why didn’t the Danish merchants simply useLatin?52Andwhydon’t theoldest runic inscriptionshaveany“commercial”orutilitariancharacteristics?

In spite of being violently criticized by Elmer H. Antonsen,53 the Latintheory remains the one currently approved by most runologists. BengtOdenstedt recently supported it and he too believes that the Goths createdrunicwriting,54asdoesElmarSeeboldwho,likePedersen,believesinaCelticintermediary,55andHenrikWilliamswhobelievesthattheruneswerederivedfrom uppercase Latin writing.56 Similarly, Gad Rausing57 and Arend QuakbelieveitwasratherderivedfromcursiveLatin,andlikeWilhelmHeizmannandMarieStoklund,thelatterbelievingthatthebirthplaceofrunicwritingisZeeland.58KlausDüwelalso thinks,withreserve, that itwasborrowedfromtheLatinlanguageattheverybeginningofthe1stcentury.HeisbackedbyFrançois-Xavier Dillman who believes that “the shape of most runic signswasclearlyinspiredbythecharactersofLatinwriting.”59

The Latin theory is obviously based on the reality of Roman presence andinfluence inwesternEurope.Thegeneral idea is that thenumerous culturalandcommercial connectionsbetween theRomansand theGermanicpeople

couldonlyleadthelattertodevelopsomevernacularwriting,andthatwouldalso explain the close similarity of some runes with Latin letters. Thesimilarities are quite obvious between Latin and the r, f, þ, i, t, v, l and blettersofrunicwriting.Therearealsoshape-andsound-basedsimilaritiesforfive more runes: a, c (or k), d, o and s, but for p, m and x the shapesimilaritiesdonotmatchthephoneticsimilarities.Lastly,sevenruneshavenoequivalentwhatsoeverintheLatinalphabet:g(g),n(n),j(j),ï(4),p(p),z/R(y),ŋ(5)andd(d).MoltkethinksthedifferencesbetweentheFuþarkandtheLatin alphabet are due to the borrowing being “indirect,” which does notmeanmuch.JohnS.Robertsonhasasomewhatcomplex theory inspiredbyJerzy Kurlowicz’s “the 4th law of analogical change” to explain thosedifferences.60ThepeoplebehindtheLatinborrowingtheoryexplainthe-ioor-ijoending of some names in runic inscriptions by an influence of the -iusLatinendings.

However, this theory has two issues: firstly, in most of its versions, thetheory does not give enough time for the runes to realistically migrate orspread to northern Europe, meaning that the timespan between the initialborrowingandtheappearanceofthefirstrunicinscriptionsinScandinaviaistoo short to be plausible. Secondly, classical Latin was never written fromrighttoleftnorinboustrophedon61atthattime,whereasitiscommonpracticeinrunicwriting,whichjeopardizesthecredibilityoftheborrowing.

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9

TheGreekTheory

SEARLYAS IN1899,theNorwegianSophusBuggetriedtoremedytheimperfections of theories by arguing that runic writing has a dualancestry:somerunescomefromLatinwhileothers — n,þ,o,e,g,w 

— comefromtheGreekalphabet.Likeotherrunologists,hethoughtthattheGoths were the first to use runic writing, and that they spread it to otherGermanic peoples.Moreover, he believed in anArmenian intermediary fortheGreeklanguage.Thispeculiartheorywasfurtheredin1904byOttovonFriesenwhothought thatsixteenrunescamefromtheGreekalphabet, threefromGreco-Latin cursive, and four from (F,U, R, h) the Latin alphabet.62

OttovonFriesenbelieveslikeBugge(withwhomhesharesconclusions)thattheFuþark was created in the Pontus region (Black Sea) and he gives thecredittoGothicmercenariesthatservedinRomanlegions.Theborrowingissupposedtohavetakenplacein thefirsthalfof the2ndcentury.The theorywhich acquired the support of the Swedish archaeologist Bernhard Salin63

(andwhoseexplanationofthesimilaritiesbetweentheoruneandomegacanbe counted as an asset) became popular after it was published in the 1919editionoftheEncyclopaediaBritannica.

ButtheGreektheoryalsofacesobstaclesformulatedasearlyas1923bytheDane Holger Pedersen, which were summed up by Lucien Musset in thewords:

Firstly,howcanwebelieve thatpeoplesoughtacursiveandhand-writtenwriting tomakeanepigraphic writing when Latin or Greek provided that so well with their upper-case letters?Moreover,there’snothingtoaccountforthesupposedinfluenceGreekcivilizationhadonGothsbeforetheconversionoftheGothsinMoesiatoChristianisminthe4 thcentury[…]Lastly,thetimespanrelatedtothespreadingofrunesnowseemmuchtooshort:theGothsdidn’tmakeitto

theshoresoftheBlackSeauntil238,atbestuntilthebeginningthe3rdcentury.64

It’sindeednotquiteplausiblethatthecreatorsofrunicwritingwereinspiredby Greek cursive writing rather than capital letters that were used in thatperiod as evidenced by remaining monuments.65Besides, Greek from thatperiodalsowasn’twrittenfromrighttoleftnorinboustrophedon.Lastly,theGreek alphabet doesn’t have a letter thatmatches þ (th)which is found inrunicwriting.ThatexplainswhyOttovonFriesenhadtoalsoturntoLatinforhistheory.

ButtheissueismainlywiththeGothsreference.TheGothssettledalongatraderoutefromtheBalticSeatotheBlackSeainthe2ndcentury,followingtheflowof theVistulaandtheDnieper.In thebeginningof the3rdcentury,they created a Germanic cultural center on the northern and northwesternshoresof theBlackSea. InOttovonFriesen’s time,people thought that theoldest runic inscriptions were Gothic. The Kowel spearhead has tilarīdinscribed on it, and that seems to be written in Gothic. The great goldennecklacefoundin1837inPietroassa,Romania,hasgutaniowihailaginscribedonit,andgutanicouldbetheGoths’ethnicname(theywerecalledGutonesin Latin). The spearhead of Dahmsdorf that was found in a tomb inBrandeburgcouldalsobeGothicasithasranjainscribedinit.ButtheGothsonlycameincontactwiththeRomansin214,andwenowknowthatthefirstrunic inscriptionswerewrittenwellbefore theirsettlement in theBlackSearegion.Therefore,itisnotpossibletoconsiderthemastheinventorsofrunesforchronologicalreasons.SomepeopleevencontesttheclaimthattheGothsknewaboutrunicwriting.66

TheGreek theory has been recently perpetuated byMartinGiertz in hisresponse to Gad Rausing,67 and by Aage Kabell, Elmer H. Antonsen andRichard L. Morris, but their formulations are very different and we willreviewthemlateroninthisbook.

10

D

TheNorthItalicTheory

ATEDTOthe5thcenturyBC,thealphabetsofnorthernItaly(whichusedto be called “north-Etruscan”) were used by the Cisalpine Gauls, theVeneti people, the Illyrians, the Celto-Ligures, the Rhaetians and the

Lepontii.ThealphabetsprevailedagainstproperEtruscanwritingforatime,whichvanishedinthemiddleofthe1stcenturyBC.Weknowoffourmajortypes:TheLuganotype(regionoftheLakeMaggioreandtheLakeLugano)theBolzano/Bozen(SouthTyrol)type,theSondrio(upperAddaregion)type,thosethreetypesformingthe“sub-alpinegroup,”andthenthereistheVenetialphabetsgroupand its“Illyrian”dialectwhichareused from the regionofEsteandPaduatotheborderofCarinthia.AllthosescriptsseemtobederivedfromawesternGreekalphabetthatissomewhatclosetotheonewhichwasthesourceoftheEtruscanalphabetinTuscany.TheystartedtolosegroundtoLatin as early as the 2nd century BC. The last one to disappear were theVenetitypes,andtheyvanishedinthebeginningofthe1stcentury.

Asearlyas1856, theGermanKarlWeinholdalluded to thepossibilityofaFuþarkderivation fromanorth-Etruscanalphabet.68 In1873,SophusBoggewondered if the Germanic people had known and adopted that alphabetthrough the intermediary of a Celtic tribe from the Alps. But it is thepublicationofnorthItalicmaterialattheendofthe19thcentury69that reallyblewwind into the sails of the third theory (called the “Etruscan,” “north-Etruscan” or “north Italic” theory) and made it able to compete with theGreek and Latin theories. That new theory was laid out in 1928 by theNorwegianCarlJ.S.Marstrander,and thenexpandedthefollowingyearbytheFinnMagnusHammarström.

After having discarded the Latin theory because the phonemes of fourrunesdonotexistinLatin,andafterhavingputtheGreektheorytooneside

becauseitdidnotappealtohim,CarlJ.S.MarstranderbroughtupthetheorythatrunicwritingwasderivedfromtheRhaetianalphabetsofMagre,Sondrioand Bolzano, and the Lepontii alphabet of Lugano. He attributes it to theMarcomanniofBohemia andMoravia,who supposedly spread the runes totheGothsandtheGermanicpeoplesofnorthernEuropeinthesecondhalfofthe 1st century.70 The Marcomanni (“the walkers, or frontiersmen”) whosemostfamouskingisMaroboduus,areSuebiwhofirstsettledinThuringiaandSaxony. In Caesar’s time, they are to be found near the Helvetians on theupperstreamoftheRhine.Theythensettledinthealpineregionstofoundastable state, an area with Etruscans and Ligures, and then Illyrians andVenetis,allofwhomhadculturesthatwereabsorbedbyCelticpopulationsinthe 4th century BC. Marstrander used this to argue, like Holger Pedersenbeforehim,thatthebeginningsofrunicwritinghadadirectimpactonOghamwriting.

To back up his views, Marstrander used a runic inscription on a bonefragmentfoundin1924inMariaSaalinCarinthiathatwasthoughttodatetothe roughly the year 100, which made it the oldest known inscription.Unfortunately, it turnedout tobea fake.Healsouses theNegauBhelmet,which seems more susceptible to prove his theory. That helmet, that wasfound in Zenjak Negova (Negau), comes from a Celtic sanctuary on theborderofNoricumandPannonia.Itisusuallydatedto1stor2ndcentury,butitmay be older, possibly belonging to an auxiliary recruited by theRomanarmytofighttheIllyrianuprisingintheyears6–9.Itbearsonitsexternalsidea fourteen-character-long inscription innorthEtruscanwritten from right toleft: hariXastiteiva, which seems to be a consecration “to the godHarigasti(z).”HarigastorHerigastcouldbeanotherwaytocallÓðinnasGodofwar,whereasTeiwaz(*tiwaz)isthedativecaseofTýr’sname(laterZiu).Sowehave an archaicGermanic inscription, admitted as such in1925,butwhichwasdrawnwithEtruscanletters.Isitenoughtomakeit the“missinglink” between the sub-alpine alphabets and the first Germanic runes?MarstranderpurportedittobetheproofthatanancientGermanicpersonwasfamiliarenoughwith“northEtruscan”writingtohaveusedittotranscribehis

ownlanguage.RobertNedomaandThomasL.Markeythenpickedupwhereheleftoff.71

Magnus Hammarström picked up in 1929 the thesis put forward byMarstranderbut,byrelyingonthefact thatnorthItalicalphabetskeptsomearchaic traitsfromtheoldGreekalphabet(likewritingfromright to left,ortheabsenceofthedoubleconsonant,whichisalsothecaseforrunicwriting),heputthecreationoftheFuþarkbacktobetween150BCandthebeginningof the 1st century.72According to him, the origin of runic writing is to befound in a sub-alpine alphabet already heavily influenced by Latin, whichsupposedlyeventuallyspreadtonorthernEuropethroughtheMarcomanniorCelticpopulationsfromtheAlps.

ThediscoveryofnewNorth-Etruscaninscriptions,likethevaseofCastaneda(Grisonscanton,Switzerland)thatdatesbacktothe5thcenturyBCandbearsan inscription in the Sondrio alphabet, as well as several inscriptions inNordicwriting foundon slopes of theMagdalenensberg, inCarinthia, gavemore backing to the idea of an affiliation between runic writing and northItalicalphabets.

That allowed the north Italic theory to find success. In the 1930s and1940s,HelmutArntzcarries itonbut insteadof involving theMarcomanni,he involved the Cimbri who supposedly spread runic writing to centralGermanyaftertheirdefeatatthebattleofVercellæin101BC.Thatis,ifthecreatorswerenotinactuallysomeGermanictribesinthenorthwesternAlpsthat settled in northern Italy in the 4th century BC (the Alpengermanen asPytheasandLivycalledthem),andofwhomweknowlittleexceptthattheirmembersservedintheCelticandthenRomanmilitariesasmercenaries.73

In1939,FranzAltheimandElisabethTrautmannpickedupthistheorybutaltered it.74 They too thought that the Cimbri spread the runes to centralGermany and then to their original territory, but they stressed that theborrowingcouldalsohavetakenplaceinnorthernNoricumorintheBrennerregionwhentheCimbriretreatedtosouthGermanyafterbeingbeateninthebattleofNorejain113BC,oralsoinnorthItaly, intheTranspadaneregion

where theywere located in102–101BC.AltheimandTrautmannhadmoreconfidenceinthesecondhypothesis,whichenabledthemtosupposethattheCimbrialsoborrowedfromtheRupestrianengravingsof theValCamonica.So, runicwritingwouldsupposedlyoriginate fromafusionofanorthItalicalphabetandsomemagical/religioussymbolsandpictogramsborrowedfromthoserupestrianengravings.

AfterWWII,thenorthItalytheorywaspickedupbyKarlSchneider,OttoHaas75 and Ralph W. V. Elliot.76 Lucien Musset was siding with it andunderlinedthat

fromatypologicalstandpoint,thegeneralresemblancebetweenNorthEtruscanalphabetandtheFuþarkisstriking.TherearesignsintheLuganoandRhaetianalphabets,especiallytheSondrioandBolzanoones,whoseanalogywithrunesaretoogreattobefortuitous.

However,headdedthat thisdoesnotmake theNorthEtruscanhypothesisa“proventruth,”butthatitwasthe“mostsatisfyingoneinexistencetoexplainthe facts currently known.”77 It was also backed by Thomas L. Markey78 ,BernardMees79orHelmutRix,80andthelatterusedtheinscriptionsoftheValCamonicatojustifyhisposition.ThenorthItalytheoryhasalsoreceivedtheback of several Italian researchers like Vittore Pisani or Aldo LuigiProsdocimi.81

The north Italy theory is convincing mainly because it accounts for the“archaic” character of the Fuþark much better than the Greek and Latintheoriesdo.Indeed,thenorthEtruscanwritingskeptsomearchaictraits(forinstance that it is written from right to left or in boustrophedon) at a timewhen they were completely removed from the Greek and Latin alphabets.Thattheoryalsofitsnicelywithwhatwecurrentlyknowaboutrunicwriting,meaning that it was created sooner than we thought. Since north Italiclanguageshavebeen replacedbyLatinat the latest in themiddleof the1st

centuryBC,itmeansthatiftheyareresponsibleforthebirthofrunicwriting,then runic writing must have been appeared before that time. That is whyRalphW.V.Elliotpushedthecreationofrunicwritingbackto250–150BC.82

However, only four runes are identical or extremely close to north Italicletters:u,a,sandl.Borrowingcouldbeplausibleforthek,z/R,tandorunes,but the f, r, b, e and m runes are closer to Latin. Moreover, some lettersremainwithoutequivalents:þ(q),g(g),n(n),j(j),ï(4),p(p),ŋ(5)andd(d).“Therearestillshapeswhosegenesisishardtoexplain,”writesAlainMarez,“becausetheymatchneitherLatinnornorthItalicalphabets.”83Therearealsoa lack of phonetic similarities between runes and north Italic letters, evenwhentheirshapesarequitesimilar,andthismustbetakenintoaccount.Forinstance, therunedandtheitalic lettershavemoreor less thesameshape,butnotthesamephoneticvalue.Thesamegoeswiththeruniclandtheitalicp,etc.Lastly,thelettersofnorthItalicalphabetsdon’thavenames:justlikeLatinletters,theywereonlycalledbythesoundtheirsound.

Another issue is the lack of a uniformmodel for the runes. In order toexplainthattheFuþarkwasderivedfromnorthItalicwritings,itisnecessaryto claim that the creators of runic writing did not borrow from a singlealphabet, but from three or four different alphabets, which is not veryplausible, especially since some “inventions” from unknown sources werealso supposedly added. Wolfgang Krause himself acknowledges that “aprecise model for the runes among north Etruscan alphabets has yet to bediscovered.”84Furthermore, the theory isweakenedby thefact thatnorunicinscriptionpriortothe5thcenturyhasbeenfoundinsouthernGermany.

As we have seen earlier in this section, the supporters of the north Italictheory also fail to agree on which Germanic populations committed theborrowing. Marstrander and then Wolfgang Krause believed it was theMarcomanni, Helmut Arntz, Franz Altheim and Catherine Trautmannbelieved it was the Cimbri. Some other authors believed it was some“Germans fromtheAlps” (but that ideahasbeendiscredited)or that itwassomeGermanicsoldiersthatservedintheRomanarmy,butthesearemerelysuppositions.Infact,wecouldarguethattheCimbriweretoobusytoinventawritingaftertheirdefeatin101BC.Besides,whywouldtheynothavepickeduptheGreekorLatinalphabetsanyway?

11

M

TheContributionofLinguistics

OST RUNOLOGISTS ARE RELUCTANT TO ADMIT that runic writingcould have been created beforeChrist.That is because runology hasbeenalmostexclusivelybasedonarchaeologyfora longtime.Elmer

H.Antonsendoesn’thesitate towrite that“theconviction that runicwritingcameintobeingrelativelylateisn’tgroundedinscience.”85Linguistsaremorepronetobelievethatrunicwritingappearedearlierbecausetheymainlyrelyon the epigraphic and linguistic analyses of the oldest inscriptions. LucienMussetcouldstillwritein1965that“concertedeffortstostudythephoneticandgrammaticalsourcesofrunesareoutoftheordinary.”86Itisnotthecasetoday.

ThelinguiststhatexamineinscriptionsintheOldFuþarkmainlyfocusonits“archaic”characteristics — whichwehavealreadydescribed — likethefactthatrunesarewrittenfromright to leftor inboustrophedon,whichisn’t thecase for classicalGreekorLatin from the imperial period.Antonsenwritesthat“thosearchaictraitswhicharetypicaloftheoldestinscriptionscan’tbeacoincidence and those inscriptions can’t have been traced by ‘primitiveminds.’” Those traits must have been borrowed from the symbols of thealphabet when the borrowing from the writing system took place, whichmeansthattherunicalphabetcouldnothavebeeninspiredbytheRomansinthe Rhine region since they wrote exclusively from left to right. Runicwriting’sappearancemusthavebeenprior to theoldest inscriptions thatweknowandofbyalargemargin,anditmusthavecomeintobeingmuchbeforetheRomanoccupationoftheRhine,andotheraspectsofthewritingsystemgointhesamedirection.”87

For instance, the fact that early runicwriting had two different letters toexpressthe/i/sound:iandī(iand4,*eisazand*iwaz)showsthattheFuþark

couldnothavebeeninventedlaterthanthe2ndcentury,atimewhenthe/ei/diphthong of the common German was still different from the original /i/diphthong, that is to say when non-accented diphthongs still existed asdiphthongs. That is why we can find some -ai (instead of -ei) archaicdiphthong endings in non-accented syllables in several ancient runicinscriptions (anahahai on the stone of Möjebro, talgidai on the fibula ofNøvling).88

RichardL.Morris,whoalso rejects thenorth Italic hypothesis for phoneticreasons, compared the runic tradition with the Mediterranean epigraphictraditions.

ThesimilaritiesbetweentherunicwritingsystemandtheGreekorarchaicLatinsystemshaveupuntilnowbeenignoredorsimplyassertedtobetheresultofimperfectattemptsbyprimitiveGermanic population to master the epigraphy of the highly refined classical traditions ofimperial Rome and Hellenistic Greece. But when the runic tradition and the Mediterraneantraditions at their first stages of development are put side by side, the results are extremelydifferent[…]thequestion‘wheredotherunescomefrom?’isyettobeansweredbecausethedefining traits of the archaic Greek and Latin alphabets were not sufficiently taken into

consideration.89

Morris believes that it is necessary to compare the runes not onlywith theclassical Greek alphabet, but also with the prior archaic Greek alphabetsbecausetheruneslookmorelikethelettersofthelatter.Beyondthefactthatbothsystemsallowwritingfromrighttoleftandinboustrophedon,theyhavemore in common: theyboth ignoredouble consonants, they tend to removethenasalizedconsonantsbeforeotherconsonants(forexampleambeforeab,or a n before a d or before a g), etc.Bydrawing comparisons between theFuþarkandprimitiveGreekalphabetsthatweregonebythe4thcenturyBC,Morrisobviouslyalludestoaborrowingthathappenedbeforetothattime.Heconcludes that the study of runic and Mediterranean epigraphies“demonstratesthattheresemblanceofrunictraditionwithGreekandarchaicLatinmakesitimpossiblefortherunestohavebeenborrowedfromtheLatintradition around the birth of Christ — including the Latin tradition inGauland Germania — or from Greek from that same period. Around the timeChrist was born, those alphabets had already been so stylized that if a

borrowinghappenedthatlate,thentheruneswouldhavelookedmuchmoreliketheGreekorLatinalphabetsofthattime.Andiftheruneswereborrowedthen, then the first people touse the runes shouldhavewritten from left torightbecauseitwastheonlyregularwaytodoit.”90

Elmer H. Antonsen, whose approach (the structuralist type) is centeredaroundthephonologicalsystem,sideswiththeopinionofhisstudentRichardL.Morris according to whom runic writing was necessarily created beforeChrist,evenifwehavenomaterialevidenceforit.Antonsenwrites:“Runicwritingmusthavebeenconsiderablyolderthanthefirstinscriptionsweknowabout.”91Moreover, he’s virulently opposed to Erik Moltke’s Latin theorywhich,according tohim,hasabsolutelynobasis.Healsoseesno reason tobelieve that runic writing appeared near Roman limes or that Celticpopulationswere an intermediary in theirpropagation. It couldhave just aswellbeenspreadbysea,heobserves,sincetradebetweenRomeandNorthernEuropewasdonebylandorbysea.

Anotherdiscussionrelatedtothisdebateisthedialectalstatusofthelanguagewritten down as inscriptions in Old Fuþark. The language of the oldestinscriptions is commonly believed to be urnordisch, altnordisch orspäturnordisch, meaning the state of the language prior to linguisticinnovationsthattookplacearound500,astatethatstillinvolvesvocalisminthe endings ofwords.OttarGrønvik,WolfgangKrause or ErikMoltke areamong the supporters of this “Proto-Nordic” theory, whereas Enver A.Makaevconfineshimselftotalkofa“runicKoine,”92andRobertNedomaof“old-runic.” However, it makes sense to believe that the older the firstinscriptionsare,themorethelanguagetheyrepresentisclosetothecommonGermaniclanguage.ElmerH.Antonsenisoneofthosewhothinkthatthoseinscriptionscorrespondtoalanguagecloserto“Proto-Germanic”than“Proto-Nordic,” because the OldFuþark demonstrates a phonological system thatcan only be found in theUrgermanisch period.93That opinion, which wasalready held by Hans Kuhn and then Gustav Indrebø, is shared by PaoloRamat. Hans Frede Nielsen believes that “old runic” resembles the

northwestern Germanic language or even late the common Germaniclanguage, but he thinks that most inscriptions in the OldFuþark denote alanguage already somewhat close to Old Norse.94 Lastly, we still have tofigure out whether the oldest runic inscriptions were written in the samelanguageorinthesamedialectalvariant.

“Westilldon’texactlyknowwhence[runicwriting]came,”writesElmerH.Antonsen,

butthepiecesofevidencewehavegotindicateanarchaicMediterraneanwritingwithGreekorLatin origins. The fact that Latin writing was itself inherited from Greek makes it virtuallyimpossible to ascertain which one was more directly responsible for the appearance of theFuþark[…]Wearen’tcurrentlycapable(andweprobablyneverwillbe)toidentifyaspecificlocal Mediterranean alphabet that produced the runes. The only thing we know is that the

FuþarkisderivedfromthegreatarchaicGreektraditionofwritingliketheLatinalphabet.95

AageKabell,96whobelievesthattheoriginsoftherunesaretobefoundinanarchaicGreekalphabet,suggestedinthosecircumstancestoreexamineIsaacTaylor’soldtheory,whichdarestopurportthattherunicalphabetcomesfroma Thracian alphabet from the 6th century BC.97 Some of that theory waspreviouslypickedupbyGeorgeHempl.98OfcourseKlausDüwelobjects tothat “hyper archaic” theory that it’s surprising that not a single inscriptionfrom that 500-year-long period (between the 6th and 1st century BC) wasfound.99Isthatadecisiveargument?Onceagain,runologistsfacethequestionofthepreservationofthefirstinscriptions.

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ProvisionalAppraisal

HEREAREMANY THEORIESonwhen runicwritingwascreatedandonwhocreated it.Mostof themcontradicteachotherorare incompatiblewitheachother.Thereisnoconsensus.Whydidn’ttheGermanicpeople

use the Greek, Latin (or Etruscan) alphabet instead of creating their ownwriting fromGreek,LatinorEtruscan?100Andespecially,whydid they feelthe need to completely disrupt the writing system they borrowed fromMediterraneanpeople?Whytakeonlyapartoftheiralphabetandaddsignsfromanunknownsourcetoit?Whydidtheycompletelychangetheorderoftheletterstheyborrowed?Whydidtheygroupthemintothreedistinctgroups(theættir)?Whydidtheygiveanametoeveryletterinaccordancewiththeprincipleofacronyms?

The Phoenician, Greek, Latin, Etruscan or north Italic alphabets are allcomprised of a sequence of letters, and all those sequences are virtuallyalwaysinthesameorder,besideafewvariations.Itnevercrossesthemindofthepeoplewhoinheritananterioralphabettochangetheinnerworkingsofitsorder.Moreover,all thosealphabetsarecomposedofacontinuoussequenceof letters, without any sort of grouping like the œttir, so why didn’t theFuþarkfollowthatpattern.ItbearsrepeatingthatnoneofthetheoriesexplainthepeculiarorderoftheFuþarkorthedivisionofthelettersintothreeættir.

Some runes are identicalwithLatin,Greekornorth Italic letterswhen itcomes to theirshapeandphoneticvalues.Someother runesaremuchmorerandom, or even dubious. Anyways, there are always some runes with noequivalent(likej,pord).Wehavetobelievethattheycamefromsomewhereelse,butwhere?101Whatevertheanswer,theFuþarkcannotbeexplainedasawholebyaderivationoraborrowingfromasingleanteriorwritingsystem.Inany case, runologists can only note reorganizations, additions, removals or

modificationsthattheycannotaccountfor.

If runic writing came from a Mediterranean alphabet, then it would bereasonable to assume that the oldest runic inscriptions would be found insouthern Europe. Yet, it is completely the opposite: most of them are innorthernGermanyandintheScandinavianpeninsula,especiallyDenmark.102

Inotherwords,themoreonegoessouth,thelessinscriptionsaretobefound,andthemoreonegoesnorth,themoreinscriptionsthereare.103Butthisdoesnotmean that the system is native to that region.Runicwriting could verywellhavebeen invented inameridionalregionand thenhave takenhold inDenmark and the neighboring territories after it spread there.Likewise, theobjects bearing runic inscriptions that were found in Denmark could havebeen engraved somewhere else (especially since inscriptions do notnecessarilyhavetobefromthesamehistoricalperiodastheobjectstheyareengravedon).Nonetheless, it is surprising thatawriting that is supposed tohavebeencreatedbycomingintocontactwithMediterraneanpopulationsleftsofewtracesintheareaswherethatcontactissupposedtohavetakenplace.SinceDenmarkis1100kilometersawayfromtheMediterraneanasthecrowflies,we have to figure outwho brought runicwriting north, aswell as inwhatformandunderwhatconditions.It isgenerallyassumedthat therunesspread north by land, by following the Rhine and the Neckar valley, nearcurrent Württemberg, or by an Italy-Bohemia/Moravia-Denmark route.Mussetnotesthat“thankstoarchaeology,weknowthatit’squitepossiblethatalphabeticaltextsspreadNorth.”104EvenmoresosincenorthernEuropeandsouthernEuropehavebeenincontactmuchbeforeChrist,ifonlybecauseofthe routes formed since the Bronze Age to trade amber.105But then again,specialistsstilldisagree.Noneof thehypothesesraisedsofarareconfirmedbysubstantialevidence.

Whether runic writing was invented by a single person or a group (of“merchants,”of“priests,”of“warriors”etc.)remainscontroversialaswell.AborrowingfromaMediterraneanalphabetobviouslyassumesthatatleastoneGermanic language speaker could also speak and read the Mediterranean

language that the alphabet transcribed. That means that that person was atsomepointinphysicalcontactwiththepeoplethatspokethelanguage.Manypeoplesarebelievedtohavebeentheoneswhospreadit:theGothsfromthebanksoftheVistula(Akeber)orfromtheBlackSea(vonFriesen),theCimbriandtheTeutonsfromtheTranspadaneregion(Baseche,Altheim-Trautmann),theMarconnifromBohemiaandtheQuadi(Marstrander,Krause),theHeruli(Höfler), or even some Celtic intermediaries. Those claims remain justhypotheses.

Allthetheoriesthatsuggestaborrowinglaterthanthe2ndcentury(liketheone that relies on Goths from the Black Sea) have to be dropped forchronologicalreasons,sincewenowknowofinscriptionspriortothatperiod.ItisobviousthatrunicwritingcannothavebeencreatedinsouthernEuropeatatimewhenitwasalreadybeingusedinnorthernGermanyorScandinavia.Ifrunicwritingwasalreadyusedinthe1stcenturyAD,thenit’sunlikelythatitwasderivedfromHellenisticGreekorLatin.Conversely,itwouldbemorelikely that it came from the North Italic alphabets (or the archaic Greekalphabets).

Itisalsoquitedaringtoexplainthecreationofanalphabetfromnotone,but several sources (other alphabets). Whereas Ludwig F. A. Wimmersuggested to tie the runes only to the Latin alphabet, Bugge, von Friesen,MarstranderandHammarströmsuggestedtyingittoseveralwritingsystems:to create the Fuþark, some letters were supposedly borrowed from analphabet,and thensomeother letterswereborrowedfromanotheralphabet,and somemore from a third alphabet. Psychologically speaking, the theorythat theFuþark was created by his inventor by picking some letters fromdifferent alphabets and mixing them with letters of his own creation istenuous.Musset reckons that “the idea of drawing inspiration from severalwriting systems is not absurd,” but he admits that this idea “has been aninsurmountableobstacleformanyrunologists.”106

Moreover, not only the letters’ shapes but also their phonological valuesmustbe taken into account.Toooftenwe forget that “in analphabetof the

geometrickind,thenumberofstrokeandcurvecombinationsisquitelimited,so letters cannot be seriously considered to have been borrowed or to berelatedunlesstheyhaveenoughincommonnotonlywhenitcomestotheirsigns,butalsowhenitcomestothesoundstheyexpress.”107

As early as 1874, Ludwig F.A.Wimmer laid down the principle that ifboththeshapeandthephoneticvalueofarunematchesthatofaletterfromMediterraneanalphabets,wecanconclude that the rune isderived from theletter.Butthereisanissuewiththatprinciplewhenitisappliedtothewholealphabet, because the likeness of shapes is not always linked with thephonologicalequivalence.Forinstance,theruneWresemblestheLatinPortheGreekrho,butitdenotesthesound/w/,butit’stherunepwhichdenotesthesound/p/.Whydoestheruneoexpressthesound/o/,whereastherune5whichisclosetotheLatinOexpressesthesound/ng/?Whyisitthattherunej expresses the sound /j/ when the rune y, which is close to the Latin Y,expressesthesound/z/?Ifwegobythederivationorborrowingtheory, thediscrepanciesbetweenletters,phonemesandsoundsarehardtoexplain.

Ifweassumethatthefirstrunicinscriptionshaveanarchaiccharacterthatalludes to the primitive stages of classical Mediterranean alphabets, thatprimitivecharacterevidentlyremovesthepossibilityofaderivationthattookplaceintheclassicalperiod.Thus,runicwritingmustbemorerelatedtothenorth Italic alphabets than theGreek andLatin alphabets.However,we arecertain that runic writing is even more related to archaic Greek alphabets,whicharetheforebearsoftheItalicalphabets.

DavidN.Parsonsbelieves that there is actually “very little evidence thatthe runes were developed incrementally from an anterior alphabet,” but“different characteristics of that writing give us reason to believe that theinscriptions that survivedwere derived from awell established system thatwasespeciallywellsuitedtotherequirementsoftheGermaniclanguage.”108

“Wesimplydon’tknowwithoutadoubtwheretherunescomefrom,”writesRichardL.Morris,whoaddsthat“estimatingthat therunescannotbeolderthanthebirthofChrist,notonlymakesonebasehistheoryonelementsthat

aren’t backed by enough evidence, but it also leads one towards fallaciousinterpretations of the inscriptions themselves.”109 Elmer H. Antonsen goesfurther:“Withoutdelving into thedetailsofall the theorieson theoriginof[therunes],wecanknowonethingforsure:noneofthemfulfilladequatelyenoughtherequirementssetbytheresearcherstobethefinalsolutiontothatquestion. In other words, runologists have yet to identify with meaningfulcertaintyaspecificMediterraneanalphabetasthesourceoftheFuþark.”110

The main hypotheses on the origin of runic writing have something incommon: theyallarebasedonlyonchronologicalarguments.Since there isnoproof that runicwritingwaspresentbefore thebirthofChrist, then it isarguedthatitcanonlycomefromawritingthatwaspresentbeforethebirthof Christ. But a derivation or a borrowing is not the only way to explainrelatedness. Relatedness can come from a common heritage that sprangparallel evolutions, like it often occurs in linguistic evolutions. In thisperspective, runic signswouldbederived froma singleEuropean symbolicsystem that was already in use in protohistory, and the Mediterraneanalphabetswould also be derived from that system (maybeOghamaswell).That’s a bold hypothesis, but it deserves to be investigated further. That iswhatwearegoingtodonow.

THEGREATRUNESTONEOFJELLING.Itwaserectedin983bythesonandsuccessorofthekingGormIII,HaraldBluetooth,inmemoryofhisparentsandtocelebratehisconquestofNorwayandDenmark.DenmarkofferedareplicatothecityofRouenin1911tocommemoratetheone

thousandthanniversaryoftheTreatyofSaint-Clair-sur-Epte.

ANILLUSTRATEDSTONEfromtheislandofGotland(8thcentury).ItrepresentsthewelcomeofwarriorsintheValhöll(Valhalla).Inthetoprightcorner:Oðhinn — Wodanridinghiseight-legged

horse,Sleipnir.

THERUNESTONEOFTUNE(Norway),datesbacktoaround450.Itwasdiscoveredin1867ontheshoreoftheOslogulf.

SLABFROMTHEBLANCHARDSHELTER(Dordogne)anddatingtotheAurignacian(–35000years).AccordingtoAlexanderMarshack,thesixty-ninemarksintheshapeofcirclesorcrescents

correspondtodifferentphasesofthemoon.

THERUNICINSCRIPTIONofNordhuglen.

THEBRACTEATEOFFYN.Itrepresentsabirdofprey,adivinefigureandagallopinghorse.

THEYTTERGÄRDERUNESTONE’SINSCRIPTION.Itwasmostlikelyengravedinthesecondquarterofthe11thcentury.Itisreadfromrighttoleft(startingfromthesnake’shead),andthenfromlefttoright.ItcommemoratesaSwedishvikingnamedUlf.

THEFAMOUSRAMSUNGBERGRUNESTONE.Itslengthis4.8meters.ItdepictsthelegendofSigurd.

KNIFEHANDLEmadeofbonebearingtherunicinscription“latamhari.”

Apagefromthe“Codexrunicus.”

THESMALLDANISHVILLAGENAMEDJELLING,nearthecityofBejly,inJutland.Therearetwoburialmoundsandtwomonolithicrunestonesthathavedifferentsizesthere.Thisisthebiggerone.ThesecondonewaserectedbythekingGormtheOld,deadin958,inmemoryofhis

wifeThyra.

BRACTEATEFOUNDIN1774inVadstena(Östergötland)listingtherunesoftheFuþark.

PARTII

13

A

AttemptsatExplanation

SWEHAVEALREADYPOINTEDOUT:thefirstrunicinscriptionspresentasystemthatisalreadyperfectlystabilized.Allrunologistsagreeonthat.MauriceCahenwrites that “We agree to accept that the order and the

divisionoftherunicalphabetweresetaroundthetimeitwascreated:givenhow all the other Germanic alphabets are, it must date back to ancienttimes.”111 Lucien Musset writes that One of the most remarkablecharacteristicsoftheFuþarkisitsrelativeflexity.”112DavidN.ParsonswritesabouttheFuþarkthatit“goesbacktotheearliestdaysofthescripti.”“Sincethe very first inscriptions,”writesWolfgangKrause, “runicwriting appearseverywhere under a definitively set form.”113 “One thing is unquestionable:sincethefirstmonuments,it[theFuþark]appearsunderitsfinalformandinitsimmutableorderthatisalsopresentinhalfadozeninscriptionsfromthe4thtothe6thcenturies,”writesAlainMarez.114Theoldestinscriptionsdonotdisplayasystemthatisbeingformed.Itisalreadycompleteatthebeginning.

ThesamegoesforthepeculiarorderoftheFuþarkandforthedivisionofthelettersintothreeeight-lettergroups.“Theorderoftherunesanditstripartitedistributionwithinthesequenceseemtobeancient,thatmaydatebacktothecreation of system,”115writes AlainMarez. The reason behind the divisioninto three ættir remains unknown. But we should keep in mind that theIcelandicwordættderivesfromthenameofthenumber“eight”accordingtoMagnus Olsen, which makes some sense since it refers to an sequence ofeightsigns.116

Many studies were conducted on the names of the runes, the mostmonumentalonewasKarlSchneider’s.117TwotheoriesarosetotrytoexplaintheorderoftheFuþark’srunesfromtheirnames.Onebytryingtoconnectitwith somekind ofmnemonic poem,which is not very credible (everybody

can memorize the order of the letters of a twenty-four sign alphabet), theotherbynoticingthatmostrunescanbesortedinantitheticalpairs,whichismore interesting: “cattle” (*fehu) and “aurochs” (*ūruz), “giant” (*Þurisaz)and “Asa” (ferula) (*ansuz), etc. That idea that the system brings togetherruneswithoppositeorcomplementarymeaningsincoupleswasfirstbroughtupbyErikBrate,118andthenitwaspickedupindifferentwaysbyFriedrichvonderLeyen,ElmarSeebold119andBernardMees.KarlSchneiderbelievesthatthenamesoftherunesweredividedintofourmaingroups,andthattheconceptstheyexpressedwereassembledinpairs.Nonetheless,thatapproachremains speculative, like Wolfgang Jungandreas’ (who supports the Latintheory) attempt to explain the names of the runes by taking into accountcosmologicalelements.120

Starting from1927,SigurdAgrelldeveloped speculations thatwereevenmore audacious. He argued that every letter represented a number, like inHebrewGematria,andthatthosenumbershadmagicattributesbasedonthenamesoftherunes.HesupportedtheGreektheory,buthealsobelievedthecreators of runic writing were Germanic soldiers who served the RomanEmpireandwereinitiatedintoMithras’mysteriesintheRhineland.Sincetherune*ūruz,u(u)means“aurochs,bull”(weknowthatbullswerecentral inMithraism),hearguedthattheFuþarkwasactuallya“uþark,”becausesomerunicwizardsallegedlymovedf(F)fromthetwenty-fourthandfinalspottothe first, in order to hide the key to their numeral mysticism from theuninitiated!121 That theory, which involved out-of-control mystical andnumerologicalconsiderations,waspopularintheearly1930s.122Howeveritiscompletelyforsakennowadaysbecausethere’sabsolutelynoreasontobelievethat theFuþarkwas actually some “uþark,” and becausewe know that theoldest runic inscriptions came into being much before the time MithraismspreadtoGermania.Inspiteofthis,thattheorywaspickedupinthe1970sbyHeinzKlingenberg.123

Anotheringeniousbutjustasimprobableexplanationofthepeculiarorderofthe letters of theFuþarkwas brought up byMurrayK.Dahm.124Based on

Polybius’s(2ndcenturyBC)andSextusJuliusAfricanus’s(beginningof the3rd century) accounts, he reminds people that there were fortifications andtowers on Roman borders that were used to send messages by lightingtorches,sortoflikesemaphores.Accordingtohim,theRomansdividedtheiralphabets into three eight-letter groups and brandished torches in codeddirections and in a coded rhythm to send their messages. That hypothesisobviously involves a derivation of runic writing from Latin. But we don’thave much information on the exact nature of the signals and mostimportantlywhywouldtheinventorsofrunicwritinghavechangedtheorderoftheLatinalphabetforthatrathermarginalway?

Therunes’nameswerealsostudiedetymologicallyandbyexaminingtheirpositionwithintheFuþark.AnotherquestionthatwasaskedwaswhethertheFuþarkcamebeforeoraftereveryrunegotaname,asitwouldletusknowwhether their names gave them their position within the “alphabet.”Accordingtothathypothesis,whichwasalsopickedupbyHelmutArntz,therunes’namesnotonlyrefertowords,butalsotosymbolsexpressedbythosewords, and those symbols could be linked to an ancient solar cult that ischaracteristic of a people chiefly composed of farmers (maybe theVanir inthe Germanic religion, in opposition to the Æsir). Wolfgang Krause alsobelievedthattherunes’nameswerelinkedtothethegods’realm.125Thatlineofreasoningimpliesthattherunesarenotonlyusedasphonemes,butalsoassymbols,givingusreasontobelievethattheirusecamepriortothecreationofrunicwriting.

Weshallretainthishypothesisbecauseitistheonlyonethatexplainsthepeculiar order of theFuþark andmaybe even the distribution of runes intothreeættir. The runes, used previously for religious, magical, oracular anddivinatorypurposessupposedlyturnedintoawritingthroughcontactwithanalphabetfromMediterraneancultureswhoselettersweresomewhatsimilartothem.Buttheyshouldhaveconservedtheiroriginalorderandtheirdivisioninthreesequencesthatareeightruneslong.Theirnamescouldbeanotherproofoftheirusebeforetheywereusedforwriting.Therefore,runicwritingwould

supposedly be the result of the fusion of an alphabetical writing withsymbolicsignspreviouslyused.

Wolfgang Krause precisely offered to make the distinction between theLautrunenandtheBegriffsrunen, therunesusedassoundsorphonemesandtherunesusedassymbolsorconcepts.126Asphonemes, runesderivefromaNorth Italic alphabet, but as concepts, they derive from pre-runic symbols(vorrunische Sinnbilder) that date back to protohistory. “There was anextreme diversity of symbolic drawings wherever the Germanic languagespread,”writesKrause,“andmuchbeforethebirthofrunes.Thereforewearejustified to ask whether the association of genuine runic characters withsymbolic drawings of the same kind could explain in some way theirreducibleshapesofruniccharactersthroughsomeformalfiliation.”127Someof those “symbolic drawings” can incidentally be found right next to“alphabetical” runes in inscriptions such as theKowel spearhead, or on therocksofKårstad,Norway(5thcentury),andtheHimmelstadlundinSweden.

TheconceptoftheBegriffsrunen, thatis tosayconceptualorideographicrunes, isobviouslycontroversial.KlausDüwelsays that thenotionneeds tohandledcarefully(Behutsamkeit).128

“BeforetheappearanceofacoherentFuþark,theresupposedlywasintheGermanicworld severalmanifestationsof theuseof signs that aremoreorless similar to runes, with an obvious symbolic value,” reckons LucienMusset,whononethelessdoesn’tgivemuchcredittothathypothesis.129Whilestill remaining skeptical, he acknowledges that “nothing is in the way ofseeing[in the runes] the legacyofsome‘pre-runicsigns’ thatwereusedallacross theGermanicorRomanworldsassymbolicsigns, recognitionsigns,oracularinstruments,tocertifypropertyetc.”130

14

R

Symbolsand“Pre-Writings”

UPESTRIANSCANDINAVIANENGRAVINGSthatmainlydatetothesecondNordicBronzeAge(1300–120BC)andthetransitoryIronAgeperiod(800–600BC) (hällristningar) were frequently used to try to identify

graphic“pre-runic”signs.Thoseengravings,whichwerefoundinTanumandFossumintheBohuslänprovinceonthewestcoastofSweden,aswellasontheBornholmIsland,nearTrondheim insoutheasternNorway,areplentiful.20,000of themwere found inUppland, 24,000 inVästergötland, 15,000 inÖstergötland and 12,000 in Södermanland.131 Franz Altheim and ElizabethTrautmannaresomeofthosewhorelyonthemtoexplaintheoriginsoftherunes.132Butasseenearlierinthisbook,theyalsocitetheengravedsignsofthe Val Camonica (Italy) that go back to the chalcolithic period and thebeginningof thebronzeage (1800–1500BC).Thereagain there’splentyofmaterialsincewehavefoundupwardsof130,000differentengravingsontherocks of the Val Camonica and on the rocks of the Vallée des merveilles,whichissituatedonbothsidesoftheMontBégo,intheAlpes-Maritimes.133

AltheimandTrautmannbelievethatsomeofthosesignsarethesourcesoftherunesthathavenoequivalentinMediterraneanalphabets.

ButtherupestrianScandinavianengravingsaswellastheengravingsontherocks of the Val Camonica are far from being the only ones that could beconsidered.Inmanycases,archaeologicalexcavationsbroughttolightsignsand sequences of engraved signs not only in the territories of ancientGermanic(orCeltic)cultures,butalsoalloverEurope.TheoldestonesdatebacktotheUpperPaleolithic.

Besides the engraved signs found in Glozel in 1924 that remaincontroversial, in spite of the suspicion that it was a plain and simple fakebeingnowquelled,134therearetherupestrianengravingsofLaMadeleine,of

Gourdan, ofFont-de-Gaume, of theEyzies, of theCaveof theTrois-Frères(Ariège),oftheCaveofLortet,thesignsontheRocheBertierwhichgobacktotheMagdalenian(around10,000BC)andonapebbleoftheCaveofPuyRavel in theBourbonnais, the twohundredcolorfulpebblesbearinggraphicsigns found in 1889 in Mas d’Azil (Ariège), the marks on the Cave ofAltamira’sdomeinSpain, thesequencesofsignsengravedonpotteries thatdatebacktotheendofthebronzeagethatwerefoundinMoras-enValloire,thesignsfoundin1894inthedolmenicchamberofCarrazedo,intheAlvãosite(Portugal),thatissupposedlyabout8000yearsold,etc.

All these signs that we obviously cannot decypher have been carefullyaccounted for. They are often referred to as “alphabetiforms” or “pre-writings,”135 meaning that they were not really writing systems, but theirpurposewastoconveysomething,andthattheyhadagivensignificationforboth the people who engraved them and the people who saw them. So, itseemslikequitesomepictographicandlogographicsignshavebeenusedforsymbolicrepresentationorreligiouspurposessinceprehistory.Thenumberofpre-andprotohistoricsignsthatcouldhavebeenusedasinspirationforrunesseems to be considerable, even if it is impossible to establish lineagesbetweenthem.

Incidentally,insomecasesitmaynotbejustsymboliccommunication,butrather fully-fledged writing, or at least the “precursory stage of writing”(EmiliaMasson).Thankstoradiocarbondating,wenowknowthatawritingwas already in use in the beginning of the Neolithic in the Vinca andKaranovocultures, in theDanubevalleynearBelgrade.Thatwriting,whichpredates by a largemargin the Sumerian pictograms (that didn’t come intobeingbeforetheendofthe4thmillenniumBC),wasusedfromtheendofthe6th millennium BC to around 3500 BC, meaning the arrival of Indo-Europeansintheregion.M.A.Georgievskystartedusingitin1940.Unlikeancient writing systems from the Orient (Egyptian hieroglyphs, Hittite andLuwian hieroglyphs, Sumerian cuneiform), it is a linear writing, which isapparentlylogographic(eachsignconveysaconcept)andnon-phonographic

(eachsignconveysanindividualsoundorsyllable).Itonlyhas210signsandsomevariationsforthirty-sixofthem.Themajorityoftheinscriptionsfoundacross thirty different sites are brief andpresent on ritual or votiveobjects.Unfortunately,theyarehardtodecipherasweknownothingaboutthespokenlanguagesintheregionbeforethearrivaloftheIndo-Europeans.136

Some other significant findings have been extracted from the Danuberegionand theBalkans.Somesignswhich look like letters laidouton fourlineshavebeenfoundin1969onthe6000– to7000-year-oldslabofclayofGradesnica(westernBulgaria).TheclaysealofKaranovo,foundin1968nearStara Zagora, also in Bulgaria, dates back to around 3000 BC. The threetabletsofTartaria,foundin1963bytheRomanianprehistoryspecialistIvanVlassanearTurdas,Transylvania,alsoseemtobearprimitivewritingsigns.We used to think for a long time that they were influenced by Sumerianwriting, but now they are believed to be connected to theCotofani culture.Theysupposedlydatebackto4500BC,andcouldthereforebeanteriortothefirstcivilizationsofMesopotamia.

15

T

TheDebateOn“Magic”

HE OPPOSITION BETWEEN MAGIC AND RELIGION, which is acharacteristicofJudeo-Christianmonotheism,isn’tpresentinEuropeanpaganism, and theywere even said to have an “essential similarity.”137

“In most Indo-European civilizations,” writes François-Xavier Dillman,“magic definitely cannot be disassociated from all of the beliefs,representations, religious rites […] on the contrary, it is one of the mostprevalent components, one of those that resists the most againstChristianization.”138 The same author underlines that runic writing andGermanic magic are often “one and the same.”139 Patrick Moisson alsoemphasizesthatthereisafinelinebetweenmagicandreligion,buthenotesthatwhereasreligionseekstoconciliatedivinitieswithsacrificeandworship,magic“constrainsdivinepowerswithappropriate rites,”whichassumes theexistence of impersonal forces and “means to constrain the supernaturalworld.”140MagicandreligionareneverbroughtintooppositionlikeGoodandEvil, or the authentic and the inauthentic, but rather are complementaryaspects of holiness, which in Indo-European cultures are not brought intoconflict.

TheOldNorsetermtaufr(ar)firstmeantthewizardryorsorceryinstruments,andthensorceryitself(seetöfrar“seduction”inIcelandic).SeiðrisaspecifickindofNorsemagicwhichassociatesdivinationwithsorcery(goodormoreoftenthannotevil).ItwasmainlyusedinScandinaviaattheendoftheIronAge. Women seem to have been the only ones practicing its divinatoryaspects.InChapter7oftheYnglingaSagawhichwaswrittenin1230,SnorriSturlusonsaysthatpracticingseiðrisashamefulactformen(karlmenn).Healsostates inChapter4 thatseiðrwas firstpracticedby theVanirdivinitiesand then theVanir goddess Freyja shared it to theÆsir gods, in particularÓðinn (hon kenndi fyrst með Ásum seið, sem Vönum var títt). In the

Lokasenna,LokireproachesÓðinnforpracticingseiðr.

If the ancient Germanic peoples knew about the runes before they usedthem to write, such as when they used them for divination purposes forexample, and if the runes kept some magical value as a figment of theirprevious use when they started using them for writing purposes, then thequestion surrounding “runic magic” obviously becomes essential. Animmense amount of literature has been written on that topic, which fed adebatethatwassometimestumultuous.

LucienMussetwrites:

One of the most controversial and essential questions of the history of runology is to knowwhetherrunesareonlyawriting,liketheLatinalphabet,orwhethertheyaresignswhosevalueisprimarilymagical,whosemainusewastoconveyincantations.Almostallmajorrunologists

agreesincethebeginningofthe20thcenturythatthelatteristrue.141

The “magic” standpoint is indeed supported by many authors like SophusBugge,MagnusOlsen,CarlJ.S.Marstrander,EmanuelLinderholm,142HansBrix,143JandeVries(whocallsrunicwritingZauberschrift),WolfgangKrauseandmanyothers.Butithasalsogarnereddetractors.

Anders Bæksted is the author who is the most hostile to any “magic”interpretation. He wrote a consequential book144 in 1952 which impressedmanyspecialists,includingLucienMusset(whosaidhewas“converted”).Inthat book, which can be considered to be hypercritical, Bæksted actuallymostlytakesonextremeopinions,likeMagnusOlsen’swhowentasfarastoclaimthat“theruneswerenotcreatedforeverydaylifepurposes,butrathertofulfill a supernatural mission,”145 and gematrian or numerologicalinterpretationsthatthrivedasearlyastheendofthe19thcenturybeforebeingsystematized by authors like Sigurd Agrell. The critique of “runicnumerology”was then expandedbyWolfgangMorgenroth.146One can onlysidewithhimonthatpoint.

Sincethen,thedebatekeptgrowing.RaymondI.Pagecallstherunologistswhoassociatetheruneswithmagic“inventive,”andhecallstherunologistswhostilldon’twanttohearanythingaboutmagic“skeptics.”147Althoughhe

focuses his criticism on the Anglo-Saxon area, he puts himself into the“skeptic”category,alongwithElmerH.AntonsenandErikMoltke.EvenifAntonsen acknowledges that it is “entirely possible” that one of the firstpurposes of the runes was magical, he still points out that until the 5th

century,notonerunicinscriptionthatmentionsapagandivinitywasfound.148

Itistrue,butitisnotassignificantasheleadsustobelieve,becausetheissueathandisnotreligion,butmagic:althoughthereisnomentionofthegodsintheoldestrunicinscriptions,allkindsofcurses,spellsandconjurationscanbefound. ErikMoltke goes further and thinks it is foolish to see anymagicalcharacteristicintherunes.EnverA.Makaevisofthesamemind.

On the contrary, Gerd Høst is one of those who think that taking intoaccountmagic is crucial to grasp the history of the runes.He reckons that“magic-writing(skriftmagien) isolder than thefully-fledgedwritingsystem.Its roots must go as far back as the prehistory of writing, symbolic andreligiousmagic,thepictorialworldofrupestrianinscriptionsandsymbolsofprotectionanddestructionofallkinds.”149Likewise,accordingtoRalphW.V.Elliott,“theruneswereneversolelyutilitarian:sincetheywerepickedupbythe Germanic people, they were used for divination and other rites.Throughoutrunicwriting’slonghistory,interpersonalcommunicationtookabackseattoinvokinghigherpowersinordertoaffectthelivesandthefateofmen.”150ThereforeElliot thinks that the runeswere firstused for “magical”purposesbeforebeingusedasawriting,andhethinksthatassymbols,theiroriginsare

the pre-runic pictures and the pictorial symbols engraved on the rocks and stones of ancientGermaniclands,landswheretheruneswereprofoundlyassociatedwiththereligiousbeliefsand

ritualpracticesofthepaganandGermanicAntiquity.151

RenéL.M.Derolezwritesinthesameveinthat

the runes have beenmanifestly used for religious andmagical purposes for a long time.The

signsusedtoholdasecretpowerthatexceededtheliteralmeaningoftheinscriptions.152

Inthatconversationwhichseemstoneverend,153somerunologistsadoptedamiddleoftheroadperspective.Whilepointingoutthat“theobsessionsome

runologistshavewithmagichasmoretodowiththepsychologyofscholarsthan with the inherent content of the inscriptions they study,”154 LucienMusset underlines that the runes could verywell have hadmagical uses aswellassecularones:

Therunesarenotmagical,theyonlyweresometimesusedformagic[…]Asfarastheirmagicalinclination is real, it seems to have been reliant on theminority that knew how to trace and

interpretthem,itwasnotinherenttotheirnature.155

It’s quite obvious that the runes were first used for secular andmagical/religious purposes, but that doesn’t tell us why there are so many“magical” texts among the first inscriptions,whichcan’tquitebeexplainedby saying that “aminorityknewhow to trace and interpret them.”For thatmatter,Mussetevennotesthat

it isbecauseoftheirmagicaluse,whetheractualorassumed,thatthelastusersoftheFuþarkwere sometimes struckwithecclesiastic excommunication since. It occurred sinceat least the

endofthe16thcenturyandpredominantlyinIceland.”156

Likewise,whenAlainMarezwritesthat“thereisagreementthatrunicsignsaren’t inherently magical, but that there were sometimes used for magicalpurposes,”157hebegs thequestion,becausewecould just aswell argue thatthesignslosttheiroriginalmagicalpropertyandthatitwaslostprogressivelyas they became used for writing. But, of course, we need to distinguishbetweenusingtherunestotracea“magical”inscriptionandholdingthemtobeinherently“magical”characters.

Even if Régis Boyer is very hostile to those “who are convinced of thereligious ormagical uses and nature or value of thewriting of the ancientGermanicpeople,”158he acknowledges that “the texts our knowledge of theNorth’s religion isderived fromare literallydrenched inmagic […]It feelsnecessary to someone who wants to understand to assume at all times abackdropmadeofawholebunchofmagicalpracticesandwords,conceptionsrelated to sorcery,”whichmakeshimsuspect that the runeswereoriginallyused “mostly for magical words, and they were certainly associated withsupernaturalpowers.”159

LucienMussetadmitsthatitseemsimpossibletoexcludemagicfromfivelargegroupsoftexts:

Thosewhichcontain thesamerunerepeatedseveral timeswithoutanyrationalmeaningfor it[…]thosewhichcontainsomeincomprehensibleorunpronounceablesentenceswhentheyhavebeen positively deciphered […] those which were placed in tombs so that they weren’taccessible to people from thisworld and also contain unintelligible sentences or conjurations[…]thosewhichclearlycontaincursesorspells[…]thosewhoseauthorcallhimselfa‘priest,’a‘magician,’ or anything like it […] and finally thosewhich contain one of the ‘keywords’ ofNordic magic: alu, laukaR and maybe laþu-. Those three mysterious terms are relatively

frequentinancienttexts.160

Themagical character ofmany inscriptions in theOldFuþark can actuallyhardly be contested.Yes, not all ancient inscriptions are “magical,” but theonesthatarelinkedtomagicaresoplentifulthatitcannotbefortuitous.Howcould this be if the magical character or power of the runes were only asecondaryorlatederivedbelief?Mussetquitecorrectlymakesareferencetosomeundecipherableorhardlycomprehensibleinscriptions,liketheonesthatonlyrepeatthesameruneorsequenceofrunes(gagagaonthelance-shaftofKragehul, which associates the runes *gebō and *ansuz, aaaaaaaa on theamulet of Lindholmen, etc.). If some of those runic inscriptions can’t bedeciphered, it should be because they hadn’t transcribed words yet, ratherthan they looked like letters the engraver used according to their originalmagicalmeaning.

After a careful examination of the arguments for and against it, KlausDüwelandWilhelmHeizmannsidedwithamagicalinterpretationofalargenumberofthemostancientrunicinscriptions.161“Onecannotseparatetheuseof the runes from practicing magic” also writes AlainMarez, and then headds:

That tight connectionwhichgoes throughvariousdegreesof the epigraphic tradition from itsorigins to itsdisappearance isapparent in thesimple fact that [runic]signsaresometimesnotmeanttotranscribealinguisticfactlikethenotationofanoralexcerpt,butratherittranscribesan extra-linguistic value of the sign,meaning amental representation it implies thanks to the

acrophonicprinciple.162

16

T

TheWord“Rune”

HEMODERN USEOF THEWORD “RUNE” (Danish rune, Swedish runa)wasborrowedfromtheScandinavianlanguagesinthe17thcentury,butthe term refers to the Fuþark’s letters since at least the 4th century.

Confirmedinthe6thcenturyasruna,thetermseemstohavebeenmentionedforthetimeasrūnō(pluralrūnōR)intheinscriptionoftheEinangstonefromNorway,whichgoesback to the secondhalfof the4thcentury:dagaR þaRrūnōfaihidō,“(I)DagrIcoloredtherunes.”163Wefinditagaininthefunerealinscriptionof the Järsberg stone, found in 1862 in theSwedishprovinceofVärmland, which dates from around 530:…runoRw aritu “I engraved therunes.”

Some authors tried to link the run- root (which is derived from Proto-Germanic *runō-) back to the ancient Indo-European stem *wr-th-enā.Georges Dumézil also linked the names of the Greek and Indian godsOuranos and Váruna to it (“binding” gods, if one decides to make thosenamesbederived from the root*wer- “binding,” but alsowhose name canmean“oath”or“truewords”ifonedecidestomakethembederivedfromtheroot *wer- “speaking”).164 But that is very disputable. The root *rew-“shouting”(seeLatinrumor)doesn’tworkeither.

The consistent meaning of the term is whisper, secret, mystery, hiddenthing, which seems to confirm that the runes were first used for magicalpurposes or meant for the few In Old High German, rūna “secret, secretconversation,”rúninOldNorse“secret,mysteriousconference,”rūnainOldSaxon “secret, mystery,” rūna in Gothic “mystery,” rūn in Old English“secret, consultation, whisper,” and the plural rūnar in Icelandic “secrets,mysterious conferences” are a testament to it. The same meaning can befound in Celtic languages with rún in Old Irish “secret, mystery, ulterior

motive,” rhin in Welsh “secret, mystery,” rhin in Middle Welsh “secret,mystery,” rùn in Gaelic “secret, ulterior motive,” rhin in Welsh “secretproperty,mystery,”andruninIrish“secret.”SeealsorunoinFinnish“charm,ancientsong,epicormagicsong.”165Besides thosenominal forms, therearealsoverbalforms:rūneninOldHighGerman“whispering,speakingquietly,”rūnianinOldEnglish“murmuring,whispering,”rýna inOldNorse“talkingintimately,”runian inOldEnglish“speakingsoftly,”reonian inOldAnglo-Saxon “murmuring,” rýna in Icelandic “having a secret conversation” toroundinEnglish,etc.TheGothictranslationoftheBiblestillusesthewordruna to translate “mystery” (runa thiudangardos Gudis “mysteries of thekingdomofGod,”Mark4.11).InBeowulf(8thcentury), theroyalcouncilloris called Run-Wita, “versed in secrets.” All those words give us reason tobelievethattheruneswereoriginallybelievedtohavesomesecretaspect.166

The alternative etymology of theword “rune” suggested byErikMoltke(whoarguesthatthe“mystery”or“secret”meaningsaresecondary)thatusestherootru “makinga sound,making somenoise” and thatwas supposedlyoriginallyusedasanonomatopoeia,absolutelynotconvincingsincerunesarewriting signs and therefore obviously don’t make any sound (they enablewriting,nottalking).Otherauthorstriedtoderivethenameoftherunesfroman Indo-European root thatmeans “scratching”167 or tried to give them thesimple meaning of “inscription, message” (Elmer H. Antonsen). Thosesuggestionsclearlyseemtobegratuitous.

ThenameoftherunescanalsobefoundinfemalenamessuchasGudrun,Sigrun,Heidrun,Waldrun,Runhilde,etc.,aswellas in thedenominationofthe mandrake’s root, Alraun (see Alrūna in Tacitus’s Germania, 8). Themandrakeisahardyherbaceousplant thathasbeenassociatedwithmagicalbeliefs and rituals since Antiquity, perhaps because it is vaguely human-shapedandbecauseof itshallucinogenicproperties. It is interesting tonotethatintheMiddleAges,theplantwasbelievedtopredominantlygrowatthebottomofgallows,becauseitwassaid tobeimpregnatedwith thespermofthehangedmen (whosegodwasÓðinn). Itwasalsoused inointments that

weresaidtobemadeby“witches.”InthehistoryoftheGothswrittenin551by the Latin-speaking historian Jordanes, there is a passage on the kingFilimer that alludes to witches: “magas mulieres quas patrio sermonehaliurrunnas is ipse cognominat,” “Female witches that were called in thenational language haliurrunnas” (Getica, XXIV, 121). That wordhaliurrunnaswas interpreted byKarlMüllenhoff as referring to theGothicform*haljō-rūnas, likehelrūn, helrūneorhellerūne inOldEnglish “witch,female magician” or helerūna or helliruna in Old High German “sorcery,necromancy.” Like other female proper nouns with -rūn, it is compoundpossessive:“the[female]oneswhoknowtheinfernalsecret.”Thefirstterm*haljō is a plural genitive ofhalja inGothic “inferno, underworld, shadowworld”(seehellinEnglish,HölleinGerman).Itseemsthatwitchesorfemalemagicianswereregardedastheholdersoftherunes’secret.168

17

I

DivinationandOracularUse

T SEEMS TO US THAT René L. M. Derolez paints the picture perfectlywhenhewritesthatthepartitionintothreeættir“isprobablylinkedtothecustomofcastingspellsthreetimesinarow.”Headds:

When spells were cast, the characters were read by announcing their names. Each namecorresponded to a short verse which explained its meaning. The rune n, which was called‘misery,’‘misfortune,’‘violence,’likelyheraldedmisfortune,whereasg,‘gift,’‘wealth,’‘favor,’orj,‘goodyear,’‘bountifulharvest,’heraldedthefavorofthegods.Theorderofthesignsintherunicalphabetdiffersfromtheordersofotheralphabets,thereasonforthisshouldbefoundin

itsdivinatoryuse.169

Whereverruneswereused, includingIcelandandGreenland, therearegoodreasons to believe that they were used for magical or divinatory purposes.François-Xavier Dillmann speaks of “the old Scandinavian custom ofengraving mysterious signs or runes in the middle of magico-religioussessions.”170As a result of that tradition of consulting fate and observingauspices,theChurchmultiplieditscondemnationsintheMiddleAges.

Acrucial testimonyon that topic is inourpossession.TheRomanhistorianTacituswritesabouttheGermanicpeopleinGermaniain98that:

They value auspices and fate more than anybody else, their method to know those is quitesimple: theycutabranch froma fruit treeandchop itup intosmall logs, then,aftermarkingthemwithdistinctivesigns,theyrandomlythrowthemontoapieceofwhitecloth.Thenapriestof the tribe if the consultation is official or the head of the household if the consultation isprivateinvokesthegodsand,whilewatchingtheskies,hepicksupthreelogstointerpretbased

onthesignsengravedinthem.171

The crux of the matter is within those few lines which demonstrate thatGermanicpeopleusedsomesignsfororacularpurposes.Toknowtheirfate,the officiant randomly picks three engraved logs and gathers them forinterpretation. Just like légein inGreekor legere inLatin “to say,” lesen inGermanfirstmeant“togather,toassemble,tochoose,”ameaningthat’sstill

present in lesan inAnglo-Saxon, lesa inNorse, andgalisan inGothic.Thephrase“whilewatching theskies”shouldalsobeunderlined.Unfortunately,Tacitusdoesn’tmentionhowmanylogstherewereandwhether thenumberwasalwaysthesame.Hementions“signs”(notæ)andnotletters(literæ),andhedoesn’telaborateontheirnatureorformeither.

It isalso toughtosaywhichsignshewas talkingaboutbesiderunesandrunic symbols (Begriffsrunen), especially sincewe now know that Tacitus’descriptioniscontemporarytoallthefirstknownrunicinscriptions.172Manyrunologists acknowledge this, like Georg Baesecke, Arthur Mentz,173

WolfgangKrause,HelmutArntz,KarlSchneider,RalphW.V.Elliott,174ElmarSeebold,175 etc. “Tacitus clearly states that three signs were picked to beinterpretedandmanysuggestthatthatnumbercorrespondstothethreeættir,”writesBernardMees,who thinks“ithard toseehowTacituscouldpoint tosomethingelsethantherunes.”176“ItisnotabsurdtoassumethattheoracularprocesscouldhavehadtworolesintheformationoftheFuþarkonceitwaspicked up by the Germanic people,” writes LucienMusset: “it could haveinfluencedtheorderofthesignsanditcouldhavehelpedtochoosethenamesof the signs since they seemso fitting, like*fehu ‘wealth,’*wunjō ‘joy,’ or*nauþiz‘distress,’maybebecausetheruneslookedlikethenotæthathadthesamemeaningandwereusedbeforethem.”177

Tacitusdidn’tgotoGermaniabutheadaptedthedescriptionshecouldgethis hands on. Pliny the Elder (23–79) probably knew theGermanic peoplebetterthanhimsincehehadservedasaRomanofficerintheRhineregion.Unfortunately, his book Germaniæ libri XX was lost, but it is likely thatTacitus had access to it when he wrote his book. The information Tacitusgives should also be compared with what is written about the ancientGermanic people by authors like Plutarch, Strabo, Suetonius, Livy orAmmianus Marcellinus. The divinatory process he talks of correspondsperfectly to what the Greek historianHerodotus wrote about the ScythiansandtheAlani.TherandompickingwasalsodonebytheCimbriandtheSuebi(Plutarch,Marius,15,4).Caesarreportedthatfatewasconsultedthreetimes

to decide what should happen to Valerius Procillus and Willibrod, twoRomansthatwerecapturedbyGermans,andeverytimethegodschosetoletthemlive(Debellogallico,I,53).SuchtalesarecomparabletotheSongofHymir(Hymiskvida),collectedinthePoeticEdda,whereitreads:“Longagothewarlikedivinities, / assemble to feast […] / threw theirmagical sticks /andexaminedthevictim’sfate”(str.1).

Consulting fate by using some signs engraved on pieces ofwood seemsalsotohavebeendonebytheItalicpeople.InDedivinatione(II,85),Ciceroevokes the different ways to consult fate, notably the oracles of Praeneste(sortesPrænestinæ).Hewrites:

TheannalsofPraenestetellusthatNumeriusSuffustius,arespectablemanfromanoblefamily,dreamt several times that he was ordered in an increasingly threatening fashion to go to aspecificlocationtocarverocks.Afraid,heobeyeddespitethemockingfromhisfellowcitizensand from the broken rocks came down pieces of oak-tree wood bearing antique characters(itaque perfracto saxo sortis erupisse in robore insculptas priscarum litterarum notis). ThatlocationissurroundedbyanenclosurenowadaysanddedicatedtochildJupiterthatcanbeseentherewithJuno.

Later in the book,Ciceromentions again fate is consulted from “pieces ofolive-tree wood.” He adds: “who brought the oak down, carved it andengravedcharacters?”Thatillusionisnotnegligible,especiallysinceCicerois talking about litteraræ notæ “written characters, letters,” and that shedslightonwhyTacitususedthesamewordaswell.178

Inthe8thcentury,theLexFrisionumstillmentionstheGermanichabit toconsult fate by throwing “signs.” “Quæ sorte tales esse debent: duo tali devirga præcisi, quos tenos vocant, quorum unus signo crusis innotatur, aliuspurusdimittitur,et lanamundaobvolutisuperaltareseureliquiasmittuntur”(XIII, 1). InMiddleHighGerman, zeichen (“sign”),which is derived fromOldHighGermanzeihhan,incidentallymeans“omen”(justlikeinLatin).InCharlemagne’stime,theCarolingianmonkHrabanusMaurus(776–859)whowastheabbotofFuldaandarchbishopofMainz,evokesinhisDeinventionelitterarum that theMarcomanni used “letters” (literas) for the purposes ofdivinatoryinvocations(cumquibus[literas]carminasuaincantationesqueac

divinationes significare procurant, qui adhuc pagano ritu involvuntur).Anotherversionusesthewordrunstabas insteadof literas,butitcouldbealatertextthatwasputunderHrabanusMaurus’patronageinretrospecttogiveitmoreauthority.Inthe9thcentury,Rimbert’sVita

Ansgarialsomentionsthe“randompick.”SaxoGrammaticus(1150–1216)evokes in his historyofDenmark (GestaDanorum) aboutHamlet (Amleth)“letters inscribed in wooden tables” (literas ligno insculptas). In the 11th

century, the abbot Ælfric associates the runes with magic in one of hishomilies: “thurh drýcræft oththe thurh rúnstafum,” “by magic or by therunes.”179

18

D

“Magic”Vocabulary

ESPITEANDERSBÆKSTED’Sopinion,180itseemstomethatlikeLucienMusset pointed out, some runic inscriptions in Old Fuþark wereoriginallyput in tombs.Thefact that thesemortuarydepositswereout

ofpeople’ssightmakesacaseforthemhavingamagico-religiouscharacter.That is the case of the Kylver stone’s inscription, which was part of thesepulcher’sfuneralofferings,andbesideacompleteFuþark, italso includesmagicalsigns(seus),whichmorelikelythannotismeanttoconveyaspell.“Theinscriptionisnotmeanttobereaddirectlybytheliving,becauseasidethefact that itwasput insideatomb,itfacestowardstheearth,”underlinesAlain Marez.181 It is also the case of the Noleby Runestone (Sweden, 6th

century) found in 1894 inVästergötland,which has two graphic sequencesthat have not been deciphered, and the Eggja stone (Norway, 8th century),whichwaspartofa tomb thatwaspartiallydestroyed.TheEggjastonehasthe longest known inscription in Old Fuþark (120 runes long, forbiddingpeoplefromunveilingthestone).

Somewordspresentinrunicinscriptionsbelongtothemagicvocabularyontheirown:auja,alu,laþu(laðu),laukaR,ota,eh(þ)u,etc.Themeaningoftheword alu, which can be found more than twenty times in inscriptions, inparticular on the Elgesem runestone (Norway, 5th century), the amulets ofKinneved(Sweden,around600)andLindholmen(Sweden,5thcentury),andtheringofKörlin(Poland,6thcentury),remainsunsettled.Some,likeSophusBugge, link it to ealgian “to protect” in Old English and claim it means“defense,protection.”Forphonologicalreasons,GerdHøstpreferslinkingittothenameofthebeerusedforlibations(OldNorseol),especiallysincetheolrunarwereinscribedáhorni“ona[drinking]horn.”EdgarC.Polomé,whoshares this opinion, links the term to alýein “being outside one’s self” inGreekandtoalwanzatar-“magic,witchcraft”inHittitetoclaimthatitmeans

“ecstasy,” which leads him towonder whether “beer got its name from itsprimordialfunctioninmagico-religiouspurposes?”182

The Proto-Nordic term erilaR or ek erilaR (“me, the erilaR”) that can befoundinsomerunicinscriptionswasalsoahottopicofdebate.Itcannotablybe on the amulet of Lindholmen — ek erilaR sāwīlagaR ha(i)teka — theVäsbybracteate, theBratsberg fibula, the JärsbergRunestone, theKragehulspearshaft,etc.SophusBuggebelieveditwasthenameofarunesmiththatwaspartoftheHerulitribe(*erulāz),whichwasalsotheopinionofWolfgangKrauseandHelmutArntz.JacobsenandMoltkesimply take itas theethnicnameoftheHerules(eruliorHeruliinLatin,érouloiinGreek),apeopleweknow little about beside that theymore likely did not come fromDenmarkandwereexpelledbytheDanes.Fromthe3rdtothe5thcentury,theyspreadacross various region ofEurope, fromGaul toMoravia and near theBlackSea.183However, according to Otto Höfler, the Heruli were not exactly apeople,butrathersomekindofculticaristocracyrelatedtowarlikementoring(Kriegerverband) and involvedGermanicpeople fromseveral tribes,whoseuse of runes was both cryptic and religious.184A member of that band of“Odinian”warriorsallegedlyservedasanauxiliary in theRomanarmyandcreated runic writing from north Italic alphabets from the Alps. The termerilaR or irilaR then supposedly referred to a person versed in theways toreadandinscriberunes.185Höflermainlyreliedon the inscriptionC(enturia)Erul(i) on the Negau A helmet for his theory, which still continues to bewidelydiscussed.186

ThattermhasfinallybeenlinkedtothemorerecentOldNorsetitleofjarl“high rank chief, duke, count,”which refers to someonewith a high socialstatus,butitraisesphonologicalconcerns.ItshouldbenotedthatinthePoeticEdda, theRígsþula poem narrates the formation of the social hierarchy inancientScandinavia.ItsaysthatRígr(Heimdall)taughtrune-smithingtooneofhisthreesons,Jarl,forebearofthenobleclass(str.33–36).187AccordingtoAndersHultgård,theexpressionekerilaRcouldbeinterpretedastheophanyformula,whichimpliesasituationwhereadivinitymanifestsitselftoaman

oragroupofmen.188

19

“T

Óðinnandthe“DivineOrigin”oftheRunes

HERE IS ONE AND ONLY ONE THING Nordic tradition is unanimousabout:therunesareGod-made.Ahumaninventorisnevermentioned,”writes Lucien Musset.189 There are indeed multiple inscriptions that

describe the runes as “birthed by the gods” or “came from the gods”(reginkunnar).TheNolebyrunestonereadsRūnōfahiraginakudo“Ipainttherunes that come from thegods,”and theSparlösa runestone (Sweden, early11thcentury)readsrunaRþaRræginkundu“thoserunesthatcomeoutofthegods.” The runes are also described as reginkunnr (of divine origin) in theEdda (Hávamál, str. 80) which indicates that they were created by theginregin, “almighty gods” (str. 142).190 The Old Norse word regin is acollective designation for the gods, which means in the proper sense“decisions, sentences,” a bit like numina deorum. The appellative ginreginaddstotheneutralpluralreginthereinforcingprefixgin-thatcanbefoundinthenameoftheoriginalabyssofScandinaviancosmology,theGinnungagap.

But the “divine” character of the runes is above all else related to theirdiscoverybythegodÓðinn,asnarratedbythePoeticEddainoneofthemostfamous passages of that great poem named theHávamál (the “tales of theMost-High”=Óðinn).The textdates from the12thor the13th century, butmostofofthework,whichissplitintoverses,wasmostlikelywrittenbefore950, frommuch older traditions and usingmuch oldermaterials, since thefirst and older part of theHávamál is already quoted by the skald EyvindrSkáldaspillir in980.191Theverses138–145,whichformthefifthpartof thepoem, are called Rúnatal (Rúnaþáttr Óðinns), meaning the (count of therunes.)ThisisÓðinnspeaking:

Fornightsallnine,

IknowthatIhung

onthatwyrdandwindytree,

bygarwounded

andgiventoOdin,

myselftomyselfIgave,

onthatmammothtree

ofwhichManknowsnot

fromwheretherootsdorun.

Blessedwithnobread,

norbrimminghorn,

downbelowIlooked;

RunesItookup,

roaringItookthem,

thenbackunboundIfell.

Withmightysongsnine

fromthatmuch-famedson

ofBestla’sfatherBolthorn,

adraftIdrank

ofthedearestmead,

fromtheStirrerofPoetrypoured.

ThenfertileIbecame

andfullofwisdom,

andIgrewandgreatlythrived.

Awordgotaword

byawordforme;

aworkgotawork

byaworkforme.

Runesyouwillfind

andreadablestaves,

verystrongthosestaves,

verystiffthosestaves,

whichwerepaintedbythemightypriest,

andrenderedbythehighrulers,

andristedbytherulers’invoker.192

So,itisinthatfamoustextthatScandinaviantraditionattributesthediscoveryof the runes toÓðinn. It shouldbe emphasized that it’s a discovery, not aninvention, because the text implies that the runes existed prior to the storybeingtold.Everywordmustbecarefullyconsidered.Itisafterhavinghangedfor“ninefullnights”(netrallarnío)froma“windy”treeandhavinglookeddown(“downbelow”),thatthegodcould“takeuptherunes”(nystaekniþr,nam ek upp rúnar). Then he learned from the giantBölthorn nine “mightysongs” (fimbulljódh níu), meaning nine magical songs filled with energy,which enabled him to “become fertile,” to “become full of wisdom,” to“grow,” and to “thrive.” The “windy” tree isYggdrasil (Yggr’s horse), theworld tree, the cosmic tree of the ancient Germanic people. Sometimesdescribed as a yew tree (Eibe in German), sometimes as an ash tree, itprotectstheworlditsupportsanditisthemainresidenceofthegods.Itcouldcorrespondtotherunethirteen(4),whichiscalled*īwaz“yew”(īwainOldHighGerman, īo inAnglo-Saxon, ibe inDanish, jubhar in Irish, etc.).The“verystrongstaves”or“verystiffstaves”couldhavebeenusedfordivinationor magic. We should note the allusions to the “high rulers” and “rulers’invoker”(hroptrrögna,Hroptatýr),whichisoneofthealiasesofÓðinn.

That initiatory hanging which enabled Óðinn to discover the runes hasoften been used as a pretext to attribute “shamanic” traits to him, and weshould exercise caution when it comes to that interpretation because“shamanism” explanations have been overused, and that term should behandledmore carefully than it usually is. FraçoiseBader rightly underlinedthevisualcharacterof thatacquisition,byremindingus that thesameIndo-Europeanroot*weyd- expressesbothnotionsof“seeing”and“knowing.”193

Óðinn,wholeftoneofhiseyesintheMímir’swelldoesindeedhaveagreat“vision.”

LikeVaruna for the IndiansorOgmios for theCelts,Óðinnembodiesnightsky, the dark aspect of cosmic sovereignty (in opposition to Týr), and hepatronizesmagicinthisrespect.HecanalsobecomparedtoOuranosforthe

Greeks or Jupiter Stator for the Romans. “Oðinn is a runesmith,” writesBernardSergent,“becauseheisanextensionofthekindofgodswhomastermagic.”194Sovereignmagician, “binding”god,butalso“shouting”god, likeIndra for the Indo-Aryanshehas thepowerofmetamorphosis.Godofwar,patronof“bestialwarriors”(Berserkir),fatherofthedead,masterofthewildhunt,heisalsothegodofdrunkennessandecstasy.

ÓðinniscalledOthinninOldSwedish,WōdeninAnglo-Saxon,WodaninOld Saxon, Wotan or Wuotan in Old High German. All those forms arederivedfromtheprimitiveform*Wōdan(az)or*Wōdinaz,whichisprobablyalsorelatedtovates(uātēs)inLatinandouateisinCeltic.Theetymologyofthe term take it back to ód “fury” (Old Norse óðr), henceWut in German(fromOldHighGermanwuot)andwoedeinDutch,samemeaning.Thefuryin question is both a fighting fury and a “spiritual elation that is almostecstatic,” which can be expressed by a “visionary vaticination” (Edgar C.Polomé).AdamofBremenwrites:“Wodanidestfuror.”

The hanging described in the Rúnatal explains some of the aliases ofÓðinn,likeGeiguðr(“hewhohangs”),Hangi(“thehungone”)orSkollvaldr(the “lord of oscillation”). In skaldic poetry, gallows are often called “thehung’shorse.”Óðinnisindeedthegodofthehung(hangatýr,Handagud),the“lordofgallows” (galgavaldr) and “hanging seems to have been a typicalway toofferhimsacrifices.”195 In theHávamál (str. 157), he is also said tohavethepowertobringbacktolikethehungbyinscribingandcoloringrunesforthem(sváecrístocírúnomfác).

20

I

RunicMagicinSagas — TheRunesmith

CELANDICSAGASMENTIONRUNICMAGICSEVERALTIMES.Grettir’sSaga(GrettissagaÁsmundarsonar)narrateshowtheoldwitchÞuríðrengravedevilrunes:“Shetookherknifeandengravedrunesintheroot[ofthetree],

she colored them redwith her blood and performed incantations” (Chapter79).

Egill’s Saga (Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar) which is usually attributed toSnorri Sturluson narrates that its hero was not only versed in the art ofskalding,butalsoknewthesecretsof the runesandused themformagical,preventiveortherapeuticpurposes.InChapter72,EgillSkallagrímssonfindsa young girl on a farm who suffers from lethargy. A young man hadunsuccessfully tried to heal her by clumsily engraving “love runes”(manrúnar)onabaleen thatheputunderherbed.Egill sees that the runeswerepoorlywrittenandgentlyscratchesthem,burnsthechipsanddeclares:“None shall engrave runes / If one can’t discern them” (Skalatmaðr rúnarrista, /nemaráðavelkunni).Thenhepicksuphisknife,cutshispalmandengraves some other runes, which enable the sick girl to quickly lose herlethargy: “I engrave the rune in thewhalebone. / I color the characters redwith blood / I choose my words / To engrave them in the whalebone.”196

“OtherNorseworks,”writes François-XavierDillmann, “are just as rich instoriesinvolvingmagicordivination.”197

Egill Skalla-Grímsson is introduced in the saga that bears his name as atrue“runesmith.”Thattermispresentasisinseveralrunicinscriptions,liketheoneontheBjörketorpRunestone(Sweden,6thcentury):haidRrūnōronufalhk hādra ginrūnaR, “I, runesmith, hide here powerful runes.” Therunesmith(rúnameistariinIcelandicmedievalsources)isquiteevidentlythe

onewhohastheknowledgeoftheFuþark,whichisn’tnecessarilythecaseofthe person actually engraving runes (runristare in Swedish,Runenritzer inGerman).Butweknowverylittleabouthissocialstatus,hisexactfunctionorthecircumstancesheintervenedunder.Itispossiblethathehadasacerdotalfunction.“Thevastmajorityofthetwenty-fiverunesmithswhosenamesarementionedinwritingismadeofmagicians,consecratedbeings,evenpriests,”notesFrançois-XavierDillmann.198Runesmithscouldalsobewomen.Forthatmatter,EgillSkalla-Grímssonwas raisedbyawomanversed inmagic, justlikethepoweroftheruneswasrevealedtoSigurdrbytheValkyrieSigrdrífa.Lastly, runesmiths could be poets: for instance, the Hillersjö stone (11th

century)reads“TheskaldTorbjörnengravedrunes,”whichisalsothecaseofEgillSkalla-Grímsson.“Themasteryoftherunesgavetherunesmithgodlikepowers […] so the runesmith appears to be acting in the name of Odinhimself, who invented the runes and gave them their magical powers,”underlinesLudwigBuisson,citingtheNolebyrunestone.199

Runesmiths engrave “power runes.” But even if several authors easilyacknowledgethatruneswereusedtoengravemagicalinscriptions,aswe’veseen,theyreadilyclaimthattheyaren’tinherentlymagical.Yet,ifwegobythePoeticEdda,itseemsliketheopposite.TheRígsþulapoem,forinstance,specificallymaintainsthatmasteringrunicwritinggrantsspecificpowers.Inthe Sigrdrífumál (the “Tales of Sigrdrífa”) the Valkyrie Sigrdrífa gives toSigurdr,whojustwokeupfromhismagicalslumber,directivesonhowtousetherunes:“Ifyouneedtoknowthefightingrunes/Ifyouwanttobesmart/Youmustengravetheminthepommelofthesword/Acrossthewholeblade/andclosetothetip/AndmentionTýrtwice(oknefnatysvarTý).”200Then,inverses6to19,shelistsawholesetofrunes(shecallsthem“trueletters”)responsible for powers: victory runes (sigrúnar), healing runes (bótrúnar),powerrunes (meginrúnar), savingrunes (bjargrúnar), beer runes,backwashrunes, memory runes, speech runes, limb runes, birthing runes, runesprotectingfromadultery,etc.201Allthoserunesseemtoactuallyholdapowerwithinthemselves.

THEMAJORRUNICSITESinScandinavia.

MAPOFTHESITESwheremostoftheoldestknownrunicinscriptionshavebeenfound.It’seasytonoticethattheyareconcentratedinnorthernEurope,especiallyinDenmarkandinsouthernSweden.

PARTIII

21

T

TheThreePhasesoftheMoon

HE SYMBOLIC ORMAGICALcharacterof therunes tendtoconfirmthattheywere used for divinatory purposes beforewriting purposes, but itdoesn’t entirely explain the peculiar order of theFuþark nor grouping

the runes into threeættir. In order to better understand either one of thoseissues,wecanonlyrelyon theories.The theorieswewillexpandon in thissection,which are based on a number of consistent clues, in that the threesequences of eight runes originally corresponded to the three phases of themoon.TheFuþark ismadeoftwenty-foursignspartitionedintothreeeight-sign sequences, just like theMoon cycles through three sequences of eightnights (ascending moon, full moon, descending moon), and five moonlessnights (or “blackmoon” nights). Is that similarity only a coincidence?Wedon’thavetothinkso.Itisonlyatheory,butmanysignstellustodigdeeper.

DiodorusSiculus remindsus that,“inancient times,when theSun’smotionwasnotunderstood,theyearwascountedthankstotheMoon’sjourney”(I,25). There is also a consensus that the Moon’s cycle was used by humansocieties to record time in the beginning, not theSun’s, since the former issimplertotrack.202Asolaryearis365.242days,alunaryearis354.367days.A solar month is 30.436 days, a lunar month is 29.530 in average (thevariation is the result of the orbit of theMoon around the Earth not beingcircular).Sincea lunaryear isaboutelevendays“late”compared toasolaryear,theonlywaytocorrectthegapistoalignthelunaryearwiththecycleofseasonsanduseleapdaysormonths.Thatistheoriginofthe“twelveholynights” (Weihenächten, wihen nechten in Middle High German, seeWeihnacht “Christmas” in German), following the winter solstice for theGermanic people, or which correspond to the twelve days spent by Zeus(diurnalSky)atPoseidon’s(in“Ethiopia”)fortheGreeks,andtothetwelvedaysofcreativeslumberoftheR̥bhusatSavitarandAgohya’sforVedicIndia

(seealsotheBrahmanritualcalleddvādaśāha“thetwelve-daysacrifice”).

Alexander Marshack’s work in America and Boris A. Frolov’s work inRussia203 have established in a parallel but independent way that theastronomical tracking of the Moon goes back to the Upper Paleolithic(30,000–10,000 BC). The Venus of Laussel, which is associated with theGravettianUpperPaleolithicculture(approximately25,000yearsold),holdsinitsrighthandacornucopiadecoratedwiththirteenverticallinesindicatingthe number of lunar circles that take place in a year. A Neolithic calendardiscoveredinthevillageofSlatino,Bulgaria,alsodisplaysatablewithrowsofvertical lines that indicate thephasesof theMoon.Ithasbeenconfirmedbyarchaeology,iconographyanditsroleinwinternightsthatthecultoftheMoonwaspresentinScandinaviaintheMesolithic.204

Thankstomicrophotographyandtheuseofbinocularmagnifyingglasses,AlexanderMarshackhasbeenabletodeciphermarksandnotchesonseveralhundreds of prehistoric objects that go back to the Aurignacian and theMagdalenian (around themiddleof the lastWürmglaciation).Thosemarksand notches were until then considered to be “kill notches” or simplydecorations,buttheyactuallycorrespondtolunarphrasingnotatedwithallitssubdivisions.Amongthoseobjects,thereisa35,000-year-oldsmallfragmentexhumed from the Blanchard shelter in Dordogne, which bears sixty-nineroundorcrescent-shaped incisionswhich represent thephasesof theMoon.Similarmarks have been found on a reindeer antler from theMagdalenianperiodinthecaveofLaMarche,inLussac-les-Châteaux,onboneandstoneobjects from theLartet shelter (Dordogne),Niaux,CougnacandRouffignacinFrance,ElCastilloandLaPiletainSpain.Marshackwritesthat

itseemsthatasfarbackas30,000BC,duringaniceage,thewestern-Europeanhunterusedanalready evolved and complex notation system,whose tradition could have gone back severalthousand years. […] [Those notations] weren’t a writing like we understand it to be yet.Nonetheless,itdoesseemlikewecouldseeinittherootsofscienceandwriting,insofaraswehave archaeological testimonies which indicate in all likelihood the presence of cognitive

processeswhichwillshowuplateroninscienceandwriting.205

Healsonotes about a lunar calendar engravedon themattockofUrgerlöse

(Denmark):

ThatcalendarcouldexplainthepresenceofatraditionofnotationandobservationinnorthernandcentralEuropeatatimewhenthefarawayagriculturalculturesoftheSouthhadadifferentregional tradition. It could explain the origin of calendar sticks and runic calendars found innorthernEuropeinthemodernperiod.

The coincidence betweenwomen’smenstrual periods and the length of thelunarcyclehasofcoursebeennoticedveryearlyon.Itexplainswhythe(full)moonhasoftenbeenconsideredtobeasymboloffecundity.Thewordsfor“month” and for “moon” are related in many Indo-European languages,includingEnglishandMonatandMond inGerman.See alsoarma-“moon,month”inHittite,mañ“month”inTocharianA,mēnsis“month”inLatin,mí(derivedfrom*mensos)“month”inOldIrish,amis“month”inArmenian.InHomericGreek,thewordformoonismeí,mèsintheDoriandialect,andmènin classicalGreek,which alsomeans “month.”206See also the names of theGreekgoddessMēnē,theGaulgoddessMene,theArmeniangoddessAmins.All those words are derived from the Indo-European *me(n)s-.207

“Comparative philology shows than in Indo-European languages, the termsthatdesignatethemonthandthemoonareidentical,withpossiblysomesmalldifferent suffixes, sowecandeduce thatat the timeof the firstAryans, themonthwasdeterminedby themoon.”208That lunarmonth is split into threeeight-ornine-nightperiodscorrespondingtothephasesofthemoon.

“Like many other Neolithic peoples,” writes Jean Haundry, “the Indo-Europeansstartedcountingyearswithtwelvelunarmonths(theycouldevenhave initially started with ten-month years!).” Lokmanya Bāl GangādharTilaknotesthatIndo-Europeans“madeofferingseverymorningandevening,everynewand fullmoon.”209Tacitus relates inChapter11ofhisGermaniathat theGermanicpeoplegatheredat thebeginningof lunarcyclesorwhenthemoonwasfull:

unlessanuntimelyandsuddeneventhappened, theygatheredonspecificdays,duringneworfullmoons(quumaut inchoatur lunaaut impletur),because theybelieve that therecan’tbea

betterinfluencetodealwithmattersathand.210

HeaddsthatunliketheRomans,theGermanicpeopledon’tmeasuretimein

days but in nights because to them, nights are more important than days:“Moreover,theydonotcounttimewithdays,likewedo,butwithnights,andthatisthatprinciplethatguidestheirappointmentsandsummons,becauseforthem,daysbeginaftertheendofthenight,”211BedetheVenerablealsowritesin 725 in his De Temporum Ratione that the Anglo-Saxons counted timeaccording to the courseof theMoon: “antiqui autemAnglorumpopuli […]iuxta cursum lunæ suos menses computauere.”212Traces of that period canstillbefoundinGermanexpressionsortermslikeSonnabend,heiligerAbend,Weihnachtsabend. The German word for “week,”Woche (wiko in Gothic,wekainOldHighGerman,wikainOldNorse,wikeorwukuinAnglo-Saxon,wike in Frisian) originallymeans change (Wechsel), that is going from onephaseof themoontoanother.Thewordheute“today” isderivedfrom*hiudagumeaning “this day” in Germanic, singular instrumental case of *hi-dag(a),butthere’salsohinaht,“thisnight”inOldHighGerman.213

Caesar said about theGauls the following: “Theydonot countdays, butnights;birthdays,thebeginningsofmonthsandyearsarecountedbymakingthedaystartwiththenight”(Debellogallico,VI,18).AccordingtoPlinytheElder,Gallicmonthsstartedonthesixthdayofthemoon(NaturalHistorye,XVI,250).Thestartingpointoftheyearwasthesamionosfullmoon.InOldIrish, there are twowords for “week,” sehtuin (sechtmain) is a recentwordtranslating the Latin septimana, andnouas (*nevm-etā)whichmeans “ninenights” is an older one, which confirms the existence of a nine-nightmeasurementunitfortimebeforetheweek.InWelsh,anotherwordforweekiswythnos “eightnights.” InBreton, theword formorrow isantronoz.Thehabit of counting with nights and not days is also confirmed for ancientGreeks, especially in Athens. The expression “night and day” is morefrequentthan“dayandnight”inHomer’swork.

ThefamouslunisolarColignycalendar,foundin189nearBourg(AIN)ona territory formerly occupied by the Gallic Ambarri also confirms theimportanceoftheMoonfortheCelts.Datingfromthe1stor2ndcentury,thislarge slab of bronze -of which subsists 153 fragments- indicates the

succession of days and months on a five-year timespan (so around 1835days).AllthewordsonitarewritteninGaulish.Thecalendarismadeupofthirty-daymonths(MAT,matu)thatareconsideredtobepositive,andtwenty-nine-day months (ANMATV, anmatu) that are considered to be negative.Leapmonthsareused to standardize the lunar calendar and the solar cycle.Everymonthisdividedintoafirstperiodoffifteendaysandasecondperiodof fourteen or fifteen days. That division is often marked by the wordATENOVX(*atenocts)“ascendingnight,”“returnofthemoon”or“darknessonce again” (See athnughudhwhich means “resurgence” in Middle Irish).There is also theTRINUXorTRINOXdistinction,meaning “three nights”(trinoxtion Samoni sindiu “celebration of the three nights of Samoniostoday”).214

The ancient ten month and thirty-eight-week Roman calendar called“Romulus’s calendar” (as opposed to Numa’s reformed calendar), whichmadetheyearstartinMarch,isaffectedbythelunarcycle,asthedivisionofmonths into calends, nones (“nine day timespans”) and ides show. Thecalends,whichdesignatethefirstdayofthemonth,correspondedtothenewmoon.Theidescorrespondedtothefullmoon.“None”designatedtheninthdaybeforetheides.InRome,thenundines(nundinæ)weremarketdaysthattook place every eight days in the calendar, thereby separating weeks (theinterval between nundineswas called nundinum). Some special ceremoniestookplaceduringcalends,nonesandides,andallthreeofthose“werelinkedtothephasesofthemoonandderivedfromaveryancienttimewhenpeopleusedalunarcalendar.”215TheidesweredevotedtoJupiter.Weekswereeightdayslong,buttheylikelyusedtobeninenightslong.Thetraditiongivesthecredit for the introduction of the eight days long week to the Etruscans.Nundinæandnonæ,whichhavethesameetymology,probablyoriginallyhadthe same meaning before the nones became the ninth day before the ides.Macrobius (I, 16, 36)mentioned a divinity calledNundina,which presidedover the daywhen babies are named, the ninth after a boy’s birth and theeighthafteragirl’sbirth.OnecanfindthatGermanicpeoplealsohadaritetorecognize a child and giving it a name on its ninth day, especially in Lex

Salicaand LexRibuaria (“infranovemnoctibus”), aswell as theVisigothsandtheAlamanni.

TheoldestGreekcalendarwasalsoalunarcalendarthatdividedtheyearintwo.Everymonthwasdividedinthreephasescorrespondingtotheascendingmoon, the fullmoon,anddescendingmoon.A leapmonthwasperiodicallyadded.

So, there isnodoubt that the lunarcyclewas the first tohavebeenused tomeasuretime,andthatitwastheobservationofthephasesofthemoonthatmade it possible. The first day of theweek is incidentally alwaysMonday(MontaginGerman,diluninBreton,etc.),meaningthe“dayofthemoon.”InmanyIndo-Europeanlanguages,thenameofthemoonalsomeans“splitter”or “timemeasuring,” the Indo-European root of its name being*meH1 “tomeasure”(seemā-inOldIndian,mā-inAvestan,ētīrīinLatin“tomeasure,”métron in Greek “measurement,”messen in German “to measure”), whichshows that “measurements”originally applied especially tomeasuring time.AsaZeitmesserorZeitteiler,themoonsplitstimeandpartitionstheyear(seemetai“year”inLithuanian).ItisevenechoedintheBible,whereitreadsthatYahweh“madethemoontomarktheseasons”(Psalms104,19).InthePoeticEdda, “Alvíss’s tale” (Alvíssmál) specifies that themoon is calledmáni bymenandmýlinnbygods,andthat“elves”(álfar)callityear-counter”(ártali,str.14).JeanHaundrywrites:

From the reflection on the monthly cycle begot a rich lunar mythology that shouldn’t berejected,even if ithassometimesbeenused inconsistently[…] theMoongod isprobably theoldestwarriorgodoftheIndo-Europeans[…]theMoonisdefactotheonlymajorcelestialbodythat doesn’t fear venturing into the nocturnal sky, realm of demons and spirits of the dead.Moreover, before being able to calculate the lunisolar year, Indo-Europeans, likemany otherpeoples,usedthelunaryear.So, themonthlycycleandthemoongodarecloselylinkedsince

theoriginoftheannualcycle.216

22

M

EightandNine

AURICE CAHEN SAID THAT “the partition [of theFuþark] into threegroups seems to be the result ofmagical preoccupations,” especiallysince“thenumber‘eight’hasaspecialplaceinrunicmagic.”217Ralph

W.V.Elliot believes it is likely that “thenumbers three and eight played apartinthemagicalusageoftherunes.”218Thenumberninemustbeaddedtothosetwonumbers,whichisasuperlativeamplificationofthenumberthree(3x3).Indeed,everywheretheyarefound,thenumbereightandnineseemtohaveaconnectionwiththephasesofthemoonandwiththenight.

Examining thevocabularybrings about a curious assessment right away. Inmost Indo-European languages, except Slavic languages, the number eightandthetermfor“night”(fromIndo-European*nokwt-s“night”)are related,thewordfornightbeinganequivalentofeightwithan“n”-prefix.

FRENCH: huit/nuit

OLDFRENCH: oit — uit/noit — nuit

OLDHIGHGERMAN: ahtō/naht

MIDDLEHIGHGERMAN: ahte/nacht

GOTHIC: ahtau/nahts

GERMAN: acht/Nacht

ENGLISH: eight/night

DUTCH: acht/nacht

SWEDISH: åtta(ōtta)/natt

NORWEGIAN: åtte/natt

DANISH: otte/nat

OLDENGLISH: eahta — æhta/niht — nieht

LATIN: octo/nox,nocto

ITALIAN: otto/notte

SPANISH: ocho/noche

PORTUGUESE: oito/noite

CATALAN: vuit/nit

OCCITAN: uèch/nuèch

ROMANIAN: opt/noapte

BRETON: eizh/noz

Furthermore, in almost all Indo-European languages, the number nine is ahomonymorthequasi-homonymoftheadjective“new.”

FRENCH: neuf/neuf

GERMAN: neun/neu

DUTCH: negen/nieuw

NORWEGIAN: ni/ny

DANISH: ni/ny

ENGLISH: nine/new

LATIN: novem/novus

ITALIAN: nove/nuovo

SPANISH: nueve/nuevo

PORTUGUESE: nove/novo

CATALAN: nou/nou

ROMANIAN: noua/nou

BRETON: nawornav/nevez

Howshouldthosetwoseriesbeinterpreted,knowingthattheyseemtobetoosystematictobeacoincidence?Whatisthelinkbetweeneightand“night?”And what novelty corresponds to a pace of nine? “Nine” here can not beinterpreted as a symbol of human gestation, since people only knew lunarmonths and a pregnancy lasts ten lunarmonths (280 days according to thelunarcalendar)orninesolarmonths.Theonlyconceivableansweristhatninemarksthetransitionfromonephaseofthemoontoanother:ninehappensattheendofasetofeightnights.However,itshouldbenotedthataccordingtoVáclavBlažek,theIndo-Europeannumeraleighthastheform*H2oktoH1(u)and it means “the two tips” (fingers without the two thumbs). The sameauthor states that *H1newm̥ *H1en-H1newm apply to nine and mean“lacking”(itlacksonecomparedtoten).Theinitiallaryngealthensupposedlydivertedfromthe*néwo-“new”group.219

Moreover,thefigurenineisespeciallyimportantintheGermanicreligion.Earlier in thisbook,we’ve talkedabouthowÓðínnhangs for“ninenights”

fromYggdrasill andhow thegiantBölthorn then teacheshimnine“mightysongs” (Hávamál, str. 138–140). In theGrímnismál, after having taken theappearanceofGrímnir,heconsentstobeingdetainedforeightdaysandeightnights by the kingGeirrödr, and then he kills him on the ninth night afterhaving revealed his true identity. He owns a golden ring called Draupnir(literally the “drier”),which significantlymultiplies itself eight times everynine nights (Skírnismál, str. 21) — a clear allusion to the succession of thephasesofthemoon.ÓðinnisalsomentionedintheAnglo-SaxonpoemNineHerbsCharm where, armed with nine wands that probably bear runes, heprevailsoverasnakeandcutsitintoninepieces.220

Nordic cosmology comprises nineworlds proppedup by the cosmic treeYggdrasill,whoserootsdigdeeptointotheEarth.IntheSkírnismál(str.39–41), Freyrmustwait nine nights before he can consummate his unionwithGerðr. In the Svipdagsmál, the witch Gróa gives nine charms to her sonSvipdag.Inthesamepoem,nineservantssitwithMenglöð.ThegodHermódrrodeSleipnirforninenightsinordertosaveBaldrfromHel,theunderworld(Gylfaginning, Chapter 49). The god Njördr and his wife Skadi, whoquarrelledoverwheretheywouldlive,decidedintheendtospendninenightsin at Þrymheimr and nine nights at Nóatún (Gylfaginning,Chapter 23).221

Heimdallr was supposedly conceived by nine virgin sisters (Gylfaginning,Chapter27).TheSkáldskaparmál(Chapter2)alsomentionthatÓðinnmadenineofBaugi’sserfskilleachother.IntheEdda,there’salsomentionoftheninedaughtersofgiants(Hyndluljód,str.35),thenineheadsofÞrivaldi,theninedaughtersofÆgir,etc.

Weknow fromAdamofBremen,whowrote fromaround1080, that thelargestceremoniesatthepagantempleofUppsalatookplaceeverynineyears(post novemannos), that theywere in honor ofÓðinn,Þórr andFreyr, andthat theylastedninedays.222Traditionalsongs(neniae)wereexecuted.RenéL.M.Derolezhighlightsonthattopicthat

LjungbergobservedcarefullythereactionsofSwedishpaganismagainstChristians.Henoticedthatthemanifestationsofanimosityoccuredapproximatelyeverynineyears(orinmultiplesofnine: around 1021, 1039, 1057, 1066, 1075, 1084, 1120), put another way, they very likely

coincidedwiththecelebrationsthattookplaceinUppsalaeverynineyears.223

Were those nine years originally lunar years? In any case, a homologybetween the nine-day lunar cycle and periods corresponding to nine lunarmonthsorninelunaryearsisprobable.

AmongtheCelts,thekingLóegairesurroundshimselfwithninechariots“in accordancewith the gods’ tradition.”YsbaddadenBencawr’s castle hasninegates,ninegatekeepersandninewatchdogs.KingArthurfights invainthe Twrch Trwyth during nine nights and nine days. According to theVitaMerlini,ninesistersstayupintheisleoffruit,theequivalentofAvalon,andthemainoneisMorgan.Therearealsonineplainsandnineriverscreatedbythe Dagda, nine sisters attacking Samson on his journey in Wales, ninewitchesbetweenPeredurandCaerLoyw,etc.

InGreece,DemetertravelstheworldforninedayslookingforherdaughterPersephone, abducted by Hephaestus. Leto, the embodiment of the Night,suffersduringninedaysandninenightsfromgivingbirth.ThenineMuses,daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (whose names are Clio, Calliope,Melpomene,Thalia,Euterpe,Erato,Terpsichore,PolyhymniaandUrania)areborn after nine nights of love-making.Tradition dictates that it tookMinosnine years in his cave to receive Jupiter’s laws. Another legend states thatMinos had a meeting with Jupiter every nine years, after which he couldprophesy.Everynineyears,AthenssenttoCretesevenyoungmenandsevenyounggirlstosacrificetotheMinotaur.InHomer’swork,Ulyssesattributesninegoatstothecrewmanninghistwelveships.InPylos,everygroupof500men,sittingonninebenches,offeredninesteerstoPoseidon,etc.

23

T

TheNorns,theParcaeandtheMoirai

HE POEMKNOWNASVöluspá(the“clairvoyant’sprediction”) isoneofthemostbeautifulsacredpoemsofmedievalpaganliterature. In it, thevölva or clairvoyant (the female substantive spá originally refers to a

vision,seespeculuminLatin)vaticinatesonthegreateventsofthehistoryoftheuniverse.Thissixty-six-versepoemhasbeenrecordedaroundthemiddleofthe13thcentury in theCodexRegius (which iswritten inOldNorseandonlycontainssixty-twoverses),andtheHauksbók(sixty-sixverses).Around1230, Snorri Sturluson used many excerpts of it in theGylfaginning. Theoriginaltextseemstohavebeenwrittenattheendofthe10thcenturybyananonymouspoetbasedonmuchmoreancientsources.Inthesixthverse,thevölvaproclaims:

Soallthegodsroseup

Tositonthejudgmentseats,

Supremedivinities,

Andtheyconferred;

Gavenamesto

Thenightandthedescendingmoon,

Theynamedthemorning

Andthemiddleoftheday,

Thefreshandbrown

Andcountedtimeinyears.224

Thistextshowshowimportantthe“night”andthe“descendingmoon”aretotheÆsirgods,whogavethemnames,andalsohowimportantitisto“counttime in years” to them. So, it confirms the role the lunar cycle had inmeasuring time. But the Völuspá also mentions the three Norns, who are

considered to be “virgins learned in many things” and who dwell underYggdrasill’sfoliage,thecosmictreewhichremains“eternallygreen”:

OneisnamedUrdr,

Theother,Verdandi,

—choppedlogs—,

Skuld,thethirdone;

Theycreatedthelaws,

Theyestablishedthelives

ofthechildrenofmen

andthemortals’fate.225

ThenameUrdmeans“whatoncewas”(thepast),Verdandimeans“whatis,whatitbecomes”(thepresent),andSkuldmeans“whatwillbe”(thefuture).ThethreeNorns(norn,pluralnornir)areakintotheDísir,whoregulatethefate of the dwellers of the nineworlds ofNordic cosmogony.They are the“spinners” crafting the thread of men’s fate.226 The text says that they“chopped logs” (scáro á scíði). “Maybe it is an allusion to the art ofengraving runes,” comments Régis Boyer.227 It should then be translated:“Theyengravedinwood.”

As divinities of fate, the threeNorns are theGermanic equivalent to theGreekMoirai and theRoman Parcae. In theGreek religion, theMoirai aredaughtersofZeusandHeraandliveinaplacenexttowheretheHoraelive.In Hesiod’s Theogony (v. 215), they are significantly introduced as thedaughters of the Night, which confirms that they correspond to the threephasesofthemoon.Incidentally,thewordmoirameans“phase.”Clotho,the“spinner” is linked to the newmoon and the spring,Lachesis, the “alloter”(hernamemeans“fate”or“actionofdrawingrandomly”)islinkedtothefullmoonandthesummer,Atropos, the“inevitable”is linkedtothedescendingmoonandthewinter.”TheRomanscalledClothoNona,“theninth,”anotherhintforalinkbetweenthenumbernineandthe“novelty”representedbythenewmoon. The “triplemoon” (ascending, full and descending)might alsocorrespond to the “triple Hékatè” or Tyndareus’s three daughters: Helen,

Phoebe andClytmnestra (see also the threeoracular priestesses in theZeussanctuary in Dodona). All of this clearly shows the connection betweendivination or foretelling,which required runes, and the phases of themoonwhichcorrespondtothreeseriesofeightnights.

24

J

TheHomologyBetweenDayandYear

EAN HAUDRY SUGGESTED bringing together under the expression“cosmic religion of the Indo-Europeans” a “coherent group ofrepresentations coming from a reflection on the three main temporal

cycles: thedailycycleof theday,night,dawnandtwilight, theyearlycycleand the cosmic cycle, both built after themodel set by the daily cycle.”228

Going back to theMesolithic, if not the Paleolithic, when the life of mendependedheavilyonthecycleofseasons,thisancientcosmologycomprisedbotha“diurnalsky”anda“nocturnalsky.”Thosetwoskieswereseparatesbya“redsky,”whichiseitheradawnskyandacrepuscularsky.Themythologyand the divinities associated with those three skies primarily express thedesiretogobacktothesunnierseason,whichisconsideredtobethedawnoftheyear.

This approach sheds light on a more archaic stage of the Indo-Europeanreligionthanthestagewiththeideologyofthethreefunctions,whilehelpingus tounderstandhow itgot to that stage.Bygivingacentral importance tosome cosmic entities, first and foremost theAusōs (Eōs inGreek,Uṣas inIndo-Aryan,aurōrainLatin,AustrōinOldGerman),itexplainstheoriginofthe tripartite ideologybymaking the sovereigngodsof the Indo-Europeansout to be representatives of the “diurnal sky” instead of “radiant” gods orsimply“celestialgods,”229inopposition to the“nocturnalsky”whichhas itsown divinities (*Tīwa- for the Germanic, *Mitra- for Vedic India). It alsoleadsus towards analyzing the Indo-European concept of “year” as a “dualbank”entity,directlylinkedtothe“heroic”themeofthe“crossingofthedarkwinterywaters.”

InthisinitialstateoftheIndo-Europeanreligion,theessentialthemeisthe

homologyofthetimeunits,whichmakesthecosmiccyclethehomologofthedayandtheyear,eachofthoseunitsbeingsplitinthreephases,adescendingphaseandanascendingphasewithadawnorcrepuscularphase inbetweenthetwo(theyearstartswiththewinter,justlikethedaystartswiththenight).This ideaisespeciallypresent inancientIndianliterature.Inthedescriptionofthedivisionsoftime,itreads:“amortal’syearisadayandanightforthegods; andhere is how the division is done: the day is the result of the sungoingNorthandthenightistheresultofthesungoingSouth”(Manu,I,67).Likewise,intheTaittirīyaBrāhmana:“Whattakesayearonlytakesadayforthegods.” In the Indo-IranianAvesta, the textof theVendidad (I, 1–3) alsohasapassagewhereAhuraMazdasaysthat“intheVarathatYimamade,”theinhabitants“consider thataday is likeayear.”This formulation,whichcanreflectthememoryofanancientarcticaccommodation,230hasaGreekandaGermanicequivalent.ThereforeitisaninheritedIndo-Europeanformulation.“The system of three temporal cycles devised as homologues can beconsideredtobethecentralfocusoftheIndo-Europeanideaoftheconceptionoftheworld.”231

In that system, the year is considered to have a diurnal part, a nocturnalpart, a dawnand a twilight, in the imageof thedaily cycle.When it is notsplit in two periods, a bright (“diurnal” or spring-summer) one and a dark(“nocturnal”orwintery)one, it it isdivided into three seasons, in the samewayasthelunarmonthisdividedintothreeperiodsofeightorninenights.232

ThisnotiongivesmeaningtotheunionofZeus,godof thediurnalsky,andHera.PhilippeJouëtwrites:

TheIndo-Europeanyearwasmadeoftwoparts,asummerpartandawinterpart,whichwererespectively considered to be diurnal and nocturnal andwere present in the Celtic year. TheIndo-Europeanshadagoddessoftheyear,whosenamewasfoundbyF.R.SchröderinthenameoftheGreekHera.Thecoupledyew-yērā-(Zeus-HerainGreek)mythologicallyrepresentstheallianceoftheDiurnal-SkyandtheSummertime,whosehierogamysignalsthespringtimereturn

oflight.233

IntheoriginalGreekpantheon,ZeusisnotinfactthespouseoftheEarth,butthe spouse (and brother) of the Year, Hera, who was originally the female

embodimentofthesummertime(thisiswhysheisconstantlyassociatedwiththecolorwhite).Likewise,AphroditerepresentedtheDawnoftheyearbeforebecomingthegoddessoflove.ThisiswhytheVedichymnsdedicatedtotheDawn must be understood both as a daily celebration of the sunrise (afunctionattributedlaterontoEōsinGreece)andasacelebrationoftheendofwintertime. TheGreeks also divided the year in seasons calledhorae, anamethatfirstappliedtothethreeyearlyseasons,andthentothepartsoftheday,becausehoursconstitute the“seasons” inaway. It isonlyafter a longevolution, underlinesHaudry, that theHours’ (Horae) name finally becamethe unit dayswere counted in. In the Iliad,where they are firstmentioned,theyareintroducedasgatekeepersofthesky.Their“return”originallyservedthe purpose of counting the years. According to Hesiod, they are namedEunomia,DikeandEirene.

TheIndo-Europeansrefertothe“summertime”withthenominalthemeyē/ōr-.Thisisthetermthatendedupmeaningtheentiretyoftheyear(seeyār-in Avestan, ar in Danish, år in Swedish, jēr in Gothic, jār in Old HighGerman,Jahr inGerman, jēr inOldFrisian, jier in Frisian, jaer inMiddleDutch,jaarinDutch,gēarinAnglo-Saxon,géarorgērinOldEnglish,yearin English, jéras in Lithuanian, etc. See also the Venetic word for year,confirmedintheinscriptionsofEste,*yōro-).234InGreece,thesameterm,inarevealing way, gave the Hours their name (*yōrā), who are originallydivinitiesassociatedwiththereturnofthespring(theyaccompanythedawnoftheyear)andbyextensionthewholesummertime,aswellasHera’sname(*yērā-),Zeus’s spouse, and finally the term“hero,”whichoriginally is thepersonwho“conquerstheyear,”meaningtheonewhoreachesordeliversthespring after having “crossed the waters of the wintery darkness” (seeHeracles’s name and Jaroslav’s name, both meaning “glory of thesummertime”).JeanHaundrywrites:

Inspectionsofmythologicalandritualfactsshowedthattheunion[ofZeusandHera]initiallysymbolizedtheyearlyreunionof thesummertimeandthe lightofdayafter thewinterynight,therebyenablingustounderstandthewellestablished — butinexplicable — homologybetween

yearandday:amortal’syearisadayforgods.235

25

J

TheRuneforTheWord“Year”

EANHAUDRYWRITESTHAT:“curiously,theGermanicrunefortheyear,the one designating the phoneme /j/ and named after the word *jēr(a)whichmeans year, has the shape of a Janus,”236 that is to say the dual-

facedgodwho,inRome,notablypatronizedthetransitionbetweenyears(hisnameisalsofoundinthenameofthemonth“January”).

This rune is the rune number twelve, 2 or 1 (*jēran or*jæran, which arederivedfrom*ieranbuttherearealsotheforms*jāra*jēra-,árandger),andit indicatesthesemi-vowelj.Madeoftwojuxtaposedcurvesorsemicircles,onebeing convexand theother concave, itsmeaning is both “(good)year”and “good times (season),” which corresponds to the dual meaning of itsIndo-Europeanroot.Runicpoemsglossárwith“bountifulharvest,”anotionthat is also found in ōra in Greek and jarŭ in Old Russian “spring, goodyear.”237TherunicinscriptionontheStentoftenrunestone(Sweden,early7th

century),gives it the ideographicvalueof“prosperity,prosperousyear.”It’squitepossible that the twoelements thatmake the rune Il indicates the twoparts of the year (or even the dual moon, ascending and descending),especiallysinceitspositionisrightinthemiddleoftheFuþark.“Itcouldbe,”writesWolfgangKrause,“thatitsshapesymbolizesthetwosemestersoftheyear,ifwegobyasymbolwithasimilarshapefoundinnumerousmaterials,forinstanceontheclaycontainerfoundinHavors(Gotland),whichdatestothe4thcentury.”238Soitseems that therune twelvesplits fuþark letters intotwo equal parts, and corresponds to some sort of equinoctial axis (the yearbeginsat the fallequinox, soat thebeginningof thedarkperiod).The firsthalfof therunesdenotesby theiracronymssomerather“varunian”aspects,meaning nocturnal and dangerous, and the other half some rather “mitrian”aspects,associatedwithgoodandlight.Incidentallyitisalsoveryinterestingtonotethatthisruneisoneofthosewhichdoesnothaveanequivalentinany

Mediterraneanalphabetthatcouldhaveinspiredrunicwriting.239

26

T

AsterismsandConstellations

HEFUÞARKCOMPRISESTWENTY-FOUR SIGNS.Thosetwenty-foursignsare grouped into three eight-sign long sequences, but given thehomologymentionedearlier in thisbooks, thenumber twenty-fourcan

alsoalludetothedivisionofthedayintotwenty-fourhoursorthedivisionoftheyear into twenty-fourperiodsof fourteennights (fortnight),240oreven tothetwelvemonthsinayear.TheancientIndo-Europeanculturesdidn’thaveabasetensystem,asystemthatbecameprevalentonlymuchlateron.241Theyhadaduodecimal system.Thisbringsus to another theory,which links theFuþarktothezodiacconstellations,andevenifitistenuous,thetheoryisstillinteresting.

Thenocturnal sky is the best example of a skymap.Ever since prehistory,orientations of caves or megalithic monuments (Stonehenge, Newgrange,Goseck), as well as orientations of cave paintings (like in PechMerle andLascaux)havebeensetaccordingtoastronomicalobservations(sunrisesandsunsets during the summer or winter solstice, or during equinoxes, etc.) Ahuge literature has been dedicated this day to “archaeo-astronomy,” whichseems to be particularly expansive for the Germanic people and the Celts.Caesar wrote that the druids had “numerous speculations about celestialbodiesandtheirmotions”(Debellogallico,VI,12).

Those speculations were also, of course, about stars (from the Indo-European *ster). Uniting stars into constellations with specific names,observing the zodiac, and later on identifying four cardinal points in thehorizon,aswellasthemomentswhenseasonsbegin,seemtohavebeendoneinEuropeonaveryearlydate,totallyindependentlyfromtheMesopotamianzodiacmentioned in texts from the firstmillenniumBC.242The zodiac is acircularareaofthecelestialsphere,whoseeclipticiscenteredonthemiddle

andwhichcomprisesthetwelveconstellationsthatthesungoesthroughinayear. The moon and the sun never go outside this fairly narrow area. Thenumberofzodiacpartscomesfromthesiderealmotionofthemoon,whichisinretrogradefor13°20’everydaywiththedepthoftheskyontheeclipticasareference.

The Indo-Aryans came upwith that stellarmapping by identifying someasterisms on or near the ecliptic. An asterism is a singular figuremade ofparticularly bright stars (Altair in the constellation of Aquila, Vega in theconstellationofLyra, theWofCassiopeia,Orion’sSwordandOrion’sBelt,etc.). Different cultures came up with constellations based on asterisms.Constellationsassociateseveral starsbasedonperspectiveeffects thatmakethemstandouttogether.InVedicIndia,theywereusedtocountsiderealdaysin lunarmonths.TheIndian lunarzodiacwasfirstmadeof twenty-fourandthen twenty-seven “moon dwellings” (nakṣatra), some powers of theNightthat are listed in theTaittirīyasaṃhitā (Yajur-Veda) (II.13.20), the Kāthakasaṃhitā (39.13)andtheAtharva-Veda (19.7).There isasmanyasterismsastherearedaysinasiderealmonth(twenty-seven,thirty-twodays),themoongoes from one asterism to the next every day. Every nakṣatra was thendivided into quarters (padas). In the Taittirīya Brāhmana (i, 5, 2, 7), thetwenty-seven nākshatra are called “houses of gods.” The moon (male) isdescribedinthatsystemasthe“king(ormaster)ofthestars”(nakṣatra-rāja).

Some tried to findaconnectionbetween the twenty-sevennākshatra andthetwenty-sevenValkyriesmentionedintheEdda,andalsothetwenty-sevenGandharvas. Some also tried to demonstrate that the twelve “celestialdwellings”(Himmelsburgen)described in theGrímnismál (str.4–17)wereaancient description of the Germanic zodiac (it was the opinion of FinnMagnusenandKarlSimrock).Itisapossibilitybutitishardlyverifiable.ThenowfamousbronzeNebra skydisk found in1999 inex-EastGermany thatdates back to 1600 BC is the oldest Germanic depiction of the sky. It iscomposedofamooncrescentandafullmoon,thirty-twostars(includingthePleiades), two arcs of a circle and a solar barge. The Greek Pleiades

correspondinIndiatotheKrittikā,whosenamemakethem“splitters”(theysplittheyearintotwoparts).TheyaresometimesembodiedbycaregiversofKārttikeya,sonofShiva.

The Hávamál, as we’ve seen earlier in this book, narrates Óðinn’sdiscoveryoftherunesafterhehavinghangedfor“ninefullnights”(str.138),howhe“pickeduptherunes”afterhaving“lookeddown”(str.139),buthowwashehanging?JereFleckthinksthathecouldonlyhavebeenhangingbythefeet,orevenbyafoot(liketheHangedMan,thetwelfthcardinaTarotdeck),becausehecouldonlyhaveleaneddownandpickeduptherunesthatwere“downbelow,”whichwouldhavebeenimpossiblehadhebeenhangingfrom theneck.243This remark is not absurd.What does one seewhen oneshangs by the feet during the night? The sky and in particular theconstellations.So,weretherunesthatÓðinndiscoveredmadeintheimageofthe constellations that he could havewatched for nine full nights? Arewesupposedtounderstandthatthenightswerenineconsecutivenights,thespanofnine“fullmoons”or,considering thepossiblehomologybetweennights,daysandyears, could it evenhavebeennineyears? It is at leastworthyofsomeconsideration.

ThereisatheoryaccordingtowhichtherunicsignsthatbroughtforththeFuþark’s letters have an “astronomical” origin. This theory has beenexpressed in a number of books, of varying quality, some of them beingcompletely whimsical.244 However we cannot dismiss it a priori. JeanVertemontandJean-GabrielFoucaudwritethat“makingthefirstrune,Fehu,coincideswith thePleiades,whichareconsidered tobe thefirstdwelling intheVedas,makes the shapes of all the following asterisms aswell as theirorderintheeclipticcoincidewiththeshapesofalltherunesandtheirorderintheElderFuþark[…]Thissymmetryisn’tbasedonindividualelements,itisbasedonafullsetofelements,whichmakesitvalid.”245So,arrangingsignsintothreeættir,whichwasinfluencedbythedivisionofthelunarcycleintothreephases,supposedlyalsoreflectsthedivisionoftheskyintothreedistinctsetsof constellationsor asterisms.Thepeculiarorderof theFuþark is then

supposedlyexplainedbybeing“theordergivenbytheancientzodiac,whichis expressed by the runes in agreementwith the Indian lunar zodiac of thenakṣatra.”246 The twenty-four runes supposedly correspond to the twelveconstellationsorasterismsrepresentedbytwoconsecutiverunesforeachofthem, and the zodiac gives us the key to identify the ascending anddescendingperiodsofthemoon.Unfortunately,there’sashortageofdecisiveevidenceforthistheory.

Nevertheless, let’skeep inmind thehomologybetween the threeættir oftheFuþark(3x8letters=24),thethreephasesoftheMoon(3x8nights=24),thethreeperiodsoftheday(3x8hours=24),thethreeoriginalseasonsoftheyearthatusedtobesymbolizedbytheHours(3x8half-months=24).

The mystery surrounding the origin of runic writing is far from beingsolved.

ILLUSTRATEDSTONESFROMGOTLAND(8thcentury)inthehalloftheSweddishHistoryMuseum.

ONEOFTHEWALLSOFTHEKING’SGRAVEnearKivikinSkåne,aNordicBronzeAgesepulcher’sburialmoundthathasbeenrestored.Itdepictsancientsymbolsandpetroglyphs:persons,

ships,warchariots,lures,etc.

TherunestoneoftheSwedishkingErictheVictoriousfromHaddeby(Haithabu),datingtothe8thcentury.

ThefamousAuzonCasket(Haute-Loire)wasmadeinthe7thcenturyinnorthernEngland.Runesareengravedinitsslabsofwhalebone.OneofitssidesdepictsanepisodeofthelegendofWaylandthe

Smith,andasceneevokingworshippingmages.Nowadays,itresidesintheBritishMuseum.Thischestisalsoknownasthe“FranksCasket,”fromthenameofSirWollastonFrankswhoacquireditin1857.

THESPEARHEADOFKOWEL,foundin1858byaPolishpeasant.

THEFAMOUSNECKLACEFROMTHEPIETROASELETREASURE(Romania),foundbyafarmerin1837andbearingarunicinscription.Ithasbeenlost,butit

wasgenerallyattributedtotheGoths.

ONEOFTHETWOGOLDENHORNSOFGALLEHUS,foundinnorthofMøgeltønder,in

southernJutland(Denmark).Thosehornsdatetoaroundthe5thcenturyBC.

GERMANICFIBULAfoundinCharnay(Bourgogne)in1857.Datingtotheendofthe6thcentury,itlistsalmostalloftheElderFuþarksigns.Therearealsotwoshortverticalinscriptionswhosemeaning

remainscontroversial.

“STICKSUSEDTOKNOWTIME.”IllustrationfromADescriptionoftheNorthernPeoplesby

OlausMagnus(Rome,1555).ThisbookwastheprincipalreferenceregardingScandinaviancountriesinthesecondhalfofthe16thcentury.

PARTIV

27

H

“PhoinikaGrammata”

ERODOTUS, WHO WROTE ABOUT the story of Cadmus (whose nameseems to have come fromkekadmai inGreek) in the 5th centuryBC.Cadmus was the son of the king of Tyre named Agenor and of

Telephassa, who came to Greek looking for her sister Europa, who wasabductedbyZeusintheformofabull.247EuropahadthreesonsfatheredbyZeus: Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon. Cadmus, who was fromPhoenicia,allegedlyfoundedthecityofThebesandspreadtherethealphabet,“thatwasuntilthenunknowntotheHellenes,tomyknowledge.”ThisisthereasonwhytheGreekscalledthelettersoftheiralphabetphoinikagrammata,“Phoenicianletters.”

Herodotus didn’t write that the Phoenicians invented the alphabet, as it isoftenbelieved.HejustwrotethattheybroughtittoGreece:“Whensettlinginthecountry,thePhoenicianswhocamewithCadmusbroughttotheGreeksalot of knowledge, amongothers, the alphabet.”Tacitus alsowrote that “theEgyptians call themselves the inventors ofwriting and claim that it spreadfrom them to Greece with the help of Phoenicians, because they were themasters of the sea. They took credit for inventing something they weretaught” (Annals,XI, 14).Diodorus Siculuswas just as cautious because heonlymentionedtwotraditions,nonecitingthePhoeniciansastheinventorsofthe alphabet. According to the first tradition, the Phoenicians learned thelettersof thealphabet from“Syrians,”and thenshared thatknowledgeafterhaving tweaked the shapes of some of them. According to the secondtradition,OrpheusdiscoveredwritingbybeingtaughtbytheMuses,andthenspreadtoGreece“fromtheNorth.”248ItshouldbenotedthataccordingtotheGreeks,Orpheusalsoinventedmagic.

28

B

FromthePhoenicianstotheGreeks

ESIDE THE FORMAL RESEMBLANCE between the two writing systems,the theory of Phoenician origin for the Greek alphabet seems to beconfirmed by the fact that the Greeks kept designating their letters

(alpha,bēta,derivedfrom’aleph,beth,etc.)inameaninglesswayfromtheirlanguage’sperspective.TheorderoftheGreekandPhoenicianlettersisalsofundamentally the same. But specialists are divided on the issue of thelocation,dateandcircumstanceswherethePhoenicianspreadtheirwritingtotheGreeks.249

ItwasreckonedforalongtimethattheborrowingofPhoenicianwritingbythe Greeks took place at a fairly late date, because the oldest alphabeticalinscriptions that we know of (generally written from right to left or inboustrophedon mode) were dated to around 700 BC. The inscriptions inquestionare the texts foundon the islandofThera, theDipylon inscription,Nestor’s cup from Pithecusses, on the island of Ischia, some shards fromCorinth,vasesfromHymettus.ItwasalsoRhysCarpenter’sopinion,whodidnotthinkthatGreekwritingwentfurtherbackthan720–700BC.250Butsincethen,thenumberofarchaicGreekinscriptionshasgrown.Theoldestones,oftheEuboeankind(theEuboansspokeanIoniandialect),dateto770–750,ifnot earlier.Oneof themost important discoverieswas an inscription in theEuboeanGreek alphabet on a vase from around 750 BC found in 1984 inItaly,intheOsteriadell’Osanecropolis,inLazio.Thisdiscoveryshowsthateven before the Greek colonization of the Italian peninsula, the Euboeanalphabet had spread to that region. Another alphabetical Greek inscriptiondating to –740 was found in 2001 on the bronze bowl in Midas’s burialmound in Gordium (Gordion), capital of ancient Phrygia. “The availabledata,”writesMariaGiuliaAmadasiGuzzo,“confirms that theGreeksknewhowtowriteasearlyas thefirstquarterof the8thcenturyandthat thefirst

one to use ‘Phoenician letters’ were the Euboeans.”251Moreover, the veryexistenceofalistofthewinnersoftheOlympicgames,whichstartedin776BC,givesus reason tobelieve that therewasawritingat the time. JohnF.Healeywrites:

The diversification ofGreekwritings took some time,which suggests that the datewhen thealphabetwasimportedismuchearlierthanthe8thcentury[…]Furthermore,inthe8thcentury,writing from right to leftwas already thenorm forwritingsderived fromPhoenician, so it ishardtoimaginetheGreeksborrowingthealphabetatsuchalatedateandshowinghesitationson

whatthewritingdirectionshouldbe.252

Nowadays,theGreekalphabetiscommonlybelievedtohaveappearedfromtheendofthe10thcenturyBCtothebeginningofthe9thcenturyBC,ifnotearlier. Margherita Guarducci believes it was in the 9th century.253 John F.Healey thinks that “the earliest possibledatewould likelybe around1100–1050,”whichmatchesBertholdLouisUllmann’s1930sestimations thatputthe borrowing in the 11th or 12th century BC, meaning during the Dorianinvasions.254 “It seems plausible,” writes Charles Higounet, “that theborrowingandadaptationofthePhoenicianalphabetbytheGreekstookplacearound the end of the 2nd millennium, or at the very beginning of the 1st

one.”255

The location where the transmission took place is just as much talkedabout. Many diverse theories have been put forth (Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete,Asia minor, etc.), but they are only suppositions. The fact that there wereoriginallyseveraldifferentGreekalphabetshinderstheoriesarguingthattherewasauniquesource.256Theunificationof thosealphabets tookplaceduringthewritingreforminAthensin403–402,whichmadetheIonicalphabetthestandard.

Unlikewhatsomethought,theGreeksdefinitelydidnotstartusingwritingfor economic or trading purposes -bookkeeping-, because no economicdocument has been found in the Greek world during the beginnings ofwriting. The initial use of writing seems to have rather been linked withpoeticnotation,especially in thecaseofHomericpoems.There isnodoubtthattheformattingoftheIliadandtheOdysseyasweknowthemislinkedto

theuseofalphabeticalwritinginGreece.257

Still, the question of the Phoenician alphabet’s transmission to Greeceremains open. How could Phoenician writing give birth to Greek writing?WasthereaborrowingordidboththePhoeniciansandtheGreeksuseatthesameanalphabetderivedfromacommonsetofsigns?258Canthesimilaritybetween the twowritingsbeexplainedbycausation,acommonheritage,orboth?

Analphabeticalwritingimpliesthecompletebreakdownofthelanguage’ssoundsintosimplephonemes.Thetwenty-twoletterPhoenicianalphabetisn’tactuallyonesinceitdoesn’tincludethevowels.Itssignsareassociatedwithafull syllable made of a constant consonant and a variable vowel. But aconsonantalwritingdidn’tsuit thenotationofa language likeGreek,whichindicatesthefunctionofawordinasentencebyaddingaendingmostofthetimemadeofavowel.JamesFévriergoesasfaraswritingthatinhisopinion,“therewasnoreasonfortheGreekstoadoptPhoenicianwriting.”259

Asa full-fledgedalphabet,asearlyas the8thcentury theGreekalphabetwas made of twenty-four signs, vowels and consonants. The Greeksintroducedvowels,maybebecause theywanted tokeep“thememoryof theformerMycenaeansyllabary,whichmadeaclearcutbetweensyllablesfromdifferent sets of vowels,” writes François Chamoux.260 The vowels weresupposedly obtained from the conversion of some guttural Phoenicianconsonants(theconsonant‘alefbecamethevowelalpha,hébecameepsilon,waugavebirthtodigammaandthentoupsilon,yodwasconvertedintoiota,ayin intoomicron).Adding those vowels,whichwere called in theMiddleAgesMatres lectionis, “mothers of reading,” has obviously been decisive.Thefirstbeneficiarieswereliteratureandpoetry,andthentragedy.261Indeed,it is only then that thewriting systemcould represent all the sounds of thelanguage,withasinglecharacterforeachphoneme.Thenumberofcharacterswasalsolimited.Whereastheformersyllabariesmakeasymbolmatchwithsoundforeveryindividualsoundofthelanguage,whichcanendinsystemsmadeupofhundredsof signs, theGreekalphabetbreaksdown thesyllable

intoallitsphonicparts.Itabandonsthesyllableasagraphicunit(“babebibobu,”etc.)andsubstitutesitforaverydifferentkindofunit,amoreabstractking (“a b c d e,” etc.) that goes against themost immediate perception oflanguage.That iswhyEricA.Havelock said that theGreek systemcanbeconsideredtobe“thefirstandonlygenuinealphabet.”262

29

T

BeforethePhoenicians

HERE WERE MANY WRITING SYSTEMS PRESENT in the EasternMediterraneanandtheNearEastmuchbeforethePhoenicians.Thetwooldestones,whicharealso themost famousandwell-spreadones, are

theEgyptianhieroglyphsandtheSumeriancuneiformwriting.Bothseemtohave appeared in themiddle of the 4th millenniumBC. The first Egyptianhieroglyphs appeared around–3400, under the dynasty ofThinis, so beforethebirthoftheproperpharaoniccivilization.ThemostancientknownartefactisthetabletsofAhā,thefirstkingofthedynastyofThinis.Thehieroglyphicwritingwastheoneusedonmonuments,whichwaslateronsimplifiedintohieratic writing and then into demotic writing. However, the first greatdiscursive texts with complex sentences only appear around –2680, underDjoser’s (or Djeser) reign, sovereign of the third dynasty, who built thepyramidinSaqqara.

The Sumerian tradition attributes the invention ofwriting to Enmerkar, thesecondrepresentativeof theUrukdynasty.Themostancientknownartefactbearing writing, clay tablets called Uruk IV with archaic cuneiform signs,supposedlydatebackto3200BC,butthatdatewasnotconfirmed.TheoriginoftheSumerians,apeoplewhowereneitherIndo-EuropeannorSemitic — which is also the case for the Elamites, the Hurrians and the Urartians — remainsmysterious.TheirethnogenesiswasfirstthoughttohavebeencentralAsia, but the theory was dropped. In 1951, the American assyriologistEphraim Avigdor Speiser thought that they settled in Lower-Mesopotamia,probablyby the sea froma site located to theeast. InFrance,AndréParrotleaned towards Anatolia and so believed they came from the north. TheSumerian civilization actually could have been the result of a pre-Indo-European wave of expansion that eventually became the Mediterraneancultures that used to be commonly called “Asianic,” because they weren’t

SemiticnorIndo-European.

Like the other peoples related to them, the Sumerians spoke anagglutinating language, meaning (in opposition to inflected languages) alanguage that adds pre- or post-posited particles to verbal or nominal rootsthat are generally invariable. Cuneiform writing, that quickly started beingcalled Sumero-Akkadian, was also used all over Asia minor, mainly forutilitarianpurposes.

The“Proto-Sinaitic” script should alsobementioned.This term refers toaboutthirtyinscriptionsfoundin1904bytheEnglishmanFlindersPetrieneartheminingcampsofSerabitel-KhadiminthedesertoftheSinai.Theoldestonesaregraffitisthatsupposedlygobacktoaround1600BC.AlanGardineroffered in 1916 a deciphering that still isn’t unanimously supported. TheseinscriptionscomprisesomesortofalphabetseeminglyderivedfromEgyptianhieroglyphswhichseems todenoteawestSemitic language.GerhardHermattributesthemto“‘Canaanites,’meaningProto-Phoeniciansfromthelibano-palestinianregion.”263TheywerealsoattributedtotheHyksos,264apopulationwhoseoriginisverypoorlyknown.

The Hyksos (in Egyptian demotic heka khasewet, literally “masters offoreignlands”)aresaidtohaveintroducedthewarchariottoEgypt,aswellasthe composite bow and weapons birthed from the bronze industry. A westSemitic origin was sometimes attributed to them, but recent works haveshownthat their languagedoesnotbelongto theSemitic languagegroup.265

They invaded Egypt, where they removed the leaders of the fourteenthdynastyandfoundedthefifteenthandsixteenthdynasties(between1674and1548 BC). In 1933, Carl Watzinger was the first to give them a Hurrianorigin. His theory was then picked up by the German Egyptologist HansWolfgangHelck,whosawinthemacompositeblendofHurriansandIndo-Europeans that migrated east to first settle in Anatolia.266 Gerharm Hermconsidersthemtobe“Indo-Germanic.”Buttheywerealsosuggestedtohavebeen Amorites, form Akkadians, Syro-Canaanites, Proto-Phoenicians andevenMycenaeans.TheveryrealityofaHyksosinvasionwasalsoquestioned

bysomeauthors,inparticularJürgenvonBeckerath.267

Finally, there are the Cretan writings, among which the most famous isLinearA. ItsvestigeswerediscoveredbyArthurEvansat thebeginningofthe20thcentury.268Thiswriting,whichhasyettobedeciphered,wasusedinancientCreteduring theperiodof the firstMinoanpalaces, soaround1900BC. Distinct from the ancient Cretan hieroglyphic, Linear A comprisedeighty-five signs and ideograms. Its older inscriptions are on clay tabletsfound in the Hagia Triada archaeological site in southern Crete. HaraldHaarmann269suggestedthatthewritingwasbroughtbypopulationswhocamefromDanubianculturesof the“OldEurope,”and that theywerechasedoutbythearrivalofIndo-EuropeanstotheAegeanSea,CreteandtheCyclades.There was also the theory that Linear A didn’t represent an agglutinatinglanguage,likeitwasbelievedforalongtime,butratheralanguagerelatedtoLuwian (orLuvian)or another language from theAnatoliangroup, or eventheIndo-IranianbranchofIndo-European.270

LinearA,whichwas a tool of theMinoan thalassocracy, spread far andwideonthecontinentandallovertheAegeanbasinasfromthemiddleofthe15thcenturyBC:itwasfoundinCyprus,inmostoftheAegaenSeaislands,and as far as theAeolian Islands, north ofSicily.From thatwriting sprungother writings, like the Cyprio-Minoan (around the 16th century BC), theLinearB(aroundthe15thcenturyBC),and thesyllabicCypriot (notbeforethe 11th century BC). The destruction of the Minoan civilization by theMycenaeansbroughtaboutitsdisappearance,exceptmaybeinCyprus.

Linear B appeared in Create around 1400–1350BC.We know from thedecipheringconducted in the1950sbyMichaelVentrisandJohnChadwickthatitrepresentedaprimitiveGreekdialect.Theoldercontinentalinscriptions(Pylos,Mycenae,Thebes, etc.) date to slightlymore than a century later. ItdisappearedwiththecollapseoftheMycenaeanempire.

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ThePhoenicianAlphabet

“CANAANITE”ALPHABETanteriorto1200BCwasfoundin1948intheUgarit archeological site, in northern Syria (nowRas Shamra). It is aconsonantal alphabet, but it uses cuneiform signs. So, it is completely

different from the Phoenician alphabet’s letters, and it didn’t grow intoanythingmorethanthat.Phoenicianwritingappearedatanunknowndate,butitiscertainthatitwasbeforethe11thcenturyBC.Indeed,around1000BC,all the consonants are already in place in this twenty-two-sign alphabet.FrançoiseBriquel-Chatonnetpointsoutthattheorderoftheletters“isalmostcontemporary of the appearance of the alphabet.”271The famous inscriptionfoundin1923byPierreMontet,theinscriptionengravedinthenameoftheking Ithobaal of Byblos (currently Jbail, north of Beiruth) on two sides ofkingAhiram’ssarcophagus,datestoaround1050BC.Thisinscriptionreadsfromrighttoleft.Itsdatingisnotentirelyconfirmed(anotherdatingmakingit older has been suggested). Some other, shorter texts that could go as farbackas the13thand12th centuriesBChave alsobeen foundon theSyriancoast,inparticularonarrowheads.

We don’t really know where the Phoenician alphabet was born. Some sayByblos, but Palestine iswhere themost inscriptions in 2ndmillenniumBCalphabeticalwritinghavebeenfound.Thiswritingflourishedsignificantlyinthe five former kingdoms of the Philistine plain: Gaza, Ashkalon, Ashdod,Gath andEkron.Then in thekingdomsofTyre,Sidon,Arwad andByblos,locatednorthoftheMountCarmel,ontheMediterraneancoastoftheLevant.Phoenician writing then spread to all the Phoenicians colonies and tradingposts, including small kingdoms following the Luwian tradition from Asiaminor.“Thefactthatapopulation,whoseusualIndo-EuropeanlanguagewastheLuwian,usedthePhoenicianlanguagehasprobablyhelpedtospreadandadaptthePhoenicianalphabettotheGreekworld,”reckonsAndréLemaire.272

Some people attempted to make the Phoenician writing derive from theProto-Sinaitic writing through the intermediary of Proto-Canaanite and theUgariticalphabets(MauriceDunand’stheory).Somepeopleattemptedtolinkittothetwenty-four“monoliteral”signsinventedbytheEgyptians,towhichthePhoenicianssupposedlyattributednewphoneticvalues.Somepeoplealsotriedtoaccountforthiswritingbyasimpledesireto“simplify”theSumero-Akkadiancuneiformwritingor theEgyptianhieroglyphicwriting.All thesetheories thatareactuallyonlysuppositionsandhardlyconvinceanyone.OntheUgaritic alphabet,MauriceVieyrawrote that the question at hand is toknowwhetherit

was used as a model for the Phoenician alphabet or whether both […] represented thecompletionofamoreancienttraditionalorderthatwasadoptedbybothalphabets.[But]noneoftheRas Shamra alphabet’s signs derives directly or indirectly fromMesopotamian cuneiformsigns,noteven frommarginalcuneiformsyllabaries […]So it isaproper invention,notonlywhen it comes to the creation of an alphabet, but also in the shape of the signs used by thisalphabet[…]Thisdoesn’tbodewellforthevalidityofanargumentoftenusedtotrytoderive

thesignsofProto-SinaiticfromsomeEgyptianshieroglyphs.273

The same author underlines that “going from ‘Proto-Sinaitic’ signs to thelettersof theCanaanite linearalphabet isn’taseasyas it seems,”especiallysinceit“isdefinitelynotclearhistoricallyorlinguisticallyhowthediscoverywould have spread from Sinai peninsula to Syria.”274 As for a desire to“simplify” the system of hieroglyphs or cuneiform signs, it seems dubious,especiallysincemostofthosesignshave“nolikenesswiththecorrespondingPhoenicianletters.”275

ItactuallyseemsimpossibletodemonstratethatthePhoenicianalphabetisderived from the Sumero-Akkadian writing, the Egyptian hieroglyphs,hieratic writing or the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions, or that it results from aneffortto“simplify”anearliersystem.MarcelCohenwritesthat

the circumstances and the specific location (somewhere on the eastern coast of theMediterranean) inwhich the alphabetwas formed elude us. Itmost likely has a pictographicoriginliketheotherwritings.Butwecouldnotlinkittosomespecifichieroglyphicdocumentsfrom the Phoenician region; we aren’t certain that they were connected to some engraved

documents found in the Sinai, from a suspicious date (between 1800 and 1500 BC), that

comprisedjustafewsignsthatlookedmoreorlesslikecoarsedrawings.276

“Thelinearaspectof thePhoenicianalphabet’s letters isquiteproblematic,”observesMauriceVieyra:

becauseitdoesnt looklikeitsshapeswerenaturallyderivedfromknownsystems.Neither thecursiveformsoftheEgyptianhieroglyphsnorthe‘Proto-Sinaitic’writing,whicharegenerallyconsidered to be its prototypes, immediately summarize the drawings that the Phoenician

alphabetpresents.277

CharlesHigounetwrites:

thepurposeofallthetheorieswastodiscovertheoriginofthematerialformofthePhoenicianletters.At first, people tried to directly connect those forms to the forms of simple Egyptianhieroglyphs or the forms of hieratic signs. Some other scholars thought those forms were adeformationofthecuneiformcharacters[…]thelinearCretanantecedentwasalsobroughtup[…]bringingittogetherwiththeProto-SinaiticwritingandwiththeArabicwritingsdidn’thelpbecause it seems that theyarederivedorparallel systems,not antecedents […]Finally, a last

groupofpeoplearguedthatthePhoeniciancharactersweremadefromthegroundup.278

Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet brings the topic of the appearance of thealphabeticalsystemtoaclose:“wemustadmit that it is impossible to trackthe historical process that resulted in the creation of this new system, or tolocatethecreationwithprecision.”279

So, the question that should then be asked iswhere do the letters of thePhoenicianalphabetcomefrom?WheredidthePhoeniciansfindthem?Whotransmittedtheletterstothem?

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TheSeaPeoples

HE TURN OF THE 12th century BC is not just a turning point but adramaticshift in thehistoryof theEasternMediterraneanandtheNearEast. In the span of a few decades, at the end of the 13th and the

beginningofthe12thcenturyBC,theinvasionof theSeaPeoplesdisruptedthewholeMediterraneanSea.BoththeMycenaeaninGreeceandtheHittiteempire in Anatolia collapsed one after the other. Meanwhile, mostprincipalitiesintheLevantandalmostalltheBronzeAgeculturesofCyprusad the Syro-Palestinian coast were disrupted. The only territories thatweathered the storm were far from the sea, like Upper Egypt andMesopotamia.

Itwas amassive invasion, a truemigrationofpeoples that’s reminiscentofthe“greatinvasions”(Völkerwanderung)oftheHighMiddleAges.Itwasnotonly raiding parties, but whole peoples with their women and childrentransportedon thebackofheavyox-wagonswho threw themselves into theconquestofanewhome.ThisexplainswhytheinvasionoftheSeaPeopleshas been described as “the largest and fasted invasion that world has everseen.”280

TogetherwiththeirLibyan,TyrrhenianandAnatoliantribesmenalliesthattheycarriedwiththemalongtheway,theSeapeoplesattackedEgyptintheRamessesIIIperiod,wholikelyreignedbetween1186and1154BC.Butthistime, they had some serious setbacks. The Pharaoh’s troops stopped themtwiceandthendefinitivelywipedouttheirnavyattheentranceofatributaryof the Nile. This exploit that happened in 1177 BC281 is confirmed by thecross-checkingoftheHarrisPapyrusandwhatiswrittenonthewallsofthefuneral templeofMedinetHabu.TheEgyptian textsmention thecaptureof100,000prisonersbyRamessesIII’stroops.

The bas-reliefs ofMedinetHaby describewith some degree of precisionthe attackers. They make them out to be tall, with a straight nose, oftentattooed, but clean shaven and not circumcised. They are dressed in somenature of kilts and leather corselets, they are equipped with large roundshields, spears and long swords (but never bows or arrows), and featherytoques(maybeeaglefeathers)orhelmetswithtuftsandchinstrapsfestoonedwith a pair of horns separated by a disk. On the ground, they used warchariots,butonthesea,theyusedshipswhosebowsandsternswereshapedas animal heads, most commonly bird heads. Moreover, they used ironmetallurgy.282

ThequestionoftheidentityandoriginoftheSeaPeoplesremainsoneofthemorediscussedtopicsof theresearchbeingundertaken.EliezerD.Orenseesitas“oneofthemostcuriouslyirritatingphenomenonofthehistoryofthe Mediterranean Basin.”283 Many authors confine themselves to linkingthem to theAegeanworld,but it ishardlybelievable that thepopulationofCyprus and Crete on its own disintegrated the whole Bronze AgeMediterraneancivilization.CyprusandCreteweremorelikelyjustastepoftheirexpansion.SomeotherauthorsbelievethattheycomefromtheBalkansand the Danube, more specifically Dalmatia or Illyria, or even southernRussiaand further. It is supposedlyonly ina secondphase that theysettledsomewhereintheAegeanSeaandAnatolia,wheretheysupposedlymingledwiththelocals.

EgyptiantextsdescribetheSeaPeoplesascomingfrom“islandsandlandbathedbytheVery-Green,”“islandsfromthemiddleofthesea,”“islandsandcontinentsfromtheglobalsealocatedallthewayupnorth,”theextremityofthe“greatcircularocean,” the“edgesof theglobaldarkness, theendof theEarth and the columns of the sky.” The Harris Papyrus also call them“peoples from the ninth arc” (the Egyptians divided the known terrestrialworldintonine“arcs”).This“nintharc”correspondstotheterritorieslocatedbetweenthe52thand57thparallelsnorth,sonorthernGermanyandsouthernScandinavia,orthebetweenthe48thand54thparallelsnorth.Theirinvasions

weresupposedlytheresultofterriblenaturaldisastersandclimatechangethataffectedtheirhomeland.PierreGrandetwritesthat“theyactuallybelongedtooneofthegreatIndo-EuropeanwavesthatleftmarksalloverthecoastsoftheMediterranean, fromSardinia toSicily.”This“Indo-Europeanwavecomingfrom theNorth supposedlymixedwithMycenaeans from the Peloponnese,and then spread to the islandsandcoastsof theAegeanSea.”284So the SeaPeoples supposedly formed a vast “multinational” coalition that way,amalgamating peoples from continental Europe and theMediterraneanwhowerealreadysettledinAnatoliaandtheAegeanIslands.

Fred C.Woudhuizen attributes to the Sea Peoples a language related toLuwian, like the languages of theDanunians, Cilicians, Isaurians, Lydians,Kaunians, Lycians and maybe also the Carians.285 This language is alsosupposedly the languageof thefamousPhaistosDisk.Found in1908 in theruinsofasmallMinoanpalace,thisdiskwitharoughly15cmdiameterbears242 pictograms on its two sides. Those pictograms are laid out on a spiraldelineated by bars that make sixty-one boxes. There are forty-five signspresentonitand,apparently,theycouldbereadoutwardsfromthecenterofthedisk.TheysupposedlyhavenothingincommonwithCretanhieroglyphsorLinearA,whichkillsanyhopeoflinkingthemtotheMinoaniconographicdirectory.Itseemsthatoneofthesignsrepresentawarrior’sheadwearingaplumedhelmetjustlikethehaircutattributedtotheSeaPeoplesdescribedonthe walls of the temple of Medinet Haby. Vladimir Georgiev has alsoconnected thePhaistosDisk to theLuwian language,286andJeanFaucounaulinkedittosomeancientProto-Ionian.287

EgyptiansourcesalsomentionthenamesoftheSeaPeoplesandnamethetenmostimportanttribes:theEqwesh,theDenyens,theDerden,theLukkas,thePeleset, theShekeleshmaybefromtheregionofSagalassosinAnatolia,theSherdenmaybefromtheBalkans, theTeresh, theTjeker,andfinally theWesheshmaybefromIonia.

Aftertheirdefeat toRamessesIII’stroops,all thesepeopleswentbacktoCyprus and the coasts of the Levant, before scattering all over the

Mediterranean.ItisverylikelythattheSardisandtheSicelssprungoutoftheSherdenandtheShekelesh,andtheygavetheirnamestoSardiniaandSicily.ThePelesetbecamethePhilistinesandsettledinPalestine.TheTereshsettledin Troad andweremost probably the ancestors of the Tyrrhenians and theEtruscans.TheEqweshwere theancestorsof theAchaeans,andtheDerdenwereprobablyidenticaltotheDardanoimentionedbyHomerintheIliad.TheDenyensupposedlysettledinGalilee,andtheLukkassupposedlybecametheLycians.

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FromthePhilistinestothePhoenicians

UTOFALLOFTHESEAPEOPLES,themostfamousoneisundoubtedlythePhilistines, they are calledPelischtim in theBiblewhere they arementionedmany times. Theywere settled in Canaan and the Levant,

especially in the southern part of the plain along the coastline. They areresponsible for its current name, Palestine.288 The Philistines created apowerfulfederationoffivecities(Gaza,Ashkalon,Ashdod,EkronandGath)that became amelting pot and started an original culture. That culturewasapparentlylinkedtotheAegeancivilization(theirpaintedceramicsareveryclosetoMycenaeanceramics).Theiroriginsremaincontroversial.Accordingtoa legendary tradition found in theBible, theycome fromCaphtor,whichhasbeenidentifiedtobeCrete.TrudeandMosheDothan,whounderlinethekinship between their material culture and the culture of the Mycenaeanworld,believe that theycame from theAegaen through the intermediaryoftheLevant.However,thelittlelinguisticandonomasticdatawehavesuggeststhat they probably came from Anatolia. The two theories can coincide ifconcedingthatthePhilistinesandthePelasgiansdescribedbyHerodotusandThucydideswerethe“native”inhabitantsofGreece.Thistheorywasbroughtup by the Frenchman Etienne Fourmant in 1747, then by the EgyptologistFrançoisChabas in 1873, and then itwaspickedupbyVladimirGeorgiev,starting from 1950, on the basis of the former Greek denomination of thePelasgians, Pelastoi. Finally, it was more recently picked up with newarguments by Christopher Wilhelm.289 But “Illyrian” origins were alsoattributed to thePhilistines.290NancyK. Sandarswrites that “thePhilistinesmayhaveonlybeenarulingclassthatwasabsorbedbythelocalpopulation.Inanycase,therewassomethinggenuinelyNordicintheircreation.”291

We hardly know anything about the Philistine language, beside that it wasmostlikelyanIndo-Europeanlanguage,probablyclosetoLuwianormaybeneo-Hittite. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, the IrisharchaeologistRobertAlexanderStewartMacalister presented thePhilistinesas the inventorsof thealphabet, andhe thought that theyshared itwith theother Semitic people of Canaan.292 The searches conducted in the ancientcitiesofAshdod,AshkelonandmoreimportantlyEkron(TellMikne)giveusreasons to believe that therewas a Philistinewriting. Some searchers thinkone example is the four terra cotta tablets found in 1964 by the Dutcharchaeologist Hendricus Jacobus Franken in Tell Deir ’Alla, in the JordanValley,butthisinterpretationremainscontroversial.ThesearchesinAshdodalso yielded two stratified seals bearing cryptic signs similar to Cypro-Mycenaean writing from the early Bronze Age. They have yet to bedeciphered.293 In August 1976, a five-line inscription on a piece of anearthenwarejar(whosefifthlinecouldbeanalphabetprimerthatcorrespondsbeside two exceptions to the twenty-two letters of thePhoenician alphabet)wasfoundinsideasiloinIzbetSartah,inIsrael.Itdatestothe12thcenturyBC,anditseemstogobacktoPhilistineoccupation.Incidentally,thevillageofIzbetSartahisonlyafewkilometersawayfromtheancientPhilistinecityofApheq,wherethePhilistineswonadecisivevictoryagainsttheIsraelites.Nonetheless, the exact origin of the inscription, which has yet to bedeciphered,remainscontroversial.294Still,thetheorythatthePhoeniciansgottheir writing from the Philistines, which lived on the coasts of the Levantbeforethem,mustbeconsidered.

The Phoenicians appeared after the invasion of the Sea Peoples, around1180BC.IntheIronAge,theirterritorystretchedallacrossthecoastalareaofLebanon,betweenMountCasiusinthenorthandHaifainthesouth.Theirmain cities were the city-states of Ugarit, Tyre, Sidon, Akka, Berit andByblos. The name given to them by the Greeks (Phoinikes, from phoinix,“red” inGreek) -a namewith an Indo-European origin, both from its stemphoinos,whichisanadjectivethatmeans“bloodred,”andfromitssuffixîk — might have evoked the purple dye that was their specialty. The country

they settled in was already inhabited since the 3rd millennium BC bysedentaryCanaanitetribes.Theyquicklymingledwiththosetribesthatmighthave had Amorite origins. Intentionally focused on the sea, they quicklyestablishedarealmaritimeempirethatcomprisedmanytradingposts.Theirshipshadhorseheadsasfigureheads.TheirpilotscouldfindtheirwayUrsaMinor.TheyfoundedCarthagein814BC.PhoeniciawasaddedtotheRomanprovinceofSyriain64BC.

ThePhoenician language belongs to theCanaanite language group (westSemitic),buttheoriginofthePhoenicianpeopleisstillunknown.AccordingtoGerhardHerm,who believes their ancestorswere from a region locatedbetweenWesternEuropeandSouthernRussia,thePhoenicianssprungoutofa fusion between Canaanites and Sea Peoples settled on the coasts of theLevant, in particular the Philistines and the Sakars. Hewrites that the SeaPeoples“hadtounitewiththeCanaaniteslateronandbeabsorbedbythem.Thisfusion,gavebirthtothePhoeniciannation,whosemaritimeknowledgewasbuiltontheSeaPeoples’expertise.”295ThenthePhoenicianssupposedlyshared the art ofhigh seanavigation andmaybe ironmetallurgy toSemiticpeople.TheHebrewsalsoaskedtheirhelptobuildtheTempleinJerusalem,according to what is written in the Bible.296Gerhard Herm adds that “theformulaCanaanites+SeaPeoples=Phoenicianscannotbequestioned.”ThegreatspecialistonthistopicSabatinoMoscatiagrees.297

So, it seems reasonable to claim that the Sea Peoples had a system ofsymbols that were the source of the Phoenician alphabet, but also otherMediterraneanwritingsandmaybetheLibyco-BerberscriptcalledtifinaghinTuareg.298Thistheorydoesn’tdismisstheinfluencethatthosewritingsystemshadoneachother,butitsuggestsacommonheritage.Itexplainstheformalsimilarities between the Phoenician, Greek, Etruscan, Latin and Germanic(runic)writingswithouthavingtomakethemderivefromoneanother.

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TheEtruscans

MONG THEAUTHORSOFANTIQUITY,onlyDionysiusofHalicarnassus(I, 30) wrote that the Etruscans were natives of Italy. All the otherauthors, Strabo, Plutarch, Livy, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Tacitus, and

SenecatheYoungersidedwithHerodotusinsayingthattheycamefromAsiaminor. The theory that the Etruscans were natives of Italy and weredescendants of Villanovians or Apenninians was picked up in 1926 by theItalian archaeologist Massimo Pallottino. This theory is heavily criticizednowadays.EverythingsuggeststhattheEtruscansdocomefromAsiaminor,asitiswritteninVirgil’sAeneid,aswellasinotherancienttexts.

ChristopherWilhelmdoesnotshyawayfromconnectingtheEtruscanswiththedispersionoftheSeaPeoplesattheendoftheBronzeAge,299butthereisevery reason to believe that their ancestors already occupied in the 14th

century BC some of the Troad, in north-western Anatolia. That is becauseHittitearchivesmentionatthattimeaTyrrheniancountrywestofthem.Afterhaving taken part in the Sea Peoples’ offensive against Egypt, theysupposedlysettledinCrete,theislandofLemnosandintheAegeanIslands.ThentheysupposedlymassmigratedtonortheasternItalyatthesametimeasthe future Rhaetic populations, which may have been driven out of AsiaminorbythearrivalofthePhrygians.Thucydides(IV,109)alsothoughtthatthey were related to the Pelasgians. Hellanicus of Lesbos, another Greekhistorian, thought that theywerePelasgians that landedat themouthof thePo,innorthernItaly.Aswe’veseenearlierinthisbook,EgyptiansfromtheRamesses III period knew them under the name Teresh (trsh) or Tursha,which corresponds to the Latin name Tusci derived from*Turschi. CalledTursānes or Tyrsenians (Tursēnoi) by the Greeks, they were calledTyrrhenians afterwards.Later on, theUmbri and theLatins called them theEtruscans.ThenameE-trus-cīisderivedfromtheancientforms*Trōs-esand

*Trōs-yā, which confirms that the Trojans and the Etruscans were related.FritzSchachermeyralsobelievedthattheEtruscanscamefromaterritoryinnorthwestern Asia minor that comprised the Troad, Mysia and northernLydia.300ThesametheorywasrecentlypickedupbyRobertS.P.Beekes.301

This is the ancient migration narrated by the Aeneid with the tale ofAeneas,hisfatherAnchises,andalsoAntenorthatwassaidtohavefoundedthecityofPatavium,whichisnowPadua.302Sothen theTrojan tale toldbyVirgilwouldthereforenotbeapoeticfabrication.TheTyrsenianssupposedlylived a long time close to theLydians, and the latter’s vocabulary eased itsway into the former’s language (the Lydian name Srkastu seems tocorrespondtoSergestus,acompanionofAeneasintheAeneid).BeekesalsobelievesthatthenameofAscanius,Aeneas’sson,isrelatedtoanallyoftheTrojansnamedAskaniosintheIliad.Bytheway,theAeneidisnottheonlyancienttextthatmentionsthatthefutureEtruscansleftforItaly.AnothertalementionsanEtruscanmigrationledbyCory(n)thos,sonofParisandOenone,and theEtruscancityofTarquinia (foundedbya legendaryhero thatmighthave been assimilated with the Anatolia god of storms Tarhuntas) is alsoknown as Corythus or Corinthus. Two centuries before Virgil, GnaeusNaeviusdescribedtheAeneas’sjourneyfromTroytoItalyintheprologueofhisBellumPunicum.Moreover, theoldest representationof theescapefromTroythatweknowofisonanEtruscanvasefromthe7thcenturyBC.

ItwasbelievedforalongtimethattheEtruscansarrivedinItalyonlyinthe8th centuryBCbecause they appear on themap at that time, on a territorybetween the Arno and the Tiber. But Herodotus, who describes theTyrrheniansasLydiansthatlefttheirlandunderthedirectionofthelegendaryking Tyrrhenus, son of Atys, assures us that they settled in the Italianpeninsulamuch earlier.Weknow that there had been relations between theMycenaeankingdomofPylosand theTyrrheniancoast,northofLatium,asearly as the third quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. So, the historicalEtruscans were supposedly the result of the fusion of newcomers and thenativepopulationmadeofVillanoviansandApenninians.

The Anatolian origin of the Etruscans has finally been confirmed bygenetics.StudiesonthemitochondrialDNAofTuscanpeoplehaveconfirmedthattheyarerelatedwithpopulationsfromAnatolia.303

The Estruscan language is generally not considered part of the Indo-European languagegroup.Weknowhow to read itbutwe still don’tknowhow to decipher it. Still, some linguists affirm that they are related to theIndo-European languages of Anatolia. They argue that those languages arequite original compared to Proto-Indo-European. Vladimir Georgiev, whomakesitouttobetheheirofHittite,believesthatthelanguagewasderivedfromaLuwiandialectrelatedtoLydian.304FranciscoAdradosalsothinksthatit is related to Luwian, whereas Jean Faucounau links Etruscan to Lycian.GiulioFacchetti thinkshe canmake a connectionbetweenProto-Tyrsenian,the ancestor of the Etruscan language, and Minoan documents written inLinearA.305PaulKretschmerthinksthereisaconnectionbetweenlanguageslike Rhaetian, Lycian, Etruscan and “Proto-Indo-European” populations.306

Morerecently,FredC.WoudhuizenattemptedtodecipherthelongestknownEtruscantextusingLuwian.307All thoseattempts tofindconnectionsremainuncertain. It is certain that thereEtruscanhas anAnatolian component (thenameof theTarquiniamost likely reflects thestemof theHittiteverb tarh-“vanquish”andinparticularitsderivationswith-u-).ButtryingtomakeitanAnatolianlanguagestumblesoverthefactthatthemoreconservativesectorsof the vocabulary like the numerals and the names of relatives can not beinterpretedfromtheperspectiveofAnatolianlanguages.Finally,itshouldbenotedthatthelanguagespokeninSardiniabeforetheRomanizationmayhavebeenrelated toEtruscan,but itmaynothavenecessarilybeenderivedfromit.308

ThefactthattheEtruscanswerenotnativesofItalyraisesthequestionastohowtheycametoseethealphabet.WasithandedtothembytheGreeks,like how it is generally believed, or was it handed to them by thePhoenicians?AftertheysettledinItalyorbefore?DidtheybringtoItalyanalphabet derived from the same source the Phoenician alphabet is derived

from?Wastherealineageoraparallelevolution?

The Etruscan alphabet is present on many objects. The oldest one wasdiscoveredintheprincelytombofMarsilianad’Albegna,anddatestoaround700BC. This alphabet comprises twenty-six letters,most of them are verysimilartoGreekletters.ItalsocomprisessignsthatshownoresemblancetoPhoenicianorclassicalGreek.Thisalphabet seems tocome fromCumae,aformer Greek colony near Naples. Since this alphabet (whose number ofletters was later reduced to twenty) is almost contemporary of the moreancientknownEtruscaninscriptions,theinscriptionsofthegreatnecropolisesof Tarquinia (Monterozzi) and Banditaccia (Cerveteri), we positively knowthat it was written from right to left or in boustrophedon mode. But whatGreek alphabetwas it derived from?The first version of theGreek systemusedbytheEtruscanswassupposedlythearchaicGreekalphabetusedinthetown ofChalcis inEuboea, at the end of the 8th centuryBC.After havingbeen brought by the Greeks that came to Ischia to settle, it was thensupposedlytransmittedtotheChalcidiancolonythatfoundedaroundthe–760thetownofCumae.ThisChalcidianalphabetalsosupposedlyinfluencedtheSicels’ alphabet (Sicily) and theMessapian alphabet (Apulia andCalabria).AccordingtoanothertraditionpassedonbyPliny,itwasthePelasgiansthatcreatedtheItalicalphabets.

However,AlbertGrenierthoughtthatthe“Helleniccharacter”ofEtruscanwriting could have been present before theGreek colonization of SouthernItaly.The1885discoveryoftwofuneralstelesnearKaminia,ontheislandofLemnosandfacingthecoastsofAsiaminor,thatbearinscriptionswritteninaGreek alphabet, but in a language close toEtruscan (“etruscoid”) rekindledthedebate.309MarcelCohenwritesthat

thestrokesdefinitelygivetheimpressionthattheEtruscanalphabetisrelatedtoGreek,[butthe

characters]givetheimpressionthattheyarerelicsofanancientwritingfromanothersystem.310

SinceLemnoswasHellenizedonly150yearslater,thosesteleswereprobablymadebyTyrseniansfromthenorthoftheAegeanSea.So,

thespawningoftheEtruscancivilizationinTuscany,inthe8thcenturyBC,wouldthereforebethe result of a long presence (four centuries) during which Tyrsenian warriors of Etruria,

mercenariesorconquerors,progressivelyestablishedtheirdominationoverthecountry.311

34

I

FromEtruscantoLatin

T IS GENERALLY BELIEVED THAT the 8th century is the earliest possibledate for the creation of the Latin alphabet. Indeed, the oldest Latininscriptions don’t go back further than the end of the 7th century. It is

notably thecasefor theLapisNigerfoundin1899onasteleof theRomanForum,whichcoulddatetothe6thcentury,andfortheEtruscan-madegoldenfibulafoundinPalestrina,insouthernLazio,thatdatestoaround600BC.Butthere’s fewLatin inscriptions that go further back than the 1st centuryBC.“Thiswritingwasoriginallyusedforreligiousandmagicalpurposes,”writesRaymond Bloch, who adds that “this writingwas easily thought to have adivineorigin.”312

The Romans supposedly got their writing (that originally only comprisedtwenty letters) from the Etruscans, after a few modifications done by theTuscans. The populations in the south of the peninsula (theMessapians inApuliaandCalabria,theOsciinLucaniaandMessina)gotitstraightfromtheGreeks.IftheLatinpeopleweredirectlyinspiredbytheGreeks,theywouldactually have had graphemes that could have helped them distinguish thevoiced occlusive velar /g/ from the voiceless one /k/. The fact that in theearlierinscriptions,thosetwovaluewererepresentedbyCseemstoindicatethat their model wasn’t the Greek alphabet, but the Etruscan alphabet inwhichthosetwovaluesarenotdifferentiated.Thistheory,whichisthemorepopularone,remainscontroversialnonetheless.Indeed,theEtruscanalphabetdoesn’tusetheletterso,bandd,whichcastsdoubtonthelikelihoodoftheborrowing.TheRomanalphabetwasthenexpandedinthe3rdcenturyBCbyadding the letterG.This letterwas createdby adding a stroke toC. Itwasfurtherexpanded in the1stcenturyBCbyadding the lettersYandZ.Theywere added to make transcribing from Greek easier. So, in the classicalperiod,theLatinalphabethadtwenty-threeletters.

However, the literacy rate of theRomanpopulation in of the 1st centuryADsupposedlypeakedat20%.313

THEMÖJEBRORUNESTONE(Uppland),illustratedbyahorseriderbrandishingasword.The

inscription“FrawaradaRanahahaislarginaR”iswrittenfromrighttoleft.

THEJÄRVSTARUNESTONE(Sweden),datingtothe11thcentury.ItevokesthememoryofakingnamedÞjóðmundr.

OTHERBOOKSPUBLISHEDBYARKTOSVisithttps://www.arktos.com/shoptoseeourlatesttitles.

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NOTES[←1]EricA.Havelock,AuxoriginesdelacivilisationécriteenOccident,FrançoisMaspéro,Paris1981,p.

12.

[←2]BernardSergent,LesIndo-Européens.Histoire,langues,mythes,Payot,Paris1995,p.386.

[←3]Henry d’Arbois de Jubainville, Les druides et les dieux celtiques à forme d’animaux, Honoré

Champion,Paris1906.

[←4]Caesar,Debellogallico,1,VI,c.14,§3.

[←5]ChristianJ.Guyonvarc’h,“Laconversiondel’Irlandeauchristianismeetàl’écriture,”inConnaissancedesreligions,June1990,p.22.SeealsoGeorgesDumézil,“La traditiondruidiqueet l’écriture: levivantet lemort,” in JacquesBonnet (ed.),GeorgesDumézil,Pandora/CentreGeorgesPompidou,Paris1981,pp.325–338.

[←6]LifeofNuma,XXII,2.

[←7]Lycurgus,XIII,1–2.

[←8]WilhelmGrimm(1786–1859),whowasoneoftheprecursorsofscientificrunology(ÜberdiedeutscheRunen,Dieterich,Göttingen1821)stillthoughtthatthesixteensignFuþarkwastheoldestone.Thattheoryhasbeendroppedforalongtimenow.JakobHornemannBredstorff(1790–1841),followedbyLudwigF.A.Wimmer(1839–1929),was thefirstone todemonstrateasearlyas1822 that thesixteensignFuþarkisbutatransformationoftheoriginaltwenty-fourruneFuþark.

[←9]SeeAslak Liestøl, “TheViking Runes: The Transition from theOlder to theYounger ‘Fuþark’,” inSaga-Book, 20/4, University College, London 1981, pp. 247–266; Michael Schulte, “TheTransformationoftheOlderFuþark:NumberMagic,RunographicorLinguisticPrinciples,”inArkivförnordiskfilologi,2006,pp.41–74;MichaelSchulte,“NeueÜberlegungenzumAufkommendesjüngerenFuþarks,”inBeiträgezurGeschichtederdeutschenSpracheundLiteratur,2009,pp.229–251; Michael Schulte, “Der Problemkreis der Übergangsinschriften im Lichte neuererForschungbeiträge,” in JohnOleAskedal et al. (Hg.),ZentraleProblemebei derErforschungderälterenRunen.AkteneinerinternationalenTagunganderNorwegischenAkademiederWissenschaft,PeterLang,Frankfurt/M.2010,pp.163–189;MichaelP.Barnes,“PhonologicalandGraphologicalAspectsoftheTransitionalInscriptions,”ibid.,pp.191–207.

[←10]RenéL.M.Derolez,LesdieuxetlareligiondesGermains,Payot,Paris1962,p.175.

[←11]TerjeSpurkland,NorwegianRunesandRunicInscriptions,BoydellPress,Woodbridge2005,pp.5–6.

[←12]ThephoneticvalueofeachrunewasfirstdeterminedbySophusBugge(1883–1907).

[←13]However,somerunes’namescouldhavebeenmodifiedintheChristianperiodbecausesomeofthem

wereconsidered tobe too“pagan.”SeeMaureenHalsall,TheOldEnglishRunePoem.ACriticalEdition, Toronto University Press, Toronto 1981, p. 15. After the 10th and 11th centuries, runicinscriptions frequently include Christian phrases. Yet, even after Scandinavia was converted toChristianity, some clerical texts still express some distrust and hostility towards runic signs, likeSólarljóð(“Songof thesun”),abookon religiousedificationwrittenat thebeginningof the13th

century,whichmentions“bloodyrunes”(blóðgarrúnir)andletters“paintedwithevilsigns”(fáðarfeiknstofum).

[←14]LucienMusset,Introductionàlarunologie,Aubier-Montaigne,Paris1965,p.131.Musset’sworkwas

in partwritten based on some of FernandMossé’s notes. The second edition,whichwas slightlyexpandedandimproveddatesfrom1976.

[←15]Ibid., p. 140. Edgar C. Polomé also believes it is “undeniable that the names transcribed [in the

manuscripts]areinalllikelihoodderivedfromacommonorigin,whichenabledWolfgangKrausetomake a plausible list of Ancient Germanic names” (“The Names of the Runes,” in AlfredBammesberger,ed.,OldEnglishRunesandtheirContinentalBackground,CarlWinter,Heidelberg1991,pp.421–438,quotedherep.422).

[←16]Ontherunicpoems,seetheimportantsummaryofAlessiaBauer,Runengedichte.Text,Untersuchungenund Kommentare zur gesamten Überlieferung, Fassbaender, Wien 2003. See also René L. M.Derolez,RunicaManuscripta:TheEnglishTradition,DeTempel,Brugge1954.

[←17]KarlHauck (1916–2007) initiated in 1985 the publication of a colossal seven volume corpus on the

entiretyof thebracteates found to thisday.Threemorevolumeswere added since2004.Hauck’stheories, which associate type C bracteates with the worship of Óðinn and Baldr (Balder) werecriticized, especially by Kathryn Starkey, Edgar C. Polomé andNancy L.Wicker. See Nancy L.Wicker andHenrikWilliams, “Bracteates andRunes,” in Futhark. International Journal of RunicStudies, 3, 2012 [2013], pp. 151–213. See also Morten Axboe, Brakteatstudier,Det KongeligeNordiskeOldskirftselskab,København2007.

[←18]Maurice Cahen, “Origine et développement de l’écriture runique,” in Mémoires de la Société delinguistiquedeParis,1923,1,p.5.

[←19]ElmerH.Antonsengoesas faras to think thatmanyobjects thatdateback to the4thor5th century

could justaswellactuallygoback to the first twocenturiesAD(“OnRunologicalandLinguisticEvidence forDatingRunic Inscriptions,” inKlausDüwelandSeanNowak,Hg.,Runeninschriftenals Quellen interdisziplinärer Forschung. Abhandlungen des Vierten Internationalen SymposiumsüberRunenundRuneninschriften inGöttingen vom4.–9.August 1995,Walter deGruyter,Berlin1998,pp.150–159;RunesandGermanicLinguistics,MoutondeGruyter,Berlin-NewYork2002,p.167).SeealsoUllaLundHansen,“DieerstenRunen,”inWilhelmHeizmannandAstridvanNahl(Hg.),Runica — Germanica — Mediaevalia [Festschrift Klaus Düwel], Walter de Gruyter, Berlin2003, pp. 394–398; Wolfgang Beck and Roland Schuhmann, “Die ältesten Runeninschriften imKontext (sprach)wissenschaftlicherEditionen,” inFuthark. InternationalJournalofRunicStudies,V,2014,pp.7–24.

[←20]See Mindy MacLeod and Bernard Mees, Runic Amulets and Magic Objects, Boydell & Brewer,

Woodbridge2006,p.23.

[←21]BengtOdenstedt, “The Inscription of theMeldorf Fibula,” in Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum unddeutsches Literatur, 1983, pp. 153–161; “Further Reflections on the Meldorf Inscription,” inZeitschriftfürdeutschesAltertumunddeutschesLiteratur,1989,pp.77–85.

[←22]KlausDüwel,“TheMeldorfFibulaandtheOriginofRunicWriting,”inClairborneW.Thompson(ed.),ProceedingsoftheFirstInternationalSymposiumonRunesandRunicInscriptions,specialeditionof theMichiganGermanicStudies, printemps1981,pp.8–14;KlausDüwel andMichaelGebühr,“DieFibelvonMeldorfunddieAnfängederRunenschrift,”inZeitschriftfürdeutschesAltertumunddeutschesLiteratur,1981,pp.159–175.

[←23]Bernard Mees, “Runes in the First Century,” in Marie Stoklund, Michael Lerche Nielsen, Bente

HolmbergandGillianFellows-Jensen(ed.),RunesandtheirSecrets.StudiesinRunology,MuseumTusculanumPress,UniversityofCopenhagen,Copenhagen2006,p.211.

[←24]See Bernard Mees, “A New Interpretation of the Meldorf Fibula Inscription,” in Zeitschrift fürdeutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 1997, pp. 131–139; Klaus Düwel, “Die Fibel vonMeldorf. 25 Jahre Diskussion und kein Ende — zugleich ein kleiner Beitrag zurInterpretationsproblematik und Forschungsgeschichte,” in Stefan Burmeister, Heidrun Derks andJaspervonRichthofen(Hg.),Zweiundvierzig.Festschrift fürMichaelGebührzum65.Geburtstag,MarieLeidorf,Rahden/Westf.2007,pp.167–174.

[←25]SeeMartinaDietz,EdithMaroldandHaukeJöns,“EinefrühkaiserzeitlicheScherbemitSchriftzeichen

aus Osterrönfeld, Kr. Rendsburg-Eckenförde,” in Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt, 1996, pp.179–188.

[←26]BernardMees,“RunesintheFirstCentury,”art.cit.,p.205.

[←27]SeeKlausDüwel,Runenkunde,4thed.,J.B.Metzler,Stuttgart2008,pp.3and13.

[←28]Christophe Bord, “La “réforme” runique. Matériaux pour une réflexion phonologique,” in Etudesgermaniques,October–December1997,pp.527–528.

[←29]Thomas V. Gamkrelidze and Viaceslav V. Ivanov, Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans. AReconstructionandHistoricalAnalysisofaProto-LanguageandaProto-Culture,vol.1,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin1995,p.533–535.

[←30]Venance Fortunat, Carmina VII, 18, Ad Flavium, 19–20. See Fridericus Leo (Hg.),VenantiHonoriClementianiFortunatipresbyteriitalicioperapoetica,Weidmann,Berlin1881,p.173.

[←31]SeeAageKabell,“PericulumRunicum,”inNorskTidsskriftforsprogvidenskab,1967,pp.94–126.

[←32]IvarLindquist,Religiösaruntexter.II.Sparlösa-stenen.EttsvensktrunmonumentfrånKarldenStorestidupptäckt1937.Etttydningsförslag,C.W.K.Gleerup,Lund1940.

[←33]EliasWessén,RunstenenvidRökskyrka,Almqvist&Wiksell,Stockholm1958.

[←34]Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,p.20.

[←35]RaymondI.Page,Runes,BritishMuseumPublications,London1987,p.12.

[←36]RenéL.M.Derolez,“TheRunicSystemanditsCulturalContext,”inClairborneW.Thompson(ed.),ProceedingsoftheFirstInternationalSymposiumonRunesandRunicInscriptions,op.cit.,p.20.

[←37]François-Xavier Dillmann, “Tripartition fonctionnelle et écriture runique en Scandinavie à l’époque

païenne,”inJacquesBonnet(ed.),GeorgesDumézil,op.cit.,p.249.SeealsoOttarGrønvik,ÜberdieBildungdesälterenunddesjüngerenRunenalphabets,PeterLang,Frankfurt/M.2001;WilhelmHeizmann,“ZurEntstehungderRunenschrift,”inJohnOleAskedalandal.(Hg.),ZentraleProblemebeiderErforschungderälterenRunen,op.cit.,pp.9–32.

[←38]MediaevalScandinavia,1970,p.202.

[←39]Runenkunde,op.cit.,p.VI.

[←40]WolfgangKrause,Runen,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin1970.ThatquoteisfromtheFrencheditionofthe

book:Lesrunes,LePorte-Glaive,Paris1995,p.51.

[←41]LucienMusset,op.cit.,p.36.

[←42]On runology in the Third Reich, one should refer to the excellent work of Ulrich Hunger, DieRunenkundeimDrittenReich,PeterLang,Frankfurt/M.1984.

[←43]WeshallmentionGuido (von)List’s “ariosophic” deliriumsonly for the record (DasGeheimnis derRunen, Zillman, Groß-Lichterfelde 1908; Die Bilderschrift der Ario-Germanen, G. von ListGesellschaft, 1910), who imagined an original runic alphabet of eighteen “armanist” runes (theArmanen-Runen),somefromtheyoungFuþark,theothers(“Eh”and“Gibor”)arethefruitsofhisimagination. Guido (von) List’s theories (1848–1919) were picked up after him by FriedrichBernhardMarby (1882–1966) and Rudolf Arnold Spieth. In that same category of crazy people,there are authors like Siegfried Adolf Kummer (Heilige Runenmacht, Uranus, Hemburg 1932),RudolfGorsleben (Hoch-Zeit derMenschen,Koehler u.Amelang,Leipzig 1930), PhilippStrauff,KarlSpiesberger(Runenmagie,Schikowski,Berlin1955),UlrichJürgenHeinz,KennethMeadows,DavidV. Barrett, IgorWarneck, Ralph Tegtmeier, Ralph Blum, Reinhard Florek andmany otherpractitioners of “runic gymnastics,” “runic yoga,” “runic meditation,” “runic astrology,” “runicrituals,”“runicoracles,”“Runelore”oftheNewAgekindetc.

[←44]GustavNeckel,“ZurFragenachdemUrsprungderRunen,”inStudiertillägnadeAxelKock,Gleerup,

Lund1929,pp.371–375.

[←45]LudwigF.A.Wimmer,“Dieældstenordiskeruneindskrifter,”inAarbøgerfornordiskoldkyndighedoghistorie,1867;RuneskriftensoprindelseogudviklingiNorden,V.Prior,København1874(trad.all.:DieRunenschrift,Weidmann, Berlin 1887); “Runeskriftens oprindelse og udvikling i Norden,” inAarbøger for nordisk oldkyndighed og historie, 1894, pp. 1–170; Les monuments runiques del’Allemagne,Thiele,Copenhagen1895.

[←46]“Origineetdéveloppementdel’écriturerunique,”art.cit.,p.6.

[←47]Holger Pedersen, “Runernes oprindelse,” in Aarbøger for nordisk oldyndighed og historie, 1923;

“L’originedesrunes,”inMémoiresdelaSociétéroyaledesantiquairesduNord,1920–1924,pp.88–136.

[←48]TheOghamwasusedinthefirstcenturiesafterChristtowriteOldIrishandBrittoniclanguages.The

phonemesaredividedintofourfive-signgroups,“aicmí”(plural)oraicme(singular).Threeofthosegroups represent consonants, and the fourth one represents the vowels. A fifth group whichcomprisesfivediphtongs(forfeda)wasadded lateron.SeeChristian J.Guyonvarc’h, “Die irischeOgam-Schrift,”inStudiumGenerale,1967,7,pp.448–456.The“letters”(feda)arerepresentedwithnotchesordashesalongastraightlinewhichusuallycorrespondstotheedgeofastone.Everysignbearsthenameofatreeoraplant,whichexplainswhythis“alphabet”isoftencalledbethe-luis-nin“birch-elm-ash” based on its three first letters. We know their names thanks to Irish grammarmanuscriptscalledAuraiceptnan-Eces(“thePoet’sfundamentalbook”),whichdatefromthe14th

century (see George Calder, ed.,Book ofBallymote, John Grant, Edinburgh 1917, pp. 272–276).Approximately350Oghaminscriptionswerefound,mostoftheminsouthernIrelandorinWales.Theyaregenerallyveryshortandareaboutincantationsormagic.Theoldestonesseemtodatefromthe4thcentury — butJamesCarneyreliesonphonologicalargumentstoclaimthattheygobacktothe1stcentury(TheInventionoftheOgamCipher“Eriu,”RoyalIrishAcademy,Dublin1975,p.57.See also JosephVendryès, “L’écriture ogamique et ses origins,” in Etudes celtiques, 1931, 4, pp.110–113).IrishtraditionattributesthediscoveryoftheOghamtothegodOgmius/Ogmios,brotheroftheDagda,theCelticJupiter.JustlikeÓðinnintheGermanicreligion,Ogmiosisa“binding”god,arepresentativeofthenightskywhoislinkedtomagic.Twostonesfromthemedievalperiodwerefound in the Isle of Man (Maughold Stone and Kirk Michael Stone). They bore both Oghamcharactersandrunes.ThetheorythatrunicwritingandtheOghamshareacommonoriginhasbeendefendedbytheNorwegianCarlS.Mastrander(1928).AlanGriffithsbelievesthattheFuþarkandtheOghamarebothderivedfromacommonGreekalphabet.SeeAlanGriffiths,“TheFuþark(andOgam):OrderasaKey toOrigin,” in IndogermanischeForschungen, 1999, pp. 164–210; “Rune-names: The Irish Connexion,” inMarie Stoklund,Michael Lerche Nielsen, Bente Holmberg andGillianFellows-Jensen(ed.),RunesandtheirSecrets,op.cit.,pp.83–116.OnthecomparaisonoftheOgham and the runes, see also Helmut Birkhan, “Keltisches in germanischen Runennamen?,” inAlfred Bammesberger and Gaby Waxenberger (Hg.), Reallexikon der GermanischenAltertumskunde, vol. 51,Walter deGruyter, Berlin 2006. The origin of theOgham, its potentialsconnectionswithrunicwriting,aswellaswhetherthealphabeticalOghamisbutasecondaryuseoftheOghamarethesourceofvarioustheoriesthatwewon’texaminehere.

[←49]FritzAskeberg,Nordenochkontinentenigammaltid.Studieriforngermanskkulturhistoria,Almqvist

&Wiksell,Uppsala1944.

[←50]ErikMoltke,“ErruneskriftenopstaætinDanmark?,”inNationalmuseetsarbejdsmark,1951,pp.47–58;RunerneiDanmarkogderesoprindelse,Forum,København1976;“TheOriginesoftheRunes,”inClairborneW. Thompson (ed.),Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Runes andRunic Inscriptions, op. cit., pp. 3–18;Runes and theirOrigin.Denmark undElsewhere, NationalMuseum of Denmark, Copenhagen 1985. That last publication was published the day after itsauthor’sdeath.

[←51]OntheinfluencetheGreco-RomancivilizationhadinDenmark,seeLisbethM.Imer,“Latinoggræski

romersk jernalder. Fremmed indflydelse påNordens tidligste runeskrift,” inAarbøger for nordiskoldkyndighedoghistorie,2004[2007],pp.63–105.

[←52]TheGermanicpeopledefinitelyencounteredLatinwritingveryearlyon.Tothisday,atleastforty-nine

inscriptionsinLatinthatgobacktothefirst160yearsafterChrist,mostof thembeingonbronzeobjects,havebeenfoundinScandinaviaandespecially inDenmark.SeeLisbethM.Imer,“RunesandRomansintheNorth,”inFuthark.InternationalJournalofRunicStudies,1,2010,pp.41–64.InhisAnnals(II,63,1),Tacitusevokesa letter thatMaroboduussent toTiberius.Inanotherpassage(II,88,1),hesaysthatinthetimeofArminius,aleaderoftheChatticalledupontheRomanSenateinwriting.Hedoesnotmentionthewritingthatwasusedinthosemissives,butonecanreasonablyassume that theywerewritten in Latin.AmmianusMarcellinusmentions amessagewritten by aGermanicleadertohispeople,butthereagaininaRomancontext(XXIX,4,7).Thoseindicationsshowthat theGermanicpeopleweren’t illiterate,and thatsomeof themknewtheLatin language.Hencethequestion:whydidn’ttheypickupLatinwriting?SvanteFischerseesintheappearanceofrunicwritingareactionagainst“Romanimperialism,”whichwasbornoutofa“desiretoimitatetheRoman imperialist ideology.” (Roman Imperialism and Runic Literacy. The Westernization ofNorthern Europe, 150–800 AD, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, UppsalaUniversity,Uppsala2005,p.45).

[←53]RunesandGermanicLinguistics,op.cit.,pp.93–99.

[←54]BengtOdenstedt,OntheOriginandEarlyHistoryoftheRunicScript.TypologyandGraphicVariationintheOlderFuthark,GustavAdolfAkademien,Uppsala1990.

[←55]ElmarSeebold, “DieHerkunft derRunenschrift,” in JohnOleAskedal,HaraldBjorvand andEyvind

Fjeld Halvorsen (Hg.), Festskrift til Ottar Grønvik på 75-årsdagen den 21. Oktober 1991,Universitetsforlaget,Oslo1991,pp.16–32.

[←56]HenrikWilliams,“TheOriginoftheRunes,”inTinekeLooijengaetArendQuak(ed.),FrisianRunesandNeighbouringTraditions.ProceedingsoftheFirstInternationalSymposiumonFrisianRunesatthe Fries Museum, Leeuwarden 26–29 January 1994, Rodopi, Amsterdam 1996, pp. 211–218;“Reasons forRunes,” inStephenD.Houston (ed.),TheFirstWriting. Script InventionasHistoryandProcess,CambridgeUniversityPress,Cambridge2004,pp.262–273.

[←57]GadRausing,“OntheOriginoftheRunes,”inFornvännen,1992,pp.200–205;ArendQuak,“Noch

einmal die Lateinthese,” in Tineke Looijenga and Arend Quak (ed.), Frisian Runes andNeighbouringTraditions,op.cit.,pp.171–179.

[←58]WilhelmHeizmann,“ZurEntstehungderRunenschrift,”art.cit.;MarieStoklund,“DieersteRunen — 

DieSchriftsprachederGermanen,”inLarsJørgensen,BirgerStorgaardandLoneGebauerThomsen(Hg.), Sieg und Triumpf. Der Norden im Schatten des Römischen Reiches, Nationalmuseet,Kopenhagen2003,pp.172–179;“ChronologyandTypologyof theDanishRunic Inscriptions,” inMarieStoklund,MichaelLercheNielsen,GillianFellows-JensenandBenteHolmberg(ed.),RunesandtheirSecrets.StudiesinRunology,MuseumTusculanumPress,Copenhagen2006,pp.355–383.

[←59]François-XavierDillmann,“L’écriturerunique,”inAnne-MarieChristin(ed.),Histoiredel’écriture,del’idéogrammeaumultimédia[2001],2nded.,Flammarion,Paris2012,p.279.Thesameexpressioncanbefoundin“Laconnaissancedesrunesdansl’Islandeancienne,”communicationprononcéeàl’Académiedes InscriptionsetBelles-lettres le6 février2009(Comptesrendusde l’AcadémiedesInscriptionsetBelles-lettres.Séancesdel’année2009,janvier-mars,Paris2009[paruendécembre2010], pp. 241–276). See also, from the same author, “Les runes, écriture des Vikings,” in LesDossiersd’archéologie,April1992,pp.20–29.OntheLatintheory,SeealsoTerjeSpurkland,“TheOlder‘Futhark’andRomanScriptLiteracy,”inFuthark.InternationalJournalofRunicStudies, 1,2010,pp.65–84.

[←60]John S. Robertson, “How the Germanic Futhark Came from the Roman Alphabet,” in Futhark.International Journal of Runic Studies, 2, 2001 [2012], pp. 7–25. The fourth out of six laws ofanalogicalchangestatedin1949byJerzyKurylowiczisthefollowing:“Whenaformissubjectedtodifferentiationafterhavinggonethroughamorphologicaltransformation,thenewformcorrespondstotheprimaryfunction(foundingfunction),anditsoldformisreservedforthesecondaryfunction(founded function).” See Jerzy Kurylowicz, “La nature des procès dits ‘analogiques’,” in Actalinguistica,1966,pp.121–138.

[←61]See Ernst Meyer, Einführung in die lateinische Epigraphik, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft,

Darmstadt 1973, p. 37.Runic inscriptions on stonemonuments (bautarsteinar) can sometimes bevertical,whereasinRomanepigraphy,lettersarealwayslaidouthorizontally.

[←62]Otto von Friesen, “Om runskriftens härkomst,” in Språkvetenskapliga sällskapets i Uppsalaförhandlingar,1904,pp.1–55;“Runskriftenshärkomst,”inNordiskTidsskriftförfilologi,1913,p.161–180;RösteneniBohuslänochrunornaiNorden,Almqvist&Wiksell,Uppsala1924.

[←63]Bernhard Salin and Johanna Mestorf, Die altgermanische Thierornamentik, K. L. Beckmann,

Stockholm1904.

[←64]Introductionàlarunologie,p.45.

[←65]Caesar saysabout theHelvetians thatknewandused“Greek letters” (graecislitteris), and that some

tabletsinscribedwitha“Greek”writingwerefoundintheircamp(Debellogallico,I,29,1;VI,14,3).

[←66]SeeJamesW.Marchand,“LesGotsont-ilsvraimentconnul’écriturerunique?,”inMélangesFernandMossé,pp.277–291.Ontheinscriptionsthatwejustmentioned,theauthorassuresusthat“Ifoneexaminesthemupclose,onecannotaffirmwithcertaintythattheyareGothic”(p.278).Regardingthe inscription of Pietroassa, gutaniowihailag, that was interpreted asGutani ō(ð)al wī(þ)hailag“hereditarypropertyof theGoths, establishedand inviolable,”hewrites that “it isn’t evencertainthatgutanioreferstothenameoftheGoths.”Moreover, it isn’tconfirmedthattheGothsusedthewordhailag(s) “sacred”They ratherused thewordweihswhichmeans thesame thing.MarchandalsoconteststhewidespreadideathatthebishopUlfilasusedsomerunicsignsintheGothicalphabethe invented to translate the Bible in the 4th century. The question whether the first inscriptionscompriseda“Gothic” linguisticelement isactuallycontroversial since thedaysofSophusBugge.RasmusRask,whowas in the19th centuryoneof the foundersof comparativephilologyheldanelementhecalledgotiskinthatregard.Herefusedtoassimilateittothegermanisk(“Germanic”)orthetysk (“german”), like JakobGrimmdid. PeterAndreasMunch (1847) also believed therewassome“Gothic”inthelanguageusedfortheinscriptionofGoldenHornsofGallehus.In1929CarlJ.S.MarstrandermadealistoffourteeninscriptionsthatwereaccordingtohimwritteninGothicbythe Heruli.Wolfgang Krause cut it down to four in 1966. Lena Peterson and then Klaus Düwelbecameevenmoreskeptical(“ACriticalSurveyoftheAllegedEastGermanicRunicInscriptionsinScandinavia,”inKlausDüwel,Hg.,RuneninschriftenalsQuelleninterdisziplinärerForschung, op.cit., pp. 556–575). See alsoHans FredeNielsen, “GothicRunic Inscriptions in Scandinavia?,” inFuthark.InternationalJournalofRunicStudies,2,2011[2012],pp.51–61.

[←67]MartinGiertz,“RepliktillGadRausingsdebattinlägiFornvännen87,‘OntheOriginoftheRunes’”inFornvännen,1993,pp.27–28.

[←68]KarlWeinhold,AltnordischesLeben,Weidmann,Berlin1856.

[←69]CarlPauli,DieInschriftennord-etruskischenAlphabets,Barth,Leipzig1885.

[←70]Carl J. S. Marstrander, “Om runene og runenavnenes oprindelse,” in Norsk Tidsskrift forsprogvidenskap,1928,pp.5–179(withasummaryinFrench,pp.180–188).Basedonthespearheadof Øvre Stabu, Haakon Shetelig (Préhistoire de la Norvège, H. Aschehoug, Oslo 1926) he alsobelieveditwastheMarcomanni.ItwasalsotheopinionofKarlSimon(1928).

[←71]RobertNedoma,Die Inschrift auf demHelmB vonNegau.Möglichkeiten undGrenzenderDeutungnorditalischerepigraphischerDenkmäler,Fassbaender,Wien1995;ThomasL.Markey,“ATaleoftheTwoHelmets:NegauAandB,”inTheJournalofIndo-EuropeanStudies,2001,pp.69–172.

[←72]MagnusHammarström,“Omrunskriftenshärkomst,”inStudierinordiskfilologi,1929,pp.1–67.

[←73]HelmutArntz,HandbuchderRunenkunde,MaxNiemeyer,Halle/Saale1935(2nded.1944).Itshould

be noted that at the time the publication faced some backlash in official circles. See the violentcritiqueofEdmundWeber,“EinHandbuchderRunenkunde,” inGermanien,September1937,pp.257–260. Helmut Arntz was also virulently criticized by the prehistorian Hans Reinerth. On the“Germanic people of theAlps” seeHans Schmeja,DerMythos von denAlpengermanen,Gerold,Wien 1968; Klaus Düwel, “Alpengermanen,” in Heinrich Beck et al. (Hg.), Reallexikon derGermanischenAltertumskunde,vol.1,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin1973,pp.190–191.

[←74]FranzAltheimandElisabethTrautmann,VomUrsprungderRunen,DeutschesAhnenerbe,Frankfurt/M.

1939.

[←75]OttoHaas, “DieHerkunftderRunenschrift,” inLinguaPosaniensis, 1955,pp.41–58; “DieHerkunft

derRunenschrift,”inOrbis,1965,pp.216–236.

[←76]RalphW.V.Elliott,Runes.AnIntroduction[1959],ManchesterUniversityPress,Manchester1971,p.

6.

[←77]Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,pp.47and49.

[←78]Thomas L. Markey, “Studies in Runic Origins,” in American Journal of Germanic Linguistic andLiteratures,1998,pp.153–200,and1999,pp.131–203.

[←79]BernardMees,“TheNorthEtruscanThesisof theOriginof theRunes,” inArkiv förnordisk filologi,

2000,pp.33–82.

[←80]Helmut Rix, “Thesen zum Ursprung der Runenschrift,” in Luciana Aigner-Foresti (ed.), Etruskernördlich von Etrurien. Etruskische Präsenz in Norditalien und nördlich der Alpen sowie ihreEinflüsse auf die einheimischen Kulturen. Akten des Symposions von Wien-Neuwaldegg, 2.–5.Oktober1989,VerlagderÖsterreichischenAkademiederWissenschaften,Wien1992,pp.411–441.

[←81]Vittore Pisani, “Italische Alphabete und germanische Runen,” in Zeitschrift für vergleichendeSprachforschung, 1966, pp. 199–211; Aldo Luigi Prosdocimi, “L’origine delle rune cometrasmissionedialphabeti,”inStudilinguisticiefilologiciperCarloAlbertoMastrelli,Pisa1985,pp.387–399;“Sullaformazionedell’alfabetorunico.Promessadinovitàdocumentaliforsedecisive,”inArchivioperAltoAdige,2003–2004,pp.427–440.

[←82]Runes.AnIntroduction,op.cit.,p.11.

[←83]AlainMarez,Anthologierunique,BellesLettres,Paris2007,pp.27–28.

[←84]Lesrunes,op.cit.,p.43.

[←85]RunesandGermanicLinguistics,op.cit.,p.96.

[←86]Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,p.69.

[←87]RunesandGermanicLinguistics,op.cit.p.111.

[←88]See Elmer H. Antonsen, “Die ältesten Runeninschriften in heutiger Sicht,” in Heinrich Beck (ed.),GermanenproblemeinheutigerSicht,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin1986,pp.321–343(icip.338).

[←89]RichardL.Morris,RunicandMediterraneanEpigraphy,OdenseUniversityPress,Odense1988,p.2.

Seealsotheauthor’stheory,Umbilicusrunicus.RunicandMediterraneanEpigraphy,UniversityofIllinois,Urbana1983.

[←90]Ibid.,pp.157–158.

[←91]ElmerH.Antonsen,“ZumUrsprungundAlterdergermanischenFuþarks,”inKurtR.Jankowskyand

ErnstDick(ed.),FestschriftfürKarlSchneider,JohnBenjamins,Amsterdam1982,pp.3–15.Bythesame author: “The Graphemic System and the Germanic Fuþark,” in Herbert Penzl, IrmengardRauchandGeraldF.Carr(ed.),LinguisticMethod.EssaysinHonorofHerbertPenzl,Mouton,TheHague1978,pp.287–297;“OntheNotionof‘Archaicizing’Inscriptions,”inJohnWeinstock(ed.),The Nordic Languages andModern Linguistics, University of Texas, Austin 1978, pp. 282–288;“The Oldest Runic Inscriptions in the Light of New Finds and Interpretations,” in Runor ochruninskrifter. Föredrag vid Riksantikvarieämbetets och Vitterhetsakademiens symposium 8–11september 1985, Alkqvist&Wiksell International, Stockholm 1987, pp. 17–28; “OnRunologicalandLinguisticEvidenceforDatingRunicInscriptions,”art.cit.Antonsen’stheorieswerecriticizedbyLena Pederson andKlausDüwel, butMichael P. Barnes thinks those criticswere “too hasty”(“WhatIsRunology,andWhereDoesItStandToday?,”inFuthark.InternationalJournalofRunicStudies,4,2013,p.24).

[←92]Enver A. Makaev, The Language of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions. A Linguistic and Historical-PhilologicalAnalysis,Kungl.Vitterhetshistorieochantikvitetsakademien,Stockholm1996.

[←93]“DieältestenRuneninschrifteninheutigerSicht,”art.cit.;RunesandGermanicLinguistics,op.cit.,pp.

3–13 and 93–117. See alsoAConciseGrammar of theOlderRunic Inscriptions,MaxNiemeyer,Tübingen1975,inwhichtheauthoroffersetymologiesthataresometimesnoticeabydifferentfromthoseputforthbyHansKraheorWolfgangKrause(DieSprachederurnordischenRuneninschriften,CarlWinter,Heidelberg1971).

[←94]Hans Frede Nielsen, The Early Runic Language of Scandinavia. Studies in Germanic DialectGeography,CarlWinter,Heidelberg2000,p.381.Fromthesameauthor,seealso“TheLinguisticStatusoftheEarlyRunicInscriptionsofScandinavia,”inKlausDüwel(Hg.),RuneninschriftenalsQuellen interdisziplinäre Forschung, op. cit., pp. 539–555; “The Early Runic Inscriptions andGermanicHistoricalLinguistics,”inMarieStoklund,MichaelLercheNielsen,BenteHolmbergandGillian Fellows-Jensen (ed.), Runes and their Secrets, op. cit.; “The Grouping of the GermanicLanguagesandtheDialectalProvenanceoftheOldestRunicInscriptionsofScandinavia(AD160–500),” in Oliver Grimm and Alexandra Pesch (Hg.), Archäologie und Runen. Fallstudien zuInschriftenimälterenFuthark,Wachholtz-Murmann,KielHamburg2015,pp.45–58.FredeNielsenexplainsthat“theidiomoftheoldestrunicinscriptionsinScandinaviaisthemostarchaiconeoutofalloftheconfirmedGermaniclanguages.”Foramoregeneraldiscussion,seeAlfredBammesbergerand GabyWaxenberger (Hg.),Das “Fuþark” und seine einzelsprachlichen Weiterentwicklungen.AktenderTagunginEichstättvom20.–24.Juli2003,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin2006.

[←95]RunesandGermanicLinguistics,op.cit.,p.116.

[←96]“Periculumrunicum,”art.cit.

[←97]IsaacTaylor,GreeksandGoths.AStudyontheRunes,Macmillan,London1879.

[←98]GeorgeHempl,“TheOriginof theRunes,” inJournalofEnglishandGermanicPhilology,1899,pp.

370–374; “The Runes and the Germanic Shift,” in Journal of English and Germanic Philology,1902,pp.70–75.TheoVennemannrecentlytriedtoexplainsomeruneslikep(p),4(ï),e(e)oro(o),as a result of a borrowing from a Punic orNeo-punic alphabet from the 3rd or 2nd century BC,notablybecause thefirst letterof theCarthaginianalphabet isa f, like in theFuþark.That theory,whichishistoriographicallyinteresting, isneverthelessobviouslyproblematicwhenitcomestoitschronology (and how the alphabet spread). See Theo Vennemann, “Germanische Runen undphönizischesAlphabet,”inSprachwissenschaft,2006,pp.367–429;“VowelsinPunicandinRunic,”inSprachwissenschaft,2013,pp.265–280;“TheOriginofthepRune,”ibid.,pp.281–286.

[←99]KlausDüwel,Morris’srecensioninGermania,1991,pp.230–234.

[←100]AsLucienMussetwrote,“IfDenmarkhaddirectlyimitatedaMediterraneanwritinginthe1stor2nd

centuryAD,therewouldhavebeennoreasontoaddressanyothersourcebesideLatinwriting(ormaybeaGreekwriting)”(Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,p.33).

[←101]Let us mention just for the anecdote the theory that runic writing’s origin was partially Nabataean,

whichwas put forth by John Troeng (“A Semitic Origin of SomeRunes. An Influential ForeignPresence inDenmark c.AD200,” inFornvännen, 2003, pp. 289–305), and let’s not forgetÖrjanSvensonn’s theory,whichasserts that the runeswerederived from theAramaic languageand thattheyarea“coded”writingemanatingfromoneoftheancient“losttribes”ofIsrael(Deblekingskarunornashemligheter,theauthor,Karlskrona2001)!

[←102]WhilereferringtoErikMoltke’swork,LucienMussetwritesthat“itisquitelikelythatDenmarkwas

oneofthefirstcentresofOldFuþark,ifnotthefirstone”(Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,p.31).SeealsoMichaelP.Barnes,Runes.AHandbook,BoydellPress,Woodbridge2012,p.9.

[←103]Wolfgang Krause underlines that “the absence of ancient runic writing inscriptions in the southern

Germanicareashouldnotbeattributedtothefactthatwoodisamaterialthatperishesfast.Thisisnotanadmissibleargument.Indeed,weknowofawholelotofrunicinscriptionsinscribedinwoodfromtheNorth”(Lesrunes,op.cit.,p.53).

[←104]Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,p.39.

[←105]The Greeks from the west part of theMediterranean Sea were already in contact with Scandinavia

around300BC.WealsoknowthattheamberfoundinMycenaeantombshadDanishorigins.Ontheancient “amber routes,” see J.M. deNavarro, “Prehistoric Routes betweenNorthern Europe andItalyDefinedby theAmberTrade,” inTheGeographical Journal,December 1925, pp. 481–507;Arnold S. Spekke,Ancient Amber Routes and the Discovery of the Eastern Baltic, M. Goppers,Stockholm1957;PattyC.Rice,Amber.TheGoldenGemoftheAges,VanNostrandReinhold,NewYork 1980; Gisela Graichen and Alexander Hesse (ed.), Die Bernsteinstraße. VerborgeneHandelswegezwischenOstseeundNil,Rowohlt,ReinbekbeiHamburg2012.

[←106]Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,p.48.

[←107]Lucien Musset, ibid., p. 42. From that viewpoint, one can only reject Henrik Williams’ opinion,

according towhom“only the formdetermines theoriginof the runes’ forms” (“TheOriginof theRunes,”art.cit.,p.214).

[←108]David N. Parsons,Recasting the Runes. The Reform of the Anglo-Saxon”Fuþorc,” Institutionen för

nordiskaspråk,Uppsalauniversitet,Uppsala1999,p.15.

[←109]RunicandMediterraneanEpigraphy,op.cit.,p.1.

[←110]RunesandGermanicLinguistics,op.cit.,p.93.

[←111]“Origineetdéveloppementdel’écriturerunique,”art.cit.,p.16.

[←112]Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,p.90.

[←113]Lesrunes,op.cit.,p.52(seefigureabove).

[←114]Anthologierunique,op.cit.,p.33.

[←115]Ibid.,p.24.

[←116]OnemustnotethatTerjeSpurklandistheauthorofacontroversialtheoryaccordingtowhichthetotal

number of signs in a row of runes should have originally been eight. See Terje Spurkland,NorwegianRunesandRunicInscriptions,op.cit.,p.80.

[←117]Karl Schneider, Die germanischen Runennamen. Versuch einer Gesamtdeutung, Anton Hain,

MeisenheimamGlan1956.SeealsoWolfgangKrause,“UntersuchungenzudenRunennamenI,”inNachrichtenderAkademiederWissenschafteninGöttingen,Philologisch-HistorischeKlasse,1946–1947, pp. 60–63; “Untersuchungen zu den Runennamen II,” ibid., 1948, pp. 93–108; RobertNedoma,“Runennamen,”inHeinrichBeck,DieterGeuenichandHeikoSteuer(ed.),ReallexikonderGermanischenAltertumskunde,vol.25,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin2003,pp.556–560.

[←118]ErikBrate,“Runradensordningsfjöljd,”inArkivfornordiskfilologi,1920,pp.193–207.

[←119]ElmarSeebold,“WashabendieGermanenmitdenRunengemacht?Undwievielhabensiedavonvon

ihren antiken Vorbilden gelernt?,” in Bela Brogyani and Thomas Krömmelbein (ed.),GermanicDialects.LinguisticandPhilologicInvestigations,Benjamins,Amsterdam1986,pp.525–583.

[←120]WolfgangJungandreas,“DieNamenderRunen.FuþarkundKosmologie,”inOnoma,1974,pp.365–

390.Foracritiqueofthatviewpoint,seeEdgarC.Polomé,“TheNamesoftheRunes,”art.cit.

[←121]SigurdAgrell,Runornastalmystikochdessantikaförebild,Lund1927;ZurFragenachdemUrsprungderRunennamen, Lund 1928;Die spätantikeAlphabetmystik und dieRunenreihe, Lund 1931–32;“Die Herkunft der Runenschrift,” inKunglinga humanistika vetenskapssamfundet i Lund, 1937–1938,pp.65–117.

[←122]SeeinparticularFranzRolfSchröder,AltgermanischeKulturprobleme,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin1929.

[←123]HeinzKlingenberg,Runenschrift — Schriftdenken — Runeninschriften,CarlWinter,Heidelberg1973.

[←124]MurrayK.Dahm,“RomanFrontierSignallingandtheOrderofthe‘Fuþark’,”inTheJournalofIndo-EuropeanStudies,spring-summer2011,pp.1–12.

[←125]See also Sigmund Feist, “Die religionsgeschichtliche Bedeutung der ältesten Runeninschriften,” inJournalofEnglishandGermanicPhilology,1922,pp.602–611.

[←126]SeeWolfgangKrause,RuneninschriftenimälterenFuþark,MaxNiemeyer,Halle/Saale1937,p.4.See

alsoWasmaninRunenritzte,MaxNiemeyer,Halle/Saale1935;“DieRunenalsBegriffszeichen,”inKurtHelmutSchlottig(ed.),BeiträgezurRunenkundeundnordischenSprachwissenschaft.GustavNeckelzuseinem60.Geburtstagdargebracht,OttoHarrassowitz,Leipzig1938,pp.35–53(pickedupinWolfgangKrause,SchriftenzurRunologieundSprachwissenschaft,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin2014,pp.150–165).

[←127]Lesrunes,op.cit.,p.50.

[←128]See Klaus Düwel, “Begriffsrunen,” in Heinrich Beck, Herbert Jankuhn et al. (ed.), Reallexikon derGermanischenAltertumskunde,vol.2,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin1974,pp.150–153.

[←129]Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,p.41.

[←130]Ibid.,p.88.

[←131]See Louritz Baltzer, Hällristningar från Bohuslän — Glyphes des rochers du Bohuslän (Suède),

Handelstidnings Aktiebolag, Göteborg 1881–1908; Hällristningar och hällmålningar i Sverige,ForumsBokförlag,Stockholm1989.

[←132]VomUrsprungderRunen,op.cit.,p.49.

[←133]The engravings of the Val Camonica weremostly studied by Emmanuel Anati, according to whom

“rupestrian art is writing before writing” (“L’art rupestre est écriture avant l’écriture”), and theengravingsoftheValléedesmerveillesbyHenrydeLumley.SeeHenrydeLumley,“Lesgravuresrupestres de l’âge du bronze de la Vallée des merveilles, Mont Bego, Alpes-Maritimes,” inL’Anthropologie, 1984, 4, pp. 613–647; Daniel Riba, Les gravures rupestres du Val Camonica,France-Empire,Paris1984.EmiliaMassonalsoofferedadeciphering.

[←134]SeeNicoleTorchet,PatrickFerrynandJacquesGossart,L’affairedeGlozel.Histoired’unecontroversearchéologique,Copernic,Paris 1978;AliceGérard,Glozel.Lesosde ladiscorde, Temps présent,Paris2013.

[←135]SeeHansJensen,DieSchrift inVergangenheitundGegenwart,DeutscherVerlagderWissenschaften,

Berlin1969;MaximeGorce,Lespré-écrituresetl’évolutiondescivilisations(18000à8000avantJ.–C.),Klincksieck,Paris1974;KárolyFöldes-Papp,VonFelsbildzumAlphabet.DieGeschichtederSchrift von ihren früheste Vorstufen bis zur modernen lateinischen Schreibschrift, Gondrom,Bayreuth1975;MartheChollot-Varagnac,“Lesoriginesdugraphismesymbolique,”Essaid’analysedesécrituresenpréhistoire,FondationSinger-Polignac,Paris1980;AndréCherpillod,“L’écritureenEuropeàl’époquepréhistorique,”inNouvelleEcole,50,1998,pp.93–111;AlainNicolasandJeanCombier,Uneécriturepréhistorique?LedossierarchéologiquedeMoras-en-Valloire,LaMirandole,Pont-Saint-Esprit2009.

[←136]SeeShanM.M.Winn,Pre-WritinginSoutheasternEurope.TheSignsystemoftheVincaCulture,ca.

4000 BC, Western Publ., Calgary 1981; Emilia Masson, “L’écriture” dans les civilisationsdanubiennesnéolithiques,”inKadmos,1984,pp.89–123;RichardRudgley,LostCivilizationsoftheStoneAge,Century,London1998(Chapter4:“TheSignsofOldEurope:WritingorPre-Writing?,”pp. 58–85); Michaël Guichard, “Les avant-courriers de l’écriture dans la vallée du Danube,” inAnne-Marie Christin (ed.),Histoire de l’écriture, op. cit., pp. 25–27. Harald Haamann (“Writingfrom Old Europe to Ancient Crete — A Case of Cultural Continuity,” in The Journal ofIndoEuropeanStudies,Autumn-Winter1989,pp.251–275)linksthewritingsof“OldEurope”withthelinearwritingoftheAegean,liketheCypro-MinoanLinear.

[←137]HaraldsBiezais,VonderWesensidentitätderReligionundMagie,ÅboAkademi,Åbo1978.

[←138]François-XavierDillmann,Lesmagiciensdans l’Islandeancienne.Etudessur lareprésentationde lamagie islandaise et de ses agents dans les sources littéraires norroises, Kungl. Gustav AdolfsAkademienförSvenskFolkkultur,Uppsala2006,p.12.

[←139]“TripartitionfonctionnelleetécritureruniqueenScandinavieàl’époquepaïenne,”art.cit.,p.250.

[←140]Patrick Moisson, “La polarité magie-religion dans le monde indoeuropéen,” in Etudes indo-européennes,1990,pp.137–189.

[←141]LucienMusset,“Problèmesderunologie,”inEtudesgermaniques,1957,p.250–253,icip.250(texte

reprisinNordicaetNormannica,Sociétédesétudesnordiques,Paris1997,p.101).

[←142]EmanuelLinderholm,Nordiskmagi.I.Urnordiskmagi,P.A.Norstedt,Stockholm1918.

[←143]HansBrix,Studierinordiskrunemagi,NordiskForlag,København1928.

[←144]AndersBæksted,Målrunerogtroldruner.Runemagiskestudier,Gyldendal,København1952.

[←145]MagnusOlsen,Omtroldruner,AkademiskaBokhandeln,Uppsala1917.

[←146]Wolfgang Morgenroth, “Zahlenmagie in Runeninschriften. Kritische Bemerkungen zu einigen

Interpretationsmethoden,” in Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Ernst-Moritz-Arndt UniversitätGreifswald,1961,pp.279–283.

[←147]Raymond I. Page, “Anglo-Saxons, Runes, andMagic,” in Journal of the Archeological Association,

1964,pp.14–31.

[←148]RunesandGermanicLinguistics, op. cit., p. 39.See alsoElmerH.Antonsen, “On theMythological

Interpretation of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions,” inMohammad Ali Jazayery andWernerWinter(ed.),LanguagesandCultures. Studies inHonorofEdgarC.Polomé,Mouton-deGruyter,Berlin1988,pp.43–54.

[←149]GerdHøst,Runer.Våreeldstenorskeruneinskrifter,W.Aschehoug&Co.,Oslo1976,p.15.

[←150]Runes.AnIntroduction,op.cit.,pp.1–2(seeabove).

[←151]Ibid.

[←152]LesdieuxetlareligiondesGermains,op.cit.,p.27.

[←153]StephenFlowers,whoseviewscanbequestionable,offeredagood summaryon thequestion:RunesandMagic.MagicalFormulaicElementsintheOlderRunicTradition,PeterLang,NewYork1986.Onthesametopic,seealsoKarlMartinNielsen,“RunenundMagie.EinforschungsgeschichtlicherÜberblick,” in Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 1985, pp. 75–97; Peter Buchholz, “Die Runen inreligion undMagie. Eddische Zeugnisse zu den Runen — runische Zeugnisse zur vorchristlichennordgermanischenReligion,”inEtudesgermaniques,October-December1997,pp.563–580;RobertNedoma, “Zur Problematik der Deutung älterer Runeninschriften — kultisch, magisch oderprofan?,” inKlausDüwel andSeanNowak (Hg.),Runeninschriften alsQuellen interdisziplinärerForschung,op.cit.,pp.24–55;JohnMcKinnell,RudolfSimekandKlausDüwel,Runes,MagicandReligion. A Sourcebook, Fassbaender, Wien 2004; Mindy MacLeod and Bernard Mees, RunicAmuletsandMagicObjects,BoydellPress,Woodbridge2006.SeealsothepagesGeorgesDumézilwroteonNorsemagicinLasagadeHadingus(SaxoGrammaticusI,V-VIII).Dumytheauroman,PUF, Paris 1953, as well as René L. M. Derolez, “La divination chez les Germains,” in AndréCaquotandMarcelLeibovici(ed.),Ladivination,vol.1,PUF,Paris1968,pp.257–302.

[←154]Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,pp.142and155.

[←155]Ibid.,p.145.

[←156]Ibid.,p.141.

[←157]Anthologierunique,op.cit.,p.85.

[←158]Etudesgermaniques,October–December1997,p.510.

[←159]RégisBoyer,L’Eddapoétique,Fayard,Paris1992,p.619.SeealsoRégisBoyer,Lemondedudouble.LamagiechezlesanciensScandinaves,Paris1986.

[←160]Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,pp.146–150.

[←161]KlausDüwelandWilhelmHeizmann,“DasältereFuþark — ÜberlieferungundWirkungsmöglichkeiten

der Runenreihe,” in Alfred Bammesberger and Gaby Waxenberger (ed.), Reallexikon derGermanischenAltertumskunde,vol.51,op.cit.,p.45.SeealsoKlausDüwel,“RunenalsmagischenZeichen,” in Peter Ganz and Malcom Parkes (ed.), Das Buch als magisches und alsRepräsentationsobjekt,OttoHarrassowitz,Wiesbaden1992,pp.87–100;“MagischeRunenzeichenundmagischeRuneninschriften,”inStaffanNyström(ed.),RunorochABC.ElvaföreläsningarfrånettsymposiumiStockholmvåren1995,StockholmsMedeltidsmuseumStockholm1997,pp.23–41.

[←162]Anthologierunique,op.cit.,p.158.

[←163]Theexpression“tocolortherunes”isoftenencounteredininscriptionsaswellasinthePoeticEdda.It

reallyseemsliketheruneswereoriginallypaintedinredorcoloredwithblood.SeeFrançois-XavierDillmann,“Lesrunesdanslalittératurenorroise,”inProximaThulé,2,1996,pp.66–67.

[←164]GeorgesDumézil,MythesetdieuxdesGermains,PUF,Paris1939,p.24.

[←165]SeeWolfgangKrause,“ZurHerkunftvonfinn.runo‘Lied’,”inFinnischugrischen

Forschungen,1969,pp.91–97.

[←166]SeeTerenceW.Wilbur,“TheWord‘Rune’,”inScandinavianStudies,1957,pp.12–18.

[←167]RichardL.Morris,“Northwest-Germanicrūn-‘rune’:ACaseofHomonymywithGo.rūna‘mystery’,”

inBeiträgezurGeschichtederdeutschenSpracheundLiteratur,1985,pp.344–358.

[←168]In the Gesta Danorum (I, VI, 4–5), this is the case of Harthgrepa, who is presented by Saxo

Grammaticusasawomanwhoengagesinnecromancianriteswiththehelpofrunicsigns.GeorgesDuméziltranslatedandcommentedonthatpassageinLaSagadeHadingus,op.cit.,pp.76–82.

[←169]LesdieuxetlareligiondesGermains,op.cit.,pp.173–174.

[←170]Lesmagiciensdansl’Islandeancienne,op.cit.,p.125.

[←171]Tacitus,La Germanie. L’origine et le pays des Germains, chap. 10, Arléa, Paris 2009, pp. 36–37,

translation PatrickVoisin.Original text: “Auspiciam sortesque ut qui maxime observant: sortiumconsuetudosimplex:virgamfrugiferasarboridecisaminsurculosamputanteosquenotisquibusdamdiscretossupercandidamvestemtemereacfortuitospargunt.Mox,sipubliceconsultatur,sacerdoscivitatis, sin privatim, ipse pater familiæ, precatus deos cælumque suspiciens, ter singulos tollit,sublatos secundum impressam ante notam interpretatur.” There is also a translation by PierreGrimal:“LesmœursdesGermains,”inTacitus,Œuvreschoisies,Clubdumeilleurlivre,Paris1959,pp. 33–48.Grimal uses the terms “stick” (andnot “branch”), “pieces” (andnot “some logs”) and“differentsigns.”Tacitus,bornaround56,diedaround117.TheexacttitleofhisbookshouldbeDeorigineet situGermanorum, a titlementioned in theHersfeldensis, inventoryof themonasteryofHersfeld,deliveredin1451to thepontifical legateEnochofEscoliso thathecouldhandit to theRomanCuria, like thepopeNicolasVwanted.WeknowGermania from thatversion,whichwaspublishedforthefirsttimein1473inNuremberg,Germany.Sinceitwaspublishedbeforethe15th

century, some authors wondered whether the text we have in our possession is true copy of theoriginal. See the Eugen Fehrle’s presentation of the Latin-German bilingual edition published in1957byWinkerinHeidelberg.

[←172]Inanotherpassageofhisbook,Tacituswrites thatmenandwomenofGermaniadon’twrite toeach

other: “When it comes to letters and their secrets, bothmen andwomen are ignorant” (literarumsecretaviripariteracfeminæignorant),accordingtoPatrickVoisin’stranslation(op.cit.,p.48).ButPierreGrimalprefers thefollowing:“Menandwomenequallyignoreclandestinecorrespondence”(“LesmœursdesGermains,”p.43),asentencewithaverydifferentmeaning.Tacitusdoesn’tmeanthat Germanic people don’t know how to write, but rather that they don’t form adulterousrelationshipswiththehelpofsecretloveletters,unlikeinRome(heexplainsthat“thereisverylittleadulteryinsuchalargenation”).

[←173]ArthurMentz,“Die‘notæ’derGermanenbeiTacitus,”inRheinischesMuseumfürPhilologie,1937,pp.

193–205.

[←174]Runes.AnIntroduction,op.cit.,p.66.

[←175]“WashabendieGermanenmitdenRunengemacht?,”art.cit.

[←176]“RunesintheFirstCentury,”art.cit.,pp.221–222.SeealsoAllanA.Lund,“ZumGermanenbegriffbei

Tacitus,” inHeinrichBeck (Hg.),Germanenprobleme in heutiger Sicht, op. cit., pp. 53–87; “ZurGesamtinterpretation der ‘Germania’ des Tacitus,” in Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang Haase(ed.),Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischenWelt. Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel derneuerenForschung.II.Principat.33.SpracheundLiteratur,3,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin1991,pp.1858–1988.

[←177]Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,p.155.

[←178]ThereisacuriouspassageintheIliadwhereHomerwritesthatPrœtus,kingofArgos,sentBellerophon

toLycia tomeet itskingwho ishisstepfather,“anddelivered tohimagruesomemessage,sealedtablets thatboredeathsigns”(VI,168, translationCh.GeorginandW.Berthaut).InPaulMazon’stranslation, the samepassage reads: “He sentBellerophon toLyciawhilegiving tohimgruesomesigns.Hehadtracedmanydeadlysignsonfoldedtablets.”ThetextindicatesthatthekingofLyciawelcomedhisguest“forninedays”and“hadninesteerskilledforhim”(VI,170).Maybeweshouldbringup that theChineseYijing (“Book ofmutations”) ismade trigrams,which are sequences ofeightsymbolsmadeofsegmentsofstraight lines laidouton three levels (8x3, like in theættir).Chinesetraditiontellsusthat theEmperorFuXiwhoreignedinthe18 thcenturyBCwastheonewhocreatedit.ChineseideographicwritingwascreatedaroundtheendoftheShangdynasty,inthe13thor12thcenturyBC.Thefirstinscriptions(buci),whichwereinscribedinbovidbonesandturtlebreastplateshadessentiallyoracularyordivinatorycharacteristics,whichgivesusreasontobelievethatthosewerethefunctionsofthefirstideograms.Westilldon’tknowwhetherthatfirstChinesewriting was actually autochthonous. See Kwang-chih Chang, ShangCivilization, Yale UniversityPress, New Haven 1980; Jean-Pierre Voiret, “Runenalphabet(e) im Vor-antiken China?,” inAsiatischeStudien — Etudesasiatiques,1997,4,pp.1047–1053.

[←179]SeeRalphW.V.Elliott,Runes.AnIntroduction,op.cit.,p.69.

[←180]Anders Bæksted, “Begravede runestene,” in Aarbøger for nordisk oldkyndighed og historie, 1951

[1952],pp.63–95.

[←181]Anthologierunique,op.cit.,p.99.SeealsoSvenB.F.Jansson,RunesinSweden,RoyalAcademyof

Letters,HistoryandAntiquities,Stockholm1987,p.13.

[←182]EdgarC.Polomé,“Notessur levocabulaire religieuxdugermaniqueI:Runiquealu,” inLaNouvelleClio, 1954, p. 55. See alsoEdgarC. Polomé, “Beer,Runes andMagic,” inThe Journal of Indo-EuropeanStudies, 1996,pp.99–105;GerdHøst, “Trylleordet alu,” inNorskeVitenskaps-AkademiÅrbok,1980,pp.35–49;UteZimmermann,“Bier,RunenundMacht:EinFormelwortimKontext,”inFuthark.InternationalJournalofRunicStudies,V,2014,pp.45–64.

[←183]SeePalleLauring,TheLandoftheTollundMan,LutterworthPress,London1957,pp.142–143,which

madeoftheHerulithecreatorsoftheFuþark.

[←184]OttoHöfler,“HerkunftundAusbreitungdesRunen,”inDieSprache,1971,pp.134–156.

[←185]OlofSundqvistsimplyspeaksofa“ritualspecialist”(“ContributionsoftheOldestRunicInscriptionsto

the Reconstruction of Ancient Scandinavian Religion. Some Methodological Reflections withReference to an Example of the Phenomenological Category of ‘Ritual Specialists’”), in OliverGrimm andAlexandra Pesch, Hg.,Archäologie und Runen. Fallstudien zu Inschriften im älterenFuthark,op.cit.,pp.121–143).

[←186]SeeRobertNedoma,DieInschriftaufdemHelmBvonNegau.MöglichkeitenundGrenzenderDeutungnorditalischerepigraphischerDenkmäler,Fassbaender,Wien1995(againstHöfler,pp.18–19).

[←187]Jarlsupposedlyrefersto*erlāzincommonGermanic,andnot*erilāzincommonGermanic.SeeHarry

Andersen,“OmurnordiskerilaRogjarl,”inSprogogKultur,1948,pp.97–102.Onthedifficultiesinvolved in derivating jarl erilaR, see also Eric Elgqvist, Studier rörande Njordkultens spridningblanddenordiskafolken,Olin,Lund1952,pp.117–135;BernardMees,“RunicerilaR,”inNowele,2003,pp.41–68.OntheRígsþula,seeGeorgesDumézil,“LaRígsþulaetlastructuresocialeindo-européenne,” inRevue de l’histoire des religions, 1958, pp. 1–9; François-Xavier Dillmann, “LaRígsþula. Traduction française du poème eddique,” in Proxima Thulé, 5, 2006, pp. 59–72; “LaRígsþula.Présentationd’ensembledupoèmeeddique et état de la recherché,” inVittoriaDolcettiCorazzaandRenatoGendre(ed.),Letturadell’Edda.Poesiaeprosa,Edizionidell’Orso,Alessandria2006,pp.85–114.

[←188]Ander Hultgård, “Formules de théophanie, de la Scandinavie à l’Iran,” in Comptes rendus del’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, 6 February 2009, pp. 205–240. The author make asuggested link between various Theophanic formulas attested in Indo-Iranian domains and Vedicdomains,whichoriginallywererecitedduringpublicworship.

[←189]Introductionàlarunologie,op.cit.,p.168.

[←190]The compound reginkunnr, “of divine origin,” also meant of “divine nature.” See Maurice Cahen,

“L’adjectif ‘divin’ en germanique,” inMélanges offerts àM. Charles Andler par ses amis et sesélèves, Strasbourg 1924, pp. 79–107; François-Xavier Dillmann, “Les runes dans la littératurenorroise,”art.cit.,pp.77–78.SeealsoMarioPolia,LeruneeglidèidelNord, IlCerchio,Rimini1999.

[←191]“ThePoeticEdda,”writesRégisBoyer,“indisputablygoesbacktoanoraltraditionthatthescribesof

the 13th century didn’t really understand anymore, like the errors they often made in theirtranscriptions show […] Those poems were obviously spread from word of mouth for centuriesbefore they were written down.” (L’Edda poétique, op. cit., p. 73). The Poetic Edda has beenrediscoveredin1643bytheIcelandicbishopBrynjulfSveinsson(1605–1675).

[←192]Ibid.,pp.196–197,translationRégisBoyer.

[←193]FrançoiseBader,Lalanguedesdieuxoul’hermétismedespoètesindoeuropéens,Giardini,Pise1988,p.

41. But see also Edgar C. Polomé’s criticism, “Inspiration, connaissance, magie ou voyance. Lafonctionfondamentaledudieu*Wôðan(az)etl’étymologiedesonnom,”inIncognita,1991,pp.32–47.

[←194]LesIndo-Européens,op.cit.,p.387.

[←195]Renauld-Krantz,Structuresdelamythologienordique,G.P.MaisonneuveandLarose,Paris1962,pp.

63–64.

[←196]La Saga de Egil Skallagrimsson. Histoire poétique d’un Viking scandinave du Xe siècle, Office de

publicité,Bruxelles1925,p.99, translationF.Wagner.WealsogobyFrançoix-XavierDillmann’stranslation (“Les runesdans la littératurenoroise,” art. cit., p. 59).For theoriginal text, seeEgilssagaSkalla-Grímssonar, ed.bySigurðurNordal,Hið ÍslenzkaFornritafélag,Reykjavik1933.SeealsoFelixGenzmer,“DieGeheimrunenderEgilssaga,”inArkivförnordiskfilologi,1952,pp.39–47.

[←197]Lesmagiciens dans l’Islande ancienne, op. cit., p. 5. See alsoCarlaDelZotto andGiulia Piccaluga

(ed.),Religioneemagianellesaghenordiche,special issueof theStudiematerialidi storiadellereligioni,July–December2012.

[←198]“TripartitionfonctionnelleetécritureruniqueenScandinavieàl’époquepaïenne,”art.cit.,p.251.See

also, from the same author, “Le maître-des-runes. Essai de détermination socio-anthropologique.Quelquesréflexionsméthodologiques,”inClairborneW.Thompson(ed.),Proceedingsof theFirstInternational Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions, op. cit., pp. 27–36; Fred Wulf,“Runenmeisternamen,”inJamesE.Knirk(ed.),Proceedingsof theThirdInternationalSymposiumonRunesandRunicInscriptions,UppsalaUniversitet,Uppsala1994,pp.31–43;“Runenmeister,”inHeinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich and Heiko Steuer (ed.), Reallexikon der GermanischenAltertumskunde,vol.25,op.cit.

[←199]Ludwig Buisson, Der Bildstein Ardre VIII auf Gotland. Göttermythen, Heldensagen undJenseitsglauben der Germanen im 8. Jahrhundert n. Chr., Vandenhoeck u. Ruprecht, Göttingen1976,p.17.

[←200]Theruneseventeen,t(*tīwaz),isTýr’srune,theonlygodwearepositivethatarunewasnamedafter.

But*tīwazcanalsomean“god”inthegeneralsense(tivaristhepluraloftýrinOldScandinavian).See Anders Hultgård, “Ziu-Týr. Religionsgeschichtliche,” in Reallexikon der GermanischenAltertumskunde,vol.35,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin2007,pp.929–932.

[←201]L’Eddapoétique,op.cit.,pp.625–627,translationbyRégisBoyer.

[←202]SeeDanielMcLeanMcDonald,TheOrigins ofMetrology.CollectedPapers,McDonald Institute for

ArchaeologicalResearch,Cambridge1992.

[←203]BorisA.Frolov,NumbersinPaleolithicGraphics,Nauka,Novosibirsk1974.

[←204]SeePatrickEttighoffer,LeSoleiletlaLunedanslepaganismescandinave,dumésolithiqueàl’âgedubronzerécent(de8000à500av.J.–C.),L’Harmattan,Paris2012.

[←205]AlexanderMarshack,TheRootsofCivilization.TheCognitiveBeginningsofMan’sFirstArt,SymbolandNotation,McGraw-Hill,NewYork1972(FrenchTranslation:Lesracinesdelacivilisation.Lessourcescognitivesdel’art,dusymboleetdelanotationchezlespremiershommes,Plon,1973,pp.57–58). See also “Cognitive Aspects of Upper Paleolithic Engraving,” inCurrent Anthropology,June–October 1972, pp. 445–477; “Upper Paleolithic Notation and Symbols,” in Science, 24November1972,pp.817–828;“UpperPaleolithicSymbolSystemsoftheRussianPlain:Cognitiveand Comparative Analysis,” inCurrent Anthropology, June 1979, pp. 271–311; “On PaleolithicOchreandtheEarlyUsesofColorandSymbol,”inCurrentAnthropology,April1981,pp.188–191;“Concepts théoriques conduisant à de nouvelles méthodes analytiques, de nouveaux procédés derechercheetcatégoriesdedonnées,”inL’Anthropologie,1984,4,pp.573–586.

[←206]InLatin,mensisonlymeans“month,”thenameofthemoon(luna)comefromsomewhereelse.

[←207]InIndo-European,themoonisalsocalled*louksna“thebright.”SeeAntonScherer,GestirnnamenbeidenindogermanischenVölkern,CarlWinter,Heidelberg1953.

[←208]JeanHaudry,“Notessurlesracinesindo-européennes*mē-,*met-,*med-‘mesurer’,” inEtudesindo-européennes,XI,1992,p.47.

[←209]LokmanyaBālGangādharTilak,Orionourecherchessurl’antiquitédesVédas,Archè,Milano1989,p.

29.InGermanic,thenameofthemoon(*mēnan-)becamedifferentiatedfromthemonth,whichkeptitsoriginalform(*mēnōþ-).

[←210]LaGermanie.L’origineetlepaysdesGermains,op.cit.,p.27,translationPatrickVoisin.

[←211]Ibid., p. 39.Original text: “Necdierumnumerumutnos, sednoctiumcomputant; sic constituunt, siccondicunt; nos ducere diem videtur.” In Pierre Grimal’s translation: “Because to them, the nightshowsthepathtodaylight.”(“LesmœursdesGermains,”inTacitus,Œuvreschoisies,op.cit.,pp.38).Theverbcomputaremeanshere“tocount,tocalculate”(seethewordscomputatioorcomputusfrommedievalLatin,hence“comput”).

[←212]SeeKennethHarrison,The Framework of Anglo-Saxon History to A.D. 900, Cambridge University

Press,Cambridge1976(“ThemoonandtheAnglo-Saxoncalendar,”pp.1–14).

[←213]See also fortnight, derived from Old English fēowertyne niht, “fourteen days,” the average interval

betweenafullmoonandanewmoon.ItsIrishequivalentiscoicis.TheFrenchexpression“quinzejours,”whichdesignatestwoseven-dayweeks,isfoundinSpanish,Portuguese,Italien,CatalanandalsoGreek(dekapenthímero).InWelsh,thetermpymthefnosmeans“fifteennights,”thenameofaweekbeingwythnos,literally“eightnights.”Seealsotheexpression”ineightdays”(InGerman:“inachtTage”),meaning“inaweek.”

[←214]On the Coligny calendar, see Françoise Le Roux, Christian-J. Guyonvarc’h and Jord Pinault, “Le

calendriergauloisdeColigny(Ain),”inOgam,1961,pp.635–660;Paul-MarieDuvalandGeorgesPinault,“Observationssur lecalendrierdeColigny,” inEtudesceltiques, 1962,10,pp.18–42and372–412,11,pp.7–45and269–313;Jean-PaulParisot,“LesphasesdelaluneetlessaisonsdanslecalendrierdeColigny,”inEtudesindo-européennes,13,June1985,pp.1–18;Paul-MarieDuvalandGeorgesPinault,Recueildesinscriptionsgauloises(III).Lescalendriers(Coligny,Villardsd’Héria),Éditions du CNRS, Paris 1986; Garrett S. Olmsted, The Gaulish Calendar, Rudolf Habelt, Bonn1992;GarrettS.Olmsted,ADefinitiveReconstructedTextoftheColignyCalendar,InstitutefortheStudyofMan,Washington2001;Jean-MichelLeContelandPaulVerdier,Uncalendrierceltique.Le calendrier gaulois de Coligny, Errance, Paris 1997. See also Joseph Monard, Astronymie etonomastiquecalendaireceltiques.Lecieletl’annéechezlesCeltes,LabelLN,Ploudalmézeau2005.

[←215]See H. H. Scullard,Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, Thames&Hudson, London

1981,p.43.

[←216]JeanHaudry,LareligioncosmiquedesIndo-Européens,Archè,Milano,andBellesLettres,Paris1987,

p. 290.Cf. alsoOttoSchrader,DieältesteZeittheilungdes indogermanischenVolkes,CarlHabel,Berlin1878;EduardStucken,DerUrsprungdesAlphabetesunddieMondstationen,J.C.Hinrichs,Leipzig 1913; Wolfgang Schultz, Zeitrechnung und Weltordnung in ihren übereinstimmendenGrundzügenbeidenIndern,Iraniern,Hellenen,Italikern,Kelten,Germanen,Litauern,Slawen,CurtKabitzsch,Leipzig1924.

[←217]“Origineetdéveloppementdel’écriturerunique,”art.cit.,pp.16–17.

[←218]Runes.AnIntroduction,op.cit.,p.14.

[←219]See also J. P.Mallory and D. Q. Adams, The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and theProto-Indo-EuropeanWorld, OxfordUniversity Press, Oxford 2006 (“BasicNumerals,” pp. 308–317). It should be noted that Ernst Jünger was also intrigued by that coincidence. In his journal“yearsofoccupation,”onthe11thofApril1948,itreads:“IrememberedKükelhaus’sallusiontothestrange fact that when one adds the n- of negation to it [the number eight], it becomes inmanylanguages the word ‘night,’ Nacht, nox, night, nuit, notte and so on. Hence the followingcombination:accordingtolinguists,inallIndo-Europeanlanguages,thewordforeightgoesbacktoacommonrootwhichisthedualof‘four.’Thisinvitesustoconceiveofabasefoursystem,likeitisstillpresentinsomecontemporarycultures.Eightistheendoftheroad.Anditisconceivablethattherecouldhavebeenanancientconnectionbetween‘end’and ‘night.’Whenreaching ‘nine,’ thecount starts again,whichwould explain the striking relation there is inmany languages between‘nine’ and ‘new,’ neun and neu” (La cabane dans la vigne. Journal IV, 1945–1948, ChristianBourgois, Paris 1980, pp. 292–293. “Kükelhaus” here refers to the philosopher, pedagogue andcraftsmanHugoKükelhaus(1900–1984).

[←220]SeeGodfridStorms,Anglo-SaxonMagic,MartinusNijhoff,TheHague1948,pp.188–189.

[←221]After having conducted the philological study of the four main manuscripts of the Prose Edda,

François-XavierDillmannshowedthatitwasn’tactuallyninenightsatoneplaceandninenightsattheotherplace,likeitisusuallysaidtobe,butninenightsatNjördr’s,thenthreenightsatSkadi’s.The author compares that myth with the myth of Kore (Persephone), abducted by Hades in thedifferent versions of theHomeric hymns. See his contribution, “Les nuits deNjördr et de Skadi.Notes critiques sur un chapitre de la SnorraEdda,” in John Ole Askedal, Harald Bjorvand andEyvindFjeldHalvorsen(ed.),FestskrifttilOttarGrønvik,op.cit.,pp.174–182,andhistranslationoftheEdda(L’Edda.Récitsdemythologienordique,Gallimard,Paris1991,p.55,andnotep.165).ItshouldbenotedthatthegodNjördralsohasninedaughters,theeldestiscalledRodhveigandtheyoungestiscalledKrippvör.

[←222]Adam of Bremen, Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiæ Pontificum, IV, 26–27. For Otto Sigfrid Reuter

(Germanische Himmelskunde. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Geistes, J. F. Lehmanns,München1934),theexpressionpostnovemannosshouldratherbeunderstoodasmeaninganeight-yearcycle.AccordingtothetestimonyofthechroniclerThietmarofMerseburg(975–1018),solemnsacrifices also took place every nine years in Lethra, Zeeland (Chronicon ThietmariMerseburgensis).

[←223]Les dieux et la religion des Germains, op. cit., p. 247. The book the author mentions is Helge

Ljungberg’s,Den nordiska religionen och kristendomen. Studier över det nordiska religionsskiftetundervikingatiden,H.Geber,Stockholm1938.

[←224]L’Eddapoétique,op.cit.,p.533,translationbyRégisBoyer.

[←225]Ibid.,p.537.

[←226]See François-Xavier Dillmann, “Nornen,” inReallexikon derGermanische Altertumskunde, 2nd ed.,

vol.21,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin2002,pp.388–394;KarenBek-Pedersen,TheNornsinOldNorseMythology,DunedinAcademicPress,Edinburgh2011.

[←227]L’Eddapoétique,op.cit.,p.217.

[←228]La religion cosmique des Indo-Européens, op. cit., p. 1. See also JeanHaudry, “Les trois cieux,” inEtudes indo-européennes, January 1982, pp. 23–48; “Les âges dumonde, les trois fonctions et lareligioncosmiquedesIndo-Européens,”inEtudesindo-européennes,1990,pp.99–121.

[←229]TheProto-Indo-Europeanwordfor“diurnalsky,”*dyéw-,bothledtothewordfor“sky”andfor“day,”

andbyextensiontothewordfor“god”*deyw-ó-,literally“ofthediurnalsky.”ThisetymonisalsofoundinthenamesofJūpiter,Zeús,theVedicDyauandtheIrishDag-da,whoareoriginallydeifieddiurnalskies.

[←230]See Lokamanya Bāl Gangādhar Tilak,Origine polaire de la tradition védique. Nouvelles clés pourl’interprétationdenombreuxtextesetlégendesvédiques,Archè,Milano1979.

[←231]JeanHaudry,LareligioncosmiquedesIndo-Européens,op.cit.,p.285.

[←232]TacitusconfirmsthattheGermanicpeopleknewonlythreeseasons:spring,summerandwinter.

[←233]PhilippeJouët,Dictionnaire de lamythologie et de la religion celtiques,Yoran embanner, Fouesnant

2012,p.93.Fromthesameauthor:Etudesdesymbolismeceltique.Rythmesetnombres,LabelLN,Ploudalmézeau 2012. Franz Rolf Schröder’s article cited by Philippe Jouët was published inGymnasium,LXVI,1956,pp.57 ff.The authordemonstrates, inparticularbyusinganotation inMycenaean(era),thatthenameHeracomesfromtheoldIndo-Europeanwordforyear.

[←234]On the Indo-European denominations for year, see also LenkaDockalová andVáclav Blažek, “The

Indo-EuropeanYear,”inTheJournalofIndo-EuropeanStudies,autumn-winter2011,pp.414–495.

[←235]LareligioncosmiquedesIndo-Européens,op.cit.,p.3.SeealsoJeanHaudry,“Héra,”inEtudesindo-européennes,6,September1983,pp.17–46;“Héra(suite),”inEtudesindo-européennes,7,February1984,pp.1–28;“LesHeures,” inEtudesindo-européennes, 18,September1986, pp. 1–14. In theGreekreligion,ZeusisalsothespouseofLeto,whichrepresentstheNight.ThisisconfirmedbyherNychiaepithet.FromthatunionwerebirthedArtemis,alunardivinity,andApollo,asolardivinity.It should be noted that it tookLeto to give birth (this is the yearly “long night”) and that, on aninscriptionfromTenea,Apolloissaidtobethe“bossoftheHours”(ōromédōn).

[←236]JanusisactuallymadeoftheIndo-Europeandivinefire,whichexplainshisrelationshipwiththeVesta.

Haudryclarifiesthathisconnectiontotheyear“canbecomingfromanancienthomologyliketheoneestablishedbytheUpanishadsbetweenthe‘wayofgods’andtheascendingpartoftheyear,the‘fathers’way’”(“LapréhistoiredeJanus,”inRevuedesétudeslatines,2005[2006],p.53).Thelinkbetween Janus and the beginning of the astronomical year should be tied together with the linkbetweentheLatvianJanisandthesummersolstice.SeeJeanHaudry,Lefeudanslatraditionindo-européenne,Archè,Milano2017.

[←237]InseveralSlaviclanguages, thetermforyearcanalsorefertothespring: jaro“spring”inSlovakian,jaroinCzech,jarinOldPolish,jarinSerbo-Croatian,jaraorjaruinOldRussian,jarinUkrainian,samemeaning. See also Jarilo from the Belarusian folklore, who’s an ancient god of the springrevival.

[←238]Lesrunes,op.cit.,p.51.

[←239]The rune 2 on the other hand is somewhat similar to theChinese ideogram tchōng,which precisely

means“middle.”Onecouldalsofindsomeconnectionwiththesymbolofthedouble-bittedaxe.

[←240]TheChinesealsokeptinmemorytheuseofanancientsubdivisionoftheyearintwenty-fourtsieki.

[←241]ItwasnotadoptedinFranceuntiltheRevolution,onthe5thOctober,1793.

[←242]See Alexander A. Gurshtein, “Did the Pre-Indo-Europeans Influence the Formation of the Western

Zodiac?,”inTheJournalofIndo-EuropeanStudies,spring-summer2005,pp.103–150.Theauthordemonstrates that the former “zodiac square,”whereGemini corresponded to the spring equinox,Virgocorrespondedtothesummersolstice,SagittariustothefallequinoxandPiscestothewintersolstice,islinkedtotheIndo-EuropeanmythofthedivineTwins“bringingback”inthespringtheDaughteroftheSunthatwentmissinginthewinter.SeealsoEricP.Hamp,“ThePrincipal(?)Indo-EuropeanConstellations,” inProceedingsof theEleventh InternationalCongressofLinguistics, IlMulino,Bologna1974,pp.1047–1055.

[←243]JereFleck,“Odin’sSelf-Sacrifice — ANewInterpretation,”inScandinavianStudies,spring1971,pp.

119–142,andautumn1971,pp.385–413.

[←244]HermanWirth(DerAufgangderMenschheit.UntersuchungenzurGeschichtederReligion,Symbolikund Schrift der Atlantisch-Nordischen Rasse, Diederichs, Jena 1928; Die heilige Urschrift derMenschheit, Koehler u. Amelang, Leipzig 1931–1935) saw in the runes symbols that referred tocelestialbodiesorconstellationsasearlyastheMagdalenian.SomesimilarspeculationshavebeensuggestedbyOttoSigfridReuter,GermanischeHimmelskunde.UntersuchungenzurGeschichtedesGeistes,op.cit.,abookthat isremarkablydocumentedbytheway.SeealsoFranzDornseiff,DasAlphabetinMystikundMagie,B.G.Teubner,Leipzig1922;RudolfDrößler,AlsdieSterneGötterwaren.Sonne,MondundSterneimSpiegelvonArchäologie,KunstundKult,Prisma,Leipzig1976;Gert Meier, Und das Wort ward Schrift. Von der Spracharchäologie zur Archäologie derIdeogramme.EinBeitragzurEntstehungdesAlphabets,Haupt,Bern1991;ElémireZolla,Uscitedalmondo, Adelphi, Milano 1992 (“Le rune e lo zodiac,” pp. 145–173). One can also refer to“Sternbilder — Tierkreisbilder”duHandwörterbuchdesdeutschenAberglaubens,vol.9,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin1938–41,pp.596–690.

[←245]JeanVertemontandJean-GabrielFoucaud,Runesetchamanisme,Véga,Paris2008,p.63.SeealsoJean

Vertemont,“Runesetastérismesvédiques,”inAntaios,winter1995,pp.116–122;“Lesrunesetlezodiaqueà24divisions,”inAntaios,winter1999,pp.146–152.

[←246]Ibid.,p.157.

[←247]Herodotus,Histories,V,57–59.OntheabductionofEuropa,seeOvid,Metamorphoses,II,839ff.The

GreeklegendstatesthatAgenorwasthesonofPoseidon,thathesettleddowninPhoeniciaandhadthreesons:Phoenix,whostayedinPhoenicia,Cilix,whoconqueredthesoutherncoastofAnatolia,andCadmus,whosettleddowninGreece.

[←248]DiodorusSiculus, III,67andV,74.SeealsoMarcelDetienne,L’écritured’Orphée,Gallimard, Paris

1989,pp.101–115.

[←249]SeeVereinzurFörderungderAufarbeitungderHellenischenGeschichtee.V.(ed.),DieGeschichtederhellenischenSpracheundSchrift,vom2.zum1.Jahrtausendv.Chr.:BruchoderKontinuität?,Kulturund Wissenchaft, Altenburg 1998, notamment les communications de Rudolf Wachter (“DieÜbernahmedesAlphabetsdurchdieGriechen:wie,wann,wo,durchwenundwozu?EineaktuelleAbwägungderStandpunkte,ArgumenteundmethodischenAnsätze,”pp.345–353) andWolfgangRöllig(“DasAlphabetundseinWegzudenGriechen,”pp.359–384).

[←250]RhysCarpenter,“TheAntiquityoftheGreekAlphabet,”inAmericanJournalofArchaeology,1933,pp.

8–29.

[←251]MariaGiuliaAmadasiGuzzo,“Latransmissiondel’alphabetphénicienauxGrecs,”inRinaViers(ed.),

Dessignespictographiquesàl’alphabet.LacommunicationécriteenMéditerranée,Karthala,Paris2000,p.235.

[←252]JohnF.Healey,Lesdébutsdel’alphabet,2nded.,Seuil,Paris2005,p.61.

[←253]MargheritaGuarducci,Epigrafiagreca,IstitutopoligraficodelloStato,Roma1967.

[←254]BertholdLouisUllmann,AncientWritinganditsInfluence,LongmansGreen&Co.,NewYork1932.

“Onecan’thelpbutputsidebysidetheadoptionofPhoenicianwritingatthetimeandthefactthattheDorianinvasionseemstohavebeenatleastpartiallybysea.TheDorianswentfromthesouthtothenorthinthePeloponnese,anditisplausiblethattheyoccupiedCretebeforethat,”wroteJamesFévrier(“Lagenèsedel’alphabet,”inRevuedescoursetconférences,30March1939,p.718).

[←255]CharlesHigounet,L’écriture,5thed.,PUF,Paris1976,p.60.

[←256]SeeLilianHamiltonJeffery,TheLocalScriptsofArchaicGreece.AStudyof theOriginof theGreekAlphabetanditsDevelopmentfromtheEigthtotheFifthCenturiesB.C.,ClarendonPress,Oxford1961.

[←257]BarryB.Powell (Homerand theOriginofGreekAlphabet,CambridgeUniversityPress,Cambridge

1991) goes as far as saying the Greek alphabet was introduced specifically to note the Homericpoems.ThewritingismentionedonlyoncebyHomer,inthepassageoftheIliad (thatwealreadycited)wherethekingofArgosPrœtosgivesBellerophonamessagetodelivertothekingofLycia.Thefactthatthereisonlyonementionshouldn’tcomeasasurpriseif,asitislikelytobethecase,Homericpoemscomefromalongoraltradition.

[←258]Letusnoteacuriousfacthere,afactthatishardtodrawconclusionsfrom.InthePhoenicianalphabet,

thefirst letter, ’aleph, theancestorofour“A,”comesfromthestylizedrepresentationofabovinehead.IntheFuþark,thefirstrunicletter,F,whichiscalledfehu(faihuintheGothicalphabet,*fehubeingitsreconstructedformforProto-GermanicfromthatcorrespondenceandfehuinOldSaxon),hasthewell-establishedsymbolicmeaningof“cattle,wealth,”buthereit’smostlikelysheep.

[←259]JamesFévrier,art.cit.,p.719.

[←260]FrançoisChamoux,Lacivilisationgrecque,Arthaud,Paris1963,p.55.

[←261]ItshouldbenotedthatHomer’sOdysseybeginsbyavowel:Ándramoiénnette,Moûsa,polútropon,ósmálapollá,“Tellme,Muse,thatsubtlemanwhowanderedforsolong.”

[←262]EricA.Havelock,AuxoriginesdelacivilisationécriteenOccident,FrançoisMaspéro,Paris1981,p.

36. Ignace Jay Gelb (Pour une théorie de l’écriture, Flammarion, Paris 1973) went as far asquestioningwhetherthesystemsthatdon’tincludevowelsshouldbeconsideredtobetruealphabets:Accordingtohim,consonantalalphabetsshouldratherbeconsideredtobesyllabariesinwhicheverysignrepresentsaconsonantfollowedbyavowel.

[←263]GerhardHerm,LesPhéniciens.L’antiqueroyaumedelapourpre,Fayard,Paris1976,p.223.

[←264]SeeAndréLemaire, “Les ‘Hyksos’ and les débuts de l’écriture alphabé- tique au Proche-Orient,” in

RinaViers(ed.),Dessignespictographiquesàl’alphabet,op.cit.,pp.103–133.

[←265]SeeDominiqueValbelle,“Hyksos,”inJeanLeclant(ed.),Dictionnairedel’Antiquité,PUF,Paris2005,

p.1106.

[←266]HansWolfgangHelck,DieBeziehungenÄgyptenszuVorderasienim3.und2.Jahrtausendv.Chr.,Otto

Harrassowitz,Wiesbaden1962.

[←267]JürgenvonBeckerath,ChronologiedespharaonischenÄgypten.DieZeitbestimmungderägyptischenGeschichtevonderVorzeitbis332v.Chr.,PhilippvonZabern,Mainz1997.Onthisissue,seeJohnVanSeter,TheHyksos.ANewInvestigation,YaleUniversityPress,NewHaven1966;DonaldBruceRedford,“TheHyksosInvasioninHistoryandTradition,”inOrientalia,1970,pp.1–51.

[←268]SeeArthurEvans,ScriptaMinoa, theWrittenDocumentsofMinoanCrete.WithSpecialReferencetotheArchiveofKnossos,ClarendonPress,Oxford1909;WilliamC.Brice,InscriptionsintheMinoanLinearScriptofClassA,OxfordUniversityPress,Oxford1961.

[←269]HaraldHaarmann,“WritingfromOldEuropetoAncientCrete.ACaseofCulturalContinuity,”inTheJournal of Indo-European Studies, autumn-winter 1989, pp. 251–275. See also Wilhelm Hauer,SchriftderGötter.VomUrsprungderRunen,Orion-Heimreiter,Kiel2006;Hans-GünterBuchholz,“DieägäischenSchriftsystemeundihreAusstrahlungindieostmediterranenKulturen,”inDietrichGerhardt(ed.),FrüheSchriftzeugnissederMenschheit,Vandenhoecku.Ruprecht,Göttingen1969,pp.88–150.

[←270]See Hubert LaMarle,Linéaire A: la première écriture syllabique de Crète, 4 vol., Geuthner, Paris

1997–1999;IntroductionaulinéaireA.Lireetcomprendrel’écrituresyllabiquedeCrèteminoenne,Geuthner,Paris2000.

[←271]Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, “Naissance de l’alphabet,” in L’Histoire, June 1992, p. 21. See also

Wolfgang Röllig, “Das phönizische Alphabet und die frühen europäischen Schriften,” in DiePhönizierimZeitalterHomers,PhilippvonZabern,Mainz1990,pp.87–95.

[←272]André Lemaire, “Origine de l’alphabet et écritures ouest-sémitiques,” in Anne-Marie Christin (ed.),Histoiredel’écriture,op.cit.,p.213.

[←273]MauriceVieyra,“Auxoriginesdel’alphabet,”inAtomes,March1966,pp.112,114.

[←274]MauriceVieyra,“L’alphabetenGrèce:mythesetréalités,”inAtomes,May1966,p.241.

[←275]JamesFévrier,“Lagenèsedel’alphabet,”art.cit.,p.708.

[←276]MarcelCohen,LeCourrierdel’Unesco,March1964.

[←277]“L’alphabetenGrèce:mythesetréalités,”art.cit.,p.240.

[←278]L’écriture,op.cit.,p.44.

[←279]Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, “Phénicie. Les mystères du premier alphabet,” in Comment est néel’écriture,n°hors-sériedeScienceetvie,June2002,p.60.

[←280]Jean-JacquesPrado,L’invasiondelaMéditerranéeparlespeuplesdel’Océan,XIIIesiècleavantJésus-Christ,L’Harmattan,Paris1992.

[←281]Accordingtosomeauthors,RamessesIIIactuallyreignedbetweenroughly1200and1168BC.Inthat

case, the great confrontationwith the Sea Peoples should have taken place in 1190, and the firstclashesshouldhavetakenplaceeightyearsearlier.

[←282]SeeAlessandraNibbi,TheSeaPeoplesandEgypt,NoyesPress,ParkRidge1975;GüntherHölbl,“Die

historischen Aussagen der ägyptischen Seevölkerinschriften,” in Sigrid Deger-Jalkotzy (ed.),Griechenland,dieÄgäisunddieLevantewährendder“DarkAges”vom12.biszum9.Jh.v.Chr.,VerlagderÖsterreichischenAkademiederWissenschaften,Wien1983,pp.121–143;GustavAdolfLehmann, “Zum Auftreten von ‘Seevölker’ — Gruppen im östlichen Mittelmeerraum — eineZwischenbilanz,” ibid., pp. 79–97; Trude Dothan, “Some Aspects of the Appearance of the SeaPeoplesandPhilistines inCanaan,” ibid.,pp.99–120;DavidO’Connor,“TheSeaPeoplesand theEgyptian Source,” in Eliezer D. Oren (ed.), The Sea Peoples and their World: A Reassessment,UniversityofPennsylvania,Philadelphia2000,pp.85–101.

[←283]EliezerD.Oren(ed.),TheSeaPeoplesandtheirWorld,op.cit.,p.XVII.SeealsoNancyK.Sandars,The Sea Peoples, Warriors of the Ancient Mediterranean, 1250–1150 BC, Thames & Hudson,London 1978 (french translation: Les Peuples de la Mer, guerriers de la Méditerranée antique,France-Empire,Paris1981).

[←284]PierreGrandet,“LamigrationdesPeuplesdelaMer,”inL’Histoire,April1990,pp.16,19.

[←285]FredC.Woudhuizen,TheLanguageoftheSeaPeoples,NajadePress,Amsterdam1992.

[←286]VladimirGeorgiev,“LedéchiffrementdutextesurledisquedePhaistos,”inLinguistiquebalkanique,

1976,pp.5–47.

[←287]JeanFaucounau,LesProto-Ioniens.Histoired’unpeupleoublié,L’Harmattan,Paris2002;LesPeuplesdelaMeretleurhistoire,L’Harmattan,Paris2003.SeealsoAlfredVideer,Al’écoutedudisquedePhaistos,DuLérot,Tusson2014.

[←288]ThistermismentionedforthetimeasPalastouinanAssyriantextfrom800BC.“L’histoirebiblique,

depuislelivredeJosuéjusqu’àceluidesChroniques(quiclôtlecanonjuif),estunealternancedevictoires et de défaites des Philistins sur Israël” (Colette Baer, “Palestinien ou Philistin ?,” inNouveauxCahiers,spring1982,p.71).SeealsoJürgenSpanuth,DiePhilister,dasunbekannteVolk.LehrmeisterundWidersacherderIsraeliter,OttoZeller,Osnabrück1980.

[←289]ChristopherWilhelm, “On the Possible Origin of the Philistines,” in Karlene Jones-Bley,Martin E.

Huld and Angela Della Volpe (ed.), Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual UCLA Indo-EuropeanConference.LosAngeles,June4–5,1999,InstitutefortheStudyofMan,Washington2000,pp.173–182.

[←290]Indeed, the name Philistines comprises “both an -ino suffixwhich applies tomany ethnic groups in

ancient Illyricum, and a stem found in the name of the city Palaistè in Epirus,” writes BernardSergent.Headdsthefollowing:“alltheregionswhereboth-inoand-st-ino-canbefoundcoincidefairlywellwiththenownoticeableexpansionoflanguagesfromthemacro-Italicgroup(Italy,Sicily,Veneto,Istria,Dalmatia).ThissomewhatmakesacasetoconsiderthePhilistinestobeapeoplefromthatgroup,so,paradoxically,toconsiderthemtobe‘Italic’”(LesIndo-Européens,op.cit.,p.107–108).

[←291]Les Peuples de laMer, op. cit., p. 176. See also Trude Dothan, The Philistines and theirMaterialCulture,YaleUniversityPress,NewHaven1982;TrudeandMosheDothan,PeoplesoftheSea.TheSearchforthePhilistines,Macmillan,NewYork1992.

[←292]RobertAlexanderStewartMacalister,ThePhilistines.TheirHistoryandCivilization,BritishAcademy,

London 1914, pp. 121–130; A History of Civilization in Palestine, Cambridge University Press,Cambridge1921,p.33.

[←293]SeeHendricusJacobusFranken,“ClayTabletsfromDeir’Alla,Jordan,”inVetusTestamentum,1964,

pp.377–379;AndréLemaire,“DeuxtablettesnondéchiffréesdeDeir’Alla,”inFawziZayadineandal. (ed.),La voie royale, 9000 ans d’art au royaume de Jordanie, Association française d’actionartistique,Paris1986,p.85.

[←294]See JosephNaveh, “SomeConsiderationson theOstracon from ’IzbetSartah,” in IsraelExplorationJournal,1978,pp.31–35.SeealsoTrudeDothan,“Lapremièreapparitiondel’écritureenPhilistie,”inRinaViers(ed.),Dessignespictographiquesàl’alphabet,op.cit.,pp.165–171.

[←295]LesPhéniciens,op.cit.,p.66.

[←296]Letter ofSalomon toHiram, king ofTyre (1Kings 5, 17–20).ThePhoenicians,who are sometimes

called“Sidonians”intheBible,arealsothepeoplewhocreatedthefirstcoppermineintheGulfofAqaba.DuringDavid’sreign,theHebrewboughtlargeamountsoforeandcedartrunksfromthem(1Chronicles22,3–4).RelationsgotworseafterthemarriageoftheeldestsonofthekingofIsrael,Achab, with the daughter of the king of Tyre, Jezabel. Shewas assassinated, and this led to themassacreoftheroyalfamilyofIsraelandoftheprincesofJudea(2Kings9–10).Lastly,thetempleofBaalwasdestroyedanditspriestsmassacred(2Chronicles23,17).

[←297]SabatinoMoscati,TheWorldofthePhoenicians,Praeger,NewYork1968(Frenchtranslation:L’épopéedesPhéniciens,Fayard,Paris1971).

[←298]On the debate on the origins of this writing, see Dominique Casajus, L’alphabet touareg, CNRS

Éditions,Paris2015.

[←299]Christopher Wilhelm, “The ‘Aeneid’ and Italian Prehistory,” in Stephanie W. Jamison, H. Craig

MelchertandBrentWine(ed.),Proceedingsofthe22ndAnnualUCLAIndo-EuropeanConference.LosAngeles,November5thand6th,2010,Hempen,Bremen2011,pp.255–268.SeealsoNorbertOettinger, “Seevölker undEtrusker,” inYoramCohen,AmirGilan and JaredL.Miller (ed.),PaxHethitica. Studies on the Hittites and their Neighbours in Honour of Itamar Singer, OttoHarrassowitz,Wiesbaden2010.

[←300]FritzSchachermeyr,EtruskischeFrühgeschichte,WalterdeGruyter,Berlin1929.

[←301]Robert S. P. Beekes, The Origin of the Etruscans, Koninklijke Nederlands Akademie van

Wetenschappen,Amsterdam2003.

[←302]Livy describes Antenor as the chief of the Eneti mentioned in the Iliad (II, 852), whose name has

sometimes been linked to the name of theVeneti. The center of his cultwas located inAponus,which is now Abano, near Padua. See Lorenzo Braccesi, La leggenda di Antenore. Da Troia aPadova,Signum,Padova1984.

[←303]See Cristiano Vernesi, David Caramelli, Isabelle Dupanloup et al., “The Etruscans: A Population-

GeneticStudy,”inAmericanJournalofHumanGenetics,2004,pp.694–704.

[←304]VladimirGeorgiev,Lalinguael’originedegliEtruschi,Nagard,Roma1979;“L’originedegliEtruschi

comeproblemadellastoriadelletribùegee,”inStudietruschi,1950,pp.101–124.

[←305]Giulio Facchetti, Appunti di morfologia etrusca. Con un appendice sulla questione delle affinitàgenetichedell’etrusco,S.Olschki,Firenze2002.

[←306]OnthequestionoftherelationshipbetweenEtruscanandRhaetianlanguages,seeHelmutRix,RätischundEtruskisch,InstitutfürSprachwissenschaftderUniversitätInnsbruck,Innsbruck1998.

[←307]Fred C. Woudhuizen, The Liber Linteus. A Word for Word Commentary to and Translation of theLongestEtruscanText,InnsbruckerBeiträgezurKulturwissenschaft,Innsbruck2013.Fromthesameauthor,seealsoEtruscanasaColonialLuwianLanguage,InstitutfürSprachenundLiteraturenderUniversität Innsbruck, Innsbruck2008; “Etruscan andLuwian,” inThe Journal of Indo-EuropeanStudies,1991,pp.133–150.

[←308]SeeMassimoPittau,LalinguasardianaodeiProtosardi,EttoreGasperini,Cagliari2001.

[←309]SeeCarloDeSimone,ITirreniaLemnos.Evidenzelinguisticaetradizionistoriche,S.Olschki,Firenze

1996.

[←310]MarcelCohen,Lagrandeinventiondel’écritureetsonévolution,C.Klincksieck,Paris1958.Seealso

RogerDruetandHermanGrégoire,Lacivilisationdel’écriture,Fayard,Paris1970,p.33.

[←311]“Maisd’oùviennentlesEtrusques?,”inL’Histoire,September1994,p.67.

[←312]RaymondBloch,“QuandlesRomainsapprenaientàlireetàécrire,”inL’Histoire,January1982,p.12.

[←313]See William V. Harris, Ancient Literacy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1989; Christoph

Bernhard Rüger, “Lateinische Schriflichkeit im römischen Grenzgebiet gegen die Germanen,” inRuneninschriftenalsQuelleninterdisziplinärerForschung,op.cit.,pp.357–375.