Rune poems

Rune poems are proverbial mnemonic kennings that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Four different poems from before the mid-20th century have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune Poem, the Icelandic Rune Poem and the Swedish Rune Poem. Note that the singularis term "rune poem" is a bit anachronistic, as there exist several variations of the Icelandic, and Swedish poems, etc.

The Icelandic and Norwegian poems list 16 Younger Futhark runes, while the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem lists 29 Anglo-Saxon runes. Each poem differs in poetic verse, but they contain numerous parallels between one another. Further, the poems provide references to figures from Norse and Anglo-Saxon paganism, the latter included alongside Christian references. A list of rune names is also recorded in the Abecedarium Nordmannicum, a 9th-century manuscript, but whether this can be called a poem or not is a matter of some debate.

The rune poems have been theorized as having been mnemonic devices that allowed the user to remember the order and names of each letter of the alphabet and may have been a catalog of important cultural information, memorably arranged; comparable with the Old English sayings, Gnomic poetry, and Old Norse poetry of wisdom and learning.^[1] The Swedish poems features some clear neologisms for later sound developments, like replacing os ("inlet") with oos ("fumes") for the o-rune ᚯ, as the primary sound for o in Middle Norse became [uː] instead of [oː] .

Old English Rune Poem

The Old English Rune Poem as recorded was likely composed in the 7th century^[2] and was preserved in the 10th-century manuscript Cotton Otho B.x, fol. 165a – 165b, housed at the Cotton library in London, England. In 1731, the manuscript was lost with numerous other manuscripts in a fire at the Cotton library.^[3] However, the poem had been copied by George Hickes in 1705 and his copy has formed the basis of all later editions of the poems.^[3]

George Hickes' record of the poem may deviate from the original manuscript.^[3] Hickes recorded the poem in prose, divided the prose into 29 stanzas, and placed a copper plate engraved with runic characters on the left-hand margin so that each rune stands immediately in front of the stanza where it belongs.^[3] For five of the runes (wen, hægl, nyd, eoh, and Ing) Hickes gives variant forms and two more runes are given at the foot of the column; cweorð and an unnamed rune (calc) which are not handled in the poem itself.^[3] A second copper plate appears across the foot of the page and contains two more runes: stan and gar.^[3]

Van Kirk Dobbie states that this apparatus is not likely to have been present in the original text of the Cotton manuscript and states that it's possible that the original Anglo-Saxon rune poem manuscript would have appeared similar in arrangement of runes and texts to that of the Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems.^[3]

Old Icelandic Rune Poem

The Icelandic Rune Poem is recorded in four Arnamagnæan manuscripts, the oldest of the four dating from around 1500.^[4] The Icelandic Rune Poem has been called the most systemized of the rune poems (including the Abecedarium Nordmannicum) and has been compared to the ljóðaháttr verse form.^[5][6] In early runology it is referred to as "divided into three" (Icelandic: þrídeilur, Early Modern Swedish: tridelorne, Latin: trideilum).^[7]

The Icelandic Rune Poem is not standardised, and the two earliest records, AM 687 d 4° (c. 1500) and AM 461 12° (c. 1550), showcase differences from one another.^[8] Other variations have also been documented later on, and Olaus Verelius showcased some short-form variants in 1675, similar in length to the Swedish rune poems.^[7] Jón Ólafsson of Grunnavík recorded a form in 1732, attributed to either Magnus Olafsson (c. 1573-1636) or a Sveinn a Barði, with Latin translations.^[9]

Old Norwegian Rune Poem

The Norwegian Rune Poem was preserved in a 17th-century copy of a destroyed 13th-century manuscript.^[4] The Norwegian Rune Poem is preserved in skaldic metre, featuring the first line exhibiting a "(rune name)(copula) X" pattern, followed by a second rhyming line providing information somehow relating to its subject.^[5]

Swedish Rune Poem

There are multiple recorded Swedish rune poems, all of which are short rune kennings. Some appears to be later Medieval creations pertaining to sound changes, while others show archaic features of unknown older descent. A select few are cognate to the Norwegian and Icelandic poems, and some others appear regional. Some of the kennings are classic proverbs or riddles, thus appearing standalone in other material as well. The poem for ᛁ is ("ice") is a common proverb or riddle, stating that "the ice is the broadest bridge". The poem for ᚾ nödh ("need, distress, constraint") is found as a proverb in the 14th century: nødh ær iw enga koster ("need is of no choice"),^[12] i.e. when forced, you only have one choice,^[13] later appearing in the 17th century as: noͤdhen aͤr eenda kost ("need is the only choice").^[14]

The earliest recorded poem was done rather unknowingly by Johannes Bureus in 1599, simply listing them as "signific" in Latin.^[15] An incomplete alternative collection was recorded in a letter by Nicolaus Granius in 1600^[16] (although not published until 1908),^[17] and a supplemented third version, more similar to the Bureus collection, was published by Georg Stiernhielm in 1685.^[18] Various anachronistic forms are also recorded by Olaus Verelius in 1675, found scattered alongside some equivelant short forms of the Icelandic poems.^[7]

The Swedish poems are understudied and have received relatively little attention from runologists.^[19][20]

Abecedarium Nordmannicum

Recorded in the 9th century, the Abecedarium Nordmannicum is the earliest known catalog of Norse rune names, though it does not contain definitions, is partly in Continental Germanic and also contains an amount of distinctive Anglo-Saxon rune types.^[26] The text is recorded in Codex Sangallensis 878,^[5] kept in the St. Gallen abbey, and may originate from Fulda, Germany.

The Rune Poem Puzzle from the Old Bø Church

In the Old Bø Church in Telemark a 12th century runic inscription is preserved which uses kennings for runes very similar to the rune poems.^{[27][28][29][30]} Reading the lines from the bottom up and resolving the kennings one gets the name of the woman with whom the rune-carver was in love.

Resolving the kennings the reader gets the following runes:

Together they spell out the name Gudrun.

See also

• Bríatharogam
• Gothic alphabet
• List of runestones
• Runic magic
• Apple Pie ABC
• Alphabet song

Notes

References

External links

• Rune Poems from "Runic and Heroic Poems" by Bruce Dickins