6533b7d4fe1ef96bd12630e0

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Runology and historical sociolinguistics: On runic writing and its social history in the first millennium

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AbstractThis paper argues that the rise and the transmission of the runes is largely determined by sociolinguistic factors. First, the olderfuþarkis identified as a unique Germanic design, adapted from Latin or Greek sources by one or more well-born Germani to mark group identity and status. Hence it is rather unlikely that the search for an exact source alphabet of the olderfuþarkwill make a major breakthrough in future research. Second, the present author argues that the extension of thefuþarkin the Anglo-Frisian setting is due to high-scale contact with the Christian Church, including Latin manuscript culture and Classical grammatical schooling, whereas these factors were almost entirely absent in pre-Viking-Age Scandinavia. The clerical influence is shown not least by “Christian inscriptions” in Anglo-Saxon England such as the Ruthwell Cross. Learned Christians recycled the obsolete runes to reestablish the phonological type ofperfect fit– a situation which is diametrically opposed to the Scandinavian scenario. Typologically, therefore, theFirst Grammatical Treatisein Iceland is directly in line with the Anglo-Frisian extension of the runic alphabet, whereas the Viking-Agefuþarkrepresents a counter-development with no clear influence of the Christian Church until the early 900s.