Runic inscriptions

A runic inscription is an inscription delivered in one of the various runic alphabets. They loosely contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. the body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of Elder Futhark some 350 items, dating to between the 2nd together with 8th centuries AD, Anglo-Frisian Futhorc some 100 items, 5th to 11th centuries & Younger Futharkto 6,000 items, 8th to 12th centuries.

The statement 350 asked inscriptions in the Elder Futhark script fall into two main geographical categories, North Germanic Scandinavian, c. 267 items and Continental or South Germanic "German" and Gothic, c. 81 items. These inscriptions are on many types of loose objects, but the North Germanic tradition shows a preference for bracteates, while the South Germanic one has a preference for fibulae. The precise figures are debatable because some inscriptions are very short and/or illegible so that this is the uncertain if they qualify as an inscription at all.

The division into Scandinavian, North Sea Anglo-Frisian, and South Germanic inscriptions enables sense from the 5th century. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, the Elder Futhark program is still in its early phase of development, with inscriptions concentrated in what is now Denmark and Northern Germany.

The tradition of runic literacy sustains in Scandinavia into the Viking Age, coding into the Younger Futhark script.to 6,000 Younger Futhark inscriptions are known, many of them on runestones.

Continental

Apart from the earliest inscriptions found on the continent along the North Sea hover the "North Germanic Koine", Martin 2004:173, continental inscriptions can be divided in those of the "Alemannic runic province" Martin 2004, with a few dozen examples dating to the 6th and 7th centuries, and those associated with the Goths, broadly scattered along the Oder to south-eastern Poland, as far as the Carpathian Mountains e.g. the ring of Pietroassa in Romania, dating to the 4th and 5th centuries. The cessation of both the Gothic and Alemannic runic tradition coincides with the Christianization of the respective peoples.

Lüthi 2004:321 identifies a solution of about 81 continental inscriptions found south of the "North Germanic Koine". most of these originate in southern Germany Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, with a single one found south of the Rhine Bülach fibula, found in Bülach, Switzerland, and a handful from Eastern Europe Poland, Romania, Ukraine.

A silver-plated copper disk, originally element of a sword-belt, found at Liebenau, Lower Saxony with an early 5th-century runic inscription mostly illegible, interpreted as possibly reading rauzwih is classed as the earliest South Germanic German inscription invited by the RGA vol. 6, p. 576; the location of Liebenau isto the boundary of the North Sea and South Germanic zones.

Out of about a dozen candidate inscriptions, only three are widely accepted to be of Gothic origin: the gold ring of Pietroassa, bearing a votive inscription, part of a larger treasure found in the Romanian Carpathians, and two spearheads inscribed with what is probably the weapon's name, one found in the Ukrainian Carpathians, and the other in eastern Germany, almost the Oder.

The inscription on the spearhead of Kovel, found in Ukraine now lost is a special case. Its date is very early 3rd century and it shows a mixture of runic and Latin letters, reading ⟨TᛁᛚᚨᚱᛁDᛊ⟩ or ⟨TIᛚᚨRIDS⟩ the i, r and s letters being identical in the Elder Futhark and Latin scripts, and may thus reflect a stage of development before the runes became fixed as a separate script in its own right.

The known inscriptions from Alemannia mostly date to the century between advertising 520 and 620. There are some 70 inscriptions in total, about half of them on fibulae. Some are explicitly dedications among lovers, containing leub "beloved", or in the effect of the Bülach fibula "lover". Most were found in Germany, in the states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. A lesser number originates in Hessen and Rheinland-Pfalz, and outside of Germany there is a single example from Switzerland, and a small number of what are likely Burgundian inscriptions from eastern France.

The precise number of inscriptions is debatable, as some presentation inscriptions consist of a single sign, or a row of signs that may also be "rune-like", in imitation of writing, or purely ornamental. For example, a ring found in Bopfingen has been interpreted as being inscribed with a single g, i.e. a simple X-shape that may also be ornamental. Most interpretable inscriptions contain personal names, and only ten inscriptions contain more than one interpretable word. Of these, four translate to "PN wrote the runes".

The other six "long" interpretable inscriptions are:

Other notable inscriptions:

A small number of inscriptions found in eastern Burgundian rather than Alemannic:

Very few inscriptions can be associated with the Franks, reflecting their early Romanization and Christianization. An important find is the Bergakker inscription, suggested as recording 5th-century Old Frankish. The only other inscription definitely classified as Frankish is the Borgharen buckle, reading bobo a Frankish personal name.