Younger Runes in Manuscripts and Early Printed Works

St. John’s College, Oxford, MS 17

A single page of this manuscript, fol. 5v, contains several futharks, runic alphabets, code schemes for Latin letters and ficticious alphabets. Among these are two younger fuþarks with rune names, one of which with a rich set of additional runes, and also a runic alphabet which contains at least two younger runes though mainly based on a poorly understood Anglo-Saxon fuþark. The content overlaps with that of the lost Cotton MS Galba A 2, of which a facsimile of uncertain exactness is preserved in George Hickes’ Thesaurus, pars tertia (1703), tabella VI. Both have contents the other lacks, and there are differences in the shared material, but they are clearly so closely related that they must be treated in conjunction.

Younger futhark 1

The first entry on the page (top left) is a fuþark with the sixteen basic runes with sound vales and names. The order is corrupted, in that s and a is placed after b. For easier comparison with other futharks, this is corrected in the following. The rune-forms are long-branch types with two early variants. Rune 14, m, has the form with a closed circle, though here drawn as a separate loop on either side of the stave. Rune 4 is of the older fuþark type, which is more unexpected. It is a possibility that the slightly later version with the branches placed lower on the stave was intended, but that the copy is corrupted, possibly under the influence of Anglo-Saxon æ.

1	f	ᚠ	fe
2	u	ᚢ	ur
3	þ	ᚦ	þurſ
4	e	ᚨ	e
5	r	ᚱ	reıðer
6	c	ᚴ	coun
7	h	ᚼ	haᵹol
8	n	ᚾ	nou
9	ı	ᛁ	ıſ
12	ꞇ	ᛏ	ꞇıur
13	b	ᛒ	bercon
11	ſ	ᛋ	ſol
10	a	ᛅ	ar
14	m	ᛰ	monr
15	l	ᛚ	laur
16	r	ᛦ	reıðer

The names preserve diphtongs, but have lost some voiced fricative phonemes. Some instances of nominative -r is lost, while it is preserved after an epenthetic e in one name where it is normally lacking. All sound values are identical to the first letter of the corresponding name. Unfortunately, for the two most interesting sound values, the original names are lost. For rune 4, both name and sound value is given the unparallelled value e. Combined with the very early rune-form, it is tempting to interpret this as reflecting that the sound value had not yet changed to o, but that e somehow reflects the earlier value of ą. Rune 16 is given the same name and sound value as rune 5. This suggests that it still had not changed from ʀ to y, though the distinction between r and ʀ might have been lost.

Younger futhark 2

ᚠ fe
ᚢ ur
ᚦ þorſ
ᚬ oſ
ᚱ reð
ᚴ con
ᚼ hagol
ᚾ noð
ᛁ ıſ
ᛅ ar
ᛋ ſol
ᛏ ꞇẏr
ᛒ beor
ᛘ mɑnꝺer
ᛚ loer
ᛦ ẏr
ᚤ ƿ
ᚴ̶ k
ᚵ g
ᛁ̵ e
ᚯ æ
ᛏ̵ ꝺ
ᛔ p

Composite alphabet

This is given as a column of characters without names or sound values. Its main component is an Anglo-Saxon fuþark rearranged in alphabetic order, but the position of each rune is based on the first letter of its name rather than its sound value. In order to conform to the conventional form of the Latin alphabet, a cursive letter Z is added after the y-rune, and following this a bind-rune e+t representing the et-ligature or ampersand and then the Tironian note ⁊ unchanged. After these there follows three runes with sounds not covered by the classical Latin alphabet, but whose names were typically written with additional insular letters.

For the present purpose it is more interesting that for two runes, younger runes of the long-branch type are given in addition to the corresponding Anglo-Saxon ones (a and h). A further eight runes are identical and could in principle have been taken from either fuþark; presumably this overlap was the motivation behind the inclusion of the specifically younger runes. The treatment is biased towards the Anglo-Saxon fuþark, though, as 31 runes from this is included out of a possible 33; whereas six runes are missing from the younger fuþark.

Assumed equivalent letter	Anglo- Saxon rune	Younger rune	Other source	Rune name
a	ᚪ
a		ᛅ
b	ᛒ	ᛒ
c	ᚳ
d	ᛞ
e	ᛖ
e	ᛇ			eoh
e	ᛠ			ear eolhx
f	ᚠ	ᚠ
g	ᛄ			gear
g	ᚸ			gar
h	ᚻ
h		ᚼ
i	ᛝ			ing
i	ᚼ			ior
i	ᛟ			?
k	ᛣ
l	ᛚ	ᛚ
m	ᛗ
n	ᚾ	ᚾ
o	ᚩ
p	ᛈ
q	ᛢ
r	ᚱ	ᚱ
r			?
s	ᛥ			stan
s	ᛋ	ᛋ
t	ᛏ	ᛏ
u	ᚢ	ᚢ
x	ᛉ
y	ᚥ
z			Z
&	ᛖᛏ
⁊			⁊
w	ᚹ
þ	ᚦ	ᚦ
æ	ᚨ

Anglo-Saxon runes extracted and placed in fuþark order:

Assumed equivalent letter	f	u	þ	o	r	c		w	h	n		g	e	p	x	s	t	b	e	m	l	i	d	i	a	æ	y	e	i	k	g	s	q
Normalised rune	ᚠ	ᚢ	ᚦ	ᚩ	ᚱ	ᚳ		ᚹ	ᚻ	ᚾ		ᛄ	ᛇ	ᛈ	ᛉ	ᛋ	ᛏ	ᛒ	ᛖ	ᛗ	ᛚ	ᛝ	ᛞ	ᛟ	ᚪ	ᚨ	ᚥ	ᛠ	ᚼ	ᛣ	ᚸ	ᛥ	ᛢ
Conventional transcription	f	u	þ	o	r	c	g	w	h	n	i	j	ȝ	p	x	s	t	b	e	m	l	ŋ	d	œ	a	æ	y	e͡a	ȷ̄	k	ḡ	s͡t	q

Younger runes extracted and placed in fuþark order:

ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ   ᚱ   ᚼ ᚾ   ᛅ ᛋ ᛏ ᛒ   ᛚ
f u þ o r k h n i a s t b m l y

To the left of the alphabets, there is a cryptogram written vertically: Molıſ. on. erme. frımoꞇ. prıcı. ſı. pıdıſ. oſtı. rıdımoꞇ.. This text is produced by replacing each vowel with the following one in alphabetical sequence; reversing this process yields the reading Miles in arma fremit, prece se pedes iste redemit.

Tor Gjerde
i@old.no