It's written in the runes
One of my interests is runology. What? Yes, runology, the study of runic inscriptions. One of the most exciting moments of my life was back in 2001 when my husband Christopher, who has the eyes of a hawk when it comes to spotting archaeology, found a rune stone! To begin with, it seemed too good to be true and I might have looked less impressed than I ought to, but the excitement grew as it became more and more apparent that it was genuine. The way it happened, was that we went for a walk along Warbeth beach and out to the old ruin at Breckness. It was a beautiful summer鈥檚 evening and the sun was just about to set when Christopher saw some interesting lines on a stone that was lying in the rubble of a fallen down dyke 鈥� highlighted by the low rays of sunshine. He immediately thought the lines looked like runes and picked it up to show it to me. This was before I knew very much about runes, so all I could say was that it looked like runes, but I just wasn鈥檛 sure. Christopher took it home and the next day brought it into the museum in Kirkwall and to the competent attention of Anne Brundle. Professor Michael Barnes, the rune expert from University College London, then came and had a look at it. And this is when things got really exciting: It was a real, genuine rune stone fragment! It鈥檚 not very big, as it is only a broken piece of a longer inscription. And since most of it is missing, it鈥檚 impossible to tell for sure what it said. But the few characters that are readable seem to suggest that it might have been a memorial stone for somebody called Fugl.
The Breckness rune stone is the 53rd runic inscription to be found in Orkney, of which 33 are in Maeshowe. Another exciting find was the Sanday rune stone which came out of a stone dyke in 1995. It is also part of a memorial stone, of the common formula 鈥淭his stone was raised by X in the memory of Y and Z carved the runes.鈥� Free-standing memorial rune stones are of course excellent building material, and in the Scandinavian countries rune stones have been found built in as part of chimneys or door slabs or barn bridges. I wonder how many other runic inscriptions are hiding in Orkney鈥檚 stone dykes? Or if the missing pieces of the Sanday and Breckness inscriptions are hiding out there somewhere?
There are many myths about runes. The word 鈥渞unology鈥� may evoke associations to other mystical arts such as astrology or magic. Indeed, any obscure writing may be called 鈥渞unic鈥�, as I observed on the Antiques Road Show the other day when a piece of original 鈥渆lvish鈥� script by J. R. R. Tolkien was described by the antiques expert as 鈥渞unic鈥�. And in Sir Walter Scott鈥檚 鈥渙ld northern鈥� romantic novel The Pirate, the witchy character Norna of Fitful Head is described as carrying 鈥渁 staff, squared on all sides, and engraved with Runic characters and figures, forming one of those portable and perpetual calendars which were used among the ancient natives of Scandinavia, and which, to a superstitious eye, might have passed for a divining rod.鈥� Some say that the word 鈥渞une鈥� itself means 鈥渟ecret鈥�. No wonder, then, that runes remain popular devices for modern magic. A quick search on the internet reveals endless offers of 鈥渞une readings鈥� for those in need of guidance.
This type of divination relies on the fact that the runic characters all have names. For example, the 鈥渇鈥� rune is called 鈥渇e鈥� which means 鈥渃attle, wealth鈥�, the 鈥渉鈥� rune is called 鈥渉ail鈥�, the 鈥渋鈥� rune is 鈥渋ce鈥�, the 鈥渘鈥� rune is 鈥渘eed鈥� and so on. In my opinion, it is nothing more than an aid to remembering them, such as when we say 鈥渁 for apple鈥� and so on. But if you are into divination, the rune names form the basis of the fortune reading. As you can probably tell, I am not into rune magic myself, but I still find it fascinating to study the various modern conceptions of runes.
Another myth is that runes are pagan. True enough they were first invented sometime in the second century AD, while the North Germanic folk were a pagan people. And their popularity dwindled with the introduction of the Roman alphabet along with Christianity. However, there is a long period of overlap. People in Scandinavia didn鈥檛 stop using runes just because they were Christian. There are some beautiful Christian runic inscriptions, such as one on the wall of the cathedral in Trondheim reading 鈥淢aria鈥� (St. Mary) and another recording that Jon and Ivar held wake for St. Olaf - and of course here in Orkney we have the one from the Orphir Round Kirk, now in Tankerness House Museum, which has been interpreted as reading 鈥渘o church is as pleasing to God as this.鈥� Already in the 11th century, early Scandinavian Christians used runes to express their faith. A beautiful inscription from Risbyle in Uppland, Sweden reads 鈥淢ay God and God's mother help his spirit and soul; grant him light and paradise鈥� while the Kuli rune stone now in the university museum in Trondheim records that 鈥渢welve winters had Christianity been in Norway鈥�.
In the Middle Ages, many people knew how to write in runes, and many everyday messages have been found cut into pieces of wood or bone, which was much cheaper than parchment or paper and generally 鈥渁boot haans鈥�. From under Bryggen in Bergen alone, some 670 runic inscriptions have been found. Many of these are concerned with trade, some are owner鈥檚 labels from sacks of goods, while others are more like casual notes, scribbled down in a way that reminds me of today鈥檚 SMS text messages, such as the following from a wife to a husband: 鈥淕yda says you must come home now!鈥� or the following sweet one: 鈥淢y darling, kiss me!鈥� Maeshowe also contains some absolute gems of everyday scribbles: boasting about treasure, women, 鈥淓yjolfr Kolbeinsson carved these runes high up鈥� and 鈥淛erusalem-farers broke into this mound鈥�. Whenever I get irritated about modern graffiti defacing some building or other, I try to remind myself that scholars of the future will be absolutely delighted to read 21st century teenagers鈥� outbursts preserved in paint.
So far from being something very old, magical and obscure, the people who wrote these inscriptions were using runes in just the same ways as we are now using the Roman alphabet 鈥� which is in fact older than the runic alphabet. Yes, just as I am writing the words of this column I am using a script which is older than runes and which may have been the inspirational source of the runes in the first place. And if it hadn鈥檛 been for the turns of fashion, and history had taken a slightly different course, I might have had a runic keyboard on my computer. 鈥淲hat is the runic Rosetta stone?鈥� someone once asked me. But the runes were never completely forgotten about. They lived on in more and more restricted use in isolated areas until past the reformation, and in Dalarna, Sweden, the type of calendar with runic writing which Sir Walter Scott is talking about lived on up until the 19th century.
My husband鈥檚 find of the Breckness rune stone awakened my interest in runes, and when in 2002 I got the chance to study runology at the university in Trondheim, I seized it eagerly. Looking at a runic inscription feels to me like an exciting puzzle I have to solve. And once it starts to look meaningful, it is like these people from many hundred years ago are talking to me. They were real people, too! And now we are hoping to start up a module on runology here at the Centre for Nordic Studies. Not sure if I was meant to say it yet, as the plans are a bit uncertain still, but it is certainly something we are working towards. In the meantime, we are definitely going to have a day of runology as part of our Viking Culture summer school, running this summer from July 5th 鈥� 9th. There are actually two summer schools, one in Shetland and one in Orkney, which are similar but slightly different. The Shetland one, for instance, includes a really exciting trip to the Viking island of Unst, while on the Orkney summer school we will be walking in the footsteps of Orkneyinga Saga characters. The schools are on different weeks, so if you are really keen you can catch both!
I am also hoping 鈥� depending on whether the budget will allow me 鈥� to carry out a small research project on how runes are used today in conveying an image of Orkney and in building an Orkney identity. Runes can be seen everywhere: On knitwear, on jewellery, in logos, on the sign above the entrance at Kirkwall airport, as part of the decorations in the Kirkwall bus terminal ... in Flotta I even met someone who had tattooed 鈥淥rkney鈥� in gigantic Anglo-Saxon runes all down his arm, something which I thought was just mind-blowing. Thinking of this, and of the knitted ganseys reading 鈥淥rkney Orkney Orkney Orkney ...鈥� in knitted runes: Isn鈥檛 it typical bad luck that 鈥淥rkney鈥� should be a really tricky word to spell in runes? The reason: the younger Futhark runic alphabet lacks the letters 鈥渆鈥� and 鈥測鈥�! This problem can be solved by using the older Futhark, which has 24 letters instead of the younger Futhark鈥檚 mere 16 鈥� but the problem then is that the older Futhark was never used in Orkney. The Vikings, writing in the younger Futhark, also had the sounds 鈥測鈥� and 鈥渆鈥� in their language, plus several other sounds missing from their alphabet as well, making it necessary for them to come up with innovative inventions such as spelling 鈥測鈥� as 鈥渦鈥� or 鈥渆鈥� as 鈥渋鈥�. So how they ever got the idea of cutting their alphabet down to only 16 letters is beyond my understanding. No wonder later mediaeval runes introduced a whole lot of modified characters to compensate. So if you see 鈥淥rkney鈥� spelled in runes in many different ways, this is why. But it doesn鈥檛 matter. Runic spelling conventions are loose anyway.
Perhaps I should finish this column by saying with George Mackay Brown: Carve the runes, then be content with silence.