Comments on: Viking Runes

By: Erik

Erik — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 04:39:28 +0000

Hi there, I had a quick question –
does the Norwegian rune for ‘s’ consist of the entire symbol shown above? Or does that symbol show three different ways of writing the letter ‘s’? Also, could the fourth rune in the Norwegian Young Futhark (the modified ‘a’) be used for the letter ‘o’? –Like in the last name, Larson. Your time is greatly appreciated, Thanks.

____________________
from Moose:

Those are three different ways of writing the letter – the complexity of the letters probably changed based on what medium was used for carving (stone needed to be easier to write on than wood etc.)

The fourth “a” sound would be the one closest to “o” – in fact, some places the alphabet is written as “futhorc” rather than “futhark” so I think it would be appropriate to use that vowel.

By: Glenn Petersen

Glenn Petersen — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:54:41 +0000

Hej My Little Norway!

Er der nogen chance for at vi kan få fortalt hvad der står på runestenen øverst på denne side? Har prøvet at lede på internettet, men uden held da jeg ikke ved hvor stenen står eller hvad den bliver kaldt.

Jeg har prøvet mig frem for sjov og fik ordene: stana, aftir, raistu/rhistu, kunar.
Ikke noget der giver nogen mening for mig

By: thomas odsen

thomas odsen — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:25:24 +0000

I have not been able to find a surname for odsen,do you have any meanings or info on my last name,is it norwegien?,I heard it’s old norse for “oarsmen’ if you can come up with any info it would be much appreciated,I’m trying to find anything in relations to where it came from,thanks.

______________________
from L-Jay:

The ‘-sen’ is likely ‘-son’ meaning ‘son of Od’. So you look at the base name which is Od or óðr. Od is the husband of Freyja, a Norse goddess. It can also mean wood, raving, frenzied, raging, mad with fear; enraged. You need to remember that Norse is not Norwegian but is the beginning of all the Scandinavian or Northern Germanic languages. I’d say follow your family history to find out which country your family is from rather than finding where the name is from – most of the Norse mythology can be linked to other cultures and therefore is unreliable in determining the origin of a name.

By: Peder

Peder — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:38:11 +0000

Thank you L-Jay for your quick response, and if I may, probe your mind a little more about runes. I guess what I was trying to ask you, is can a modern language of today be translated into runes, and if it can, which form of runes would you attempt to use in doing so ? I’m trying to make a memorial stone dedicated to my son in English and would like to do it using Danish runes. Or are we modern descendants of Danes not permitted to use their ancient art form to express out thoughts anymore. I hope not. What’s your thoughts on this matter?

_____________________
from L-Jay:

Writing Runes came about because of Odin the Norse god. He commanded that warriors should be remembered in stone writings and that became the birth of the tombstone. For a long time only tombstones where written on. However, it did become a casual written language. It was used as a way to communicate so the Catholic priests who used Latin, didn’t know what was being said. There have been quiet a few love letters found in old pews and between stone walls in churches…lol. Runes are not Danish, Swedish or Norwegian as the whole area spoke Northern Germanic dialect. Translating Danish into Runes and English into Runes will give different outcomes because English and Danish sound different from each other even though they are from the same language group. However, the true spirit of Runes is about honouring fallen warriors no matter what dialect you spoke.

By: Peder

Peder — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 20:20:10 +0000

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that rune writers wrote only in their native language or in the runes they learned to write in. Does this mean that, say, a Danish viking living in France and who speaks french would write a french story or memorial using a Danish – Swedish short twig form of runes and still be correct ?What I’m trying to get at, is it correct for an American to use a Danish short twig form of rune to write an english poem and still be accepted as correct ?

____________________
from L-Jay:

Well, to get technical, ‘English’ wasn’t around during the Viking Age. Old English was but that was just an amalgamation of Celtic-Latin-Jut-Anglo-Saxon, etc – basically anyone who had invaded the UK by the Viking Age. There is no ‘incorrect’ way to write runes but there are ‘more’ correct ways than others. A fairly safe translation for ‘authentic’ would be from Icelandic into runes. Iceland was settled by the Vikings and the language hasn’t changed much since. But you can use English – I guess it is the meaning to you that is the most important (which is the same for the Vikings).