- Pforzen buckle
The Pforzen buckle is a silver belt buckle found in
Pforzen ,Ostallgäu (Schwaben ) in1992 . TheAlemannic grave in which it was found (no. 239) dates to the end of the6th century and was presumably that of a warrior, as it also contained a lance,spatha ,seax and shield. The buckle itself is assumed to be of Roman-Mediterranean origin, possibly the product of a Lombard orGepid workshop.Inscription
The buckle bears a runic inscription on its front, incised after its manufacture:
:aigil andi aïlrun [ornament or bind-rune] :ltahu (or elahu) gasokun [ornamental braid]
Linguistic analysis of the inscription reveals that it was composed in early
Old High German and is thus considered the oldest preserved line of alliterative verse in anyWest Germanic language (while theGolden horns of Gallehus inscription, roughly one century older, is considered the oldest example of aNorth Germanic metrical line). However, scholars have yet to reach a consensus as to its exact import.Interpretations
Wagner (1995) reads the final ornament in line 1 as a bind rune consisting of (angi) and connects this directly with the beginning of line 2, producing angiltahu. He translates the inscription as "Aigil and Ailrun scolded Angiltah". However, this interpretation has been criticized (Düwel 2001) on the grounds that (1) the scribe had no apparent reason to resort to a complex bind-rune for part of the inscription and (2) a ‘scolding’ does not seem to be worthy of an inscription on an object interred with the remains of a warrior.
Düwel (2001) reads the end of line 1 as a simple ornament and the beginning of line 2 as a bind-rune formed of .
Nedoma (2004) also sees the end of line 1 as ornament, yet reads the beginning of line 2 as a bind-rune composed of together with his wife (presumably Ailrun) engaged in battle. The casket is thought to date to approximately the same time as the Pforzen buckle.
Looijenga (2003) argues that the inscription shows evidence of scribal error. Assuming that the verse alliterates, she interprets the .
ee also
*
Runic alphabet
*Elder Futhark References
*Klaus Düwel, "Runenkunde", Weimar (2001), 19-20. (ISBN: 3-476-13072-X)
*Tineke Looijenga, [http://books.google.com/books?id=-edm1fMPbXwC "Texts & Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions"] , Brill (2003), 253-255. (ISBN: 9-004-12396-2)
*Robert Nedoma, "Noch einmal zur Runeninschrift auf der Gürtelschnalle von Pforzen" in: Alemannien und der Norden, ed. Naumann (2004), 340-370.
*Norbert Wagner, "Zu den Runeninschriften von Pforzen und Nordendorf" in: Historische Sprachforschung 108, 1995. 104-112.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
