[lit-ideas] Runes -- Who Needs Them?

From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:40:29 EDT
McCreery asks:
 
>Must the word be literate?
 
I don't think so. Again, the Angles shared words, but hardly marked them  (on 
wood). When they finally felt it was high time to 'become literate', the  
symbols they came up with were modifications of the Roman alphabet, as they saw 
 
it displayed in places like Bath in Somerset.
 
---- Cheers,
 
JL
 
 
From the OED:
 
The original runic alphabet dates from at least the second or third  century, 
and was formed by modifying the letters of the Roman or Greek alphabet  so as 
to facilitate cutting them upon wood or stone.  
[1685  _W.  NICOLSON_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-n.html#w-nicolson)
  in  Phil. Trans. XV. 1293 We are  sufficiently 
assured, that the Heathen Saxons did also make use of these Runæ. 1686  see 
_RIMESTOCK_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=rune&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=Toa8-vcG
UWR-18555&result_place=1&xrefword=rimestock) .]  1690  _TEMPLE_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-t.html#temple)   
Ess., 
Poetry 37 Runes, was properly the Name of the antient Gothick Letters or  
Characters. 1705  Phil. Trans. XXV. 2058 He thinks  it remarkable, that Magog 
is there 
mention'd Inventer of the Runes. 1770  _PERCY_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-p2.html#percy)  
Mallet's Northern Antiq. I. 
375  The noxious, or as they called them, the bitter runes, were  employed to 
bring various evils on their enemies. 1848  _LYTTON_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-l2.html#lytton)  
Harold I. i, Her pale 
hand  seemed tracing letters, like runes, in the air. 1851  _D.  WILSON_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-w3.html#d-wilson)
  
Preh. Ann. (1863) I. 4  Intelligible inscriptions engraven in Anglo Saxon 
Runes. 
1851  _D.  WILSON_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-w3.html#d-wilson)
  Preh. Ann. (1863) II.  IV. ii.  238 The inscriptions on 
the sculptured or Memorial  Stones..include..the Ogham or Celtic Runes. 1883  
_I.  TAYLOR_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-t.html#i-taylor) 
 Alphabet 201 An adaptation or  survival of the ‘Slavonic Runes’
, the existence of which is however entirely  hypothetical. 1883  _MORFILL_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-m4.html#morfill) 
 Slavonic Lit. i. 23 The view  that the Slavs had runes is based upon a 
passage in the writings of the Monk  Khrabr. 1937  _J. R. R.  TOLKIEN_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-t2.html#j-r-r-tolkien)
  
Hobbit i. 30 Look at the  map..and you will see there the runes in red. 1948  
_D. 
 DIRINGER_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-d2.html#d-diringer)
  Alphabet II. v. 314 The  monumental inscriptions are written 
in a runic character, termed Kök Turki  runes. 1954  _J. R. R.  TOLKIEN_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-t2.html#j-r-r-tolkie
n)  Fellowship of Ring v. 339 They  were written by many different hands, in 
runes, both of Moria and of Dale, and  here and there in Elvish script. 1958  
Everyman's Encycl. (ed. 4) IX. 461/1 Orkhon Inscriptions (also known as 
Siberian, Early Turki,  Pre-Islamic Turki or Kök Turki Runes) are the earliest 
epigraphical monuments  written in Turki. 1961  M. SAVILL tr. E. Doblhoffer's 
Voices in Stone ix. 289 Babinger sent a photograph..to the decipherer of the 
Old 
Turkish  runes, Vilhelm Thomsen. 1968  U. K. LE  GUIN Wizard of  Earthsea iv. 
67 
He studied the Further Runes and  the Runes of Éa, which are used in the 
Great Spells. a1973  _J. R. R.  TOLKIEN_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-t2.html#j-r-r-tolkien)
  Silmarillion (1977) 322  Cirth, 
the Runes, first devised by Daeron of Doriath.

 
J. L. Speranza, Esq.  

Town:

Calle Arenales 2021, Piso 5, St. 8, 
La Recoleta  C1124AAE,
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tel. 54 11 4824 4253
Fax 54 221 425  9205

Country:

St. Michael Hall,
Calle 58, No. 611,
La Plata  B1900 BPY
Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tel. 54 221 425  7817
Fax 54 221 425  9205
http://www.stmichaels.com.ar

jls@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
http://www.netverk/~jls.htm



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[lit-ideas] Runes -- Who Needs Them?

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