The Meldorf fibula is a Germanic spring-case-type

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...

found in

Meldorf Meldorf (Holsatian: ''Meldörp'' or ''Möldörp'') is a town in western Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, that straddles the river Miele in the district of Dithmarschen. Overview Meldorf was first mentioned in writing before 1250 AD. In 1265 it rece ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

in 1979. Though the exact circumstances of the recovery of the fibula are unknown, it is thought to have come from a cremation grave, probably that of a woman. On typological grounds it has been dated to first half of the 1st century CE, and possibly bears the oldest

runic inscription A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of El ...

found to date.

Inscription

The inscription, found on the fibula's foot and carried out in the tremolo or assay puncture technique, remains the subject of lively debate. The controversy revolves primarily around whether the graphemes are to be understood as runic, proto-runic or Latin characters. Finds from

Vimose Finds from Vimose (), on the island of Funen, Denmark, include some of the oldest datable Elder Futhark runic inscriptions in early Proto-Norse or late Proto-Germanic from the 2nd to 3rd century in the Scandinavian Iron Age and were written in t ...

– particularly a comb with the inscription harja dated to ca. 160 CE – are generally considered to be the oldest runic artifacts yet found. If the inscription on the Meldorf fibula is runic, then it has far-reaching implications regarding the question as to the origin and development of the

Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Peri ...

Interpretations

Düwel and Gebühr (1981) suggest that the inscription contains four runes, reading (left to right) , which they interpret as meaning "for the spouse" or "mater familias". Attested cognates and related words would include:

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). It i ...

and

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

, "spouse"; Old Saxon and Old High German , "family"; Old Saxon and Old High German , "to marry";

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

in , "master of the house" or "husband". This interpretation has been widely criticised as epigraphically and linguistically irregular, however (Odenstedt 1989, Mees 1997). Düwel's interpretation gained renewed attention with the discovery of Wijnaldum B, a small golden pendant of possibly Mediterranean origin dated to ca. 600 CE, in

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of the ...

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

in 1990. On the back is a runic inscription which Looijenga (1997) and Düwel (2001) took to read as , "for the mater familias". Looijenga (2021:383, n.7) has since withdrawn her reading of the inscription, however, seeing it now as only featuring meaningless scratches. Odenstedt (1989) interprets the inscription as being composed in the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...

, reading (right to left) , which he translates as a personal name, the gender of which remains uncertain; if feminine "for Ida", if masculine, "for Iddo". Seebold (1994) also agrees with this interpretation. Mees (1997), like Düwel, interprets the inscription as runic, but instead reads (right to left) , which he translates as "to the (rune-)master". Other possible readings include Latin , runic or Latin , , or runic , , . The fibula is kept in

Gottorp Gottorf Castle (german: Schloss Gottorf, da, Gottorp Slot, Low German: ''Gottorp'') is a castle and estate in the city of Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is one of the most important secular buildings in Schleswig-Holstein, and ha ...

, Schleswig-Holstein.

External links

Drawing
originally from Düwel/Gebühr (1981)

References

*Anderson, Carl Edlund (2005); ''The Runic System as a Reinterpretation of Classical Influences and as an Expression of Scandinavian Cultural Affiliation'

*Düwel, Klaus (1981), ''The Meldorf Fibula and the Origin of Runic Writing'' in ''Michigan Germanic Studies'' no. 7, pp. 8–14. *Düwel, Klaus/Gebühr, Michael (1981); ''Die Fibel von Meldorf und die Anfänge der Runenschrift'' in ''Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur'' no. 110, pp. 159–75. *Düwel, Klaus (1994), ed., ''Runische Schriftkultur'' in ''ERGA'' no. 10, Berlin, New York. *Düwel, Klaus (2001); ''Runenkunde'', Weimar: J. B. Metzger, pp. 23–4, 87. *Hines, John, and Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm (2021) eds., ''Frisians of the Early Middle Ages'', Woodbridge: Boydell. *Looijenga, Tineke (1997); ''Runes Around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150-700'', Groningen: SSG Uitgeverij; pg. 129, 186

*Looijenga, Tineke (2021); ''Runic literacy in north-west Europe, with a focus on Frisia'', in Hines and IJssennagger-van der Pluijm (2021), pp. 375-400. *Mees, Bernard (1997); ''A New Interpretation of the Meldorf Fibula Inscription'' in ''Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur'' no. 126, pp. 131–39. *Odenstedt, Bengt (1989); ''Further Reflections on the Meldorf Inscription'' in ''Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur'' no. 118, pp. 77–85. * Vladimir Orel, Orel, Vladimir (2003). ''A Handbook of Germanic Etymology''. Leiden:

Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston, Paderborn and Singapore, Brill today publishes 27 ...

. pg. 173. . *Seebold, Elmar (1994); ''Die sprachliche Deutung und Einordnung der archaischen Runeninschriften'' in Düwel (1994), pp. 56–94. {{DEFAULTSORT:Meldorf Fibula Elder Futhark inscriptions

Inscription

Interpretations

See also

External links

References