ThorsbergChape-NationalMuseamOfCopenhagen

The Thorsberg

chape Chape has had various meanings in English, but the predominant one is a protective fitting at the bottom of a scabbard or sheath for a sword or dagger (10 in the diagram). Historic blade weapons often had leather scabbards with metal fittings a ...

(a bronze piece belonging to a

scabbard A scabbard is a sheath for holding a sword, knife, or other large blade. As well, rifles may be stored in a scabbard by horse riders. Military cavalry and cowboys had scabbards for their saddle ring carbine rifles and Lever action, lever-action ...

) is an archeological find from the

Thorsberg moor The Thorsberg moor (german: Thorsberger Moor, da, Thorsberg Mose or ''Thorsbjerg Mose'', South Jutlandic: ''Tosbarch'', ''Tåsbjerre'' "Thor's hill") near Süderbrarup in Anglia, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, is a peat bog in which the Angles d ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, that appears to have been deposited as a

votive offering A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

.Tineke Looijenga, ''Texts & Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions'', Leyden/Boston: Brill, 2003,
p. 259
It bears an

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 ...

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 ...

, one of the earliest known, dating to roughly 200 CE. The artifact has been localized on archeological grounds to the region between the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

and the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

.Henrik Williams, "From Meldorf to Haithabu: Some Early Personal Names from Schleswig-Holstein," ''Von Thorsberg nach Schleswig'' pp. 149-66
p. 157
The first element ''owlþu'', for ''wolþu-'', means "glory," "glorious one," cf.

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

Ullr In Norse mythology, Ullr (Old Norse: ) is a god associated with archery. Although literary attestations of Ullr are sparse, evidence including relatively ancient place-name evidence from Scandinavia suggests that he was a major god in earlier ...

'',

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''wuldor''. The second element, ''-þewaz'', means "slave, servant." The whole compound is a personal name or title, "servant of the glorious one" or "servant/priest of Ullr." On the reverse, ''ni-'' is the negative particle, ''waje-'' corresponds to "woe, ill" (Old Norse ''vei''), and the final element is ''-mariz'' "famous" (Old English ''mǣre''). (The "e" and "m" are written together, as a bind-rune, an unusual early example but probably not linguistically significant.) The second word thus translates to "not ill-famous," i.e., "famous, renowned" or "not of ill fame, not dishonored." Similar double negatives are found on other runic inscriptions. The translation of the inscription can thus be either "Wolthuthewaz is well-renowned," or "the servant of Ullr, the renowned." If the first part refers to the god

, it is the only reference to that god from south of Denmark, and also, if a personal name, the only German example of a person named for a specific Germanic god. Another reading, avoiding the emendation of the first element, reads the first letter ideographically, " Odal," resulting in ''o �alanw þuþewaz / niwajmariz'' " inherited property of Wulthuthewaz, the renowned." However, the owner's name is not in the possessive case as would be expected with such a usage; moreover, the rune

Fehu The Fe rune (Old Norse '' fé''; Old English '' feoh'') represents the ''f'' and ''v''-sound in the Younger Futhark and Futhorc alphabets. Its name means '(mobile) wealth', cognate to English ''fee'' with the original meaning of 'sheep' or 'ca ...

, signifying simply "property," would be more apposite; " odal" specifically denoted real estate. It is possible that the inscription is poetic; it can be read as an alliterative long-line.Tonya Kim Dewey, ''Versatility in Versification: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Metrics'', Berkeley Insights in Linguistics and Semiotics 74, New York: Lang, 2009,
p. 7

Notes

{{reflist Elder Futhark inscriptions Votive offering Medieval European metalwork objects

See also

Notes