Nordendorf fibula I
A silver brooch from a Bavarian cemetery carrying what appear to be three divine names, among the very few runic inscriptions that plainly name Germanic gods.
At a glance
- Alphabet
- Elder Futhark
- Date
- c. AD 600
- Found at
- Nordendorf, Bavaria, Germany
- Signature
- None given here. English, Frisian and Continental material is catalogued outside the Rundata tradition altogether; elsewhere a signature is left off only where we could not verify one. Either way the object is cited by name and findspot.
The text
Transliteration in the conventional runological form. Translations on this site are our own and deliberately literal.
logaþore wodan wigiþonar
Discovery
Recovered from a row-grave cemetery at Nordendorf in Bavaria. It belongs to the Continental group of Elder Futhark finds, which is smaller than the Scandinavian one and is catalogued in a German rather than a Rundata tradition, so it carries no Nordic signature.
Why it matters
Two of the three words are recognisable as god-names (Wodan, and Þonar with a prefix usually read as "consecrating" or "holy"), which makes this one of a bare handful of inscriptions that connect runic writing directly to pre-Christian religion rather than by inference. Most claims that runes were a religious script rest on inscriptions considerably less explicit than this one.
Common misconceptions
Claims about this object that circulate widely and do not hold up.
The first word, logaþore, has no accepted explanation. It is variously taken as a third god-name, an epithet, or a word meaning something like "deceiver", and confident translations of the whole inscription are choosing between those without saying so.
Runes attested here (1)
Every dictionary entry that cites this object, with the reason it gives.
- AnsuzElder
Reads logaþore wodan wigiþonar, apparently three divine names. One of the few inscriptions that plainly names Germanic gods.
Sources
Full references on the sources page.