The other early futhark rows
Four objects that carry a futhark row, cited all over this site and until now with nowhere to go: the Mariedamm and Grumpan bracteates, the Breza column and the Charnay fibula. Between them they outvote the Kylver stone on the order of the alphabet.
At a glance
- Alphabet
- Elder Futhark
- Date
- c. AD 500–600
- Where
- Sweden, Bosnia and Burgundy
The text
Why none is reproduced here.
This entry covers a class of source rather than a single object, so there is no one text to give. Look it up under its name in the standard catalogues, where the readings are given with their apparatus.
Where it survives
The Mariedamm bracteate (Nä 10) comes from Närke in Sweden and is struck from the same die as the Vadstena bracteate. The Grumpan bracteate (Vg 207) was found in Västergötland in 1911, together with two other bracteates, two gold rings, two bronze hooks and some glass beads. The Breza column is a fragment of a limestone half-column excavated in 1930 from a late-antique building at Breza, some 25 km north of Sarajevo. The Charnay fibula carries its row on the reverse and came out of a row-grave cemetery in Burgundy.
Why it matters
The conventional order of the Elder Futhark rests on the handful of rows that survive, and they disagree in two places. These four are why the disagreement is not a tie. On eihwaz against perthro they all read ï before p, against the Kylver stone alone, and modern convention follows them. On dagaz against othala the two bracteates read o before d, again against Kylver, and there modern convention follows Kylver instead. Grumpan also divides its row with dots, which makes it the second witness to the ættir after the Vadstena–Mariedamm die.
Common misconceptions
Claims about this object that circulate widely and do not hold up.
Mariedamm and Vadstena are not two independent rows. They are struck from one die, so they are one witness: a valuable one, because Mariedamm shows the final rune that Vadstena hides beneath its suspension loop, but not a second vote.
None of these rows is complete. Grumpan is damaged at the eyelet and has lost the z and s that closed its second group; the Breza column has broken away at one edge and stops four runes short; the Charnay fibula gives only the first twenty. Each is cited for the positions it does preserve, not as a full alphabet.
Runes attested here (4)
Every dictionary entry that cites this object, with the reason it gives.
- Īhwaz / *eihwazElder
The Mariedamm and Grumpan bracteates, the Breza column and the Charnay fibula all put this rune ahead of perthro, as does Vadstena, which shares Mariedamm’s die. That is the majority modern charts follow against Kylver.
- PerþrōElder
The rows that put eihwaz first and this rune second. Kylver stands alone against them, and the modern order sides with them here.
- DagazElder
The Mariedamm and Grumpan bracteates both end ...ŋ o d, putting othala ahead of this rune. Modern charts follow Kylver instead: the one place where the convention sides with Kylver against the bracteates.
- ŌþalanElder
The Mariedamm and Grumpan bracteates put this rune one place earlier, before dagaz. Kylver is the only row that closes with it, and the modern order follows Kylver.
Sources
Full references on the sources page.