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Practical Runic Literacy in the Late Anglo-Saxon Period: Inscriptions on Lead Sheet

  • John Hines
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Anglo-Saxon Micro-Texts
This chapter is in the book Anglo-Saxon Micro-Texts

Abstract

The corpus of runic inscriptions from Anglo-Saxon England is growing steadily, and the evidence of several recent finds sheds valuable new light on the range and role of literacy in this culture as well as on early forms of the Old English language and its dialects. Few of these inscriptions can be disparaged as mere graffiti, and it is in fact clear that there is a significant patterning in the types of text written in runes in successive phases within the more than six centuries of the Anglo-Saxon Period. Three principal historical stages can now be identified. Pre-Old English and Early Old English phases that cover the fifth century AD to the ninth can be defined on linguistic grounds; concurrently, quite distinctive forms and uses of text are associated with each of these phases. The present paper identifies a ‘Late Anglo-Saxon’ phase, defined in terms of runographic practice and historical and archaeological context rather than linguistic criteria, although interestingly runic inscriptions of Latin text are prominent in this set. The phase is represented particularly by a number of recently found inscriptions on pieces of lead sheet. The examples which now allow us to define this group are published here, most of them for the first time. The material has a predominantly ecclesiastical and learned character, and yet it represents a mode of literacy quite distinct from the familiar contemporary manuscript culture

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Abstract

The corpus of runic inscriptions from Anglo-Saxon England is growing steadily, and the evidence of several recent finds sheds valuable new light on the range and role of literacy in this culture as well as on early forms of the Old English language and its dialects. Few of these inscriptions can be disparaged as mere graffiti, and it is in fact clear that there is a significant patterning in the types of text written in runes in successive phases within the more than six centuries of the Anglo-Saxon Period. Three principal historical stages can now be identified. Pre-Old English and Early Old English phases that cover the fifth century AD to the ninth can be defined on linguistic grounds; concurrently, quite distinctive forms and uses of text are associated with each of these phases. The present paper identifies a ‘Late Anglo-Saxon’ phase, defined in terms of runographic practice and historical and archaeological context rather than linguistic criteria, although interestingly runic inscriptions of Latin text are prominent in this set. The phase is represented particularly by a number of recently found inscriptions on pieces of lead sheet. The examples which now allow us to define this group are published here, most of them for the first time. The material has a predominantly ecclesiastical and learned character, and yet it represents a mode of literacy quite distinct from the familiar contemporary manuscript culture

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Anglo-Saxon Micro-Texts: An Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Micro-Texts beyond Manuscripts
  6. Reading Money: An Introduction to Numismatic Inscriptions in Anglo-Saxon England 13
  7. Practical Runic Literacy in the Late Anglo-Saxon Period: Inscriptions on Lead Sheet 29
  8. Text on Textile: Ælfflæd’s Embroideries 61
  9. Part II: Scribal Engagement in Manuscripts
  10. The Colophons of Codex Amiatinus 89
  11. Cryptograms in Old English as Micro-Texts 117
  12. Two Micro-Texts in Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies: A Puzzle Revisited 131
  13. Part III: From Scribbles, Glosses and Mark-Ups to Text
  14. “No sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English” (Lewis Carroll): Making Sense of an Old English Scribble in the Royal Psalter 145
  15. The Old English Dry-Point Glosses 161
  16. Minimal Collections of Glosses: The Twelve Rooms of Thomas’ Palace 175
  17. Encyclopaedic Notes as Micro-Texts: Contextual Variation and Communicative Function 203
  18. The Micro-Texts of the Tremulous Hand of Worcester: Genesis of a Vernacular liber exemplorum 225
  19. Wulfstan at Work: Recovering the Autographs of London, British Library, Additional 38651, fols. 57r–58v 267
  20. A Text within a Text: St Augustine’s Prayer at the Beginning of his Soliloquia and its Old English Version 307
  21. Part IV: Old English and Anglo-Latin Poetry
  22. Guidance for Wayfarers: About to Do God’s Work, Devoutly Recalled 319
  23. Discrepancies between Cædmon’s Hymn and its Latin Rendering by Bede 329
  24. The Hymnus trium puerorum: An Unrecognized Poem by Wulfstan of Winchester? 347
  25. Index of Manuscripts 367
  26. General Index 371
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110630961-003

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Anglo-Saxon Micro-Texts: An Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Micro-Texts beyond Manuscripts
  6. Reading Money: An Introduction to Numismatic Inscriptions in Anglo-Saxon England 13
  7. Practical Runic Literacy in the Late Anglo-Saxon Period: Inscriptions on Lead Sheet 29
  8. Text on Textile: Ælfflæd’s Embroideries 61
  9. Part II: Scribal Engagement in Manuscripts
  10. The Colophons of Codex Amiatinus 89
  11. Cryptograms in Old English as Micro-Texts 117
  12. Two Micro-Texts in Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies: A Puzzle Revisited 131
  13. Part III: From Scribbles, Glosses and Mark-Ups to Text
  14. “No sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English” (Lewis Carroll): Making Sense of an Old English Scribble in the Royal Psalter 145
  15. The Old English Dry-Point Glosses 161
  16. Minimal Collections of Glosses: The Twelve Rooms of Thomas’ Palace 175
  17. Encyclopaedic Notes as Micro-Texts: Contextual Variation and Communicative Function 203
  18. The Micro-Texts of the Tremulous Hand of Worcester: Genesis of a Vernacular liber exemplorum 225
  19. Wulfstan at Work: Recovering the Autographs of London, British Library, Additional 38651, fols. 57r–58v 267
  20. A Text within a Text: St Augustine’s Prayer at the Beginning of his Soliloquia and its Old English Version 307
  21. Part IV: Old English and Anglo-Latin Poetry
  22. Guidance for Wayfarers: About to Do God’s Work, Devoutly Recalled 319
  23. Discrepancies between Cædmon’s Hymn and its Latin Rendering by Bede 329
  24. The Hymnus trium puerorum: An Unrecognized Poem by Wulfstan of Winchester? 347
  25. Index of Manuscripts 367
  26. General Index 371
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