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Griffiths, Alan, “A family of names: rune-names and ogam-names and their relation to alphabet letter-names”, 2 vols, unpublished PhD thesis, Leiden University, 2013.

  • unpublished PhD thesis
Citation details
Contributors
Dissertation
A family of names: rune-names and ogam-names and their relation to alphabet letter-names (2 vols)
Publisher
Leiden University
Year
2013
BibTeX
Online resources
Archive
– Largely under embargo until 18-12-2014 resource: Leiden Repository
Description
Abstract (cited)
The current consensus is that vernacular names assigned to the runes of the Germanic fuþark and to Irish ogam characters are indigenous creations independent of Mediterranean alphabet traditions. I propose, however, that ogam-names are based on interpretations of Hebrew, Greek or Latin letter-names given by Jerome, Ambrose and others, and introduced into Ireland by Christian missionaries (fifth to sixth centuries). Subsequently, under the influence of Irish Christian missionaries in northern Britain, names were also created for runes (seventh to eighth centuries). Before then, there had been no comprehensive system of rune-names, but the introduction of names led to the composition of the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem. Although few would dispute that it shows Christian influence, the Anglo-Saxon poem is still thought to be based on a pre-Christian “common Germanic” Urgedicht, which is more faithfully represented in the comparable Scandinavian rune-poems. The implication of my thesis is that no rune-poem existed before the Anglo-Saxon poem and that it is this poem, with its Christian allusions, that is likely to have been the original version and to have formed a basis for the Scandinavian poems, in which pagan allusions are examples of scholarly antiquarianism.
Subjects and topics
Headings
ogham
Keywords
Fuþark ideographs kennings runica manuscripta homonyms synonyms Christianization rune-poems tree-alphabet
web page identifiers
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
March 2014, last updated: February 2021
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