Posted on 02/12/2014 6:45:06 PM PST by P.O.E.
On this stick from the 1200s found in Bergen, two men named Sigurd and Lavran have written their names both in code and with regular runes. This helped runologist Jonas Nordby to solve the Jötunvillur code.
For the first time, the Jötunvillur runic code is cracked. It can help to solve the mystery of the Vikings’ secret codes.
Why did the Vikings use codes when they wrote runes? Was it a secret message or other reasons that they encrypted runic texts? This, we still know little about.
But runologist Jonas Nordby think he may be one step closer to the solution. The rune expert has managed to interpret a code called Jötunvillur which for years has puzzled researchers.
The discovery could help us understand the purpose of the codes.
- It’s like solving a riddle, Nordby says to forskning.no.
- Gradually I began to see a pattern in what apparently were meaningless combinations of runes.
Many Wrote in Codes
The Vikings and Norse medieval people often engraved runic codes on wooden sticks, stones and other objects. The codes exist in many forms and contexts. They are found throughout Scandinavia, the British Isles and in other places where runes were in use.
- It was very common to use codes, and large parts of the population knew how to use them. Therefore, I think it was something you learned while studying runes. If you had learnt to read and write, you also had learnt codes, Jonas Nordby says.
Nordby, who now is taking a PhD in runes, is the first to have examined all the findings of runic codes in northern Europe, about 80 inscriptions. During his doctoral studies, he has traveled to several countries and studied runic inscriptions from 800 AD and later.
Imaginative use
- Many believe the Vikings used cryptography to hide secret messages. But I think the codes were used for playing and learning, rather than to communicate, Nordby says.
One of the reasons he can make this claim, is that the Jötunvillur code is written in a way that can be interpreted in different ways.
- Jötunvillur is only possible to write, not read. It gives no sense that it was used for messages.
That is why he has looked at other ways to use it. Nordby believes the Vikings memorized the runic character names by using the Jötunvillur code.
-PJ
Ooops!
1134209!
God, these runes!!!
CA....
;’)
Whoops, and thanks Innovative!
Liebowitz!
Uff da!
“he must have died in the middle of writing that”
And after the spankings, the AURAL SECTS!
Ancient Norse rune code cracked
http://cphpost.dk/news/ancient-norse-rune-code-cracked.8754.html
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