Very few Elder Futhark inscriptions in the Gothic language have been found in the territory historically settled by the Goths (Wielbark culture, Chernyakhov culture). This is due to the early Christianization of the Goths, with the Gothic alphabet replacing runes by the mid 4th century. The 24 runes of the Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) are the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Proto-Norse and other Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artefacts (jewellery... The Gothic language (*gutiska razda, *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌹𐍃𐌺𐌰 𐍂𐌰𐌶𐌳𐌰) is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths and specifically by the Visigoths. ... Invasion of the Goths: a late 19th century painting by O. Fritsche portrays the Goths as cavalrymen. ... The red area is the extent of the Wielbark culture in the first half of the 3rd century. ... The Chernyakhov culture (3rd century - 5th century) was a material culture, the distribution of which corresponded roughly to the Ukraine and parts of Belarus. ... St Francis Xavier converting the Paravas: a 19th-century image of the docile heathen Ansgar, the 9th century apostle of the North in an 1830 drawing. ... Representation of the Gothic alphabet surrounding its inventor Ulfilas The Gothic alphabet is an alphabetic writing system attributed to Wulfila used exclusively for writing the ancient Gothic language. ...

There are about a dozen candidate inscriptions, and only three of them are widely accepted to be of Gothic origin: the gold ring of Pietroassa, bearing a votive inscription, part of a larger treasure found in the Romanian Carpathians, and two spearheads inscribed with what is probably the weapon's name, one found in the Ukrainian Carpathians, and the other in eastern Germany, near the Oder. This is about the terrestrial mountain range. ... The Oder (or Odra) River (German: Oder, Polish/Czech: Odra, Ancient Latin: Viadua, Viadrus, Medieval Latin: Odera, Oddera) is a river in Central Europe (mostly in Poland). ...

Ring of Pietroassa

A gold ring (necklace) found in 1837 in Pietroassa (recte Pietroasa, north-western Romania, some 50km south of Satu Mare), dated to the 4th century, bearing a Elder Futhark inscription of 15 runes. The ring was stolen in 1875, and clipped in two with pliers by a Bucarest goldsmith. It was recovered, but the 7th rune is now destroyed: | Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom (1837 - 1901) 1837 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Satu Mare (pronunciation in Romanian: ; name in Hungarian: Szatmárnémeti, German: Sathmar) is a city with a population of 115,000 and the capital of Satu Mare county, Romania. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... The 24 runes of the Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) are the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Proto-Norse and other Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artefacts (jewellery...

gutani [?] wi hailag

It was either othala, ingwaz or jera. In pre-1875 drawings and descriptions, it was read as othala [1], gutaniowi hailag, interpreted as either gutanio wi hailag "sacred to the gothic women", or gutan-iowi hailag "sacred to the Jove of the Goths" (Loewe 1909; interpreted as Thunraz), or gutani o[thala] hailag "sacred inheritance of the Goths" (gutani is the genitive plural, for Ulfilan gutane). In the science fiction television show Stargate SG-1, Othala is a planet in the galaxy of Ida and is home to a colony of Asgard. ... Jāra or Jēra harvest, (good) year is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the j-rune ᛃ. ... Thor carries his hammer and wears his belt of strength in this illustration from an 18th century Icelandic manuscript. ...

The identity of the 7th rune as othala has been called into question. A reading as ingwaz is gutani(i)ŋwa hailag "sacred to the Ingwaz of the Goths" (compare the association of Ing with the "East Danes" in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem). Reichert (1992) however, in the most recent and most thorough re-evaluation to date (as of 2005), concludes that a reading as othala is untenable. The lower part of the rune is now missing, but on close inspection, it appears evident that its upper part forms no closed loop, leading to a reading of gutani j[er] wi hailag (Ulfilan gutane jer weih hailag) "sacred to a good year/harvest of the Goths", putting the votive inscription in the context of a fertility cult. East Dane is an Anglo-Saxon ethnonym which was used in the epic Beowulf as a kenning for the Geats, the people of G taland in southern Sweden. ... The rune poems list the letters of a runic alphabet with a short verse characterizing each one. ...

Spearhead of Kovel

The head of a lance, found in 1858 Suszyczno, 30 km from Kovel, Ukraine, dated to the early 3rd century [2] [3] 1858 (MDCCCLVIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Coat of Arms, circa 1993 Kovel (In Ukrainian and in Russian: Ковель, in Polish: Kowel) is a town now situated in western Ukraine in the Volyn oblast. ... // Overview Events 212: Constitutio Antoniniana grants citizenship to all free Roman men 212-216: Baths of Caracalla 230-232: Sassanid dynasty of Persia launches a war to reconquer lost lands in the Roman east 235-284: Crisis of the Third Century shakes Roman Empire 250-538: Kofun era, the first...

The spearhead measures 15.5 cm with a maximal length of 3.0 cm. Both sides of the leaf were inlaid with silver symbols. The inscription notably runs right to left, reading tilarids, interpreted as "rushing towards the target", either of a warrior, or of the spear itself.

A 1880 casting of the spearhead is exhibited in Berlin, a 1884 castin in Warsaw. The object itself was lost, reappeared in 1939, was taken to Germany, and was lost again during the WWII.

Spearhead of Dahmsdorf-Müncheberg

The head of a lance, found in Dahmsdorf-Müncheberg, in the Mark Brandenburg between Berlin and the Oder River, inscribed with ranja (Ulfilan rannja, "the runner"). [4] Surrounding but excluding the national capital Berlin, Brandenburg is one of Germanys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states). ... (help· info) is the capital city and a state of Germany. ... The Oder River (Czech/Polish: Odra, German: Oder, Ancient Latin: Viadua, Viadrus, Medieval Latin: Odera, Oddera) is a river in Central Europe. ...

Literature

• Marstrander, Carl, De gotiske runeminnesmaerker; NTS 3 (1929) 25-157.
• Ebbinghaus, Ernst, The question of Visigothic runic inscriptions re-examined, GL 30:4 (1990) 207-214.
• Dietrich, Franz Eduard Christoph: de inscriptionibus duabus Runicis ad Gothorum gentem relatis, Marburg (Elwert) 1861.
• Loewe, Richard: Der Goldring von Pietroassa; IF 26 (1909), 203-208.
• Graf, Heinz-Joachim, Gutanio wi hailag oder Gutaniom hailag ? - Zur Lesung des Ringes von Pietroasa, GRM 31 (1943) 128-129.
• Reichert, Hermann: GUTANI ? WI HAILAG, Die Sprache 35 (1993) 235-247.

Indogermanische Forschungen (IF) is a journal of Indo-European studies, established in 1892 by Karl Brugmann and Wilhelm Streitberg. ...

External links

• http://syllabus.gmxhome.de/gotica/Runica.html