Av Palumbo, Alessandro
The aim of this book is to study the development of Swedish runic writing during the Middle Ages in terms of runic shapes and orthography. It comprises two related investigations, a survey of the runic shapes employed in medieval Sweden, and an analysis of the graphemic distinctions used and developed during the Middle Ages. In the latter investigation, the vowel system, the use of dotted runes for consonants and the double marking of long consonants are in focus. Here, both the chronological and geographical patterns evident in the use of the runic writing system are studied, as well as the possible phonological motives behind the observed graphemic changes. During the Middle Ages, the Swedish runic writing system underwent a deep restructuring as regards both the number of graphemes and the phonetic values they rendered. These changes proceeded differently in different parts of Sweden and had varying causes. Some of them can be explained phonologically and attest to ongoing dialectal developments, while others concern the writing system itself. Of all the Swedish provinces, the area of Falbygden in Västergötland appears the most prominent Swedish centre of innovation. In fact, changes in both the vowel and the consonant system appear earlier and are used more consistently there. These developments might therefore have spread from this region to more easterly provinces. A comparative study with the Danish and the Norwegian medieval runic corpora shows that innovations such as the dotted runes with a consonantal value seem to have their origin and focus in East Scandinavia. Some of them might have spread from Lund to western Småland and Västergötland, while in others instances these Swedish areas may themselves have acted as centres of innovation. Here, closer contact between carvers and the Church, and the introduction of the Roman script may have contributed to creating a more dynamic writing culture, conducive to the development of runic writing. The study also shows that the majority of the medieval innovations were, however, never fully established. Although there are significant geographic differences and a general tendency to an increased use of novelties from the 12th to the 13th century, no dotted rune for consonants is used without exception and the double marking of long consonants is employed in less than a third of the relevant attestations. The inconsistent use of these features shows that their introduction cannot have occurred via a concerted reform, and that the so called “completely dotted medieval rune row”, assumed to have existed by several previous scholars, was never established