Abecedarium Nordmannicum
Summary
The Abecedarium Nordmannicum ("the Norse/Northern abecedary") is a short Continental (9th-c.) list of the names of the 16 runes of the Younger Futhark in row order, joined by connecting words in a mixed Old Germanic idiom. It is the oldest known catalog of Scandinavian rune names — older than all the properly Scandinavian rune poems (the Norwegian, 13th c.; the Icelandic, ~1500), which survive in much later copies. — [historical-fact] —
The text survives in Codex Sangallensis 878, fol. 321 — a 9th-c. manuscript from the Abbey of St. Gall, linked to the Fulda tradition (the works/circle of Hrabanus Maurus, abbot of Fulda). On adjacent pages of the codex are the Hebrew alphabet and the Anglo-Saxon futhorc; i.e. it is part of a scholarly compendium on alphabets, not a magical/divinatory text. — [historical-fact] —
⚠️ The state of the text — partly lost. The original in the manuscript was damaged in the 19th c. by chemical reagents applied to "develop"/conserve it, which discolored and destroyed the reading. The modern reconstruction relies substantially on Wilhelm Grimm's drawing (1828), made before the damage. So a number of readings are conjectures. — [historical-fact] —
The text is extracted from the edition Bruce Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples (Cambridge, 1915), Appendix, p. 34 (public domain). Dickins prints it as an appendix to the rune poems, separately from the three "real" poems.
The text as given (Dickins 1915, p. 34)
Dickins gives the text thus (the connecting words in lowercase; the rune name capitalized):
Feu forman,
Ūr after,
Thuris thritten stabu,
Os ist himo oboro,
Rat endost ritan
Chaon thanne cliuot.
Hagal, Nauð habet
Is, Ar endi Sol,
Tiu, Brica endi Man midi,
Lagu the leohto,
Yr al bihabet.
A note on the readings: the canonical reading of the 6th rune's name is Chaon (= Kaun), and of the 12th — Tiu (= Týr).
Dickins himself notes in a footnote (p. 34) that the manuscript also has the runic signs themselves written alongside: Scandinavian (Younger Futhark) runes through the text, and over and above that — Anglo-Saxon runes above/below the row of names (under Feu forman — the English runes and the form F; above Hagal — the English H with two crossbars; above Ar — the English A; above Man — the English M; above Yr — a variant of the English Y). This is direct evidence that the scribe was collating two rune traditions (the Scandinavian and the insular Anglo-Saxon) on one leaf. — [historical-fact]
Key claims
- [historical-fact] The Abecedarium Nordmannicum is the oldest known list of the rune names of the Younger Futhark (16 runes); it is dated to the 9th c. by its host manuscript (Cod. Sang. 878, 9th c.). — Dickins 1915, p. 34; Wikipedia.
- [historical-fact] The manuscript is Codex Sangallensis 878, fol. 321, 9th c., from the Abbey of St. Gall; linked to the circle/tradition of Hrabanus Maurus (Fulda). Dickins calls it outright "the MS. of Hrabanus Maurus." — Dickins 1915, p. 34.
- [historical-fact] A list of 16 names in row order: Feu, Ūr, Thuris, Os, Rat, Chaon, Hagal, Nauð,
Is, Ar, Sol, Tiu, Brica, Man, Lagu, Yr — corresponding to the Younger Futhark (fé, úr, þurs,
óss/ár-ás, reið, kaun, hagall, nauðr, íss, ár, sól, týr, bjarkan, maðr, lǫgr, ýr). — Dickins 1915, p.
- —.
- [historical-fact] The original text was damaged in the 19th c. by chemical reagents (for conservation/development); the reliance is on W. Grimm's drawing (1828). Status "partly lost." — Wikipedia. —.
- [unverified] A dispute: is it a "poem" or just a list/mnemonic. In the manuscript/editorial tradition the Abecedarium is sometimes counted among the "rune poems," but it assigns no meaning/significance to the runes — it merely lists them in futhark order, joining them by connecting words ("first… after… the third stave… above it… at the end write… then it adjoins…"). So many researchers consider it a mnemonic list (an abecedary), not a poem in the sense of the Old English (OE)/Norwegian/Icelandic tradition. Dickins prints it as an appendix, not among the three poems. — Wikipedia; Dickins 1915 (the structure of the edition). —.
- [historical-fact] The text is linguistically mixed: it is considered a mix of Old Norse (ON), Old Saxon (OS), and Old High German (OHG) elements. The rune names are Northern (Scandinavian), while the connecting words are Continental (OS/OHG in flavor). — Wikipedia. —.
- [unverified] A common scholarly hypothesis of genesis (NOT a revival one): the text goes back to a Danish original, brought (possibly from Hedeby/Haithabu) into Lower Germany and adapted by a local Continental scribe — hence the Northern names with Continental connectives. — Wikipedia. —.
- [historical-fact] On fol. 321 the scribe combined the Scandinavian runes with the Anglo-Saxon ones (the superscribed English runes over part of the names) — the leaf is a scholarly collation of alphabets, not a functional inscription. — Dickins 1915, p. 34 (footnote).
Continental / Old High German elements (the connecting words)
The rune names are Scandinavian, but the "glue" between them gives away a Continental (OHG/OS) scribe. An analysis of the connecting words (preliminary, the readings per Dickins): —
| Word in the text | Meaning | Flavor |
|---|---|---|
| forman | "first / at first" | OS/OE forman, Continental West Germanic |
| after | "after, next" | common Germanic |
| thritten stabu | "the third stave (letter/sign)" | stabu — "stave, letter" (cf. German Buchstabe) |
| ist himo oboro | "is above it / over it" | oboro = OHG "upper/above"; himo — a dative pronoun |
| endost ritan | "at the end write / inscribe" | ritan — "to write, to cut" (OHG rīzan) |
| thanne cliuot | "then it adjoins / clings" | cliuot < Gmc. klīban "to cling" |
| habet | "has / holds" | an OHG/OS form of "to have" |
| endi | "and" | OS/OHG endi (= "and") |
| the leohto | "the light / clear" (of Lagu) | leohto — "light," OE/OS flavor |
| al bihabet | "encompasses / closes all" (of Yr) | bihabet "embraces," the Continental prefix bi- |
The conclusion: a Scandinavian rune row under the pen of a South-Germanic (Fulda-St. Gall) scribe — hence the characteristic hybrid. This agrees with the context of the codex (a scholarly alphabetic compendium of the Hrabanus Maurus circle). —.
Links
- the rune poems (Dickins 1915) — the same Dickins edition (1915); the Abecedarium is printed there as the Appendix, p. 34, separately from the three rune poems.
- The Younger Futhark (16 runes) — the Abecedarium gives the oldest catalog of its names; a counterpart to the Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems (also 16 runes, but semanticized — unlike the Abecedarium, which gives no meanings).
- The Anglo-Saxon futhorc — on the same fol. 321 the English runes are written; a point for the section comparing the insular and Continental traditions.
- The reconstruction of the Elder→Younger Futhark transition (24→16): the Abecedarium's names are one of the early attestations of the Northern 16-sign row on the Continent.