The Pforzen buckle is a silver belt buckle found in Pforzen, Ostallgäu (Schwaben) in 1992. The Alemannic grave in which it was found (no. 239) dates to the end of the 6th century and was presumably that of a warrior, as it also contained a spear, spatha, seax and shield. The buckle is of the Alemannic Weingarten type (Babucke 1999).
Inscription
The buckle bears a runic inscription on its front, incised after its manufacture:
- aigil andi aïlrun [ornament or bind-rune]
- ltahu (or elahu) gasokun [ornamental braid]
Linguistic analysis of the inscription reveals that it was composed in an early High German dialect and is the oldest preserved line of alliterative verse in German. However, scholars have yet to reach a consensus as to its translation.
Interpretations
Wagner (1995) reads the final ornament in line 1 as a bind rune consisting of
Düwel (2001) reads the end of line 1 as a simple ornament and the beginning of line 2 as a bind-rune formed of
Nedoma (2004) also sees the end of line 1 as ornament, yet reads the beginning of line 2 as a bind-rune composed of
Looijenga (2003) argues that the inscription shows evidence of scribal error. Assuming that the verse alliterates, she interprets the
Simmons (2010) likewise takes the first element as representing al- "all, entire", but takes the second element as the dative (singular or plural) of an ablaut variant of the Old English word teoh "army, war-band", with the compound meaning "the entire war-band". Simmons notes that gasokun "fought" (preterite 3rd plural indicative) requires a dative object, which is furnished in al-tahu. He translates the buckle inscription, "Aigil and Alrun fought the entire war-band." Simmons confirms that the writing on the Pforzen buckle refers to the same Germanic character depicted on the Franks Casket (Aegil), and argues that this translation of the buckle line best accords with the figuration on the casket lid, each representing the same legend of "two against all comers".
Mees (2017) accepts that Aigil and Ailrun are a heroic pair and compares the buckle to contemporary Burgundian plate-buckles that feature references to the Biblical story of Daniel in the lions' den. Mees rejects Nedoma's reading of ltahu as a river name and compares the form instead to the Old Saxon name Aldako. Mees sees the inscription as a historiola, much like the texts found on the Burgundian Daniel buckles evidently are.
See also
References
- Volker Babucke, Die Runenschnalle von Pforzen (Allgäu) — Aspekte der Deutung. l. Zur Herkunft und Datierung in: Pforzen und Bergakker: Neue Untersuchungen zu Runen inschriften, ed. Alfred Bammesberger (1999), 15–24.
- Klaus Düwel, Runenkunde, Weimar (2001), 19–20. (ISBN 3-476-13072-X)
- Tineke Looijenga, Texts & Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions", Brill (2003), 253–255. (ISBN 90-04-12396-2)
- Bernard Mees, Egill and Ǫlrún in Early High German in: Futhark 8, 2017. 151–56. (http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1333698/FULLTEXT01.pdf)
- Robert Nedoma, Noch einmal zur Runeninschrift auf der Gürtelschnalle von Pforzen in: Alemannien und der Norden, ed. Naumann (2004), 340–370.
- Austin Simmons, The Cipherment of the Franks Casket. (https://web.archive.org/web/20120303013402/http://homeros.godsong.org/FRANKS_CASKET.pdf)
- Norbert Wagner, Zu den Runeninschriften von Pforzen und Nordendorf in: Historische Sprachforschung 108, 1995. 104–112.