Runology

This course aims at making the students familiar with a source type barely mentioned in NORD1101 and NORD1106, that is, runic inscriptions. The course will give students knowledge of runes as a system of writing, synchronic and diachronic, and both the linguistic and content-based aspects of the inscriptions. The course goes beyond the Old Norse era and aims at creating an overview of the entire period when runes were in use, not just in Scandinavia but Europe as well. The main focus, nevertheless, will be on runes in the general Old Norse area of the vikings and the Middle Age period. Along with NORD2202 and NORD2201 Old Norse, this class provides a deeper understanding of older Nordic languages.

At completion of the course students will have an in-depth knowledge of the development of runic inscriptions. The student will be able to transcribe, normalize, translate and identify new texts both typologically and chronologically, and set curricular texts in a historic or cultural context.

Lectures/group work, field course and writing papers. Supervision will be offered during the course of the semester. Obligatory activities: Approved reading list, field course and approved report (maximum 5 pages). There will be an oral/written assessment (approved/not approved) of the exercises. An Old Norse dictionary and Old Norse list of declinations/inflections will be allowed at the exam.