TUAIZBRUthRKARthUHUSthAT
SUMAZLIthIRAISTRUNAZ

In short:

"Two brothers guard a house.
Somerledi wrote [these] runes".

In long:

Well.... My first belief is that it's complete gibberish. My reasoning comes
from the mixture of Futharks. It uses both the Younger and Elder form of
'haglR', uses the Elder form of 'manR', uses the Younger forms of 'kenR' and
'elhR', uses no punctuation to distinguish words and phrases (common enough
to note their absence) and doesn't use any vowels other than 'isa' and
'ur(R)'.

But then I vaguely remember that there was at least one instance where
'haglR' was used in place of 'oss'/'ansR' (/a/) which means that the Elder
'haglR' probably stands for /h/.

All of this suggests that the scribe was most certainly modern and either
much more or much less knowledgable than I about the Runes.

If the inscription was an original one, then it is an example of the
'missing link' between Futharks that I've not seen before nor ever read
about. That means that the language would have to be from between the 6th to
7th centuries and I would suspect from somewhere on the continent (east of
Frisia, south of Scandinavia). This makes me think of Saxony, but I can't
find record of it in my library.

If it were written in that language as original, then I am not equipped to
tackle it.

If it is a new inscription (as I suspect) then the scribe chose runes across
the spectrum for reasons unknown to me. It is likely that they just didn't
know the runes very well - but also possibly a deliberate aesthetic,
artistic or esoteric choice.

This opens up the possibility that the runes presented do not conform to the
standard (or agreed upon) phonetic values for them. They may be placed by
the whim/design of the cryptographer to represent their own phonetic code.

In the former case, the language, if indeed it is supposed to be
translatable, may be equally flawed/modified to the whims/design of the
scribe.

If I were to try to break down the code into words using Old Norse as my
base I might do so like this:

TUAIZ BRUthR KARthU HUS thAT
SUMAZ LIthI RAIST RUNAZ

Certain words stand out as being common to Runestone inscriptions. They are:
BRUthR - brother
SUMAZ - proper name
LIthI - stone (I've only seen this used once in an historical inscription.
Usually it's STAUNA or some derivative)
RAIST - raised or wrote (depends)
RUNAZ - Runes

Transliteration is difficult. The alternate phonetics for 'urR', 'thursR',
'kenR' and the ultimate confusion over 'haglR/oss' can give this many
possibilities.

In looking for supporting clues in the book itself the website describes the
storyline as follows:
"In Wolfskin the Pictish folk of Orkney, led by their two priestesses, one
old, one young, have a profound respect for and trust in ancestral wisdom
and the patterns of nature. The coming of the Norse invaders has a
devastating impact on the balance and harmony of the islands, and threatens
all who dwell there. Wolfskin is first and foremost a book about human
dilemmas. It has as its central characters a young Viking warrior, Eyvind,
his friend Somerled, and the Pictish priestess, Nessa. The story poses many
questions: Does the swearing of a blood oath bind you for life even if you
must act against your conscience to honour it? What about an oath to Thor,
god of war? What happens to a Berserker when Thor no longer calls him to
battle? And can a man change the essence of himself?"

So this clears up a lot:
"SUMAZ LIthI" is actually supposed to be the name Somerled(i) and so "RAIST"
here is 'rist' or 'writes' and not 'raises'

TUAIZ BRUthR is indeed supposed to be 'Tveir brothir' or 'Two brothers'
because the story is about two friends who have sworn a blood-oath to become
blood brothers.

Based on this new information the new word breaks may be as follows:
TUAIZ BRUthR KARthU HUS thAT
SUMAZLIthI RAIST RUNAZ

"Two brothers guard a house.
Somerledi wrote [these] runes".

-Laz


----- Original Message -----
From: "Haukur Thorgeirsson" <haukurth@...>
To: <norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 12:00 PM
Subject: [norse_course] Rune Problem


> Heil!
>
> Here's a new fantasy book with, as sometimes happens,
> some runes on the cover.
>
> http://www.vianet.net.au/~marill/wolfskincoverbig.htm
>
> If anyone is interested:
>
> Can you transliterate the runes?
> What, if any, meaning do they yield?
> What, if any, period would the runes be appropriate for?
>
> Kveðja,
> Haukur
>
> --
> "What time is it?"
> "I don't know, it keeps changing."
>
>
> Sumir hafa kvæði...
> ...aðrir spakmæli.
>
> - Keth
>
> Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> norse_course-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
>
>