Codex Leidensis gives the names of the runes in both runes and Latin
letters. The passage containing the names of the runes is considered
to be a copy of an older manuscript dating from the 9th or early 10th
century. The names of the runes appear as follows:
féu, úrR, þhurs, aus, ræiþu, kaun, hagal, nauþR, ís, ár, sólu, TíuR,
biarkan, mannR, laugR, ír
"Aus" in this manuscript has been variously interpreted. "LaugR" has
also provoked more than one reading. "Ír" should probably be "íuR".
The 16-stave fuþark appears in Norway towards the end of the 9th
century, replacing various mixed transitional alphabets based in
part on the older 24-stave fuþark. As we are studying Old Norse,
which is the parent tongue to Icelandic, Faroese, and to a certain
extent Norwegian, the names of these runes and their pronounciation
should be of interest to us in a more westerly form - that is to say,
in the tongue Ari Þorgilsson called "Norroena".
How were these words pronounced between 800-870 in Norway and amongst
the first families to settle the Faroes and Iceland? Norway was quite
isolated at the time the western settlements began and scholars have
long been of the opinion that the oldest dialects of Scandinavian
were at this times spoken in various parts of Norway - dialects that
were to become Icelandic and Faroese. Here is how some of the first
Icelanders and Faroe Islanders probably pronounced these words from
Codex Leidensis:
Féh(u) - final "h" is not believed to have disappeared yet; also, at
least some of the early settlers probably still had "u" in the
nom. and accus. sg. of the few neuter words of this type; some
may also have said "féh".
ÚrR - this word would have been pronounced as written.
Þurs - also as written; the extra "h" of the codex is not west norse.
ÁsR - this word became "áss" in classical Icelandic in accordance w/
the rules governing the handful of very minor changes that
produced the classical language of Snorri Sturluson and other
classical writers; words like "áss" and "sonr" were originally
u-stems and accus. pl. -u still occurs in classical sources.
Reiðu - some would say "reiðR"; some whould also say that "ei" was
pronounced like Gotlandic "ai" or German "ei" in "mein" - I´ll
leave this one to the phonologists at this time.
Kaun - as written; "au" was NOT pronounced like "ou" in English house
but rather like "a" plus "u" (still heard in a few dialects in
Norway and closer to Icelandic "au" than many people realize.
Hagl - there may have been those that still said "hagal", but "hagl"
occurs in some of the oldest poetry of an exact metric type.
NauðR - as written; the word is "nauð" in Icelandic.
ÍsR - as written; the Codex gives "ís", but Norse had "íss" in the
classical language; this word could also be declined weak.
Ár - as written, but long "a" instead of the nasal in "ás-".
Sólu - as written; the oldest spoken dialects of Norse still had "u"
in the nom. sg. of certain fem. nouns; the classical language
has "sól" in the nom. but all other forms the same.
TíuR - as written and one syllable only; "ý" was still in the process
of being formed as evidenced by assonance in old poems; the
sound represented by "ý" is only a minor change from "íu", in
which the "u" was close but not the same as German/English "w"
Biarkan - as written; "j" is written and printed for "i" in most of
the printed editions of old texts in this position as well as
in the Icelandic of today - it helps to show that "biarkan"
has two syllables instead of three.
MannR - as written; the "ð" of the classical language was not yet in
control; almost all mainland Scandinavian dialects have "mann"
in the nominitive, but the classical language has "maðr" by
retaining the nom. sg. ending in conservative fashion - this
is in keeping with the tongue´s conservative nature; the word
for "man" has one of the most complicated histories of any
common Germanic noun and can be found as both weak and strong.
LagR - as written for the oldest Norse dialects of the settlement era
(the "u"-mutated form being the product of a sound change that
was probably already under way) - this change, however, is yet
a topic of debate and undecided; one thing, however, is for
certain: "u"-mutation of "a" by retained "u" occured during
the "viking"-age"(roughly 800-1066) and in those dialects of
Scandinavian which were the most conservative as evidenced by
retained "u" in many postions where it was otherwise lost.
ÍuR - as written; the same rule applies here as to "tíuR" above; the
classical form is "ýr".
Here are the forms of these words in the classical written language
of the 12th and 13th centuries: fé, úrr, þurs, áss, reið, kaun, hagl,
nauðr, íss, ár, sól, týr, bjarkan, maðr, lögr, ýr. As all of these
words occur with little change in modern Icelandic - the inflections
are almost identical - and as the classical forms are little changed
from those of the early "viking"-age, we can safely assume that both
are very conservative.
While this little post leaves volumes unspoken about the many and
diverse matters that it touches on, I nonetheless hope that it will
prove interesting to some of its readers. Comments are welcome.