Birch bark letter no. 292

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The Birch bark letter given the document number 292 is the oldest known document in any Finnic language. The document is dated to the beginning of the 13th century. It was found in 1957 by a Soviet expedition, led by Artemiy Artsikhovskiy in the Nerev excavation on the left coast side of Novgorod.^[1]

The language used in the document is thought to be an archaic form of the language spoken in Olonets Karelia, a dialect of the Karelian language. [1]

1 Transcription
2 Interpretation
3 References
- 3.1 General references
4 External links

[edit] Transcription

The text is written in Cyrillic alphabet in the Karelian dialect of the archaic Finnish or Finnic language. A transcription of the Cyrillic text is as follows:

юмолануолиїнимижи
ноулисѣханолиомобоу
юмоласоудьнииохови

[edit] Interpretation

[edit] by Yuri Yeliseyev

The text, as transliterated to the Latin alphabet by Yuri Yeliseyev in 1959^[2] and interpreted in modern Finnish:

jumolanuoli ï nimizi
nouli se han oli omo bou
jumola soud'ni iohovi

Jumalannuoli, kymmenen [on] nimesi
Tämä nuoli on Jumalan oma
Tuomion-Jumala johtaa.

In English, this means roughly the following:

God's arrow, ten your names
This arrow is God's own
The Doom-God leads.

Yeliseyev believes, that this is an invocation against lightning, as evidenced by "ten your names" construction. According to superstitious notions, knowledge of the name gives a human the magic power over an object or phenomenon.^[3]

[edit] by Martti Haavio

As the orthography used does not utilize spaces between words, the source text can be rendered into words in different ways. Martti Haavio gives a different interpretation of the text in his 1964 article, suggesting, that this is a sort of an oath:

jumolan nuoli inimizi
nouli sekä n[u]oli omo bou
jumola soud'nii okovy

Jumalan nuoli, ihmisen
nuoli sekä nuoli oma. [
Tuomion jumalan kahlittavaksi.]

In English, this means roughly the following:

God's arrow, man's
arrow, and (his) own arrow. [
To be chained by the Doom-God.]

[edit] by Yevgeny Khelimsky

Professor Yevgeny Khelimsky in his 1986 work^[4] criticizes Haavio's interpretation and gives the third known scientific interpretation, believing the letter to be an invocation, like Yeliseyev:^[3]

Jumalan nuoli 10 nimezi
Nuoli säihä nuoli ambu
Jumala suduni ohjavi (johavi?)

In English, this means roughly the following:

God's arrow, ten your names
Arrow sparkle, arrow have a shot
The Doom-God so produces (rules?).

[edit] References

^ А.В. Арциховский, В.И. Борковский. Новгородские грамоты на бересте (из раскопок 1956 - 1957 гг.). М.: Из-во Акад. Наук СССР, 1963.
^ Елисеев Ю. С. Древнейший письменный памятник одного из прибалтийско-финских языков.— Изв. АН СССР. Отд-ние лит. и языка, 1959, т. 18, Вып. 1, с. 65—72.
^ ^a ^b Written information on Karelians by S. I. Kochkurkina, A. M. Spiridonov, T. N. Jackson, 1996
^ Хелимский Е. А. О прибалтийско-финском языковом материале в новгородских берестяных грамотах. In the book Янин В. Л., Зализняк А. А. Новгородские грамоты на бересте (из раскопок 1977—1983 гг.): Комментарии и словоуказатель к берестяным грамотам (из раскопок 1951—1983 гг.) / АН СССР. Отд-ние истории. — М.: Наука, 1986. — С. 254—255.)

[edit] General references

Jelisejev, J. S. Vanhin itämerensuomalainen kielenmuistomerkki, Virittäjä-lehti 1961: 134
Jelisejev, J. S. Itämerensuomalaisia kielenmuistomerkkejä (Zusammenfassung: Ostseefinnische Sprachdenkmäler), Virittäjä-lehti 1966: 296 [2]
Martti Haavio The Letter on Birch-Bark No. 292, Journal of the Folklore Institute, 1964
Haavio, Martti, Tuohikirje n:o 292. Vanha suomalaisen muinaisuskonnon lähde, Virittäjä-lehti 1964: 1 [3]