Meldorf fibula

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Meldorf fibula is a Germanic fibula found in Meldorf, Schleswig-Holstein in 1979, dated to the mid to late 1st century AD (viz., contemporary with Tacitus) bearing an inscription important in the debate surrounding the origin of the Elder Futhark script. There is some debate whether the script employed should be described as "runic", "proto-runic", or if it should be considered Latin.

Düwel (1981) suggests that four runes may be on the fibula, reading hiwi "for the spouse" right to left. This reading is far from certain. Read left to right, the inscription may be IDIN (perhaps, "for Ida") in the Latin alphabet.

Other readings include Latin nidi, Runic or Latin irih, hiri, or Runic iwih, iþih, hiþi. Since the i and h runes are indistinguishable from Latin I and H, the question boils down to the identification of the putative w or þ rune (vs. Latin R or D).

The fibula is kept in Gottorp.

[edit] Literature

Klaus Düwel, The Meldorf Fibula and the Origin of Runic Writing, Michigan Germanic Studies (1981).
Carl Edlund Anderson, The Runic System as a Reinterpretation of Classical Influences and as an Expression of Scandinavian Cultural Affiliation (2005)
Mees, A new interpretation of the Meldorf fibula inscription, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 126 (1997), 131–139.