[123]. Similar runes also occurred on a scabbard found at Varpelev, and on a gold horn.
[124]. Danish coins with runic characters have been obtained from as early a period as that of Svein Úlfsson, or the 12th century. A runic kefli, according to its contents, carved soon after 1200, is preserved in the Danish museum. It was found in Vinje church, Upper Telemarken, of Norway. The inscription thereon signifies: Sigurd Jarlson traced these Runes the Saturday after Botolf’s mass, when he journeyed hither and would not be reconciled to Sverre, the slayer of his father and brother. Sigurd was the son of the well-known Erling Skakke; he lost a battle against Sverre in 1200. As the latter died in 1202, it was between these two dates that the unsuccessful attempt at reconciliation occurred. (Stephens, p. 515.)
[125]. Dennis, p. 306. See Signor Gamurrini, who has described and illustrated them (see Ann. Inst. 1871, pp. 156–166). Franzius, in his ‘Elementa Epigraphices Græcæ,’ p. 22, 4to, Berolini, 1840, gives three Greek alphabets found inscribed in the same manner on various objects. No. 1, of twenty-four letters, is on the Agyllic vase first engraved by Lepsius (‘Annal. Hist. Archæol. Rom.,’ vol. viii., p. 186). The second is a fragment, only sixteen letters, found on the wall of an Etruscan sepulchre (‘Lanzi Saggio di ling. Etr.,’ ii., p. 436). The third is incomplete, having only the beginning, or the first fourteen letters.
[126]. Tacitus (Germ. c. 19) says: “Litterarum secreta viri pariter ac feminæ ignorant” (Men and women are equally ignorant of the secrets of letter writing). The earliest Latin inscriptions found in the North have characters unlike the runes.
[127]. In the Royal Library at Copenhagen there exist three most remarkable manuscripts in runic characters, showing the late period at which these still were in use. The first of these manuscripts, bearing the date of 1543, was written as a journal by Mogens Gyldenstjerne (a Danish noble) of Stjernholm, during a voyage into the North Sea undertaken by him in that year. The second bears the date of 1547, and is written as a note on a rough draft of a power of attorney by Bille of Bregentved, another Danish noble. The third is a notice about the last-mentioned estate, also containing a line in runic characters.
The Runic codex containing the Scanian law also contains, in a different hand, a list of Danish kings, and among these one Ambruthe as having been king in Jutland. The time of this codex can be approximately fixed at about the year 1300.
[128]. The sacred or mystical number.
[129]. We see that Odin had to go through a terrible ordeal to learn the runes.
[130]. Bölthorn and Bestla are nowhere else mentioned in the earlier Edda.
[131]. Song-rouser, one of the vessels holding the sacred mead.