Rune poem

[citation needed] Each poem differs in poetic verse, but they contain numerous parallels between one another.

A list of rune names is also recorded in the Abecedarium Nordmannicum, a 9th-century manuscript, but whether this can be called a poem or not is a matter of some debate.

The rune poems have been theorized as having been mnemonic devices that allowed the user to remember the order and names of each letter of the alphabet and may have been a catalog of important cultural information, memorably arranged; comparable with the Old English sayings, Gnomic poetry, and Old Norse poetry of wisdom and learning.

[1] The Old English Rune Poem as recorded was likely composed in the 7th century[2] and was preserved in the 10th-century manuscript Cotton Otho B.x, fol.

[3] Hickes recorded the poem in prose, divided the prose into 29 stanzas, and placed a copper plate engraved with runic characters on the left-hand margin so that each rune stands immediately in front of the stanza where it belongs.

[3] A second copper plate appears across the foot of the page and contains two more runes: stan and gar.

[5] The Icelandic Rune Poem is recorded in four Arnamagnæan manuscripts, the oldest of the four dating from the late 15th century.

[5][6] The Icelandic rune poem is shown below with English translation side-by-side from Dickins:[7] Fé er frænda róg ok flæðar viti ok grafseiðs gata Wealth = source of discord among kinsmen and fire of the sea and path of the serpent.

The Old Swedish rune poem is possibly the youngest of the four, first being recorded in a letter that was published in 1908.

[10] The text is recorded in Codex Sangallensis 878,[5] kept in the St. Gallen abbey, and may originate from Fulda, Germany.

[citation needed] In the Old Bø Church in Telemark it is preserved a runic inscription, which uses lines, similar to Rune poems.