Скачать или смотреть Futharks and Runes on Gotland, Öland, and Bornholm (Modern Erilar Episode 13)

In this episode, the Modern Erilar explores the distinctive runic traditions of the Baltic islands—Gotland, Öland, and Bornholm—and the unique regional developments that shaped their inscriptions during the Viking Age and early medieval period. Moving beyond the Scandinavian mainland, this video examines how island communities adapted the Younger Futhark to express local identity, trade connections, and religious change through stone monuments, amulets, and everyday objects.

Beginning with Gotland, the episode traces the island’s exceptionally long tradition of runic literacy from the Kylver Stone and the Elder Futhark through the visually rich Viking Age picture stones. You’ll explore how Old Gutnish language features influenced spelling and rune forms, and how geographical division on the island created parallel traditions of short-twig and long-branch runes across time and space.

The focus then shifts to Öland, where long-branch Younger Futhark inscriptions dominate the surviving corpus, including whetstones, lead amulets, and partial rune rows that allow us to reconstruct local futharks. Finally, the episode examines Bornholm, where runic use appears later and in more restricted contexts, particularly through Christian amulets and settlement-based rune stones, revealing the island’s transition from pagan to Christian runic practice.

Throughout, the episode highlights how these Baltic communities experimented with rune forms, sound values, and visual conventions, offering a rare window into the diversity of Viking-Age literacy outside the Scandinavian mainland and the uniqueness of these island cultures (which persists today).

Key concepts covered in this episode include:
1. Regional variants of the Younger Futhark on Gotland, Öland, and Bornholm
2. Short-twig versus long-branch runic traditions
3. Old Gutnish language features and their effect on spelling
4. Runic amulets and their protective or ritual functions
5. The rise of dotted runes in medieval Baltic contexts

This episode is ideal for viewers interested in runology, Viking linguistics, historical writing systems, Scandinavian archaeology, and the evolution of Old Norse and related dialects.

1:57 Why did Gotlanders have a unique runic culture from the other Baltic Islands?
2:44 Do “picture stones” also have runes?
4:00 How did Old Gutnish differ from mainland Scandinavian Old Norse?
8:59 What did runes look like on Öland?
10:50 What did runes look like on Bornholm?
14:43 Can we identify any patterns in writing that are characteristic of the Baltic islands?
17:19 Further reading

I use the Gullhornet and Gullskoen (https://folk.uib.no/hnooh/runefont/) runic fonts made by Odd Einar Haugen of the Universitet i Bergen, which are free to download (https://folk.uib.no/hnooh/runefont/).