Руналық жазулар мен «alu» сөзінің мағынасы туралы зерттеулер

Runic inscription with uncertain meaning

The sequence alu is found in numerous Elder Futhark runic inscriptions of Germanic Iron Age Scandinavia (and more rarely in early Anglo Saxon England) between the 3rd and the 8th century. The word usually appears either alone (such as on the Elgesem runestone) or as part of an apparent formula (such as on the Lindholm "amulet" (DR 261) from Scania, Sweden). The symbols represent the runes Ansuz, Laguz, and Uruz. The origin and meaning of the word are matters of dispute, though a general agreement exists among scholars that the word represents an instance of historical runic magic or is a metaphor (or metonym) for it. It is the most common of the early runic charm words. The word disappears from runic inscriptions shortly after the Migration Period, even before the Christianization of Scandinavia. It may have lived on beyond this period with an increasing association with ale, appearing in stanzas 7 and 19 of the Old Norse poem Sigrdrífumál, compiled in the 13th century Poetic Edda, where knowledge of invocative "ale runes" (Old Norse ölrúnar) is imparted by the Valkyrie Sigrdrífa. Theories have been suggested that the unique term ealuscerwen (possibly "pouring away of alu"), used to describe grief or terror in the epic poem Beowulf, recorded around the 9th to 11th century, may be directly related. Cognates in Germanic dialects would include Old English ealh "temple," Gothic alhs "temple," and Old Norse alh "amulet." Edgar Polomé initially proposed an etymological connection between Germanic alu and Hittite "affected by witchcraft," which is in turn connected to Greek alúõ "to be beside oneself" and Latvian aluôt "to be distraught." This etymology was later proven faulty and subsequently dropped by Polomé, though he continues to suggest that a common semantic denominator connects these words with alu. Linguistic connections have been proposed between the term and the Proto Germanic term *aluþ, meaning "ale," and subsequently the word is sometimes translated as meaning "ale," though this linguistic approach has been criticized as having "crucial difficulties."

The third panel Elder Futhark inscriptions found on the 7th or 8th CE century Eggja stone discovered on the farm Eggja located in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway is often interpreted as reading alu.

An inscription reading simply "alu" is found on a stone discovered in a grave mound located by the farm of Elgesem, Vestfold, Norway, in 1870. The Elgesem runestone, listed in the Rundata catalog as N KJ57 U, is dated to about 400 CE. The stone is 172 centimeters tall and 90 centimeters wide, and the thickness is about 18 centimeters. The inscription is written counter clockwise and is to be read from the top downwards. As the stone has been purposefully shaped, it has been suggested that the Elgesem runestone was a cult stone used as part of some ritual. It has also been suggested that similar shaped cult stones are depicted on the Stora Hammars I, Ardre VIII and Tängelgårda IV image stones. of red soapstone dated to around 600 CE.

The Årstad stone (N KJ58) is a runestone found in 1855 on the Årstad farm in Rogaland, Norway. It bears 18 20 runes of the Elder Futhark on three lines. The second line reads saralu, which is by some scholars split into the words sar and alu. Today the stone is housed in the Antiquities Collection at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo.

The Nydam Arrow (DR 13) is an arrow discovered in Nydam Mose, South Jutland, Denmark that bears the inscription lua which has been interpreted as a distorted alu. It is dated to around 200 to 350 CE. Today the arrow is housed in Museum für Vorgeschichtliche Altertümer in Kiel, Germany.

The Setre Comb is a comb from the 6th or early 7th century featuring runic inscriptions. The comb is the subject of an amount of scholarly discourse as most experts accept the reading of the Germanic charm word alu and Nanna, though there exists questions as to if Nanna is the same figure as the goddess from later attestations.