3rd of December
Are silk and brocade on your Christmas wish list?
It remains unknown, why Codex Runicus was written in the runic alphabet. (Click on the picture for a larger version)
AM 28 8vo is one of the more famous in our collection and is perhaps better known as Codex Runicus. This 14th-century manuscript contains various legal and historical texts, among them Skånske Lov (the Law of Scania). It is unknown why it is written in the runic alphabet, and it appears that the manuscript was copied from an exemplar written in the Latin alphabet.
At the very end of the manuscript there are a few lines of verse "drømde mik en drøm i nat um silki ok ærlik pæl" (Last night I dreamt a dream of silk and lush brocade) with accompanying musical notation, apparently the earliest such preserved in Scandinavia accompanying a vernacular text.
You can leaf through all of AM 28 8vo on Handrit.org
(Click on the picture for a larger version)
Contact
Katrín Þórdís Driscoll is a research assistant at the Dept. of Nordic Studies and Linguistics.
Phone: +45 3533 1660
katdris@hum.ku.dk
Anne Mette Hansen is asscociate professor at the Arnamagnæan Institute.
Telephone: +45 35 32 87 13
amh@hum.ku.dk