Literacy in Scandinavia. A passage from orality influenced by runes

After reading the recent studies about the traces of orality and the beginning of literacy in the oldest Scandinavian texts we preserve, the first conclusion to be drawn is that the problem is far from being solved. Even though some medievalists believe that orality can not be proven by reading the primary sources we have, most general linguists accept that oral texts should preserve certain features indicating their preliterate origins. However, the first texts we find written in the Latin alphabet do not show most of those generally accepted oral features. Then, maybe we must accept that the texts we preserve were not composed in an oral society. Runes were used centuries before the arrival of the Latin alphabet and they were used for noting down poems and memorial messages. Those inscriptions show an evolution not only in the type of messages written, but also in the complexity of the poems carved. Thus, a study on the Scandinavian texts, taking into account the runic inscriptions, could help us understand better the history of the passage from orality to literacy in this region and the role that runes would have played in this process.

Author dc:creator

• Seijas, Elena Miramontes, 1987-

Contributors dc:contributor

• Háskóli Íslands

• Medieval Icelandic Studies

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1946/19557

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:skemman.is:1946/19557