Arbeiten mit Runica manuscripta: Einige Überlegungen zu Corpuserstellung und Vorgehensweise

The corpus of scandinavian runica manuscripta covers a period of about 1000 years and utilises different systems of reference depending on the time and place of origin. Most of the runica manuscripta , however, originate from the post­reformation period, i.e. from a time in which runic writing had long since lost its importance as a tool of communication in favor of the latin alphabet. scholars working with runica manuscripta need to keep in mind a general consideration, i.e. that manuscript runes always represent a divergence from genuine runic writing due to their medium, which causes the runic graphs to undergo a realization different from that found in epigraphic records. The ductus of manuscript tradition is transferred to the runes, which very frequently show a tendency to resemble squiggles through the use of serifs or rounded and curv ed forms. As a result, the peculiar visual style of runic writing can be greatly distorted. even if some of the records correspond quite closely to the epigraphic tradition, in most cases a mix of runic and latin literacy can be observed, depending of course on the cultural background of the writers, who lived and acted in a ‘latinized’ writing culture. For this reason, a large range of forms has arisen and, in building the corpus—or better the different corpora—scholars must constantly ponder the extent to which they will accept a devi­ ation from the standard as a special realization of a basic graph type or will simply declare it a pseudo­rune.