Des SMS au XIIe siècle en Scandinavie…
The Viking’s Jötunvillur Runic Code is Solved « ThorNews
▻http://thornews.com/2014/02/04/the-vikings-jotunvillur-runic-code-is-solved
Imaginative use
– Many believe the Vikings used cryptography to hide secret messages. But I think the codes were used for playing and learning, rather than to communicate, Nordby says.
One of the reasons he can make this claim, is that the Jötunvillur code is written in a way that can be interpreted in different ways.
– Jötunvillur is only possible to write, not read. It gives no sense that it was used for messages.
That is why he has looked at other ways to use it. Nordby believes the Vikings memorized the runic character names by using the Jötunvillur code.
All runes have a name, and the Jötunvillur code is to replace the runic character with the last sound of the runic name. For example, the u-rune “urr” becomes r. The problem is that several runic characters have names that end with the same sound. This makes it difficult to know which character the code is referring to.
La pierre de Rosette du #Jötunvillur…
On this stick from the 1200s found in Bergen, two men named Sigurd and Lavran have written their names both in code and with regular runes. This helped runologist Jonas Nordby to solve the Jötunvillur code.
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Ici, il faut compter les poils de barbe…
Ancient Viking code deciphered for the first time | World | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/12/ancient-viking-code-deciphered-runologist-jotunvillur
One, from Sweden, uses a simpler code, using numbers to indicate runes, and is believed to say “kiss me”. Another, from the Orkneys, says “these runes are written by the most skilled rune writer west of the sea”; the writer is “obviously showing off”, said Nordby. Often, the code exhorts the reader to “interpret this if you can”.
“The problem is, if you can’t interpret the code, you can’t understand you should be interpreting it, so the code itself is the obstacle,” said Nordby.
He believes the codes – particularly jötunvillur – could have been used for education. “It seems more and more clear that coded runes were not for keeping secrets, not for sensitive communications such as during the second world war, or like for today’s secure communications. But that actually, they were used to get to know the alphabet, or rune names,” said Nordby. “What if codes were used like a game, playing with a system? With jötunvillur, you had to learn the names of runes, so I think codes were used in teaching, in learning to write and read runes.”
▻http://i.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/2/12/1392221926946/Jotunvillur-code-014.jpg?width=620&height=-&quality=95
Mystery nosed out … Fragment of wooden stick with runic inscription on one side found at the old wharf in Bergen. The text is written using a code where the number of ’hairs’ in the beards of each face indicate the position of the character in the runic alphabet. Museum of cultural history, University of Oslo. Aslak Liestol Photograph: Aslak Liestol/Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo
