But - what does it say? We've done some research, and know that many of the characters are runes. A contact in a college in the US has attempted to decipher it, and says, "I tried a bit of transcription and this is what I got for the top row so far: 'HIMINN (not sure about those last two) OG FILEG?X STEINN (again not sure)'. This isn't total gibberish - looks like Old Engilsh - so it's maybe an actual message and not in code." But at that point she, very understandably, gave up.
The trouble is that some of the letters aren't runes. A very common one looks like a Greek sigma.
Do any of The Diary's readers have any suggestions?
I've seen something very similar etched into the wall of the Gents toilet in the Kilchoan House Hotel.
ReplyDeleteI've seen "himinn og" mean "heaven on" or "heaven and" in the Icelandic language. You could then expect the next word to be something like "earth" but it doesn't look like it is. I also don't think that these are Icelandic runes, as they're a bit different from the ones here. Maybe it's some kind of quote from one of the sagas?
ReplyDeleteAre the smooth lighter grey areas lichen, I wonder, or part of the rock? If lichen, the writing cuts into it suggesting that it is very recent.
ReplyDeleteThe runes look similar to these:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.orascope.com/web_images/newrunes.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.orascope.com/index.php?p%3D1_30_Runes&h=558&w=400&sz=72&tbnid=Tz_zcBWnX9T3PM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=65&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dviking%2Brunes%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=viking+runes&usg=__H5lgjWSgJPC0wMzWphTsrb_MzmI=&docid=gccAuuLbOChajM&sa=X&ei=t7MbUZ_dPIuY0QXcgoGQDw&ved=0CDgQ9QEwAg&dur=1635
Which are purportedly Viking
Nick, I think the writing was relatively recent at the time the picture was taken, back in the 1980s. There's no suggestion that these are ancient.
ReplyDeleteThat the writer could have been Icelandic is a very interesting suggestion. The place where the runes are written is very remote, so anyone who didn't know their runic language would have had to come with the inscription prepared.
Many thanks for the link to the runes. The character that interests me is the one that looks like a Greek sigma, which doesn't occur in any rune 'alphabets' that I have seen. Is it being used to represent a modern letter which does not occur in the runic alphabet used?
John - Could I suggest something far more basic. My theory is that a number of years ago a local wise man by the name of Hughie wrote this in a local 10 year malt dialect. It basically predicts that Ormsaigbeg will be overrun by pigs in the future and will drive all humans away!
ReplyDeleteSomeone indeed went to a lot of trouble with this. Not your average graffiti artist. Even if lightly scratched on the surface lichen and debris with a penknife or similar, it was done carefully with letters regularly spaced and sized.
ReplyDeleteIf the letters are actually incised into the rock, that would, I imagine, require something harder than a penknife, indicating an even higher degree of planning. Or were they just written onto the rock with some kind of pen? It doesn't really look like it from the photo, though.
I don't remember that runic was one of Danny's languages in Local Hero, but perhaps it was used in a film? It does have a professional appearance. Unless you know which rock, it may be difficult to find!