Erilaz
Encyclopedia
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
Proto-Norse
Proto-Norse language
Proto-Norse was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic over the first centuries AD...
word attested on various Elder Futhark
Elder Futhark
The Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...
inscriptions, which has often been interpreted to mean "magician" or "rune master", viz. one who is capable of writing runes
Runic alphabet
The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...
to magical effect
Runic magic
There is some evidence that, in addition to being a writing system, runes historically served purposes of magic. This is the case from earliest epigraphic evidence of the Roman to Germanic Iron Age, with non-linguistic inscriptions and the alu word...
. However, as Mees (2003) has shown, the word is an ablaut variant of earl
Earl
An earl is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke...
, and is also thought to linguistically related to the name of the tribe of the Heruli
Heruli
The Heruli were an East Germanic tribe who are famous for their naval exploits. Migrating from Northern Europe to the Black Sea in the third century They were part of the...
, so it is probably merely an old Germanic military title (see etymology below).
Etymology
This word is likeliest the Proto-Germanic ancestor of Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
eorl and its relatives, meaning "man, warrior, noble". The word erilaz is likely a derivative of *erōn sb.f. "fight, battle", thus the interpretation "one who fights, warrior", though it has also been connected to *arōn sb.m. "eagle".
Historical instances:
- Latin: Heruli (dating from around 250 AD onwards)
- Greek Eruloi (dating from around 250 AD onwards)
- Runic: Erilaz (dating from around 200 AD - 400 AD)
Lindholm "amulet"
The Lindholm "amulet" (DR 261 $URundata
The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future research...
) is a bone piece found in Skåne, dated to the 2nd to 4th centuries. The inscription contains the word Erilaz.
Funen shaft
The Kragehul I (DR 196 U) spear-shaft found in FunenFunen
Funen , with a size of 2,984 km² , is the third-largest island of Denmark following Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy, and the 163rd largest island of the world. Funen is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 454,358 inhabitants . The main city is Odense, connected to the...
that bears the inscription:
-
- ekerilazasugisalasmuhahaitegagaga […]
- ek erilaz asugisalas muha haite, gagaga […]
Which is interpreted as "I, the earl of Āsugīsalaz, am called Muha," followed by some sort of battle cry or chant ("gagaga"). Āsugīsalaz contains ansu-, "god", and gīsalaz, "pledge". Muha may either be a personal name, or a word meaning "retainer" or similar. The runes of gagaga are displayed as a row of three bindrunes based on the X-shape of the g rune with side-twigs attached to its extremities for the a. A similar sequence gægogæ is found on the Undley bracteate
Undley bracteate
The Undley bracteate is a 5th century bracteate found in Undley Common, near Lakenheath, Suffolk. It bears the earliest known inscription that can be argued to be in Anglo-Frisian Futhorc ....
.
Other items
- BracteateBracteateA bracteate is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age...
s Eskatorp-F and Väsby-F have e[k]erilaz = "I [am] a Herulian" - Bratsberg clasp: ekerilaz
- Veblingsnes:ekerilaz
- Rosseland (N KJ69 U): ekwagigazerilaz
- Järsberg RunestoneJärsberg RunestoneThe Järsberg Runestone is a runestone in the elder futhark near Kristinehamn in Värmland, Sweden.-Inscription:It contains the following runic text as transliterated into Latin letters:As translated into English:...
(Vr 1): ekerilaz - By (N KJ71 U): ekirilaz
- The Etelheim clasp has mkmrlawrta read as ek erla wrta "I, Erla, wrote this"; Runic 'E' and 'M' are similar to each other.