The Pforzen buckle is a silver belt buckle found in Pforzen

Pforzen

Pforzen is a municipality in Ostallgäu, Bavaria.Near Pforzen is an extended Alemannic cemetery that was in use from the 5th up to the 8th century. A total of 442 graves were excavated in two campaigns in 1991/2 and 1996. Two items bearing runic inscriptions were recovered, the Pforzen buckle in...

, Ostallgäu

Ostallgäu

Ostallgäu is a district in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Oberallgäu, Unterallgäu, Augsburg, Landsberg, Weilheim-Schongau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and by the Austrian state of Tyrol...

 (Schwaben) in 1992. The Alemannic

Alamanni

The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...

 grave in which it was found (no. 239) dates to the end of the 6th century and was presumably that of a warrior, as it also contained a lance, spatha

Spatha

The spatha was a type of straight sword, measuring between , in use throughout first millennium AD Europe, and in the territory of the Roman Empire until about 600 AD. Later swords from 600 AD to 1000 AD are recognizable derivatives, though they are not spathae.The spatha was used in gladiatorial...

, seax

Seax

Seax in Old English means knife or cutting tool. The name of the roofer's tool, the zax, is a development from this word...

 and shield. The buckle itself is assumed to be of Roman-Mediterranean origin, possibly the product of a Lombard

Lombards

The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...

 or Gepid

Gepid

The Gepids were an East Germanic tribe who were closely related to the Goths. The Gepids were recorded in the area along the southern Baltic coast in the 1st century AD, having migrated there from southern Sweden some years earlier...

 workshop.

Inscription

The buckle bears a runic inscription on its front, incised after its manufacture:

aigil andi aïlrun [ornament or bind-rune]

ltahu (or elahu) gasokun [ornamental braid]

Linguistic analysis of the inscription reveals that it was composed in early Old High German

Old High German

The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...

 and is thus considered the oldest preserved line of alliterative verse

Alliterative verse

In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal structuring device to unify lines of poetry, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of alliterative verse are those found in the oldest literature of many Germanic...

 in any West Germanic language (while the Golden horns of Gallehus

Golden horns of Gallehus

The Golden Horns of Gallehus were two horns made of sheet gold, discovered in Gallehus, north of Møgeltønder in South Jutland, Denmark.The horns date to the early 5th century, i.e. the beginning of the Germanic Iron Age....

 inscription, roughly one century older, is considered the oldest example of a North Germanic metrical line). However, scholars have yet to reach a consensus as to its exact import.

Interpretations

Wagner (1995) reads the final ornament in line 1 as a bind rune

Bind rune

A bind rune is a ligature of two or more runes. They are extremely rare in Viking Age inscriptions, but are common in pre-Viking Age and in post-Viking Age inscriptions....

 consisting of (angi) and connects this directly with the beginning of line 2, producing angiltahu. He translates the inscription as "Aigil and Ailrun scolded Angiltah". However, this interpretation has been criticized (Düwel 2001) on the grounds that (1) the scribe had no apparent reason to resort to a complex bind-rune for part of the inscription and (2) a ‘scolding’ does not seem to be worthy of an inscription on an object interred with the remains of a warrior.

Düwel (2001) reads the end of line 1 as a simple ornament and the beginning of line 2 as a bind-rune formed of (el), producing the transliteration elahu, which would represent an acc. pl. of elah(h)o "elk, stag". The whole is then read as Áigil andi Áilrun | élahu[n] gasókun. The verb gasókun is understood as an early form of Old High German gasahhan "forsake, deny, repent", and translated as “Aigil and Ailrun damned the stags (i.e. the stag masquerades)”. This is seen as a reference to the heathen

Germanic paganism

Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...

 tradition of dressing up in the skins of stags as part of New Year celebrations. Thus the inscription is to be understood as the record of the declaration of a couple (Aigil and Ailrun) to forsake participation in the celebration, possibly as a sign of their acceptance of Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

.

Nedoma (2004) also sees the end of line 1 as ornament, yet reads the beginning of line 2 as a bind-rune composed of (íl), and the whole as Áigil andi Áilrun | Íltahu gasōkun. This would translate as "Aigil and Ailrun fought at the Ilz river". This is seen as a reference to Egil

Agilaz

Egil is a legendary hero of the Völundarkviða and the Thidreks saga. The name is from Proto-Germanic *Agilaz, and the same legend is reflected in Old English Ægil of the Franks Casket and Alamannic Aigil of the Pforzen buckle....

, the heroic archer of Norse mythology

Norse mythology

Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...

, who is depicted on the lid of the Auzon Runic or Franks Casket

Franks Casket

The Franks Casket is a small Anglo-Saxon whalebone chest from the seventh century, now in the British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-relief and with inscriptions mostly in Anglo-Saxon runes...

 together with his wife (presumably Ailrun) engaged in battle. The casket is thought to date to approximately the same time as the Pforzen buckle.

Looijenga (2003) argues that the inscription shows evidence of scribal error. Assuming that the verse alliterates, she interprets the at the beginning of line 2 as indicative of an original [a]l. Her amended reading runs Aigil andi Ailrūn | (a)l tahu gasokun, which she translates as "Aigil and Ailrun vigorously fought/condemned all". She also suggests that the text could be a quotation from a lost version of the Wieland story.

Simmons (2010) likewise takes the first element as representing al- "all, entire", but takes the second element as the dative (singular or plural) of an ablaut variant of the Old English word teoh "army, war-band", with the compound meaning "the entire war-band". Simmons notes that gasokun "fought" (preterite 3rd plural indicative) requires a dative object, which is furnished in al-tahu. He translates the buckle inscription, "Aigil and Alrun fought the entire war-band." Simmons confirms that the writing on the Pforzen buckle refers to the same Germanic character depicted on the Franks Casket (Aegil), and argues that this translation of the buckle line best accords with the figuration on the casket lid, each representing the same legend of "two against all comers".