Who’s got Haribok’s bag?
Posted by 1troy3 on May 17, 2007
Runic inscriptions from Anglo-Saxon England are rarer than hen’s teeth. I think there’s only 30 or so ever been found.
But one turned up locally on a copper alloy strip, thought to be from a pouch, and containing a nice set of 6th Century weighing scales and weights. The fabric/leather had all decayed so only the clasp was left.
The runes say Haeriboki: wusae. Now that’s just the kind of poetic interlude that would be grand for my book thinks I. The scholars aren’t absolutely sure of the exact meaning but the first word is a personal name, the strict translation of which is Army Beech, but probably better understood as Battle Tree (ie brick s***house…a stout warrior).
The second word could be a woman’s name (ie Haribok 4 Wusae). Or it could be crap scribing and the author meant thusae which means ‘this one’. (ie This is Haribok’s). I favour the final explanation in which the writer tried to make the rune to say busae – a purse (Haribok’s purse).
The artefact is in the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock. Er…except it isn’t. I went to see it today and they couldn’t find it. They didn’t half look worried Mr Mainwaring.
…you keep your wallet safe for 1400 years and then look what happens.
Sure it’ll turn up. Watch thusae space.
Found it! « Bloggledebook said
[...] museum services found the clasp of Haribok’s bag (you may remember the saga from an earlier post below). It was never ‘lost’ as such – it was taken off display in 1998 and stored in the [...]