Found it!

Well great excitement at Troy Towers when the call came this afternoon.

A very nice lady at Oxfordshire 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 county vaults. I can see why. It’s very difficult to see the runes especially as the artefact is actually tiny.

Much to my surprise the pictures came out a lot better than I had hoped. But that has only opened a fresh can of worms. This is where it gets a bit tiresome so move on if you must….

The guy leading the excavation reckons on a fourth reading which means Army book purse – a sort of ledger for the armed forces. I’m in no position to argue about the word bok (beech or book?) but this is a bag not a book. Or if it was an earlier subtle meaning of the word then it begs the question whether these 6th Century ‘Anglo-Saxons’ were that organised. And if they were, then would it not lend more weight to the ‘invasion’ theory (which I’ve never favoured and seems to be increasingly dismissed by the scholars)?

And now I look at it, the first rune of the second word looks very clearly the sign for W, though in later runes the same sign meant ‘Th’. So far so good. But Busa or Pusa? Nah. The person who inscribed this clasp did it very deliberately as you can see for yourself. And he/she obviously knew the rune for B becasue it is used in the first word. Why leave it incomplete if that’s what they intended?

Picture full size by clicking here

And one last thing. Both interpretations I’ve seen agree that the roof sign is a K. Well maybe, but I can’t find where that rune exists. The detailed dissertation says the style is a mix of Scandinavian, continental German and Anglo-Saxon (hedging his/her bets there)…which I find equally intriguing. I love a good msytery but this one keeps posing more questions that I would like answered.

Detailed notes on runes by clicking here

And here by going to list item 13

But I’m glad it’s found. Which is more than can be said for my wee notebook which has lots of my research notes in it. It’s a real sickening blow to have lost it …must be at a water stop out there on the trail somewhere. Doh!

Against my better judgement, John’s nippers persuaded me to have a go on their trampoline. I bent my thumb back. Then today I rammed it into a solid object in the garden and put it out. Ask me how much that hurt, go on, ask me.

Hope you are in better fettle than me.

See soon.