Manuscript Runes from the North

of England: The Byland Bede

Aya M. S. Van Renterghem (Leiden University)

Abstract
This article presents the new find of a manuscript with runes from Byland in
Yorkshire. It provides a full description of the manuscript and examines its
Scandi­navian runic alphabet in detail. The runes are further assessed within the
context of the English tradition of runica manuscripta and Scandinavian epi­
graphical tradition in Britain. Due to the exceptional origins of the manuscript
and a number of uncommon features, the background of the material and the
runic scribe are also examined.
Keywords: Runica manuscripta, Yorkshire, written runes, Scandinavian runic
alpha­bet, Byland Bede, rune-like characters, manuscript runes

R ecently, a manuscript containing runes kept in the private collection

of Sir John Paul Getty on his Wormsley estate in High Wycombe,
Bucking­hamshire, was brought to the attention of the present author.
The estate is currently owned by his son Marc Getty, who continues his
father’s biblio­philic legacy. A brief description of the manuscript for an
exhibition organised by the Pierpont Morgan Library in cooperation with
Paul Getty in 1999 mentioned the runes but deemed them to be Anglo-
Saxon (Fletcher et al. 2007, 8). The purpose of this article is to provide a
full description of the manuscript and its runes and to consider the signif­
icance of this find within the context of English runica manuscripta and
local epigraphy.
The manuscript is called the Byland Bede and, as the title indicates,
contains two of Bede’s works: the Latin commentary on the Acts of
the Apostles, and commentaries on the Seven Canonical Letters and the
Prologue of St Jerome. It was for the most part written by one scribe in

Van Renterghem, Aya M. S. “Manuscript Runes from the North of England: The Byland Bede.”
Futhark: International Journal of Runic Studies 8 (2017, publ. 2019): 111–25.
DOI: 10.33063/diva-384655

© 2019 Aya M. S. Van Renterghem (CC BY)

112 • Aya M. S. Van Renterghem

Byland Abbey in Yorkshire, c. 1150–75, in a late-Romanesque English

Cister­cian book-hand (Fletcher et al. 2007, 8) although there are a number
of occasional markings and notes which were made by at least three
differ­ent hands. The catalogue notes that the most recent hand, probably
from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, is responsible for the
signature “— Bennett” on fol. 79v (Fletcher et al. 2007, 10). The present
author is not convinced that this reading is correct. The first and the
last vowel are differently shaped, making a name like “Barnett” equally
possible. There is some very faint writing just before this name, but only
the letters ‘Be’ and ‘f’ can be discerned. The contents of the manuscript
are as follows:
1. Front flyleaf: Eight Anglo-Saxon abbreviations and idiosyncratic
letter forms; Scandinavian runic alphabet; thirteen rune-like char­
acters;
2. Fol. 1r–v: Divino in Christo desiderantissimo et uere beatissimo. Accae
episcopo; beda perpetuam salutem;
3. Fols. 2–34r: Beda Venerabilis, Opusculum in Librum Actuum Aposto­
lorum cum Expositione de Nominibus Locorum;
4. Fols. 34r–101v: Beda Venerabilis, Expositio in Septem Epistolas Cano­
nicas.
As noted, the codex originates from the library of the Cistercian Abbey of
the Blessed Virgin Mary at Byland, Yorkshire. This ownership is recorded
at the top of fol. 1r: “Liber Sante Marie De Bellalanda”. The formation
of this abbey was the result of a long process beginning with a group of
monks from the congregation of Savigny, led by Abbot Gerald, leaving
their first monastery at Furness in Cumbria (established in 1128) to found
a daughter monastery in Calder in 1135. This move was unsuccessful as
Calder was ransacked by the Scots in 1138 and the monks were forced
to return to Furness. They were denied entry, however, as Abbot Gerald
was unwilling to relinquish his new title of abbot to the abbot of Furness
(Burton 2006, 2). The monks sought help from Archbishop Thurstan of
York who suggested contacting the nobleman Lord Roger de Mowbray;
he granted them permission to stay at Hood in Yorkshire. The site did not,
how­ever, lend itself to the construction of a monastery, and in 1142 the
monks were given Byland on the Moor by Lady Gundreda, the mother of
Lord Roger (Burton 2006, 11). They began to build an abbey, later referred
to as Old Byland, and moved there in 1143. Four years later, however, the
monks trans­ferred to Oldstead (Stocking), a wasteland also granted by
Roger de Mowbray, where they built a small stone church and a cloister

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 Manuscript Runes from the North of England • 113

in order to escape the sound of the bells of nearby Rielvaulx Abbey. They
remained on this site for thirty years before their final move to New
Byland near Coxwold in 1177, during which period the community also
joined the order of the Cistercians (Burton 2006, xxi). The manuscript was
presum­ably written during this thirty-year period at Oldstead.
The abbey was suppressed by King Henry VIII in 1538 and the land was
granted to Sir William Pickering, passing subsequently to the Wotton,
Stapylton, and Wombwell families (Fletcher et al. 2007, 8). Only twenty-
seven manuscripts survive from the abbey’s original collection. Based on
the late fif­teenth- or early sixteenth-century inscription, the codex may
have belonged to a man named “Bennett” or “Barnett” during that time
but there is no further information about this owner. The first known
owner was Thomas Bate­man of Lomberdale House (d. 1861), from Bake­
well, Derby­shire. William Bateman inherited the codex which was then
sold in 1893 during the Bateman Heirlooms sale by Sotheby’s Auction
House. Robert Hoe III (d. 1909) bought the manuscript and after his death
it was again sold in 1911 by Anderson Auction House. It came into the
possession of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge Junior before it was finally ac­
quired by the Wormsley library in August 1997 (Fletcher et al. 2007, 10).
The runic material in this codex comprises a Scandinavian alphabet
of twenty-one runes, a row of eleven runic and rune-like characters,
and a final two characters underneath (fig. 1). The runes of the alphabet
are situated in the middle of the front flyleaf beneath a row of Anglo-
Saxon characters and are divided into two rows, a–o and p–x according
to transliterations. The transliterations are provided in rows above the
runes: the first line of transliteration appears on line 6 of the lead point
ruling, the first line of runes on line 7. The second line of transliterations
appears on line 8, followed by the second line of runes on line 9. Two
empty lines are left between this second line and a line of eleven runes
or rune-like characters. There is subsequently one further empty line,
followed by two final characters for which neither transliterations nor
additional information has been provided.
The alphabet is clear and well-drawn but contains a large amount of
dotting. This appears to be of two types: dots in places which are typically
dotted (g, ‘ for instance) and slightly less distinct dots which the scribe
placed above the staves of certain runes (the m-rune and e-rune, for
instance). The reason for the presence of the second type is unclear,
although the difference between the two types of dotting facilitates
recognition of scribal errors: the a-rune and the t-rune contain distinct
dots, so the scribe probably considered these to be essential (though dots

Futhark 8 (2017)
114 • Aya M. S. Van Renterghem

Fig. 1. The front flyleaf of the Byland Bede. Photograph by the author with permission of
the owner.

of the second type can also be seen above the staves). Small serifs appear
at the top and bottom of the staves, giving the material a book-hand
character and strong similarity to the script used for the Latin text in the
codex. The following runes require some comment:
‐‐ The a-rune is dotted on the left-hand side and the branch does not
cross the stave. The dot is likely to be a mistake but the shape of the
n-rune indicates the intentional use of short-twig runes;

Futhark 8 (2017)
 Manuscript Runes from the North of England • 115

‐‐ The rune transliterated as ‘c’ is a dotted k-rune and therefore tech­

ni­cally a g-rune;
‐‐ The d-rune has been given two dots on either side of the stave of a
double-branched t-rune;
‐‐ The g-rune here is not dotted and therefore technically a k-rune;
‐‐ For ‘k’ the same rune is used as for ‘g’, but the branch is longer and
stretches further;
‐‐ The m is dotted on the left-hand side between the stave and the left
branch;
‐‐ The character representing ‘o’ is interesting here as the rune is clearly
Anglo-Saxon. It is perhaps conceivable that this is an exaggerated
younger futhark o but the upwards curve at the end of the branches
suggests otherwise;
‐‐ The rune representing ‘q’ here seems again to be a variant of the
k-rune but the serifs at the top are more distinctive, making it similar
to an insular ‘s’;
‐‐ There appear to be two s-runes, short-twig and long-branch. The
scribe, however, appears to have been unaware of difference or after­
wards confused transliterations and placed these in the positions of
‘s’ and ‘t’;
‐‐ The following character looks like a d, again with two branches, but
with only one dot on the right-hand side. It is likely that this rune
was meant to represent ‘t’ but, due to the confusion with the two
s-runes, this character was transliterated as ‘u’;
‐‐ The final character is a very triangular-looking u-rune which is given
the value ‘x’;
‐‐ The alphabet is missing ‘y’ and ‘z’, and the runic letters æ and ø are
not represented.

The runes are not easily classified, though they are probably medieval;
this is also indicated by the twelfth-century dating of the Byland manu­
script. A more detailed assessment of the material requires first deter­
mining with which tradition it should be compared. There are four manu­
scripts of a similar date within the English runica manuscripta tradition
with which comparison is possible: Oxford, St John’s College, MS 17;
London, British Library, Cotton MS Domitian A. IX; Cambridge, Trinity
College, MS R. 14.34; and London, British Library, Stowe MS 57 (for full
descriptions and references of the manuscripts discussed here — unless
otherwise indicated — see the author’s Ph.D. thesis, Van Renterghem
2017). All four manuscripts are from the south of England: St John’s MS

Futhark 8 (2017)
116 • Aya M. S. Van Renterghem

17 from Thorney, MS Domitian A. IX from Worcester, Trinity MS R.

14.34 from Bury St Edmunds, and Stowe MS 57 from Peter­borough. St
John’s MS 17 and Stowe MS 57 contain futharks in rune-row order while
the other two present alphabetised rows of Scandinavian runes. Many
similarities can be found between these rune-rows although their idio­
syncrasies make clear that no immediate relationship can be construed
between them. In general, a number of forms are distinctive in these
twelfth-century rune-rows: (1) both the long-branch and short-twig forms
of a and n are used; (2) both long-branch s and k are used for ‘c’; (3) o
and Í are both used for ‘o’; (4) ‘q’ is represented by k; (5) both short-
twig and long-branch s are used; (6) both single- and double-branched
t appear. The futharks are noteworthy here, as St John’s MS 17 is the
only manuscript to display exclusively the long-branch varieties of all
runes, and Stowe MS 57 provides variants of most runes, so includes long-
branch and short-twig runes. Stowe MS 57 notes the transliterations ‘c’
and ‘q’ for k, which St John’s MS 17 transliterates as ‘c’; its rune-row does
not include ‘q’. The runic alphabets on the other hand tend to present
mainly short-twig features. These discrepancies may be explained by the
time difference, since St John’s MS 17 was probably written in the early
twelfth century and the others later in that century. When comparing
these features with the Byland Bede, which is probably from the second
half of the twelfth century, it is interesting to note that its features fall
somewhere between the two groups. It provides k for ‘c’ like Domitian
A. IX, St John’s MS 17 and Stowe MS 57, notes both forms of s like Stowe
MS 57, and gives a double-branched t like St John’s MS 17 and Stowe MS
57. The similarities with Stowe MS 57 here, however, are mostly due to
the collective nature of this manuscript, especially since the Byland Bede
features an Anglo-Saxon o-rune, a confusion which does not occur in any
of the other manuscripts. It may therefore be worthwhile examining the
epigraphical tradition as well.
From an epigraphical point of view, two forms are of interest here: ‘
for ‘d’ appears around 1060 in Denmark but not before the late twelfth
century in Norway (Page 1999, 209; never in this particular form, how­
ever), so this would suggest an East Norse influence on the Byland alpha­
bet. A similar conclusion was drawn by R. I. Page and Jan Ragnar Hag­land
in reference to St John’s MS 17, which contains the form with a cross-bar
rather than dots (1998, 67). The second is the fourth rune of the futhark
(‘o’ here; the fourth character of the futhark is given a number of different
forms and values within the insular corpus, and for the sake of brevity, the
character is here referred to as “the fourth rune” throughout). This rune

Futhark 8 (2017)
 Manuscript Runes from the North of England • 117

is interesting as it also presents a problem in the epigraphical inscription

from Sockburn (E 19, see Rye 2019) in County Durham, which shows an
Anglo-Saxon È as the second letter of the name Mæl Muire instead of a
suitable Scandinavian rune to match the rest of the inscription (although
Rye here has read otherwise). This may of course be a coincidence, but
Sockburn is located a mere thirty-five miles north of Byland Abbey, so
a connection is possible. Eleanor Rye (2019), however, determined that
the inscription is probably from the tenth or eleventh century, so clearly
older than the Byland runes. Both sets of runes may still have similar
origins and connections with East and West: Rye points out Sockburn’s
similarities with inscriptions from the Isle of Man and Cumbria, while
(at least part of) the community responsible for the Byland codex lived at
Furness Abbey in Cumbria for a number of years before moving to the east
of the country. In fact, comparison with epigraphy makes it seem likely
that the runic learning evident in this manu­script came from Furness (or
the North-West more generally) rather than Byland or the North-East.
The ‘ appears again in the inscription dotbrt on the thirteenth-century
altar of Conishead Priory (E 11), which is located approximately nine
miles from Furness Abbey (Barnes and Page 2006, 316–19).
The Bridekirk font (E 1) is also of interest here, since not only is it prob­
a­bly a twelfth-century work originating from Cumbria and containing an
inscrip­tion in Scandinavian runes but it also contains a number of English
book-hand features (Barnes and Page 2006, 281). Like the Byland Bede, it
contains short-twig a and s, as well as the double-branched t. The inscrip­
tion also shows the crossed form of the dotted t shape, although Michael
P. Barnes and R. I. Page (2006, 281) concluded this was a bind-rune of t
and e. None of these elements is necessarily unusual, yet the appear­ance
of “local” epigraphical features in the manuscript and the appearance of
manu­script features in a “local” inscription during the same time period
may be considered significant. The font does not in itself shed more light
on the manuscript, nor is it possible to connect the two immediately, but
the similarities between these three elements do support the likeli­hood
that the Byland Bede runes have a place in the north-western tradition.
Additionally, the font and the manuscript suggest that in this area, the
delimitation between epigraphy and manuscripts was less pronounced.
It is possible then that this area was subjected to heavy Danish influence
which affected both carvers and scribes. The Thorney manuscript (St
John’s MS 17) may have experienced similar influence from the former
Danelaw area. The confusion over the fourth rune, however, remains
unsolved: the fourth rune used in Conishead is Í, while Bridekirk employs

Futhark 8 (2017)
118 • Aya M. S. Van Renterghem

Ê for ‘o’. Perhaps then the appearance of two Anglo-Saxon fourth runes
instead of Scandinavian ones from the same area is merely coincidence
and attributable to scribal error. This mistake is, none­theless, indicative
of familiarity with the Anglo-Saxon rune-row, which is worth examining.
As the manuscript provides no information on the scribe, it may be
bene­ficial to look in more detail at the other material on the page in order
to gain some insight into his runic knowledge. The line of characters
below the alphabet shows a curious mixture of “runes” which developed
in the manuscript tradition, a number of runes found in both epigraphy
and manuscripts, and a few apparently misunderstood characters. The
final two characters at the bottom are probably the Roman letters ‘h’ and
‘d’ but with further unnecessary dotting. These additional characters all
appear to be by the same hand, which uses a rounded script. It is worth
noting that they are serifed differently to the alphabet and the colour of
ink is slightly lighter. This suggests a different hand, though probably
contem­porary with the manuscript. The more haphazard structure and
lack of translite­rations further support this impression. It would seem
that this second hand recognised the runic alphabet and added further
material. The provision of “variant” or extra forms in a separate section by
the same or other scribes is a common practice in manuscripts containing
runes and often stems from the problems which arose in alphabetising
the futhark (Derolez 1959, 4). It is worth taking a closer look at these
characters as well:
‐‐ The first character could be a “coded” twig-rune (2/2). It also appears
in two Continental manuscripts: St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 878
has it for ‘k’ and Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, CLM 14436
for ‘i’;
‐‐ The second and third characters look like they could potentially be
division marks, used to separate elements in runic inscriptions/texts.
It may be that this annotator thought they were runes and included
them — this would indicate a lack of understanding of the material.
Alter­natively, they could also be an Anglo-Saxon g-rune and two
i-runes, but the slightly slanted and nonchalant method of drawing
makes this rather unlikely (especially in comparison with the i-rune
from the alphabet, and the fifth character in the additional runic
section);
‐‐ The fourth and penultimate character could be a (clumsily drawn)
Scandi­navian o-rune, though a similar shape appears for ‘t’ in Bern,
Burger­bibliothek, MS 207, for ‘in’ (rune-name inc) in manuscripts

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 Manuscript Runes from the North of England • 119

containing the isruna-code (for an in-depth discussion see Derolez

1954, 89–169), and for ‘k’ in London, British Library, Cotton MS Titus
D. XVIII;
‐‐ The fifth character could be an Anglo-Saxon g-rune, again with un­
nec­essary dotting;
‐‐ Then follows either an Anglo-Saxon m, or Scandinavian y/ʀ-rune,
again dotted;
‐‐ A wynn;
‐‐ A thorn;
‐‐ This character is unclear: it could be an a-rune, an exaggerated
Scandi­navian e-rune, or a t-rune with curved branches;
‐‐ The final rune of the row could be a poorly drawn k-rune, but the
same character appears for ‘x’ in Exeter Cathedral Library, MS 3507,
and Oxford, St John’s College MS 17 (probably due to the similarity
with the Roman letter ‘x’); it is also one of the golden numbers in the
runic calendars.

Identifying the source of these additional runes is not straightforward,

as none of the surviving manuscripts with runes contains all or even some
of these characters together as a unit. The variety in the collection gives
the impression that the annotator examined a number of manuscripts
con­taining runes and selected runes which differed from the alphabet.
This is possible, if somewhat impractical. The characters, most of which
are Anglo-Saxon or appear in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts containing
runes, point towards an Anglo-Saxon source. The most straight­forward
solution would therefore be that the annotator found his material in one
of the afore­mentioned “extra” sections, such as appear in London, British
Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A. XII, Exeter Cathedral Library, MS 3507,
or London, British Library, Stowe MS 57. However, none of the runes for
which parallels have been found in other manuscripts appears in these
additional sections. A certain degree of variation exists between these
sections, so it is of course possible to postulate the existence of a manu­
script with these characters which is now lost. In fact, a number of these
forms or similar forms do appear in a fourteenth-century manuscript
from Whalley Abbey, Lancashire (Whitaker 1872, 181; Holman 2007, 191).
This manuscript, London, British Library, Additional MS 10374, also
contains a Scandinavian alphabet and an “additional” section of charac­
ters, though with fewer mistakes in dotting and the alphabetic use of
s for ‘c’ and C for ‘s’ (fig. 2). There is not enough overlap between the
alpha­bets and additional characters for this to be a copy of the Byland

Futhark 8 (2017)
120 • Aya M. S. Van Renterghem

Fig. 2. The runes of London, British Library, Additional MS 10374, as copied by Whitaker
1872, 181.

Bede. Additional MS 10374 also contains a number of transliterations and

rune-names which are not found in the Byland codex. This indicates the
existence of (at least) a third copy of this material which was separately
annotated. The rune-forms and the consideration that a second hand
wrote the additional characters, possibly taken from an Anglo-Saxon
manu­script containing runes, suggest that the Byland Bede was the first
manu­script to contain the alphabet. The fly-leaf material was then after­
wards copied as a whole, which explains the striking similarity with the
four­teenth-century manuscript. In view of Bede’s popularity, it is hardly
incon­ceivable that the Byland manuscript was borrowed and copied.
This copy (or even a copy thereof) may then have been the exemplar
for the Whalley manuscript. Katharine Holman, who first remarked on
the similarity between Additional MS 10374 and Conishead (see above)
due to the appearance of the dotted t in both, could not find a direct
connection between the monasteries of Whalley and Conishead (1996, 84;
2007, 191). It may be that there was no direct connection but that the
appear­ance of this alphabet was a result of copying between manuscripts.
The motivation behind the copying is not necessarily clear, however: the
Whalley manuscript contains various charters and documents related to
Whalley Abbey, its history and its surroundings, but no texts by Bede nor
any other material indicative of a connection. Considering the location of
the abbey and the use of Scandinavian runes on epigraphical monuments
in the North-West, the copy may have been motivated by the recognition
of the rune-forms as local elements, but this is tenuous at best. It is more
likely that the connection lies in the unknown third manuscript.
One more element may add further depth to this discussion: at the top
of the Byland front flyleaf nine characters appear which are clearly taken
from insular Roman script. The first character is thorn; then wynn; then a
Tironian note (dotted again); then eth; this is followed by the Anglo-Saxon
abbreviation for þæt; the letter ‘h’ (which seems the odd one out); then

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 Manuscript Runes from the North of England • 121

yogh + ‘e’, thus ‘ge-’, which is often found at the beginning of Old English
(and some Middle English) verbs; and finally the insular ‘r’. The scribe
appears to have been interested in the vernacular way of writing, despite
(or perhaps due to) his own writing in Latin. In the twelfth century, this
may have been an effort to preserve the English way of writing against a
backdrop of Anglo-Norman social dominance, or an Anglo-Norman scribe
showing an interest in the English language or script. A similar selection
of Anglo-Saxon letters can be found in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS
Lat. 9666, an eleventh-century manuscript from Echternach, though this
section contains only the Tironian note, wynn, eth, the abbreviation for
þæt, and in addition the ligature of ‘a’ and ‘e’, i.e. ‘æ’. The reason for the
preservation of the material there is likely to be scholarly curiosity.
The hand appears to be the same for the Bede text as for the runic
alpha­bet and the insular characters. The appearance of runic characters
in manu­scripts containing works by Bede is too frequent to be coinci­
dental: an association between the scholar and this material clearly exists.
Unfortu­nately, this reveals little regarding the background of the Byland
rune-scribe, as this phenomenon occurred both in England (for instance
Cam­bridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 41; Cotton MS Domitian A. IX;
Cotton MS Vitellius A. XII; and St John’s MS 17) and on the Continent (at
least ten manuscripts, including the aforementioned St Gallen MS 878 and
Munich, CLM 14436), in both Germanic and Romance-speaking areas. It
is worth noting, however, that the runes in these Bede manuscripts are
predominantly Anglo-Saxon. In fact, only Cotton Domitian A. IX contains
a Scandi­navian alphabet similar to that of the Byland manuscript, but this
was a twelfth-century addition to the manuscript. The two other manu­
scripts which feature Bede as well as Scandinavian runes are St John’s
College MS 17 and St Gallen MS 878, both of which contain futharks.
As noted, the institution responsible for producing the manuscript
belonged to the Savigny order (though officially Cistercian at the time
of production), which originated in northern France on the borders of
Normandy, Brittany, and Maine (Burton 2006, vii). The nationality of the
monks who initially moved to Cumbria and later arrived at Byland was
therefore probably Norman French, especially considering that Furness
and Lanca­shire were given to Stephen de Blois, a Norman lord, by King
Henry I in 1120 (Kapelle 1979, 200–02), and that he was responsible
for founding the Savigniac house at Furness (King 2010). Additionally,
Anglo-Norman was widely spoken in England in the twelfth century.
Consequently, it is certainly conceivable that the monks were speakers
of French or Anglo-Norman and that a number of them were educated on

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the Continent. The reason for some oddities in the manuscript may there­
fore be the scribe’s Continental background. This may for instance explain
the use of Scandinavian k for ‘c’, which is common in the De Inven­tione
Linguarum tract. It could be argued that this is also a feature of the alpha­
betised younger futhark, but there is only one remaining example of this,
Paris, Biblio­thèque Nationale, MS Lat. 9666, and this manuscript lacks the
letter ‘k’, preventing any firm conclusions in this regard.
The De Inventione Linguarum tract, attributed (probably incorrectly)
to Hrabanus Maurus, contains a discussion of alphabets, mainly the
Greek, Hebrew, Roman, Aethicus Ister (a fictional cosmographer from
the early medieval work Cosmographia by the priest Hieronymus), and
runic alphabets (Treffort 2013, 53). The runes included in this treatise are
predominantly Anglo-Saxon, which makes the appearance of the single
Scandi­ navian rune remarkable. Possible scribal familiarity with this
material could explain the use of k for ‘c’ and the accidental use of the
Anglo-Saxon o-rune. Such confusion should not necessarily be mistaken
for ignorance, as the explanatory text in De Inventione Linguarum indicates
that runes were part of the culture of the “Northmen”, while providing an
Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet as an example. This explanation, however,
necessitates the scribe having a Continental background, as all extant De
Inven­tione treatises with runes were produced on the Continent. Page and
Hag­land nonetheless drew a different conclusion in their study of the St
John’s College manuscript: they noted that use of different runes for ‘c’
and ‘k’ may have been due to the Anglo-Norman practice of distributing
the sound according to the “palatal rule” (1998, 66). Unfortunately, due to
the confusion with dotting, it is difficult to tell here if a differentiation has
actually been made. Both options nevertheless suggest an Anglo-Norman
origin. There may however also have been an awareness that ‘c’ was not
part of the Scandinavian rune-row (as already indicated by some of the
runica manuscripta above, Þ was used to create the parallel with Latin ‘c’).
That would for instance explain why the Bridekirk inscription also uses
Scandinavian k where the Middle English text requires ‘c’.
The motivations behind the writing of the rune-row and insular
characters may therefore not differ as much from Paris, Bibliothèque
Nationale, MS Lat. 9666 as originally thought: the inclusion of this
material may show an interest in English (local) culture, perhaps
fuelled by admiration of Bede and his reputation as a scholar of the
history of Britain. The association with Bede may have prompted the
Anglo-Norman scribe to record the English characters and inspired the
collection of runes and alphabets, which were then sourced locally. The

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 Manuscript Runes from the North of England • 123

fact that Scandinavian runes were readily available, as indicated by the

post-Conquest epigraphical inscriptions, further confirms the persistence
of the Scandinavian language and identity in the north of England (Page
1995, 189).
The existence of this manuscript is also significant within the context
of English manuscripts containing runes. Although English scribes show
no lack of interest in Scandinavian runes, no other manuscript runes
originate from Yorkshire (or Cumbria). Twelve manuscripts with Scandi­
navian runes were produced in England between the ninth and the
fifteenth century, of which one, London, British Library, Cotton MS Galba
A. II, no longer exists. Its origins cannot therefore be determined. It is
remarkable that, prior to discovery of the Byland Bede, no manuscripts
with runes written in the north of England had been found. Although not
all runica manuscripta are southern English productions, with London,
British Library, Harley MS 2399 possibly being written in Cornwall, and
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS 572 potentially in Wales, none has an origin
further north than the Midlands. Later, in the thirteenth century, Oxford,
Bod­leian Library, MS Junius I (better known as the Junius Orrmulum) was
created in Lincolnshire and in the fourteenth, British Library, Additional
MS 10374 in Lancashire, but it seems that runic interest in the North only
really began in the twelfth century. Although there is no impediment to
a “southern” phenomenon which then moved north after the Conquest,
or even an interest born of Anglo-Norman curiosity, it is strange that no
notice was paid to this material earlier in the northern scriptoria which
were certainly no strangers to the Vikings and Scandinavian culture.
For the sake of completeness, it should be added that these are not
the only runes produced before the twelfth century in the scriptoria of
the North. Two well-known manuscripts, the Lindisfarne Gospels and the
Durham Psalter received Old English glosses by the scribe Aldred, a monk
and later provost from the community of St Cuthbert in Chester-le-Street,
in present-day County Durham (Jolly 2012, 52 f., 74). In his glosses, this
monk frequently employed Anglo-Saxon runes, though only a limited
number, and their use was restricted to abbreviations for Old English
words (M for mann, Š for dæg). This material, however, is approximately
two centuries older than the Byland Bede, with a tenth-century dating
(Brown 2011, 36; Jolly 2012, 66–70). Aldred’s use of runic abbreviations is
some­what haphazard, because though consistent in how he uses the runic
abbreviations, he also writes those same words in full on some occasions
(Lendinara 2016, 357). This may therefore indicate more of a playful
interest than a committed use of the rune-row. Moreover, since these

Futhark 8 (2017)
124 • Aya M. S. Van Renterghem

two Anglo-Saxon manuscripts were annotated by the same scribe, and

the information for the Byland Bede material probably originated from
the west of the country, there seems little reason to suspect a hitherto
undiscovered runic tradition in that part of England.
In conclusion, while the find of a new manuscript is always of great
interest, this manuscript is of particular value. As the first manuscript
con­taining Scandinavian runes from the area, it confirms that despite
or perhaps thanks to Norman French dominance, Anglo-Scandinavian
culture in the North managed to penetrate monastic walls. The find of this
manu­script also allows for a comparison with (local) epigraphical material
which indicates reciprocal communication between the two elements. The
combination of epigraphical elements and manuscript lore demonstrates
that both manifestations of runic writing, written and carved, can occur
in conjunction. Thus the manuscript offers a promising impetus towards
a more balanced examination of both sources in the future.

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