The Bülach fibula is a silver disk-type fibula with almandine inlay found in Bülach, Canton Zürich in 1927. The Alemannic grave in which it was found (no. 249) dates to the 6th century and contained the remains of an adult woman. The fibula, dated by most recent commentators to the latter half of the 6th or early 7th century,^[1] bears an Elder Futhark runic inscription, the only one found in Switzerland to date.

Inscription

The inscription begins

ᚠᚱᛁᚠᚱᛁᛞᛁᛚ ᛞᚢ ‮ᚨᚠ‬ᛏᛗ

frifridil du aftmdfridil du fat mik l l

with only two l runes, translating "you, my lover, embrace me, leek! leek!", interpreting the l runes as abbreviating "leek" (*laukaz), symbolizing fertility or prosperity (leek is strongly associated with nubile women in Old Norse skaldic poetry).

Klingenberg (1976) has

frifridil lid du fud fato mik. (l)auk (l)id l l

reading the first lid as implied by mirroring the dil and the fud as implied by mirroring the du f in conscious obscuring of the obscene content, lid meaning "penis" and fud meaning "vulva", and interpreting the l runes as phallic symbols, again abbreviating lid, resulting in a translation of "I, your lover with the penis, you with the vulva: receive me; leek! penis! leek! penis!"

Opitz (1977) similarly has

fridfridil lid du fud fat. mik (lid) lid lid

"lover - penis; you - vulva; receive me; (penis) penis penis"

dismissing Klingenberg's k and d at the end of the inscription as conjectured.

Later interpreters have dismissed the "l runes" as mere accidental scratches, and the sexual reading of Klingenberg and Opitz as the product of an excited imagination. Looijenga (1997) reads a mere uninterpretable aftmu. The undisputed reading of frifridil however establishes the inscription as a dedication among lovers.

See alsoedit

• Nordendorf fibulae

Referencesedit

Further readingedit

• M. Findell, Phonological evidence from the Continental Runic inscriptions (Berlin 2012)
• H. Klingenberg, Runenfibel von Bülach, Kanton Zürich. Liebesinschrift aus alemannischer Frühzeit in: Alemannisches Jahrbuch 1973/75, p. 308.
• H. Klingenberg, Die Runeninschrift aus Bülach. In: Helvetia archaeologica, 7, 1976, 116-121.
• S. Opitz, Südgermanische Runeninschriften im älteren Futhark aus der Merowingerzeit. Freiburg i.Br. 1977.
• W. Krause, H. Jankuhn, Die Runeninschriften im älteren Futhark. Göttingen 1966.
• J. H. Looijenga, Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150-700, dissertation, Groningen University (1997).
• M. Martin, Schrift aud dem Norden: Runen in der Alamannia - Archäologisch Betrachtet in Die Alemannen Stuttgart: Theiss, 1997; pp. 499–502.

External linksedit

• Runenprojekt Kiel