PREFACE.
the learned, what was spoken in one of them, was without much difficulty understood by those, who used the other. Hence it is, that such as study the originals of our own language have constantly found it necessary to call in the assistance of this ancient sister dialect.
The Characters, in which this language was originally written, were called Runic; from an Islandic word that signifies a furrow[1]. As the materials used for writing in the first rude ages were only wood or stone, the convenience of sculpture required that the strokes should run chiefly in strait lines; and the resemblance to plowing suggested the appellation. The word Runic was at first applied to the letters only; tho’ laterwriters
- ↑ Ryn Sulcus. Vid. Olaij Wormij Literat. Runica. 1636. 4to. p. 2, 3.
