tion acquaints us with a fact which was hitherto unknown, namely, that his wife was named Tuva. The whole of the history of that period is so defective that we cannot wonder at the name of a queen not being mentioned by historians. The Runic stone further adds that Tuva was a daughter of Mistivi, a statement which, in this case, is of double interest, since we know from other sources that there existed, at that period, a Wendish prince named Mistivi, (possibly the same as the Mistivi of the Runic stone,) who in the year 986 destroyed Hamburgh. Harald must in such case have stood in such relation to the Wends, as in a political point of view, could not be without importance with reference to Denmark.
Although instances are most rare in which Runic stones afford such important historical information, yet viewed collectively they deserve peculiar attention, even those which seem to have very unimportant inscriptions[1]. Since, in fact, inscriptions are the oldest relics of language which we possess, the Runic stones must be considered as the oldest monuments both of the extent, and the construction of the language of antiquity. With reference to the decision of the often contested question as to the diffusion of the Danish language towards the South, in ancient times, it is of no mean importance, that at the south-east end of the ancient wall of Kograven in Sleswig, which lies somewhat south of the Dane wall or Danevirke, and is unquestionably very ancient. Runic stones have been discovered with inscriptions in the ancient
- ↑ The most useful works on the subject of Runes, to which our English antiquaries, with the exception of Mr. Kemble, have hitherto paid but comparatively little attention, are W. Grimm Ueber Deutsche Ranen; J. G. Liljegren's Run-Lara, 8 vo., Stockholm, 1832; the same author's Run-Urkunder, published at Stockholm in the following year, which contains all the existing Runic inscriptions; and W. W. Dieterich's Runen Worterbuch. The English reader will find ample information upon the subject of Anglo-Saxon Runes, in Mr. Kemble's learned dissertation in the Archæologia, (vol. xxviii. p. 327, et seq.,) and his subsequent communications, entitled, "Further Notes on the Runic Cross at Lancaster," (vol. xxix. p. 70, et seq.,) and his "Additional Observations on the Runic Obelisk at Ruthwell, the poem of the Dream of the Holy Road, and a Runic Copper Dish found at Chertsey," (vol. xxx. p. 31, et seq.)—T.
