character in this way: but we have- no ground for believing that any distinct use of writing[1], currente calamo, applicable to the transmission of historical events, was known before the introduction of Christianity, and of letters with Christianity, in the 11th century, or was diffused before the diffusion of church establishments over the north. If the Runic had been a written character among the Northmen of the 9th century, it must have been transported to Iceland, in which the first settlers were not of the rude and ignorant, but of the most cultivated of their age in Norway; but few, if any, Runic inscriptions of a date prior to the introduction of Christianity are found in Iceland. If they had possessed the use of written characters, as they had unquestionably a literature in Iceland, it would be absurd to believe that they had not applied the one to the other; but for two hundred and forty years—that is, until the time of Are—should have committed the sagas to memory, instead of to parchment or paper. Are himself would have used the Runic character, if writing Runic had been diffused among the Northmen; and although no manuscript of the time of Are exists, but only early copies of his writings, yet among the mass of sagas in manuscript some must have been in Runic characters, if Runic writing had been diffused among the Icelanders. No Runic manuscript, however, on parchment or paper, of unquestionable antiquity and authenticity, has ever been discovered. A fragment, entitled "Historia Hialmari Regis Biorn-
- ↑ A remarkable proof how little Runic was known, or used, is, that a certain Odd Snabiornsson gave notice to Snorro Sturleson of the conspiracy against his life in September, 1240, in Runic; but neither Snorro (certainly not one of the unlearned of his age in the saga or Icelandic literature), nor any of those with him at the time, could read the Runic characters; and Snorro in consequence fell a victim to the conspiracy, and was murdered in his house on the 22d September, 1240.—Schoning, Pref. to Heimshringla.
