''Erilaz'' or ''Erilaʀ'' is a

Migration period The Migration Period ( 300 to 600 AD), also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories ...

Proto-Norse Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic; Danish and ; ; ; ) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic in the first centuries CE. It is the earliest stage of a c ...

word attested on various

Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark, ), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Per ...

inscriptions, which has often been interpreted to mean " magician" or "rune master",* i.e., one who is capable of writing

runes Runes are the Letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see ''#Futharks, futhark'' vs ''#Runic alphabets, runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were ...

to magical effect. However, as Mees (2003) has shown, the word is an

ablaut In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut ( , from German ) is a system of apophony (regular vowel variations) in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). An example of ablaut in English is the strong verb ''sing, sang, sung'' and its relate ...

variant of

earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ...

, and is also thought to be linguistically related to the name of the tribe of the

Heruli The Heruli (also Eluri, Eruli, Herules, Herulians) were one of the smaller Germanic peoples of Late Antiquity, known from records in the third to sixth centuries AD. The best recorded group of Heruli established a kingdom north of the Middle Danu ...

, so it is probably merely an old Germanic military title (see etymology below).

Etymology

This word is likeliest the

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

ancestor of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

''eorl'' (Modern English ''earl'') and its relatives, meaning "man, warrior, noble". The word ''erilaz'' is likely a derivative of *''erǭ'' sb.f. "fight, battle", thus the interpretation "one who fights, warrior", though it has also been connected to *''arô'' sb.m. "eagle". Historical instances: *Latin: Heruli (dating from around 250 AD onwards) *Greek: Eruloi (dating from around 250 AD onwards) *Runic: Erilaz (dating from around 200 AD - 400 AD)

Inscriptions

Lindholm "amulet"

The Lindholm "amulet" ( DR 261 $U) is a bone piece found in

Skåne Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

, dated to the 2nd to 4th centuries. The inscription contains the word ''Erilaz''.

Funen shaft

The Kragehul I (DR 196 U) spear-shaft found in

Funen Funen (, ), is the third-largest List of islands of Denmark, island of Denmark, after Zealand and North Jutlandic Island, Vendsyssel-Thy, with an area of . It is the List of islands by area, 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in th ...

Kiel Rune Project
/ref> that bears the inscription: Which is interpreted as "I, the earl of Āsugīsal, am called Muha," followed by some sort of battle cry or chant ("gagaga"). Āsugīsalaz contains '' ansu-'', "god", and ''gīsalaz'', "pledge". ''Muha'' may either be a personal name, or a word meaning "retainer" or similar. The runes of ''gagaga'' are displayed as a row of three

bindrune A bind rune or bindrune () is a Migration Period Germanic typographic ligature, ligature of two or more Runic alphabet, runes. They are extremely rare in Viking Age inscriptions, but are common in earlier (Proto-Norse) and later (medieval) inscri ...

s based on the X-shape of the ''g'' rune with side-twigs attached to its extremities for the ''a''. A similar sequence ''gægogæ'' is found on the Undley bracteate.

Other items

* Strängnäs stone: …rila͡z *

Bracteate A bracteate (from the Latin ''bractea'', a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age (including the Ven ...

s Eskatorp-F and Väsby-F have e rilaz = "I ma Herulian" *Bratsberg clasp: ekerilaz *Veblungsnes:ekirilazwiwila *Rosseland (N KJ69 U): ekwagigazirilaz * Järsberg Runestone (Vr 1): ekerilaz *By (N KJ71 U): ekirilaz *The Etelheim clasp has mkmrlawrta read as ek erla wrta "I, Erla, wrote this"; Runic e and m are similar to each other.

Notes

References

* Mees, B. (2003). "Runic 'erilaR'", ''North-Western European Language Evolution (NOWELE)'', 42:41-68. * Orel, Vladimir (2003). ''A Handbook of Germanic Etymology''. Leiden: Brill. pg. 205. . * Plowright, S. (2006). ''The Rune Primer'', Lulu Press. {{ISBN, 1-84728-246-6
book review

External links

Wortmaterial der Runeninschriften nach Wortklassen
Historical runic magic Elder Futhark inscriptions Proto-Norse language