
Alu (Runic) - benbreen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alu_(runic)
======
devmunchies
I’ve read 3 books on the runes over the last couple of years. I find them
interesting—I like symbolism. That being said, what’s the significance of Alu?
Why is it posted here? Generally Curious.

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Fjolsvith
Would recommend the book "Runelore" by Edred Thorsson (he has many on runic
technology).

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teunispeters
No. Go to reliable sources, not people who are known for con artistry. There's
no shortage of good sources around these days. For instance someone who
doesn't arbitrarily invent things to make them sound good, try
[https://jacksonwcrawford.com/list-of-
videos/](https://jacksonwcrawford.com/list-of-videos/)

Or if you want more entry level information or written, exploring wikipedia is
fine.

~~~
Fjolsvith
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Flowers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Flowers)

I wasn't able to find any sources of his "con artistry".

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ncmncm
I recently learned that runes are a semitic script, akin to Phoenician and
Hebrew. A bunch of hebraic words came into Scandinavian words along with them.

History gets stranger the more you learn.

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jdmichal
I mean, they're descended from Phoenician. But they descended through the
Greek branch, same as the Latin alphabet. And I don't think anyone would call
Latin a Semitic script.

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ncmncm
No, it is direct: Phoenicians traveled from outposts in Iberia deep into
northern Europe, and left direct cultural traces, such as runes.

This is easily seen by comparing runes to their cognates in Latin, Greek, and
Phoenician alphabets. Unless you believe in spontaneous reversion to the
earlier form, or influence from early Greeks in Scandinavia, we are seeing
evidence of direct influence.

We already knew Phoenicians were trading for tin in Cornwall and Wales in
early Bronze Age, before 1800 BCE. Belgium and Denmark are quite nearby.

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jdmichal
I think you misread my comment. Note that I said the _Greek branch_ , not
directly from Greek. Phoenician had several branches, but the main ones were
Aramaic and Greek. Those, of course, led to several current writing systems
each. The leading theory is that Elder Futhark developed from an Old Italic
script, or even an early form of Latin.

To directly rebut, rather than appealing to authority: The oldest attestation
of Elder Futhark currently at 160 CE. So your proposal has Phoenecian
developing directly into Eldar Futhark 300 years after Phonecian was no longer
attested. And even then, Phonecian use had been reduced to Carthage while
having developed into other systems elsewhere. Note that Gothic origins were
ruled out for a mere 100 year difference, so this seems like quite the gap to
cover.

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ncmncm
160 CE is an upper bound, not a lower. The Phoenicians all over the
Mediterranean did not all die when their city was razed, or stop speaking or
writing their language.

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jdmichal
Sure, Phoenicians proper had a large trade system. But so did the Greeks and
those Greek descendants writing Old Italic scripts. And then the Roman empire
conquered all of those and had peak extent around 117, which means that the
Latin alphabet was also introduced and was a very close and strong cultural
presence by 160.

So yes, that date is only an upper bound. But there's a reason the scholars in
this area believe what they do regarding the origins. For the type of cultural
contact that can lead to the adoption of a writing system, that kind of
closeness is important. You can't just handwave away a gap of several actual
human generations, while at the same time ignoring the other major powers that
are much closer and certainly exerting stronger cultural pressure than
Carthage.

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ncmncm
Sure, but you still need an explanation for what would have to be reversion to
ancestral forms of an italic script.

There would have been a lot of refugees from the Punic disasters, and staying
a long way from Roman centers would favor survival.

Being the only literate group in a wide area would explain the surrounding
majority's adoption of a non-standard script, otherwise a mystery. Use of the
script could be confined to ephemera indefinitely long before a change that
led to its use to inscribe durable material, so a gap, while inconvenient for
historians, is hardly disposative.

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jhoechtl
I think the takeaway of this article is that the english ale derives from
germanic alu which also has the meaning "intoxicating beverage" as descibed in
the WP-article.

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devmunchies
I like learning these types of things. It’s like the “gebo” rune, which is
just an “X”, is the rune for giving or gifting.

It’s where X-mas comes from, the season of giving.

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hinoki
I thought it was because X is Chi, short for Christ?

Wikipedia only mentions the Greek origin, do you have any references?

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ponker
Not getting what this article is trying to say. So alu is a word for some
ineffable charm? Like “mojo”?

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082349872349872
Maybe the runic equivalent to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here)
, or sprinkling whatever has taken over from ML liberally through a business
plan?

ᚫᛚᚢ ᚱᚫᛗ ᚱᛟᛗ ᛋᛈᚢ

