Page:Runic and heroic poems of the old Teutonic peoples.djvu/39

 Æsc The ash is exceedingly high and precious to men. With its sturdy trunk it offers a stubborn resistance, though attacked by many a man.

Yr Yr is a source of joy and honour to every prince and knight; it looks well on a horse and is a reliable equipment for a journey.

Ior Iar is a river fish and yet it always feeds on land; it has a fair abode encompassed by water, where it lives in happiness.

Ear The grave is horrible to every knight, when the corpse quickly begins to cool and is laid in the bosom of the dark earth. Prosperity declines, happiness passes away and covenants are broken.

There appears to be no reason for doubting that this is a survival of the twelfth letter (j) of the older alphabet. Is it possible then that tar (tor) is a corrupt form of the name gear? Of. v. 32 (Chadwick). In that case we mast of coarse assume that the poet had some other name in his mind, e.g. eel, newt. O. Ear (Salzb. tor, value eo); this word is only found in Runic alphabets. Orein compares ON. aurr, a poetical word which seems to mean loam or clay (of. V^luspa xix. 2, Alvissmal xn. 4, Bigs^ola z. 3, Qrottasongr zvi. 3), hence "ground" in the sense of "grave."

The letter is fairly common in inscriptions, e.g. Dover, GISLH.E JRD, Thames cramasax, B.C.4QNOTH, and often in Northumbria. In Northumbrian inscriptions it is used for eo as well as for ea, doubtless owing to the fact that these diphthongs were confused in Northumbria.