'Alu': A Mystery Runic Word
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- Опубликовано: 26 июн 2024
- The word 'alu' is inscribed on numerous objects in the Elder Futhark rune alphabet, often in isolation. This video takes a look at what evidence there is for what it might mean, including fresh information on the linguistic side of the debate. Part 7 of A Free Course on Runes (part 1: vimeo.com/795605248 )
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I'm gonna start wearing a pendant that just says "beer"
People wear company logos all the time that reference their favorite alcohol... so imagine in a pre-capitalist society, just wearing BEER makes more sense, as it has a much broader meaning than “Budweiser” or “Absolut”.
And the one on the rock says Pub!
When I saw the topic, I thought: "I've heard of Alu repetitive elements before". Then I realized that I was thinking of the short repetitive stretches of DNA scattered through our genome. Not the same thing. Unless a time-travelling biochemist was trying to signal that she was stuck in the old Norse era and needed to be extracted.
You could --make a religion-- theorise a conspiracy out of this.
@@andruloni I'd enjoy a comic sci Fi novella based on this
If this isn't a thing, I'd love it if you expanded on that idea
Ealuscerwen might have meant soberness. It makes perfect sense in the context as before Grendel's arrival the men were busy with merrymaking, however with the press of the monster they were "sobered", in a sense, deprived of the ale.
In a society heavily reliant on health (staying fit and healthy) and spiritual/religious things, I think ALU meant something down the lines of what we today say when somebody is sneezing or coughing: bless you / health to you.
The first thing I thought at the beginning of the video was "If it was Lithuanian I would say it meant beer..." not that the languages are that close, but it does speak to a common Indo-European word.
or a Baltic wanderwort
It could be a loanword from Baltic to Germanic or vice versa. I think the Finnish word for beer, "olut", is supposed to be a loanword from Germanic.
In Sigrdrífumál it talks about ale-runes protecting the a person from evil, presumably poison.
My family name happens to be Alhaug. The Alhaug farm is pronounced in its local dialect as "Alu"
I’ve been told it shares etymological roots with "Adel" as something that is high/noble.
Though this is something I was told by my grandfather, it would seem to make more sense than it coming from beer
Aplu, Lugh. I recently came across an article speaking to the holiday Yule. Claiming that the Welsh/Bretons celebrated Allu-tide.
Did the norse have the concept of initialism or acronym? I wonder if Alu could be one of those.
There are a few inscriptions on runestones of repeating letters and encoded rune staves (which stand for two letters each). We can indeed assume they had initializations. ALU, the triple stacked Tiwaz (that looks like a tree) and repeated Laguz too may all stand for a certain phrase
its just unknown memes
Not Norse per se. Most of these coins are continental. We're talking Pan-Germanic here. Proto-Germanic. Elder Futhark.
That's what I was thinking - perhaps something of the ilk of Roman SPQR or Christian ichthys
This was one of my Whatifs!
Perhaps bracteates were given to young warriors after being initiated into the warrior cult. Ale might have played a magical role during such ceremonies, such as swearing oaths and stuff. The word might have served as a reminder of these things.
Acronym: the three words rhyme. Uruz, Laguz, Ansuz. Can just picture someone blessing another person, laying their hand on them and saying the three words. ALU could be shorthand for the three word rhyming blessing and also a word that encompasses the blessing and beliefs and meanings behind it.
Well, if the purpose of these letters was to get people to ask questions, it's still working quite well!
According to Finn Rasmussen, "AL" in Old Germanic means to grow. The ending "-U" was used in the first person singular, or imperative. So, if you have a bracteate depicting a god, with the inscription ALU, it basically means "I bring growth/prosperity", or "let there be growth/prosperity".
Also, bought two of Jackson's books recently and they're great.
In Scottish Gaelic, the color yellow means good luck. So maybe this "alu" means good luck. It's reddish, like gold. If you aspirate it, you get something like "hale" or "whole," in the sense of whole, complete. Holy. That's my guess.
Damn. That might just be a solid competitor to the acronym hypothesis.
first thing that came to mind for a private word is an important emotion or quality or abstract. love, strength, bravery, happyness, grace, trust, etc.
My first, admittedly probably incorrect thought was that it could be somehow derived from proto-Germanic hailaz, and related to ON heill.
The idea is that it would have been a shorthand for a longer phrase wishing good health on someone, perhaps the bearer or the reader.
It’d definitely be an awkward reading though, as it would have to be in the dative for that -u ending to make sense.
I decided to read through the wikipedia article and apparently there’s someone out there who’s connected the word to a standard devotional phrase from one of the alpine alphabets, quite fitting for Jackson’s recent videos.
I was thinking the same thing. Your explanation was put in a much better fashion though than my own.
This is right out of left field but alu is very similar to a Finnish word for region or area, alue including alueella although it also appears at the end of Finnish words. Perhaps these may have been obtained from Kainu which was a neighbouring region to the Norse. Which could be like a hallmark indicating origin and perhaps purity.
Thank you for this excellent video. I think my favorite mysteries are the ones that leave me with more fascinating questions than actual answers.
You mentioned that "alu" also reminded you of branding, although you didn't take that seriously. Myself I was reminded of the Nike swoosh logo that is stamped everywhere on shoes, clothing, and accessories.
When talking about something to be seen but meaning somewhat hidden. Something to be seen and to be asked about got me thinking about two things that come to mind. People that do things such as wearing cloths or getting tattoos of words in foreign languages. Its kind of a way of saying "look how smart I am" or "look how well traveled I am".
The other thing that comes to mind is acronyms. I don't know if it something that is known to have happened in the ancient world but now days some phrases are almost always written as acronyms such as RIP, WWJD, ASAP, and many others. we don't only have phrases but most everything now days has some kind of acronyms whether its a new technology, school, govt program or agency, companies and the like.
Before watching this video, I always thought alu was a reference to the concept of fury, the drunkenness of battle, of poetry, the excitement that Odin is the god of. Fermentation was a sort of magic to the ancient people, let's not forget. Onions and garlic are used in a lot of herbal remedies. They could be considered to have some sort of magic healing power maybe.
Something like berserkerjuice, if you survive the battle you can get this trinket to remember it.
i had assumed it was a buzz, or some sort of state where you are knocked out of routine animalistic consciousness
Who knows, maybe, Alu only means, "I've got money to pay for the wake when I die and my spirit is all poured out!"
If Alu is related to ale, beer, enchantment, and onions; seems related to death, spirit, grief.
The Irish word that, "whiskey" comes from is similar and means something like, "breath of life." And then, take into account that in old times the village undertaker was also the pub owner, seems like there is an occupational link in some places to the person serving up the liquid spirits, and the drained spirits of the dead.
Sure, people get liquid courage from alcohol and spirits. But they also can be overcome with despair, and may also drink in moments of great despair and grief, such as at the bitter loss of a loved one taken by the one all are betrothed to, death.
Alcohol and spirit, life and death were more common and close than now when people mysteriously, "pass away," rather than die.
I'd take a guess, that "Alu" has something to do with the spirit of life, the bitterness of death. Oh, Death where is thy sting? It would make total sense to feel a lack of spirit out on the battlefield, poured out, deprived.
Alcohol or spirit isn't merely something to get high on. It was used more commonly in many parts of life, living and dying. Cleaning, pain control. Allium, onions are used in teas and to treat bacteria and virus. And to scare off vampires....they stink.
My wild guess is that Alu has something to do with the breath of life, spirit, life and death, and possibly, being touched by grief, and perhaps, the ability to pay for a good dying....the burial and the spirits of mourning. It could be like advertising one can afford to die, or has been touched by death and the undertaker and embalmer and brewer. Who knows?
7:45 Well, Dr. Crawford, I'm currently in Beautiful Colorado visiting my brother. He's a student of marketing, and can speak at length about the importance of brand recognition. As these visits often go, beer has comprised a fair portion of our diet. And it so happened that, no sooner than you had uttered the word "branding," he was woken up from the depth of a beer-drenched sleep. I consider this an auspicious sign in favour of this explanation. Maybe the word "alu" - whatever it originally meant - became to beer as Kleenex is to tissue paper.
(Of course, maybe the incident says more about my brother and I than anything to do with Proto-Germanic.)
And something about being brothers in a place with really good beer.. kinda like brothers long ago, in a place that valued beer.. you might be onto something…
If you ever want to kick it with the locals in mb and smoke a peace pipe give a shout! Your the man JC. Thank you for all of your help
What's the other context around these brachiates(sp?), are they found in graves, or some other kind of site, and what other objects do that tend to be found alongside? If they are found in graves, what can we tell about the people buried with them? I know these are kinda the normal questions archeologists ask about artifacts, so they've probably been pondered to death already, but you didn't mention them, so I'm curious. Is it possible they were specifically intended as grave goods and were never worn while alive? Serving as a ward against bewitching the corpse or as a sort of votive offering to the dead I place of actual ale might fit the two contended meanings, and could also fit the laukaz one.
There are compounds in the present Scandinavian languages such as "gravøl", 'funeral banquet', and "barsel", 'childbirth', from earlier "barnsøl", 'childbirth banquet' (the weakening of the unstressed vowel etc. reflects the change in meaning from a compound to a non-compounded word).
Now, I don't know how old the compounds are or how old the secondary meaning of 'banquet' is, but if it is indeed very old, it would be a quite reasonable word to show off on a bracteate: "What does your bracteate say?" "It says 'banquet'. I am one of those who are invited to the chieftain's banquets".
Don't some bracteates also read "I invite"?
This doesn't explain the onion, though.
I second this, I was gonna write the same as you, beat me to it. Grav-alu, or bairn-alu, makes sense to me.
I'm from northern sweden. we have gravöl, barnsöl and barsöl (and more local variations). Never seen barsel though.
I think it's more accurate to just call it a "gathering". I would use the word party, but obviously you aren't exactly partying when you're at a gravöl
@@clanDeCo Barsel is the Danish form, barsöl is the Swedish.
@@clanDeCo Agree. That's why I use the word "banquet".
Maybe a better comparison to writing "beer" in a code that only an in group would understand would be "420" today.
Had a low flyover by a B-1 out on the Utah desert.
I know of several words in modern use that few speakers know the meaning of most are exclamations or verbal place holders
I wonder if it could be something like the symbol of the fish. People of a certain group see it and know the meaning.
or just cuz its cool. cultural exchange is fascinating, when you think what it would have been like to be born in the North then grow up to adventure South and East to Byzantium and eventually, maybe, one day return with all sorts of stories and souvenirs
The "thought experiment" led me to exactly this speculation. Everybody is trying to "translate" it as a word, when it could actually be a more symbolic representation of one of the mystery cults. A corrupted form of "Hallelujah," for example.
my first thought was something like Masonic, America membership in something very secretive or private, perhaps cultic
So I have a thought. What if “alu” shares the same Proto-Germanic ancestor of the word that would eventually became “hello” in English. Hello is an alteration of the word “hallo”, which is itself a change from the word “hollo”, which is a shout or yell. Moreover, a similar word to these is “halouen” which is a shout given in a chase. Now the English ancestry for the word hello is arguably more German, but perhaps alu as a norse word had a dual meaning or was a homograph or homophone to the “alu” meaning ale. Then, over time, it just fell out of use because there were better words to convey the same meaning. It also would make sense why it’s seen by itself and with portraits of people because it would be something they would say.
The words i would expect to stand alone on jewellery would be wishes or protective invocations things like:
Health, Love, Strength, Shield.
I could see a toast such as "Health" being used as the name for beer. I don't know if ale and hale are similarly linked but it seems possible.
Skol!
Great video as always!
it’s a token that you had to be wearing in order to be served ale in the ale garden. today we show our drivers licenses. back then, these things were a treasured possession that you got when you came of age. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Perhaps a characteristic associated with beer, like bravery? Kind of magical too. I was thinking of things you'd also put on coins, tattoos, and what not. The artwork on the coin is amazing.
_Beer_ was the first thing I fought about, because _alus_ means _beer_ in Lithuanian and Latvian, with Proto-Balto-Slavic form _*álu_
Ale. Singing rejoicing herotic tales. The battle of hastings apparently had a half-time. With the former.
Could alu just be a prayer , like something you carve into something as a prayer or blessing
A word in the western world that shows up in isolation is "INRI." It's an acronym for a Latin phrase that often shows up on crucifixes, but if you didn't know that, it would look like a random gibberish word.
Perhaps it's not "Alu," but rather "A.L.U."? I don't know what that would stand for though.
Iesus Nazarenus Rexus Iudeus?
What is Alu was related to Kvasir, that would be a possible ritual aspect. I know Kvasir is the source of a mead that gives inspiration, though I can't find anything that says ale may be related to that, but I also can't find anything outright disproving that either.
In the uk you would still ask for a pint of bitter for a beer or an ale. The bitter coming from the use of hops. Hops are known to be a vermicide and so the original malted barley drink made with hops was a medicine. Likewise onions garlic and leeks all ward off parasites.
Brother, I feel your pain I live right by the Airfield of an air base
What about "redness" as a sign of good health or livelihood, as opposed to (deathly) paleness?
when seeing the stone from england my first thought is that it might be a version of "horray" or "hurah" hence written 3 times to indicate a victory that took place there
With short words it's bigger risk for homonyms or close to homonyms and with little context it gets harder.
I was thinking some have pictures of Cannabis leaves a little bit everywhere. So if it is Ale it could be something similar?
Could it just be an old equivalent of a Budweiser T shirt?
The isolated inscription "ᚨᛚᚢ" found on artworks of the ancient Germanic people could potentially be interpreted as "hello!" due to its appearance in conjunction with depictions of figures, resembling a speech bubble. The word "hello!," or variations like "Ola!" and "hallo!," are common European expressions of greeting. This interpretation could be further supported by the shared linguistic heritage of various European languages.
The presence of this inscription alongside depictions of figures, perhaps engaged in communication or social interaction, suggests a potential greeting or salutation.
I’ve got a bottle of mead I bought from a Danish guy in Edinburgh. I’m breaking it out tonight in honor of alu. Yes!
Who else half expected the Dr. To shoot lasers out of his eye when he gave that plane the look of contempt?😂
I know it's silly to try to compare modern and ancient languages by the sound of modern words alone. But I had a moment of realization around the halfway mark of this vid.
One of the modern Welsh words for, 'profit', 'gain', 'advantage' is Elw, pronounced /ˈɛlu/. It supposedly derives from Proto-Celtic *selwā (IE *Selh₁). I don't know how these roots would compare with Proto-Germanic etc. But the Celts and Germans were constantly interacting, and it's not too crazy to think that some Germanic peoples would want to inscribe their things with a word (or symbol, not necessarily knowing that the letters spelled out the word) for Gain, Advantage, etc. as a sort of talisman or good luck charm.
Also, this word is rendered Helw as a root word in Old Welsh, and can mutate to Helw in modern Welsh.
we are all much more interrelated in our histories and ancestries than those tribalistic internet folks like to admit
Makes sense to me. When he was talking about the theories one of the things I thought of is how people tattoo foreign words onto their bodies. Figured that in this case it might be a foreign word that they are attempting to properly represent within their own alphabet.
@@AndrewTheFrank some stuff is just cool
If I had to make a guess, I think it was a ward or charm. The way we wear religious medals (at least people of the Catholic persuasion) with a set of letters that stand for a longer phrase.
If it was a riddle, the word I would guess would be victory or success.
Did they have a concept of acronyms, or I guess Initialisms? Could it be one? You mentioned RIP, which I believe the Romans used too "requiescat in pace". And of course there's the famous INRI placard on Jesus's cross. So it seems like that was a concept at the time at least for some cultures. Most may have been illiterate in the early germanic world, but maybe there was some very common initialism that many people knew if they knew nothing else about writing and that meant something very popular in the popular culture of the time. Indeed, RIP is so common that some don't even seem to know what the initials stand for, saying "RIP in Peace"
I wonder if the jets had anything to do with the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony that I think took place on the 1st (yesterday) in Colorado Springs.
Could "Alu" be a verb? In modern Swedish you can turn any substantive into a verb by adding an A at the end. It's not a "proper" word, but everyone will understand what it means and it can be used as slang. "Öla", is not a proper word, but it is sometimes used as a word for drinking beer,(which in turn can be referred to as celebrating or having a party in general). So the meaning can be more generic.
Not sure if this goes for old norse though.
So when i heard this first my initial thought was something I discovered very recently, that there is this pseudonym used by film directors who want to disown their projects "Alan Smithee" now this made me think, in a sense somewhat related to branding (not just in the modern sense) that maybe this some sort of word used by the maker, maybe some sort of mark of authenticity or something, ofc this doesn't solve the issue of what really this word is.
Thanks!
If i had to take a guess at what it means, from everything we‘ve heard and seen - and we can probably all agree on this - i‘d say that it most likely means „alu“
You gotta feast on that ale for liquid courage. And in emotionally traumatic or adrenaline fueled situations people can sober up. Or put another way be deprived on the effects of beer.
Not that I think its related to ale but if it is this is how i'd think it might make sense.
If *Alu* is a form of status signal, it begs the question why it would be place on a non-personal object such as a stone-wherein the person who carved *'Alu'* would presumably not be around to be asked about it. Unless it is merely graffiti. Hmm...
As a matter of interesting false cognates, I've been reading the vahks/poetry of Lal Ded and there's a duel meaning to "onion" & "onion thieves."
The word "Scerwen" -- just an amateur's stray thought, but could it be related to OE "scearu," ancestor to Mod English "share?"
I like the thinking, but going by the examples in bosworth-toller, scearu doesn't get the inserted 'w' you'd expect between stem and infection, so that seems unlikely
Deciphering words strikes me as being similar to people claiming a certain lineage, it might seem plausible, but no one could actually know, except for those who find genetics infallible. I actually (crud, THAT word) doubt any runic experts or such could be cited as definitive proof like DNA is used in genealogy.
The feast insert.... Think of Hollywood to me it sounds like a flashback in the middle of a fight scene.... When the actor stands there and stares off into the distance....
I've always thought it was just a earlier version of "salu" (soul/spirit)
i think it may not even be related to the intoxicating nature of any one beverage, but its significance in offerings to the gods. it could be it is even a poetic reference to something else of a reddish hue, such as blood, or just be a word for any general sacrificial liquid, and mark an object or a place as relating to sacrifice or some other ritual. i am inclined to believe cultures that deeply value piety would prioritize the symbols that express this piety, especially in times where the local religious functionary might be the only person who can read or write at all in more rural areas.
you brought up the point that most people were probably illiterate, but these people believed that the gods were the ones who invented and taught literacy. these may have been phrases intended to dedicate an object, person, or place to the gods, and my belief is that it served as a seal of blessing, consecration, or initiation from the learned elites of the society in a time when piety also often signified collaboration with the ruling forces (an idea that might be alien to most people living in the modern world, though perhaps alive and well in practice).
an idea that crossed my mind as well is that the word does mean ale but the significance of the word comes from the names of the constituent letters. so the runes themselves make a word but also contain a small poetic formula which somehow relate to the word alu. however that's just my baseless speculation.
Q&A @ Prof. Crawford:
One of my hypotheses is that perhaps it might be a prayer invocation -- one that the wearer might wear the coin as an amulet where the prayer might be an appeal to Odin for his protection and/or guidance. The reason for this line of thinking is that I looked at this word "alu", and it reminds me of the more-modern name Elvis. Many years ago when I was researching name meanings, one of the names that I looked up was Elvis, and I learned that it meant "all wise". If, indeed, alu means all wise, then I think it makes sense that it would have contextual connections to Odin and especially his wisdom.
What do you think of this line of thinking, Prof. Crawford?
Coming out of the blue here, I had a random musing thought yesterday when I heard the name Aaron, or maybe it was Erin, or maybe it was spelled some other way, like Aron, which was Elvis Presley's middle name. And then I wondered what "Elvis" means 😂 Totally meaningless rambling musing that would've been forgotten had I not seen your comment.
I was pondering something quite similar. Thinking of mead in a magical context, I thought of Odin's stealing the Mead of Poetry/Mead of Inspiration from the giantess. In this case, then, "alu" might be a blessing or invocation that could loosely mean "may you be inspired in battle". In this regard, the line in Beowulf might not seem so incongruous, if it it's contextual inference is that Beowulf was lacking in battle inspiration - in other words, losing. Odin's ale, however, is also related to the inspiration of words, thought or wisdom, so "alu" that may (or may not) have been some sort of battle invocation could easily have broadened to encompass ecstasy (joy), inspiration or wisdom in any regards of life. It could even be extrapolated to a much more generalized wish for one to receive abundance or success, as one might make a toast over drinks "May your ale barrel always be full". I can also theorize that it might actually be an indication of fraternity, or having been accepted into a group - as a purely hypothetical example, if an unblooded youth survives and does well for himself in battle, his lord or fellow warriors might give the bracteate or whatever object with "alu" as a way to show he's been proven a warrior, that they will gladly share ale with him, or indicating that he/they are now welcome at the lord's table. In this regard, it could be a status indicator, as Dr. Jackson points out that there is a certain indication of "bragging" (my word choice, not the professor's) in the way that the word is displayed in such a way as to prompt others to ask about it. In this hypothesis, it would also explain 'alu' as it appears in Beowulf, which when combined with the sense of lack, might be the author's way of saying "he had no friends or sword-brother's to help him". As a Norse (reconstructionist) practitioner myself, I also see these 'mundane' meanings (as I'm extrapolating, anyway) to easily have evolved from, or evolved into an intentional magical/spiritual blessing of the object or its wearer. Words have great power, but they do also evolve tremendously in form and function - moving from magic to mundane and back again over generations and/or with contact with other cultures and beliefs. An example is the etymology of the term "pagan" itself - originally an English word meaning 'country folk', but with the subtext that they meant "ignorant, uneducated peasants". Its evolution to refer to pagan in a religious/spiritual sense came during the early Christian conversion of Britain by the Catholic Church; the priests and Jesuits focused their conversions first in the cities, where wealth, power, and rulership resided, because generally, the populace would follow the lead of that higher social stratus. But the country folk - largely unbothered by the conversion until the cities were prevalently grounded in Catholicism - stuck to the old ways and practices. By the time the Church concentrated its efforts on eradicating the old ways from the rural regions, however, they found it difficult to persuade (or, frankly, to force) those peasants to change their customs, and so 'pagan' as an "uneducated peasant" soon became parallel to using it to refer to those who clung to old "superstitions" and would not accept the new religion. Thus, the mundane word now has spiritual significance, even if its inference was a negative one at the time. Largely, we've reclaimed the word "pagan" once again, but now as a word we carry proudly, one of power rather than either denigrating or the bogus meaning often believed by the public as "devil worshipper" (gag me) that it started out as. Okay, I'm off the soap box, lol. I'm no scholar for sure, just a modern practitioner that LOVES this stuff. After all, we joke about being "the religion with homework", lol. At any rate, merry meet!
Alu as 'Ale' might relate to the symbolism of the sacramental 'draught of immortality', like the Vedic concept of Soma and Amrita - a parallel in Celtic mythology would be the immortality-conferring ale dispensed by the god Manannan Mac Lir in Tir Nan Og, the 'Land of the Living'. The Alu, Mjod etc as well as conferring magical inspiration and secret knowledge is also the Amrita-like 'elixir' or 'draught of immortality' attained by the hero. Alu, like Soma, might signify 'Immortality, Eternal Life' hence its appearance in mirrored cryptographic form imprinted on the Spong Hill urn.
Ālū is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘to tear’ or ‘to pluck off’.
Thinking along poetic lines.
Alu, ale could be symbolic for something else.
Like mead from walfathers eye could be sunlight.
Or if Tacitus is right, our ancestors around that time were simply quite the drinkers. And like mead it may have 'inspired' people, simply good ideas or a beautiful song or story, poetry.
Maybe the ale would be simply a symbol of a good time together.
Maybe if you were to brew some ale you'd realize the symbolism behind it.
Drinking ale in the hall of Odin may well have been the phrase.
the idea that this is attention getting is possible, but there's an opposite possibility. I have a tattoo of a bindrune that is essentially a personal reminder not to do something. I don't tell people what it says or what it means specifically.
From my perspective it's trying to evoke something. If you carve something in isolation, or after a phrase, it is like trying to put goodness on the amulet, trying to gain luck.
Like saying 'bless you' or 'hello', 'hail' to a person, to get positive energy going.
And also from someone with gut issues, who often drinks something bitter to keep it all together, the thought of it being in line with Latin alumen makes sense to me.
Because then you're invoking something that heals you. Supposedly 'leek' would have a similar function, as plants are the age-old medicine.
Solid video! There is not much I can add on the subject but wanted to say that the video quality is excellent!
In the context of the Beowulf fight could be asking for Beowulf to share his courage... the type of courage or fighting spirit fortified by ale... maybe Alu is Fortitude? The towns people were deprived of their fortitude to continue the fight... they were cowards.
"Fortitude" might be something you invoke on a charm around you neck. Alu next to the face of a hero or god could be invoking their fortitude.
Now I want to start writing "onions" as graffiti
Beer and Onions, sounds like a party to me!
Since it doesn't seem like or related to a particular god, possibly an invocation of the protection or other boon from the Asir in general?
Scerwen sounds like Serve to serve something.
I wish you would have touched on the sophmoric humor possibility of just writing BEER on things.
Sophmoric in the same sense of the cave carving that says "this is high up" or the penis inscriptions that have been found.
Aren’t Beowulfs friends beer-deprived because Grendel is terrorising them and stopping them from using their mead-hall?
Were those alu examples you gave during the Christian times? Maybe it could be like the word hallelujah?
Certainly not if they’re Elder Futhark.
Just checked, and that ain't the case. The word stopped being used on runic enscriptions during the migration period, long before the Christianization of Scandinavia.
This is a joke right? Right?
So this is what I need to carve on my drinking horn and the back of my hand in case I want to find a tryst? lol
"hell" literally (still) means bright in German ... could this really have survived unchanged from proto-indo-european or does it have different roots?
Maybe during the fight with Grendel it's an alliteration to a hangover?
Could this be a name or nickname? For any of the other meanings you give it could be calling someone that. So if al- can mean red, white, brown, etc. perhaps Alu means "The Red" or "The Brown", perhaps "The Magical" or "The Joyful" (from being known to drink and party), or something of that nature. It would possibly be someone known at the time who's been lost to history. My final suggestion would come from how Anglo-Saxon's used "Aelf-" in their names. Maybe it's a version of Elf. So, depending on context and era, it could mean "The Wise" or "The Trickster" or literally suggest that the person wanted other to believe they were an elf. That was my first thought but it's probably wrong, that's a heck of a vowel shift.
i think a lot of anglo-american scholars like cut and dry, literal meanings to things. but it does seem like there are sorts of fuzzy concepts behind words, with slang and memes being more common in real languages than literal meanings.
Could it be a reference to Alunda outside of Uppsala? There’s been a silversmith there through the years that has stamped their stuff with ”Alu”, maybe they had one ”förr i tidn” also? Just a guess.
Forgive me if it’s been brought up before, but what if it was the name of a society that separated from a larger one and they used that rune as a way to remember?
Estonian:
ÕLU - "beer"
VÕLU - "magic, charm"
I wonder if ALU is related to modern "Aal" and the earlier "Ahl", which we see in some placenames like Aalst. "aal/ahl" seems to refer to something we would call "sacred/taboo". Scholars argue that "aalst" comes from "alhust" or "alhist" which would be a temple, or "sacred building".
In latvia there is the word alkas or alkà and from what i know that means "holy forrest".
And as is said in this video, in hittite it could refer to magical things.
All those things, though different, all seem to dance around a single central motif that contains Sacred, taboo, and magic.
Which is also not that different from how people used to see intoxicating drinks. "Soma" comes to mind.
So perhaps it's a word that gives an object a "spiritual/sacred" context?
i think it is tempting to be a bit flighty (magic, healing, ecstasy) when interpreting these things when it may well be quite simple: if we take beer as being a symbol of merriness and leeks as a symbol of lust we have good reasons why people would wear those symbols as lifestyle badges. People used to wear t-shirts with Carlsberg and Holstein Pils lager logos on them. There was a minor craze of wearing a fancy bottletop from a beer brand I can't remember on their shoes. People also wear badges with other lifestyle drugs. If Grendel is merriness-denying then that sounds about right. Good video as always!
Maybe it just means like 'hello', and doesn't have to have an etymology. In certain contexts it could be used for a kind of invocation.
Could it be possible that alu would be a kind of toast or salute. It seems like those kinds of words have many different meanings and uses. Like cheers in English barely means happiness anymore (if that’s even the etymology idk). In this context alu could suggest happiness, fortune, status. It could also become a shorthand for reckless courage associated with drunkenness. I think also importantly it was three letters and if it were a word loaded with meaning, it could be the shortest way of invoking several concepts.
I think I get what you're saying. It's as if the oldest word for "ale" wasn't originally the word for the beverage, if it ever had a different one beforehand, but the word that was spoken over it before drinking. So it could be another Frankenstein that way. But that raises a couple of questions:
For how many millennia could any number of people, across different cultures and language groups, continue such a tradition without knowing why they're doing it?
What would cause every culture to suddenly stop such a tradition within a few centuries of the present if that was ever the case? (which seems very unlikely)
I wouldn't know how to pursue those questions myself, but maybe there are researchers who know where to start looking.
@@sirnukesalot24 oh I’m pretty sure alu was probably the word for the beverage, but I wonder if it became a toast or something similar and thereby took on a different usage. Cheers for example is used in modern English for a lot of things that aren’t exactly wishing someone happiness. If people called out ale before drinking or something similar, then over time it might take on a complex suite of meanings. Basically I think they probably still used alu to mean the drink but also could have used it as an exclamation or toast. Like we still uses the word cheer to mean happiness, but we also use cheers as a toast and in British English it’s a farewell or a thank you.
@@clayashford9334 The idea that the word for a beverage and the word spoken before drinking a beverage could be what was perfectly coinciding here caught my attention more than anything. It's certainly a chicken and egg problem, if that's what this undefined inscription is referring to, that is. 🙂
It could just be a thing people write because they do. When i was in middle school, everyone wrote a fancy "S" just because. There wasn't any reason for it - it didn't have spiritual significance, we weren't inducted into some cult by writing it, it didn't remind us of anything. But in two thousand years, some archeologist going through my binder could have a whole thesis on that fancy "S". People back then are just like us, sometimes we just write stuff just because
Just remember "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus". ~ Mark Twain
Ha. Keep hearing hummingbirds buzz by.
They have to be ready if Vladdy wants to dance.
Alo/halloi means means fuss/disorder/noise/shouting etc in middle Norwegian
7:01 That's just plane rude.
Anyway, my thought would be that it's just a shortening of a longer, common blessing for bounty/prosperity. "Ale and good eating!", or whatever. I could easily see it have evolved into people just saying "ale!" in lieu of "good luck!" or "farewell!" or what-hast-thou.
Is it true that erilaz means scribe? (and it later developed into jarl or earl). If alu and erilaz are used in the same sitations, then that could give a hint.
Lithuanian also has the root "al" as in English "ale" and Scandinavian "øl/öl": Nominative; alus, accusative; alu, genitive; alaus. So it's not only Germanic, but more likely has an older Indo-European origin.
The word "beer" seems to me to be just of Germanic origin, but I don't know.
The use of ale and other intoxicating substances in religious ceremonies/ witchcraft/ shamanism points to the word having an older root meaning since it, as you say, pops up so often outside of just talking about the drink.
If alu and alwanz are related through a PIE word that means magic, maybe the Proto-Germanic people simply called beer magic.
Excellent as usual, Doc. I claim *utterly* no expertise, but just want to remark that I've always guessed that *maybe* there was some sort of ALU - hallow connection, or ALU - hello -hail/heil (obviously English/German) relation somewhere. Fwiw, less than 2 cents.
I had a similar thought -- a cry of "Hallooo" that is, by convention, not usually written into stories or was considered hackneyed by the time the stories were written down. (The fox hunt in Mary Poppins comes to mind.)
If it was a salutation then i'd expect there to be a long lasting tradition of writing salutations on exchanged items existing even into the Roman and Christian times. But it is an interesting idea that its a sign of something being sacred or given as a gift. Writing the letter on the item itself.