Birch bark letter no. 292

Birch bark letter no. 292 is a birch bark letter that is the oldest known document in any Finnic language. The document is dated to the beginning of the 13th century and is written in the Cyrillic script. It was found in 1957 by a Soviet expedition led by Artemiy Artsikhovsky in the Nerevsky excavation on the left coast side of Novgorod.А.В. Арциховский, В.И. Борковский. Новгородские грамоты на бересте (из раскопок 1956–1957 гг.). М.: Из-во Акад. Наук СССР, 1963. It is currently held at the Novgorod City Museum.

The language used in the document is thought to be an archaic form of Livvi-Karelian, the language spoken in Olonets Karelia,Itämerensuomalaista kirjoitusta 1200-luvulta although the exact form is difficult to determine, as Finnic dialects were still developing during that period.

Transcription

The text is written in Cyrillic in a Finnic language variety that is closer to modern Karelian or Veps. A transcription of the text is as follows:

Interpretations By Yuri Yeliseyev The text, as transliterated to the Latin alphabet by Yuri Yeliseyev in 1959Елисеев Ю. С. Древнейший письменный памятник одного из прибалтийско-финских языков.— Изв. АН СССР. Отд-ние лит. и языка, 1959, т. 18, Вып. 1, с. 65—72. and interpreted in modern Finnish:

In English, this means roughly the following:

Yeliseyev believes that this is an invocation against lightning, as evidenced by "ten your names" construction. According to superstitious notions, knowledge of the name gives a human the magic power over an object or phenomenon.Written information on Karelians by S. I. Kochkurkina, A. M. Spiridonov, T. N. Jackson, 1996

By Martti Haavio As the orthography used does not utilize spaces between words, the source text can be transcribed into words in different ways. Martti Haavio gives a different interpretation of the text in his 1964 article, suggesting, that this is a sort of an oath:

In modern Finnish, this means roughly the following:

In modern Estonian, this means roughly the following:

In English, this means roughly the following:

By Yevgeny Khelimsky Professor Yevgeny Khelimsky in his 1986 workХелимский Е. А. О прибалтийско-финском языковом материале в новгородских берестяных грамотах. In the book Янин В. Л., Зализняк А. А. Новгородские грамоты на бересте (из раскопок 1977—1983 гг.): Комментарии и словоуказатель к берестяным грамотам (из раскопок 1951—1983 гг.) / АН СССР. Отд-ние истории. — М.: Наука, 1986. — С. 254—255.) criticizes Haavio's interpretation and gives the third known scientific interpretation, believing the letter to be an invocation, like Yeliseyev:

A translation into Finnish of this interpretation would look something like this:

In English, it means roughly the following:

†Syyttö-Jumala could also mean "Blaming God" or "God that blames"; modern Finnish syyttää = to blame or prosecute.

Birch bark letter no. 292

Bron en licentie