336 



THE BEACTEATES. 



Of the hundreds of bracteates l which have been discovered, 

 a large number were found together ; and those of similar 

 design, which have evidently been struck from the same die, 

 are sometimes found in regions far apart. The bracteates 

 with the peculiar mystic signs above enumerated disappear 

 entirely towards the year 600, and though bracteates are still 

 found they are of quite different designs ; for those with repre- 

 sentations of dragons, serpents, &c., are of a much later period. 



Many of these designs may perhaps represent the deeds of 

 great heroes told in ancient songs, such for example as the 

 scene upon the gold bracteate found under the altar in the 

 ancient wooden church of Gudsdal Troen parish in Gud- 



Fi-. 1289. Bracteate. 



Real size. 

 Blekinge, Sweden. 



Fit 



1290. Bracteate. Real size.- 

 Vestergb'tland, Sweden. 



brandsdal, Norway, on which an armour-clad warrior on horse- 

 back fights a dragon. The purity of their gold is as remarkable 

 as the skill of their workmanship. 



The most important bracteate found is 

 one of the two disco\ 7 ered near the little 

 town of Vadstcna on the Wettern, in 

 Sweden. It has around its border an in- 

 scription in earlier runes, which evidently 

 must be read from right to left. It has 

 been ascertained by the scholars who 



have made a study' of runes that, with Fjg _ i 29 i._B r acteate with 

 the exception of the first division of eight, 

 they represent the runic alphabet in its 

 earliest form, the letter D being, for want of space, the only 



runic alphabet. Vad - 

 stena, Sweden. Real size. 



one missing. 



1 Some magnificent works have been 

 published on bracteates, the finest being 

 ' Atlas lor Nordiik Oldkyndighed,' Copen- 



hagen, 1857; but since then many valu- 

 able additions have been discovered. 



