152 - Between the death of a son and ...

ART GALLERY / Translated from French / In my city, after the recent unexplained death by drowning of Samy Haïkel, a young student of 18 years and the chagrin of his father Youssef that I had the opportunity to mingle and enjoy for her great empathy, I decided to paint this canvas in the “philhelmien” style, you start to know, and this, in one theme that I kept rune long in my possession. Around the year 1000 in Sweden at Tibble in the region of Uppland, a father in despair after the death of his son made by burning some Livsten, gravestone of 1.50m by 1m 50 ( 59,06 x 59,06 inches) with registration rune as you can read it on my table, and this, in the greatest fidelity. Phonetic reading from top left reads: "frysten + lit + arka + sten + Rfti + estulfr + sun sin + yk + Brukera”. The most accepted interpretation is that of Fernand Mossé (1892-1956) Professor at the College de France, a leading specialist in ancient Anglo-Saxon literature. "Freysteinn was cut (this) stone – in Remember Eistulf his son and – he made build (a) bridge. » Livsten, the stone engraver was also known to have burned a dozen stones in this unique style of circles surrounding fantastic beasts. It should be noted that most of these stones were also often painted in bright colors; several of them very slight traces of color are still visible! (As most of the statues of our cathedrals and churches in the Middle Ages, but you already knew it!) Initially, I interpreted the death by drowning Eistulf since his father had decided to build a bridge in those countries where rivers and peninsulas are numerous. The truth seems to be quite different: The vast majority of Swedish runic inscriptions dating back to XI century. The parents of the great Vikings leaders were the Vikings who died far from home were putting up stones to their memory, on which were engraved the runes inside of a snake richly decorated and painted on the occasion. Svealand specifically in the province of Uppland, (and very few in Denmark and Norway even less), we discover the presence of a fantastic animal or quadruped dragon fighting with one or several snakes, which could symbolize the struggle between the new Christian religion and the old religion dedicated to the god Odin. There is no evidence yet that such was the intention of the artist writer! But that was not all; indeed often a bridge was built near the stone. This opening of new roads and bridges seem to have become a true act of devotion between 1020 and 1060. It is hardly explained why the outbreak of animal art falls and disappears suddenly in the early thirteenth century! Nevertheless, the symbolic meaning of the act, namely to build a bridge with a new road, perhaps just because the word "bro" means the same thing for bridge and road! Indeed, many roads were converted into marshy land often with a ford raised only with stones, which crossed a stream. More natives were convinced that achieving their living activities to attract them on the benevolence of God, would lead their souls to the afterlife! Of course all you permission to think and do the same today!
Runes : (or writing of the Vikings and the ancient Germans) The writing is reflected in runic inscriptions in Germanic languages from the late second century AD. We counted more than 6,500, including about 6050 in Scandinavia: Sweden 3600, 1600 in Norway, 850 in Denmark. The others come from Iceland (100), Greenland (100), England (90), Germany (80), Orkney Islands (50), Netherlands (25), Ireland (16) and the Faroë Islands (10). Its origin lies somewhere in the Mediterranean alphabets from the Phoenician alphabet. But is it the result of a modification of a Greek alphabet (former hypothesis), a North Etruscan alphabet, the Latin alphabet or a combination of Latin and North Italic? There is no unanimity among scholars on this issue, even if the hypothesis of the origin appears to Latin privileged today. The lack of documentation does not facilitate research, particularly since the early runic inscriptions have a system already stabilized, presumably created in the first century AD. The question of the origin of the runic script has two main aspects: the origin of the shape of characters and their values (you can compare the characters of the scriptures might have served as a model) and cultural exchanges have taken place between the Germanic tribes who used the runic script and those they would have borrowed. The form of the runic symbols most obviously inspired by the characters of the Latin script, a finding that accords well with the influence of Roman civilization in Scandinavia - and especially in Denmark - the first centuries of our era. The runic script used in our case contains 24 signs and is known as Futhark (name consisting of its first six letters). All these old characters are characterized by the absence of truly rounded shapes and lack horizontal lines, features conditioned by the hard surfaces (wood, metal, stone) on which the inscriptions were engraved. Finally, remember that the word rune (alld Rune) is derived from a Germanic word meaning mystery (cf.vha.rûna = mystery or murmur > alld raunen = murmur)

Note: The table is part of the private collection of the family