Deciphering the inscription of the Undley bracteate under the possibilities/restrictions of the Pre-Old English sound system

Abstract This paper was first read at a runic event held in Eichstätt in 2012 and was subsequently, in a revised and extended form, presented at the symposium on the Early History of the North-Sea Germanic Languages that took place in Odense on 13 March 2018. The paper is highly relevant to the theme of the Odense conference as well as to this special issue of NOWELE in that it deals with the runes and the language of the Undley bracteate, a stray runic find from the late fifth century discovered at Undley in Suffolk in the south-east of England. My presentation will focus on the vocalism of the Undley legend. But the linguistic perspective will be widened considerably, and I shall discuss and criticize in detail some of the major proposals for reading and interpreting this inscription within a North-Sea Germanic and Pre-Old English context.