Speaking only for myself, I think that the sole rational way to even come close to an understanding of what the bearded figure on the Mörkö actually represents lies in knowing what language is seen on the gonne, and then of course also possessing the ability to read and comprehend that language. I personally do not possess the knowledge needed to give a valid opinion on the text that is represented on the barrel, so I have no idea if the image on this gonne represents the Christian God, a pagan god, or a king/warrior/man. The statements I just made are in no way intended to denigrate Richard’s research efforts; as a matter of fact I can’t realistically disparage his opinions on this subject, because I don’t have the facts that would be needed to do so. In other words, for all I know Richard may have hit a bull’s eye (except for the demon figure), or he may have missed the target entirely.
Now, as to why I don’t just accept Ricardo’s judgments on the matter, and leave it at that; well, the answer to that is simple, because I’d be acting foolish if I did. I don’t care if it was my own brother (whom I love dearly) that claimed to have knowledge in this field of study, and then presented these exact same findings to me, I would still regard them with a healthy sense of skepticism (yes Rich, this also stems from Aristotle’s teachings); to get nearer to the truth regarding the meanings of the marks, symbols, and images displayed on the Mörkö would in my opinion take a consensus of individuals who have expertise in this field of study (and RC may very well have the knowledge to stand tall among them).
Dan,
I have no doubt that the Historical Museum in Stockholm where Charlotte works is probably considered one the finest of its kind in Europe, but they did have possession of the piece we’re discussing for many years, seemingly without being all that anxious to find out what the characters on its surface actually signified.
I am also going to make a guess that Charlotte, or whoever looks into the matter, is probably going to end up calling an academic scholar who specializes in old northern European languages/Latin to try and break the code on Mörkö.
Anyway, my motto is always cut out the middleman whenever possible, so I went directly to the professors. I had this idea some time ago, but didn’t bring it up to RC till a month or so ago when he was getting ready to move his document to the forum. I’ve sent an email to a teacher at Tennessee University, Knoxville that has a PhD (Medieval Studies), M.A. (Classics), and a B.A.(Latin) to see if she’d be interested in taking a look at the Mörkö document and photos (her special interests are the Medieval Latin Language, and Latin Paleography). I know Rich says it not Latin, but if that’s the case maybe she can recommend a colleague whose area of expertise is early northern European languages.
