Theoretically, it Could Be: Representing Runic Variation in Relational Databases

This paper presents and discusses parts of the entity model of the runological database “Sigrdrifa”. This database was developed with the aim to create the technological infrastructure for future born-digital editions of runic inscriptions. As such, great importance was placed on developing a system permitting runologists to store pertinent information not just about the inscription texts, but also the visual shapes and forms of the runes as they appear on the objects. The requirement to store information at two different levels (text and visual shape) turned out to require complex modelling, which is the topic of this paper. First, the form variations in runic corpora and the issues encountered when attempting to encode runic inscriptions digitally using the Unicode block Runic are described. Then a potential solution for encoding using a minimal character set based on Runic is outlined, which enables encoding of the visual rune shapes at two different levels of detail by using a two-digit code in addition to the Unicode character. Following this, the parts of the entity model designed to store this information are described. Lastly, the possibilities for adding free text descriptions in addition to the standardised encoded characters and the application of the encoding system on a smaller dataset of runic inscriptions are presented.