ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some less well-documented cases where the ornamental textuality of runes may have had an impact on either the conception or reception of the poem. The famous Codex Runicus, a manuscript of Scanian law written around 1300 and entirely in runes but the script is almost certainly chosen in full awareness of its novelty as a display script: it represents a late and abortive 'revivalist phenomenon'. The concept of a specific 'runic textuality' is a useful in that it draws attention to the particular features of runic inscriptions that allow them to work as texts, highlighting the semiotics of the medium as well as the content of the message itself. The central characteristic of the palm branch is, of course, the shape of diagonal fronds issuing from a central stem, and the recourse to this highly unusual and specific descriptor may well relate to the distinctive aspect of the runic script.
