ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some of the texts in the Old English corpus, and all point in their own ways to an underlying rapprochement of a Germanic inheritance with universal history, and to the placement of runes within a biblical paradigm for scriptural development. It suggests that the native fuþorc had been re-imagined as a script of Old Testament pedigree with clear prophetic import, seeding Christian potentiality within a Germanic textual inheritance. The runic inscription, rather than pertaining directly to the nativity or the Germanic legend of Weland, with the story of Jonah, and with an Old Testament narrative fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ. Preeminent amongst the scenes of interpretation in the poem Daniel is the reading of the writing on the wall that appears during Belshazzar's feast, a memorable episode from the Old Testament narrative that has entered into everyday parlance.
