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Message:: [QUOTE="Orielensis, post: 7874802, member: 96898"]I wouldn't doubt the Germanic influence on bracteate iconography per se, but in many cases it comes down to interpretations involving a good deal of speculation. The bird on the second bracteate you posted, which is closely related and maybe even a die match to the type C bracteate Fünen (I) (IK 58), is a good example. Do we see a raven accompanying Odin, as Karl Hauck influentially argued in the 1970s, or should this bird be regarded an eagle deriving from, for example, the eagle-tipped sceptres shown on late Roman coins? And again, the Roman influence might help to understand the Runic legend. For example, the bracteate from the Vejle hoard you posted above and Fünen (I) (IK 58) share the same inscription, which can be transliterated roughly as houaz laþu aaduaaaliia alu. Hauck proposed in a philologically sound manner that houaz probably means "the highest," interpolated that it refers to the Germanic chief deity Odin, and read the rather cryptic rest of the legend as a sort of incantation or an apotropaic formula. But if we take the link to Roman models serious, houaz, laþu, and alu could be read as abbreviated titles and aaduaaaliia as a personal name. We would thus see not a religious formula but a (ruler's?) name with accompanying titles analogous to emperors' names on late Roman coin legends.[/QUOTE]