Lamo talgida or talgida lamo. An indication of a paradigmatic ablative in Proto-Norse?

Abstract

The standard interpretation of the Skovgårde rosette clasp inscription lamo talgida as lamō talgidē ‘Lam carved (this)’ poses at least two potential problems, viz. the aberrant form of the weak preterite 3.sg. ending -dē and the proposed reading direction. In
this article, I will contend that we might consider the alternative interpretation talgida lamō ‘carved by Lamaz’ which, though creating new but by no means insurmountable problems to our understanding of the Proto-Norse linguistic system, will both fit the expected reading direction better and render unnecessary the unwelcome assumption of an otherwise unattested variant -da of the weak preterite 3.sg. ending. Moreover, this interpretation will, if correct, introduce a new case to the Proto-Norse inflectional system: the ablative.