river". This is seen as a reference to Egil, the heroic archer of Norse mythology, who is depicted on the lid of the Auzon Runic or Franks Casket together with his wife (presumably Ailrun) engaged in battle. The casket is thought to date to approximately the same time as the Pforzen buckle. Looijenga (2003) argues that the inscription shows evidence of scribal error. Assuming that the verse alliterates, she interprets the at the beginning of line 2 as indicative of an original [a]l. Her amended reading runs Aigil andi Ailrūn | (a)l tahu gasokun, which she translates as "Aigil and Ailrun vigorously fought/condemned all". She also suggests that the text could be a quotation from a lost version of the Wieland story. Simmons (2010) likewise takes the first element as representing al- "all, entire", but takes the second element as the dative (singular or plural) of an ablaut variant of the Old English word teoh "army, war-band", with the compound meaning "the entire war-band". Simmons notes that gasokun "fought" (preterite 3rd plural indicative) requires a dative object, which is furnished in al-tahu. He translates the buckle inscription, "Aigil and Alrun fought the entire war-band." Simmons confirms that the writing on the Pforzen buckle refers to the same Germanic character depicted on the Franks Casket (Aegil), and argues that this translation of the buckle line best accords with the figuration on the casket lid, each representing the same legend of "two against all comers". Mees (2017) accepts that Aigil and Ailrun are a heroic pair and compares the buckle to contemporary Burgundian plate-buckles that feature references to the Biblical story of Daniel in the lions' den. Mees rejects Nedoma's reading of ltahu as a river name and compares the form instead to the Old Saxon name Aldako. Mees sees the inscription as a historiola, much like the texts found on the Burgundian Daniel buckles evidently are. See also Runic alphabet Elder Futhark References Volker Babucke, Die Runenschnalle von Pforzen (Allgäu) — Aspekte der Deutung. l. Zur Herkunft und Datierung in: Pforzen und Bergakker: Neue Untersuchungen zu Runen inschriften, ed. Alfred Bammesberger (1999), 15–24. Klaus Düwel, Runenkunde, Weimar (2001), 19-20. () Tineke Looijenga, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-edm1fMPbXwC Texts & Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions"], Brill (2003), 253-255. () Bernard Mees, Egill and Ǫlrún in Early High German in: Futhark 8, 2017. 151-56. (http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1333698/FULLTEXT01.pdf) Robert Nedoma, Noch einmal zur Runeninschrift auf der Gürtelschnalle von Pforzen