characters are "S," "EA," "M," "R," and "W." They stand out from the rest of the poem due to their size and isolation within the manuscript. Scholars believe them to be runes, and Anglo-Saxonists are unsure as to what role these runes are supposed to play in the storyline of the poem. It has been theorized that they should be "deciphered...as an oath that the man swears to the woman and are his secret instructions concerning the journey she must make to find him." This makes sense in light of the fact that the husband had been exiled in the past, and it would be to his and his wife's advantage to refrain from disclosing his new location. Other scholars have attempted to translate the special characters. In John D. Niles essay on The Husband's Message, his translation was composed of two groups: the standard Anglo Saxon futhorc, which is the Runic alphabet with extra letters added to it to write the old English Alphabet, and Standard Insular Script, which is a medieval script developed in Ireland and was greatly influenced by Celtic Christianity in England. The special characters included in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc are the "S" for sigel, "EA" for ear, and "M" for mann. The "R" meaning rad and the "W" meaning wynn are characterized belonging to the insular script. A modern translation was done by Bradley with the "S" meaning sun, "EA" meaning earth, "M" meaning man, "R" meaning road, and "W" meaning joy. The characters are seen as a special code, a riddle, and the only way to break the code is to understand the runic alphabet. Connection to Riddle 60 or The Wife's Lament? Another mystery behind The Husband’s Message is the connection it may or may not have to The Wife’s Lament and Exeter Book Riddle 60. The Wife’s Lament and The Husband’s Message are similar in style and mood. Some Anglo-Saxon scholars link the two poems on grounds that both treat a separation of lovers, but there is no conclusive evidence to link them together, only by their modern titles and their similar styles. The connection to Riddle 60 could be more convincing only because Riddle 60 is directly before The Husband’s Message. Lines 49-50 of The Husband’s Message speak of a rune-stave, which is used as a sense of personification. This idea of personification is used in Riddle 60, and the object