Ulfilas
Ulfilas
Noun
1. a Christian believed to be of Cappadocian descent who became bishop of the Visigoths in 341 and translated the Bible from Greek into Gothic; traditionally held to have invented the Gothic alphabet (311-382)
(synonym) Bishop Ulfilas, Ulfila, Bishop Ulfila, Wulfila, Bishop Wulfila
(hypernym) bishop
Ulfilas
Ulfilas [from Gothic wulfila little wolf] A Gothic Christian bishop (311-81) who translated the Bible into Gothic, thus preserving the Gothic tongue even to our day. For his translation he invented a written alphabet by building upon the Greek alphabet and supplementing it for some of the Gothic runes. The principal manuscripts of his translation are preserved at the University of Upsala, called the Codex Argenteus (Silver Codex), as it is written in silver characters on a purple ground.