Sjörup Runestone
Encyclopedia
The Sjörup Runestone is a runestone in Scania
, Sweden
, from approximately 1000 AD that is classified as being in runestone style RAK.
's work on Danish runestones. Two centuries later, it was blown into six pieces to be reused as building material for a bridge. However, in the mid-1990s, the pieces were removed from the bridge and reassembled, and the repaired runestone was raised anew near the church of Sjörup.
The runestone has some points in common with the runestone DR 295. Both runestones contain dotted k
-runes and both runestones use the nasal ã
-rune, although the Sjörup Runestone uses the ã-rune much more and has different orthography
. For instance, the Old Norse
word ægi ("not") is spelled aigi on the Hällestad Runestone while this stone spells it aki. The runemaster
of this runestone drops the h
-rune twice in the words han ("he") and hafði ("had"), but oddly, he adds an h-rune in beginning of the word æftiR ("in memory of"). This vacillating orthography shows that there was an insecurity in Viking Age
Scandinavia as to whether the h-phoneme
should be pronounced before a vowel, and so the h-rune was sometimes absent or even added where it usually did not belong. During the same time, diphthong
s turned into monophthong
s and an insecurity appeared as to how to spell vowels, because the runemaster had to make a phonemic analysis of the sounds that were to be represented in the inscription.
"partnership," and it indicates that he belonged to a brother-hood based on strong bonds of friendship. There are four, or maybe five, runestones that talk of the same battle, and only the Ingvar Runestones
consist of a greater number of stones that refer to a common event.
The personal name Ásbjôrn from the inscription means "Devine Bear" and has a name element related to the Æsir
, the principle gods of Norse mythology
.
fought against each other on the Fýrisvellir
in the 980s. Styrbjörn had been banished from Sweden, but became such a powerful Viking chieftain that he returned with a large host to have revenge and take the crown of Sweden.
When king Eric saw Styrbjörn land with his large army, he began to doubt his own ability to defeat them. During the night, he went to the temple of the Norse pagan
god Odin
and pledged to die in ten years time, if he was victorious against Styrbjörn. The following day, Odin struck Styrbjörn's warriors with blindness and most warriors fled. The Swedes hunted down the escaping foes and killed many of them, and after this battle, king Eric earned the name "the Victorious". The account that king Eric swore himself to Odin is of note since it takes place in Gamla Uppsala
and according to Adam of Bremen
(c. 1070), Uppsala had the Temple at Uppsala
, which was the largest pagan temple of northern Europe.
Scania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, from approximately 1000 AD that is classified as being in runestone style RAK.
History
The Sjörup Runestone has been known by scholars since the 1620s when Jon Skonvig depicted it for Ole WormOle Worm
Ole Worm , who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician and antiquary.-Life:...
's work on Danish runestones. Two centuries later, it was blown into six pieces to be reused as building material for a bridge. However, in the mid-1990s, the pieces were removed from the bridge and reassembled, and the repaired runestone was raised anew near the church of Sjörup.
Form
The inscription begins on the bottom right and goes counter-clockwise around the runestone until it reaches the bottom left, and then it changes direction and goes below the first row, and finally it changes direction again until it finishes in the centre of the stone. The band principally follows the convolutions of a snake.The runestone has some points in common with the runestone DR 295. Both runestones contain dotted k
Kaunan
The k-rune is called Kaun in both the Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems, meaning "ulcer". The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is *Kaunan. It is also known as Kenaz , based on its Anglo-Saxon name.The Elder Futhark shape is likely directly based on Old Italic c / Latin C...
-runes and both runestones use the nasal ã
Ansuz rune
The a-rune , Younger Futhark was probably called *ansuz in Proto-Germanic, to which the Norse name Æsir is attributed.The shape of the rune is likely from Neo-Etruscan a , like Latin A ultimately from Phoenician aleph....
-rune, although the Sjörup Runestone uses the ã-rune much more and has different orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
. For instance, the Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
word ægi ("not") is spelled aigi on the Hällestad Runestone while this stone spells it aki. The runemaster
Runemaster
A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones.Most early medieval Scandinavians were probably literate in runes, and most people probably carved messages on pieces of bone and wood. However, it was difficult to make runestones, and in order to master it one also needed to be a...
of this runestone drops the h
Haglaz
*Haglaz or *Hagalaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the h-rune , meaning "hail" .In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as haegl and in the Younger Futhark as hagall The corresponding Gothic letter is h, named hagl.The Elder Futhark letter has two variants, single-barred and...
-rune twice in the words han ("he") and hafði ("had"), but oddly, he adds an h-rune in beginning of the word æftiR ("in memory of"). This vacillating orthography shows that there was an insecurity in Viking Age
Viking Age
Viking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
Scandinavia as to whether the h-phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
should be pronounced before a vowel, and so the h-rune was sometimes absent or even added where it usually did not belong. During the same time, diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s turned into monophthong
Monophthong
A monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation....
s and an insecurity appeared as to how to spell vowels, because the runemaster had to make a phonemic analysis of the sounds that were to be represented in the inscription.
Content
In all likelihood, the runestone tells of the same battle as the runestone DR 295. Both this runestone and the Hällestad Runestone use the phrase "He did not flee at Uppsala", and this runestone is raised in memory of Ásbjörn, the son of Tóki Gormsson. Saxi points out that Ásbjörn "slaughtered as long as he had a weapon", i.e. he fought until he was killed, and this means that Ásbjörn did not belong to those who were afraid of their foes and fled from the battle. The expression felaga means "fellow" and is related to félagFélag
Félag was a joint financial venture between partners in Viking Age society.-Etymology:The word félag is constructed by the word fé and a verbal base denoting "lay", the meaning being "to lay property together."The Old Norse word félagi "companion, comrade" originally meaning "one who has félag...
"partnership," and it indicates that he belonged to a brother-hood based on strong bonds of friendship. There are four, or maybe five, runestones that talk of the same battle, and only the Ingvar Runestones
Ingvar Runestones
The Ingvar Runestones is the name of c. 26 Varangian Runestones that were raised in commemoration of those who died in the Swedish Viking expedition to the Caspian Sea of Ingvar the Far-Travelled....
consist of a greater number of stones that refer to a common event.
The personal name Ásbjôrn from the inscription means "Devine Bear" and has a name element related to the Æsir
Æsir
In Old Norse, áss is the term denoting a member of the principal pantheon in Norse paganism. This pantheon includes Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr. The second pantheon comprises the Vanir...
, the principle gods of Norse mythology
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
.
Historical context
Since both the Hällestad and the Sjörup runestones use the phrase "He did not flee at Uppsala", scholars since the 19th century have connected the runestones to the semi-legendary Battle of Fýrisvellir at Uppsala. Several medieval sources tell that the king of Sweden, Eric the Victorious, and his nephew Styrbjörn the StrongStyrbjörn the Strong
Styrbjörn the Strong was, according to late Norse sagas, the son of the Swedish king Olof, and the nephew of Olof's co-ruler and successor Eric the Victorious, who defeated and killed Styrbjörn at the Battle of Fyrisvellir...
fought against each other on the Fýrisvellir
Fyrisvellir
Fyrisvellir, Fyris Wolds or Fyrisvallarna was the marshy plain south of Gamla Uppsala where travellers had to leave the ships and walk to the Temple at Uppsala and the hall of the Swedish king....
in the 980s. Styrbjörn had been banished from Sweden, but became such a powerful Viking chieftain that he returned with a large host to have revenge and take the crown of Sweden.
When king Eric saw Styrbjörn land with his large army, he began to doubt his own ability to defeat them. During the night, he went to the temple of the Norse pagan
Norse paganism
Norse paganism is the religious traditions of the Norsemen, a Germanic people living in the Nordic countries. Norse paganism is therefore a subset of Germanic paganism, which was practiced in the lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes across most of Northern and Central Europe in the Viking Age...
god Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
and pledged to die in ten years time, if he was victorious against Styrbjörn. The following day, Odin struck Styrbjörn's warriors with blindness and most warriors fled. The Swedes hunted down the escaping foes and killed many of them, and after this battle, king Eric earned the name "the Victorious". The account that king Eric swore himself to Odin is of note since it takes place in Gamla Uppsala
Gamla Uppsala
Gamla Uppsala is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 16,231 inhabitants in 1991.As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political centre...
and according to Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...
(c. 1070), Uppsala had the Temple at Uppsala
Temple at Uppsala
The Temple at Uppsala was a religious center in Norse paganism once located at what is now Gamla Uppsala , Sweden attested in Adam of Bremen's 11th century work Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum and in Heimskringla, written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century...
, which was the largest pagan temple of northern Europe.
Transliteration into Latin characters
- [+ sa]ksi : sati : st[in] : þasi : huftiR : o[s]biurn : (s)in : fil(a)go ' ¶ (t)u-a[s : sun :] ¶ saR : flu : aki : a[t :] ub:sal(u)m : an : ua : maþ : an : u¶abn : a(f)þi
Transcription into Old Norse
- Saxi satti sten þæssi æftiR Æsbiorn, sin felaga, To[f]a/To[k]a sun. SaR flo ægi at Upsalum, æn wa mæþ han wapn hafþi.
Translation in English
- Saxi placed this stone in memory of Ásbjôrn Tófi's/Tóki's son, his partner. He did not flee at Uppsala, but slaughtered as long as he had a weapon.