The Tjurkö Bracteates, listed by Rundata

Rundata

The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future research...

 as DR BR75 and DR BR76, are two bracteate

Bracteate

A bracteate is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age...

s (coins) found on Tjurkö, Eastern Hundred, Blekinge

Blekinge

' is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden , situated in the south of the country. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea.The name "Blekinge" comes from the adjective bleke, which corresponds to the nautical term for "dead calm"....

, 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....

, bearing Elder Futhark

Elder Futhark

The Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...

 runic inscriptions, in Proto-Norse.

Description

The Tjurko bracteates were discovered in 1817 near Tjurkö when cultivating, for the first time, a field on a stoney hill. The bracteates were in the roots of the grass among the rocks. Also discovered with the bracteates was a gold coin of Theodosius II

Theodosius II

Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...

 dated from 443 AD.

The Tjurkö 1 bracteate is dated to the Germanic Iron Age

Germanic Iron Age

The Germanic Iron Age is the name given to the period 400–800 in Northern Europe and it is part of the continental Age of Migrations.-Germanic Iron :...

 between 400 and 650 AD and is now at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities

Swedish Museum of National Antiquities

Swedish Museum of National Antiquities is a museum located in Stockholm, Sweden that covers Swedish cultural history and art from the Stone Age to the 16th century...

 (SHM 1453:25). It is a typical C-bracteate, similar to the Vadstena bracteate

Vadstena bracteate

The Vadstena bracteate is a gold C-bracteate found in the earth at Vadstena, Sweden, in 1774. Along with the bracteate was a gold ring and a piece of gold sheet: all were about melted down by a goldsmith who was stopped by a local clergyman...

, and shows a stylized head in the center above a horse and beneath a bird. This iconography is usually interpreted as depicting an early form of the Norse 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"....

 with his associated animals, a horse and raven.

Tjurkö 1 bracteate

The inscription of the Tjurkö 1 bracteate reads:

Transliteration:

wurte runoz an walhakurne heldaz kunimudiu

Proto-Norse transcription:

Wurte runoz an walhakurne Heldaz Kunimundiu

English translation:

Heldaz wrought runes on 'the foreign grain' for Kunimunduz.

There is a consensus that walha-kurne is a compound word referring to the bracteate itself, and that walha

Walha

Walhaz is a reconstructed Proto-Germanic word, meaning "foreigner", "stranger", "Roman", "Romance-speaker", or "Celtic-speaker". The adjective derived from this word can be found in , Old High German walhisk, meaning "Romance", in Old English welisċ, wælisċ, wilisċ, meaning "Romano-British" and in...

(cognate with Modern English Welsh) means "foreign, non-Germanic" - here perhaps more specifically "Roman" or "Gallic". However, differing explanations have been proposed for the second element kurne. According to one interpretation, kurne is the dative singular of kurna (cognate with Modern English corn), and walha-kurne "Roman or Gallic grain" is a kenning

Kenning

A kenning is a type of literary trope, specifically circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and later Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry...

 for "gold;" cf. the compounds valhöll, valrauðr and valbaugar in the Old Norse poem Atlakviða

Atlakviða

Atlakviða is one of the heroic poems of the Poetic Edda. One of the main characters is Atli who originates from Attila the Hun. It is one of the most archaic Eddic poems. It is preserved in the Codex Regius and the same story is related in the Völsunga saga...

. An alternative interpretation of the second element sees kurne as an early loan from Latin corona "crown

Crown (headgear)

A crown is the traditional symbolic form of headgear worn by a monarch or by a deity, for whom the crown traditionally represents power, legitimacy, immortality, righteousness, victory, triumph, resurrection, honour and glory of life after death. In art, the crown may be shown being offered to...

," but this is now considered to be unlikely since "crowns" as currency appear only in medieval

High Middle Ages

The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....

 times, from images of crowns minted on the coins' faces. The personal name Heldaz is derived from *held- "battle" (Old English hild, 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....

 hildr, etc.), while Kunimundiu (dative singular of Kunimunduz) is from kuni- "kin" (which appears with connotations of royalty as the first element of Old English compounds, cf. Modern English king) and mund- "protection."

Tjurkö 2 bracteate

The Tjurkö 2 bracteate is dated to the same period and has an inscription of just three runes that read ota, which translates as "fear." This formulistic word is also used on other bracteates such as DR IK55 (Fjärestad), DR IK152 (unknown location in Skåne), and DR IK578 (Gadegård).

External links

• http://www.arild-hauge.com/danske_runeinnskrifter4.htm
• Tjurkö 1 bracteate - Map and Rundata
• Photograph of Tjurkö 2 bracteate