The Gummarp Runestone, designated as DR 358, was a runestone from the

Vendel era In Swedish prehistory, the Vendel Period ( sv, Vendeltiden; 540–790 AD) appears between the Migration Period and the Viking Age. The name is taken from the rich boat inhumation cemetery at Vendel parish church, Uppland. This is a period ...

and which was located in the former village of Gummarp in the province of

Blekinge Blekinge (, old da, Bleking) is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's sec ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

Description

The Gummarp Runestone was removed and taken to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

, where it was destroyed in the

Copenhagen Fire of 1728 The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 was the largest fire in the history of Copenhagen, Denmark. It began on the evening of 20 October 1728 and continued to burn until the morning of 23 October. It destroyed approximately 28% of the city (measured by cou ...

. The runic inscription was recorded on reproductions of the runestone. It is classified as being in

runestone style :''The term "runestone style" in the singular may refer to the Urnes style.'' The style or design of runestones varied during the Viking Age. The early runestones were simple in design, but towards the end of the runestone era they became increa ...

RAK. The runes read: h)AþuwolAfA Ate s)tA(b)A þr(i)a ff'' There are two interpretations of the text. One of them reads "Haþuwulfar placed three staves fff," and the other one assumes that the word ''apt'' meaning "after" was originally placed before the name Haþuwulfar which would change the meaning into "In memory of Haþuwulfar ..placed hesethree staves fff." The three f-runes have been interpreted as being abbreviated charm words for "wealth, wealth, wealth." The Gummarp, Istaby Runestone and

Stentoften Runestone The Stentoften Runestone, listed in the Rundata catalog as DR 357, is a runestone which contains a curse in Proto-Norse that was discovered in Stentoften, Blekinge, Sweden. Inscription Transliteration :AP niuhAborumz ¶ niuhagestumz ¶ hAþuwol ...

inscriptions can be identified with the same clan through the names that are mentioned on them, and the names are typical for chieftains. The

Björketorp Runestone The Björketorp Runestone ( DR 360 U) in Blekinge, Sweden, is part of a grave field which includes menhirs, both solitary and forming stone circles. It is one of the world's tallest runestones measuring 4.2 metres in height, and it forms an imposi ...

lacks names and is raised some tens of kilometers from the others. However, it is beyond doubt that the Björketorp runestone is connected to them, because in addition to the special runic forms, the same message is given on the Stentoften Runestone. The name Haþuwulfar has the common

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...

name element of ''wulafa'' meaning "wolf" and ''heru'', which when combined in personal names, means a "host" or "magnitude." It has been suggested that the assignment of such a name is related to ritualistic practices and religious wolf-symbolism used in the initiation of young warriors. p. 125.

Inscription

:§QA ��ᚦᚢᚹᛟᛚᛡᚠᛡ :§QB ᛋᛡᛏᛖ :§QC ��ᛡ �� ᚦᚱ �� :§QD ᚠᚠᚠ A transliteration of the runes into roman letters is: :§QA .. (h)AþuwolAfA'' :§QB .. sAte'' :§QC .. (s)tA(b)A þr(i)a'' :§QD ff''Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base ( sv, Samnordisk runtextdatabas) 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 ...

References

{{reflist, 2 Haþuwulf's runestones Proto-Norse language Runestones in Blekinge Historical runic magic

Description

Inscription

See also

References