The Skåäng Runestone, designated as Sö 32 under

Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Database () is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of transliterated runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future resea ...

, is an Iron Age

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic alphabet, runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th centur ...

located in Skåäng,

Södermanland Södermanland ( ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latinisation of names, Latinized form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a Provinces of Sweden, historical province (or ) on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Österg� ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, which is inscribed in

Proto-Norse Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic; Danish and ; ; ; ) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic in the first centuries CE. It is the earliest stage of a c ...

with the

elder futhark The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark, ), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Per ...

. During the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

, a second runic inscription was added in

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

using the younger futhark.

Description

The Skåäng Runestone consists of a younger futhark inscription that is within a serpent on the edge of the stone and an older inscription in the center of the stone. The younger futhark inscription was discovered in 1830, but the older central inscription was not noticed until 1867. The Elder Futhark inscription is harija ÷ leugaz which is interpreted as the Proto-Norse names ''Harija'' and ''Leugaz''. The name ''Harija'' is a

hypocoristic A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek ; sometimes also ''hypocoristic''), or pet name, is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive form of a person's name, such as '' Izzy'' for Isabel or '' Bob'' for Robert, or it ...

form of names ending with -''harjaz'' ("warrior"), or a name beginning with ''Harja-'', and it is part of the place name ''Häringe''. (Lexicon of Nordic personal names before the 8th century) The name ''Leugaz'' is a nomen agentis of the same word as the Gothic ''liugan'' ("swear an oath") and means "oath taker." Between the two names there is a rune (the shape of younger futhark rune '' hagall''), but there is no consensus on how to interpret it. Two different forms of the z rune

algiz Algiz (also Elhaz) is the name conventionally given to the "''z''-rune" of the Elder Futhark runic alphabet. Its transliteration is ''z'', understood as a phoneme of the Proto-Germanic language, the terminal ''*z'' continuing Proto-Indo-Europe ...

are used in this inscription, the first a double or mirrored form similar to that used in the inscription on the

Charnay fibula The Charnay Fibula is a mid-6th century Fibula (brooch)#Post-Roman fibulae, fibula or brooch which was discovered in Burgundy (region), Burgundy in 1857. It has a runic inscription consisting of a horizontal partial listing of the first twenty of t ...

and the second the standard form. The younger futhark inscription is classified as being carved in runestone style Fp. The text on the serpent states that the stone was part of "landmarks" made by Skammhals and Ólôf in memory of their father Sveinn. The prayer at the end of this text uses the Norse word ''salu'' for soul, which was imported from English and is first recorded as being used on a different runestone dating from the tenth century.

Inscription

References

Other sources

*The article
Skåängstenen
' in ''

Nordisk familjebok (, 'Nordic Family Book') is a Swedish language, Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. The public domain edit ...

'' (1917). *(Lexicon of Nordic personal names before the 8th century) {{DEFAULTSORT:Skaang Runestone Proto-Norse language Runestones in Södermanland Elder Futhark inscriptions

Description

Inscription

See also

References

Other sources