Uppland Runic Inscription 171 or U 171 is the

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 ...

catalog listing for a

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 ...

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

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 ...

that is located in Söderby, which is four kilometers west of

Vaxholm Vaxholm is a city, urban area and the seat of Vaxholm Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden. It occupies the islands of Vaxön and Kullö in the Stockholm archipelago. The name Vaxholm comes from Vaxholm Fortress, which was constructed in 154 ...

, Stockholm County,

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 ...

, and in the historic province of

Uppland Uppland is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The name literally ...

Description

The inscription on U 171 consists of runic text in the younger futhark that is carved on a serpent that follows the edge of the triangular-shaped granite stone. The inscription is classified as being carved 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 increas ...

Pr4, which is also known as

Urnes style Viking art, also known commonly as Norse art, is a term widely accepted for the art of Scandinavian Norsemen and Vikings, Viking settlements further afield—particularly in the British Isles and Iceland—during the Viking Age of the 8th-11th ...

. This runestone style is characterized by slim and stylized animals that are interwoven into tight patterns. The animal heads are typically seen in profile with slender almond-shaped eyes and upwardly curled appendages on the noses and the necks. The inscription was carved by a

runemaster A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones. Description More than 100 names of runemasters are known from Viking Age Sweden with most of them from 11th-century eastern Svealand.The article ''Runristare'' in ''Nationalencyklo ...

who used the signature Fasti, with the runes for his signature line fasti risti runaʀ or "Fasti carved the runes" located outside of the serpent near its leg. Based on stylistic analysis, this runemaster is believed to have also created the nearby but now-lost runestone U 170 in Bogesund, where the runemaster's signature was recorded as being Fastulfr. As such, Fasti may be a

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

. On U 171, the runemaster used a word divider

punctuation mark Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of written text should be read (silently or aloud) and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, consisti ...

consisting of a single dot between each word that was carved on the serpent. The runic text states that the stone was raised by a man named Gunni in memory of his son Eyndr and in memory of himself. It is believed that this stone is associated with three other nearby runestones that were raised by the same family, the others being U 166 and 167 in Östra Ryds and U 170 in Bogesund. There are over twenty other runestones where the sponsor of the stone stated that the stone was raised in memory of himself, including Sö 55 in Bjudby, U 127 in Danderyds, the now-lost U 149 in Hagby, U 164 and U 165 in Täby, U 194 in Väsby, U 212 in Vallentuna, U 261 in Fresta, U 308 in Ekeby, the now-lost U 345 in Yttergärde, U 433 in Husby-Ärlinghundra, U 734 in Linsunda, U 739 in Gådi, U 803 in Långtora, U 962 in Vaksala, U 1011 in Örby, U 1040 in Fasma, the now-lost U 1114 in Myrby, U 1181 in Lilla Runhällen, U Fv1958;250 in Sigtuna, Vs 17 in Råby, Vs 32 in Prästgården, and DR 212 in Tillitse. Of these, five stones known as the

Jarlabanke Runestones The Jarlabanke Runestones () is the name of about 20 runestones written in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark rune script in the 11th century, in Uppland, Sweden. They were ordered by what appears to have been a Germanic chieftain, chieftain ...

were sponsored by the same person in memory of himself.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:kuni * lit * akua * stain * þi-a * iftiʀ * aunt * sun * sin * kuþan * auk * if(t)(i)- * s(i)(k) * sialfan * fasti risti runaʀProject Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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entry for U 171.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Gunni let haggva stæin þe n æftiʀ Øynd, sun sinn goðan, ok æfti �sik sialfan. Fasti risti runaʀ.''

Translation in English

:Gunni had this stone cut in memory of Eyndr, his good son, and in memory of himself. Fasti carved the runes.

References

{{reflist

External links

Photograph of U 171 in 1970
Uppland Runic Inscription 0171