The Kingittorsuaq Runestone (old spelling: ''Kingigtorssuaq''), listed as GR 1 in the

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 ...

catalog, is a runestone that was found on Kingittorsuaq Island, an island in the

Upernavik Archipelago Upernavik Archipelago is a vast coastal archipelago in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, off the shores of northeastern Baffin Bay. The archipelago extends from the northwestern coast of Sigguup Nunaa peninsula in the south at ...

in northwestern

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland ...

Description

The Kingittorsuaq Runestone was found in 1824 in a group of three

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehi ...

s that formed an

equilateral triangle In geometry, an equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides have the same length. In the familiar Euclidean geometry, an equilateral triangle is also equiangular; that is, all three internal angles are also congruent to each oth ...

on top of the mountain on Kingittorsuaq Island in the south-central part of the

. The stone is now located at the

National Museum of Denmark The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...

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 ...

. The stone has been dated to the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. The ''

Catholic Encyclopedia The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...

'' states the date as April 25, 1135.

William Thalbitzer __NOTOC__ William C. Thalbitzer (5 February 1873 in Helsingør – 18 September 1958 in Usserød) was a Danish philologist and professor of Eskimo studies at the University of Copenhagen. He studied Danish, English and Latin at the university, but ...

dates the stone to 1314 using pentadic numerals. Others have dated the stone between 1250 and 1333. However, as the historian Finn Gad has pointed out, the date given on the stone can be interpreted in various ways. As such, it cannot, as previously thought, be taken as evidence for the three hunters named on the stone in this region. The last part of the

runic inscription A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of ...

is not transcribed as it is composed of unknown characters; some believe that they are meaningless, while others believe that it contains a secret message.

Inscription

Latin transliteration of the text on the runestone: :el=likr * sikuaþs : so=n:r * ok * baan=ne : torta=r son : ok enriþi * os son : laukardak*in : fyrir * gakndag hloþu * ua=rda te * ok rydu : (followed by six unknown characters) Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
-

entry for GR 1. Old Norse transcription: :''Erlingr Sigvatssonr ok Bjarni Þórðarson og Eindriði Oddsson laugardaginn fyrir gangdag hlóðu varða þessa ok ryðu...'' English translation: :Erlingur the son of Sigvat and Bjarni Þorðar's son and Eindriði Oddr's son, the washingday (Saturday) before

Rogation Day Rogation days are days of prayer and fasting in Western Christianity. They are observed with processions and the Litany of the Saints. The so-called ''major'' rogation is held on 25 April; the ''minor'' rogations are held on Monday to Wednesday ...

, raised this mound and rode...

Undeciphered Runes

The six runes following the translated text are undeciphered, though they do have very close single-character components. The first two and final runes appear to have two components, a Sowilō (ᛋ) with a

Mannaz *Mannaz is the conventional name of the ''m''-rune of the Elder Futhark. It is derived from the reconstructed Common Germanic word for "man", ''*mannaz''. Younger Futhark ᛘ is maðr ("man"). It took up the shape of the algiz rune ᛉ, repl ...

(ᛘ) and/or

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-Europ ...

(ᛉ) on the top and bottom. The following three runes appear also to have the top and bottom Mannaz or Algiz, just with a Jēran (ᛄ) instead.

References

External links

Pre-Columbian Discovery of America

(Text only in no

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{coord, 55.6750, N, 12.5751, E, source:wikidata, display=title History of Greenland Runestones Runestones in Denmark Upernavik Archipelago

Description

Inscription

Undeciphered Runes

See also

References

External links