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The Einang stone (''Einangsteinen,'' N KJ63) is a
The generally accepted reading of the inscription was proposed by
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 east of the Einang Sound
The Einang Sound () is a small sound in the middle of Slidre Fjord in Oppland county, Norway, about wide. It is crossed by Norwegian County Road 261 via the Einang Sound Bridge (), which was built in 1963. Before that, a cable ferry operated a ...
near Fagernes, in Oppland
Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The ...
, Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, notable for the age of its 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 E ...
. The Einang runestone is located within the extensive Gardberg site
Gardberg Site (''Gardbergfeltet'') is an archaeology, archaeological site located east of the Einang Sound in the municipality of Vestre Slidre, Oppland County, Norway.
Description
Gardberg consists of several burial cairns and clearance cairns ...
. It is placed on a grave mound on a ridge overlooking the Valdres
Valdres () is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between the districts of Gudbrandsdalen and Hallingdal. The region of Valdres consists of the six municipalities of Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre S ...
valley. There are several other grave mounds nearby. Today the runestone is protected by glass walls and a roof.
Description
The Einang stone bears anElder 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 ...
inscription, written from right to left, 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 ...
that has been dated to the 4th century. It is the oldest runestone still standing at its original location, and it may be the earliest inscription to mention the word ''runo'' 'rune
Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see '' futhark'' vs ''runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a ...
'. Here the word appears in the singular. Additionally, the verb used in the inscription for the act of inscribing is ''faihido'', which literally means 'painted'. This may mean that the inscription was originally highlighted with paint.
Inscription
The generally accepted reading of the inscription was proposed by Erik Moltke
Erik Moltke (4 April 1901 – 19 October 1984) was a Danish runologist, writer, and editor. Through his leadership, the Runologist Section of the National Museum of Denmark became a world centre for the scientific study of runology
Runolog ...
in 1938. He conjectured that there had been four runes in the original inscription, before the first rune which is visible today. The reading is:
:
Which translates as:
:''(I, Go)dguest painted/wrote this runic inscription.''
As the stone is placed on a grave mound, it is natural to interpret it as a tombstone. Why the inscription does not name the buried person, but only the carver of the runes, remains an open question.
See also
*List of runestones
There are about 3,000 runestones in Scandinavia (out of a total of about 6,000 runic inscriptions). p. 38.
The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia:
The majority are found in Sweden, estimated at between 1,700 and 2,500 (depending ...
References
{{Coord, 61, 5, 28.55, N, 9, 0, 15.06, E, display=title Proto-Norse language Runestones in Norway Elder Futhark inscriptions 4th-century inscriptions