The Holmby Runestone, listed as DR 328 in 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, is 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 ...

bearing the image of a ship. It is in Holmby, which is about two kilometers southeast of Flyinge,

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

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 ...

Description

The Holmby Runestone has an inscription that consists of runic text that is upside down in an arch that is over a depiction of a ship at sea. The stone is made of sandstone and is 1.11 meters in height. It was discovered in the wall of the southwest corner of a church tower around 1667. Before the historic nature of runestones was understood, they were often reused as construction materials for roads, bridges, and buildings. The stone was removed and raised outside the church in 1908. 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 ...

RAK, which is considered to be the oldest style. This classification is for inscriptions where the ends of the runic bands are straight and there are no attached serpent or beast heads. The inscription is dated as having been carved after the

Jelling stones The Jelling stones () are massive carved runestones from the 10th century, found at the town of Jelling in Denmark. The older of the two Jelling stones was raised by King Gorm the Old in memory of his wife Thyra. The larger of the two stones ...

. It has been pointed out that the image of the ship has an ancient form with beaks fore and aft, and thus may depict a symbolic ritual ship and not any known Viking Age ship type. Other inscriptions with similar features which may depict ancient, symbolic ships include DR 77 in Hjermind, DR 119 in Spentrup, DR 258 in Bösarp, and DR 271 in Tullstorps. Other runic inscriptions from the Viking Age which depict ships include DR 220 in Sønder Kirkeby, DR EM85;523 in Farsø, Ög 181 in Ledberg, Ög 224 in Stratomta, Ög MÖLM1960;230 in Törnevalla, Sö 122 in Skresta, Sö 154 in Skarpåker, Sö 158 in Österberga, Sö 164 in Spånga, Sö 351 in Överjärna, Sö 352 in Linga, Vg 51 in Husaby, U 370 in Herresta, U 979 in Gamla Uppsala, U 1052 in Axlunda, U 1161 in Altuna, and Vs 17 in Råby. Three stones, the Hørdum and Långtora kyrka stones and U 1001 in Rasbo, depict ships but currently do not have any runes on them and may never have had any. The runic text states that the stone was raised as a memorial by a man named Sveinn to his father Þorgeirr. The name Þorgeirr contains as a

theophoric name A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or a god's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that d ...

element the

Norse pagan Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, is a branch of Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into distinct branches. It was replaced by Christianity and forgotten ...

god

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

and means "Thor's Spear."* The runic text uses the word ''stena'' meaning "stones," suggesting that more than one stone was originally raised in memory of Þorgeirr. If so, the second stone of the memorial has since been lost. The last words of the

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 ...

text, ''faþur sin'' ("his father"), are carved below the image of the ship at sea. Locally the stone is known as the ''Holmbystenen''. The inscription has been given a Danish listing in the Rundata catalog as Scania was part of the historic Denmark.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:: suin : risþi : stina ¶ + ¶ þesi : ef(t)iʀ : þurgiʀ : ¶ faþur : sin :Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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entry for DR 328.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Swen resþi stena þæssi æftiʀ Þorgiʀ, faþur sin.''

Translation in English

:Sveinn raised these stones in memory of Þorgeirr, his father.

References

{{reflist 1667 archaeological discoveries Runestones in Scania