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The Italy runestones are three or four
Varangian runestones The Varangian Runestones are runestones in Scandinavia that mention voyages to the East () or the Eastern route (), or to more specific eastern locations such as ''Garðaríki'' in Eastern Europe. There are also many additional runestones in Sca ...
from 11th-century
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 ...
that tell of warriors who died in ''Langbarðaland'' ("Land of the
Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...
"), 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 ...
name for south
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. On these rune stones it is
southern Italy Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions. The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...
that is referred to''2. Runriket - Täby Kyrka''
, an online article at Stockholm County Museum, retrieved July 1, 2007.
( Langobardia), but 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 ...
project renders it rather anachronistically as
Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...
(see the translations of the individual stones, below). The rune stones are engraved 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 ...
with the Younger Futhark, and two of them are found in
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 ...
and one or two in
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� ...
. The memorials are probably raised in memory of members of the
Varangian Guard The Varangian Guard () was an elite unit of the Byzantine army from the tenth to the fourteenth century who served as personal bodyguards to the Byzantine emperors. The Varangian Guard was known for being primarily composed of recruits from Nort ...
, the elite guard of the
Byzantine Emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...
, and they probably died while fighting in southern Italy against the local Lombard principalities or the invading
Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...
. Many of their brothers-in-arms are remembered on the 28
Greece runestones The Greece runestones () are about 30 runestones containing information related to voyages made by Norsemen to the Byzantine Empire. They were made during the Viking Age until about 1100 and were engraved in the Old Norse language with Younger ...
most of which are found in the same part of Sweden. The young men who applied for a position in the Varangian guard were not uncouth roughnecks, as in the traditional stereotype, but instead, it appears that they were usually fit and well-raised young warriors who were skilled in weapons.Larsson 2002:145. They were the kind of warriors who were welcome as the elite troops of the Byzantine Emperor, and whom the rulers of
Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...
requested from
Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
when they were under threat.


Interpretations

Johan Peringskiöld (d. 1720) considered the Fittja stone and the Djulefors stone to refer to the Lombard migration from Sweden, whereas Celsius (1727) interpreted them in a strikingly different manner. He noted that the name ''Longobardia'' was not applied to Italy until after the destruction of the
Kingdom of the Lombards The Kingdom of the Lombards, also known as the Lombard Kingdom and later as the Kingdom of all Italy (), was an Early Middle Ages, early medieval state established by the Lombards, a Germanic people, on the Italian Peninsula in the latter part ...
in 774. He claimed that the kingdom had been taken over by Varangians from Byzantium in the 11th and 12th centuries, and noted that in
Barbarossa Barbarossa, a name meaning "red beard" in Italian, primarily refers to: * Frederick Barbarossa (1122–1190), Holy Roman Emperor * Hayreddin Barbarossa (c. 1478–1546), Ottoman admiral * Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Uni ...
's campaign in Italy there were many Scandinavian warriors. The stones would have commemorated Swedish warriors who died in Barbarossa's war.Wessén 1940–1943:207. This view was also espoused by Brocman (1762) who considered Holmi to have died in the 12th century for either the Byzantine Emperor or ruler of the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
.Wessén 1940–1943:208. Von Friesen (1913) noted that it is not
Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...
in northern Italy that is intended but '' Langobardia'' in southern Italy, which was ruled by the
Byzantine Emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...
during the 11th century. The Greeks had to fight several battles against the Normans in Southern Italy during the mid-11th century. It is likely that Holmi, who is mentioned on two stones, took part in these battles as a member of the Byzantine Emperor's elite unit, the
Varangian Guard The Varangian Guard () was an elite unit of the Byzantine army from the tenth to the fourteenth century who served as personal bodyguards to the Byzantine emperors. The Varangian Guard was known for being primarily composed of recruits from Nort ...
since they use a name based on the Greek name for the region.Wessén 1940–43:199.


The runestones

Below follows a presentation of the Italy Runestones, organised according to location. The transcriptions from runic inscriptions into standardised
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 ...
are in Old East Norse (OEN), the Swedish and Danish dialect, to facilitate comparison with the inscriptions, while the English translation provided by Rundata give the names in the standard dialect, Old West Norse (OWN), the Icelandic and Norwegian dialect.


Transliteration and transcription

There is a long-standing practice to write
transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...
s of the runes into Latin characters with
boldface In typography, emphasis is the strengthening of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text, to highlight them. It is the equivalent of prosody stress in speech. Methods and use The most common methods in We ...
and transcribe the text into a normalized form of the language with
italic type In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Along with blackletter and roman type, it served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography. Owing to the influence f ...
. This practice exists because the two forms of rendering a runic text have to be kept distinct.Antonsen 2002:85. By not only showing the original inscription, but also transliterating, transcribing and translating, scholars present the analysis in a way that allows the reader to follow their interpretation of the runes. Every step presents challenges, but most Younger Futhark inscriptions are considered easy to interpret.''Att Läsa Runor och Runinskrifter''
on the site of the Swedish National Heritage Board, retrieved May 10, 2008.
In transliterations, *, :, ×, ' and + represent common
word divider In punctuation, a word divider is a form of glyph which separates written words. In languages which use the Latin, Cyrillic, and Arabic alphabets, as well as other scripts of Europe and West Asia, the word divider is a blank space, or ''whitesp ...
s. Parentheses, ( ), represent damaged runes that cannot be identified with certainty, and square brackets, '', represent sequences of runes that have been lost, but can be identified thanks to early descriptions by scholars. A short hyphen, -, indicates that there is a rune or other sign that cannot be identified. A series of three full stops ... shows that runes are assumed to have existed in the position, but have disappeared. The two dividing signs , , divide a rune into two Latin letters, because runemasters often carved a single rune instead of two consecutive ones.Rundata 2.5 for Windows. Angle brackets, ''< >'', indicate that there is a sequence of runes that cannot be interpreted with certainty. Other special signs are ''þ'' and ''ð'', where the first one is the thorn letter which represents a
voiceless dental fricative The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to most English speakers as the 'th' in ''think''. Though rather rare as a phoneme among the world's languages, it is encount ...
as ''th'' in English ''thing''. The second letter is eth which stands for a
voiced dental fricative The voiced dental fricative is a consonant sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the ''th'' sound in ''father''. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is eth, or and was taken from the Old Engl ...
as ''th'' in English ''them''. The ''Ê€'' sign represents the yr rune.


Nomenclature

Every runic inscription is shown with its ID code that is used in scholarly literature to refer to the inscription, and it is only obligatory to give the first two parts of it. The first part is one or two letters that represent the area where the runic inscription appears, e.g. U for the
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 ...
, Sö for
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� ...
and DR for
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
. The second part represents the order in which the inscription is presented in the official national publications (e.g. '' Sveriges runinskrifter''). Thus U 133 means that the runestone was the 133rd runic inscription in Uppland that was documented in ''Sveriges runinskrifter''. If the inscription was documented later than the official publication, it is listed according to the publication where it was first described, e.g. Sö Fv1954;22, where ''Sö'' represents Södermanland, ''Fv'' stands for the annual publication '' Fornvännen'', 1954 is the year of the issue of ''Fornvännen'' and 22 is the page in the publication.


Uppland

There are two rune stones in Uppland that mention Italy. They were raised by the same lady in memory of her son.


U 133

Runestone U 133
location
is in style Pr3, part of the more general
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 ...
. The stone has been split into two parts that are walled into the southern exterior wall of Täby church, near the ground. The larger fragment, which was originally the upper part of the runestone, is in the western wall of the old porch which is constructed at the church's southern side.Wessén 1940–43:197. The smaller fragment is upside-down in the southern wall of the porch. Both fragments are partly in the soil which means that it is necessary to remove some soil in order to read the entire inscriptions. The larger part was known as early as Johannes Bureus (1568–1652) and it was also studied by Johan Peringskiöld during the national search for historic monuments (1667–84) and by Olof Celsius in 1727. However, the smaller part was not noticed by scholars until 1857, when it was documented by Richard Dybeck, who initially believed that the parts did not belong together. He corrected this interpretation in his ''Sverikes runurkunder'' (1865) where he made a depiction of how they would have looked before they were split. The fragments are in reddish
granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
and larger part measures in height and – in width, while the smaller one is tall and wide. It probably formed a twin monument together with U 141 on the estate of Fittja, before it was moved to the church to be used as building material in the mid-15th century.Wessén 1940–43:198. Both this runestone and U 141 are identified by von Friesen and Erik Brate as the production of the runemaster Fot. They were commissioned by Guðlaug in memory of her son Holmi who had died in ''Langbarðaland''. Peterson (2002) identifies Guðlaug with the one who commissioned Sö 206 and Sö 208, while Pritsak (1981) identifies her as Ónæmr's daughter who is mentioned on U 328. He further considers Holmi's father to be Özurr who is mentioned on U 328 and U 330.Pritsak 1980:392.


U 141

Runestone U 141
former location
formed a monument together with U 133, and it was raised by the same grieving mother in memory of her son. It was first documented by
Johannes Messenius Johannes Messenius (1579–1636) was a Sweden, Swedish historian, dramatist and university professor. He was born in the village of Freberga, in Stenby parish in Östergötland, and died in Oulu, in modern-day Finland. Childhood He was the son o ...
, in 1611. He appears to have learnt about the runestone from Johannes Bureus as both of them misspelt the name ''Holmi'' by letting the ''m'' precede the ''l''. Aschaneus (1575–1641) made a note that the runestone was to be seen at the estate of Fittja near Täby. It was also documented by Peringskiöld in his ''Monumenta'', and visited by Celsius in 1727. However, it later disappeared and both Richard Dybeck and later Erik Brate searched for it in vain. However, in 1933, a fragment with the final three runes were discovered during the installation of heating equipment in the cellar of the estate. The granite fragment, which measures in height and in width, has been raised in the garden of Fittja.Wessén 1940–1943:206.


Södermanland

There are two rune stones that mention Italy in Södermanland. However, one of them only says La-, having lost the series of runes that followed. However, the rune stone informs that the location was on the Eastern route, and ''Langbarðaland'' is the only known
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 ...
place name on the Eastern route that begins with these two runes.


Sö Fv1954;22

Runestone Sö Fv1954;22
original location
is in reddish grey and fine grained granite, and it was found in 11 pieces on a small hill about south-west of the village Lagnö, in 1949. At the location, the land slopes towards the former sailing route Eldsundet, where there once was a medieval assembly location. A house had once been in the same spot and it is likely that the runestone had been used as material in its stone foundation, or in a stove. The stone was moved to a conservation institute in Stockholm where it was mended but it was impossible to make a complete runestone out of it. In 1953, Jansson visited the location and he managed to retrieve some more fragments, adding up to a total of fifteen pieces. However, only twelve could be put together. The largest fragment is high, wide and thick, whereas the second largest one is high, m wide and thick. The expression ''i austrvegi'' ("on the eastern route") also appears on the runestones Sö 34 and Sö 126 in the same province, where it figures in poems in
fornyrðislag Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in the Old Norse language, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Old Norse poetry is associated with the area now referred to as Scandinav ...
. The last word in the inscription, which tells where the commemorated man died, is partly lost, but Jansson (1954) notes that it was probably ''Langbarðaland'' as it begins with ''La-''. The fragments are presently stored inside the Swedish History Museum in
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
.


Sö 65

Runestone Sö 65 is in style Pr1 ( Ringerike style) and it was documented at the farm Djul(e)fors during the national search for historic monuments (1667–84).Brate & Wessén 1924–1936:49. It is nowadays in the south-eastern end of the park of Eriksberg palace
location
. It measures c. in height. Brate & Wessén commented (1924–1936) that a third of the stone had been lost to its left and that it was wide at its base and wide at the top.Brate & Wessén 1924–1936:50. The 2008 edition of the Scandinavian Runic-text Database reports that a missing part was discovered in 1934, and Swedish National Heritage Board includes the rediscovered part in the stone's dimensions reporting its width to be .Entry RAÄ-nummer Stora Malm 20:1 at Fornsök
on the site of Swedish National Heritage Board, retrieved 03-06-2009.
Sophus Bugge noted in his ''Runverser'' that the expression ''arði barði'' ("ploughed his stern") also appears in the Icelandic ''Third Grammatical Treatise'' by Óláfr Þórðarson, and as well in a verse by the Orkney jarl Rögnvald Brusason. He also commented that the epitaph is in the meter that
Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...
called ''hinn skammi háttr''. Furthermore, he added that since seafaring played an important role in the lives of all Norse peoples, it would only be natural if they had many poetic expressions like ''arði barði'' in common (''cf.'' Sö 198).


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 ...


Notes


Sources

* * * Larsson, Mats G (2002). ''Götarnas Riken : Upptäcktsfärder Till Sveriges Enande''. Bokförlaget Atlantis AB
''Nordisk runnamslexikon''
by Lena Peterson at the Swedish Institute for Linguistics and Heritage (Institutet för språk och folkminnen). * Pritsak, Omeljan. (1981). ''The Origin of Rus'''. Cambridge, Mass.: Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. * *
''2. Runriket - Täby Kyrka''
an online article of the Stockholm County Museum, retrieved July 1, 2007.


External links


An English Dictionary of Runic Inscriptions of the Younger Futhark, at the university of Nottingham
{{Runestones 11th-century inscriptions Runestones in Uppland Runestones in Södermanland Runestones in memory of Viking warriors Varangian Guard Byzantine Empire-related inscriptions