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The Möjbro Runestone is a
runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...
that is designated as U 877 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 f ...
catalog and is inscribed in
Proto-Norse Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic, Ancient Scandinavian, Ancient Norse, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Proto-Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a ...
using the
Elder 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 Pe ...
. It was found in Möjbro, which is about 8 kilometers north of
Örsundsbro Örsundsbro is a locality situated in Enköping Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 1,386 inhabitants in 2019. Together with the nearby locality Örsundsbro Norra Örsundsbro is a locality situated in Enköping Municipality, Uppsala C ...
in
Uppsala County Uppsala County ( sv, Uppsala län) is a county or '' län'' on the eastern coast of Sweden, whose capital is the city of Uppsala. It borders the counties of Dalarna, Stockholm, Södermanland, Västmanland, Gävleborg, and the Baltic Sea. ...
, Sweden, which is 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. On the small un ...
. The runestone is on display at the
Swedish Museum of National Antiquities The Swedish History Museum ( sv, Historiska museet or Statens historiska museum) is a museum located in Stockholm, Sweden, that covers Swedish archaeology and cultural history from the Mesolithic period to present day. Founded in 1866, it operate ...
in Stockholm. Formerly placed in the 3rd century, the inscription and drawing are now mostly placed in the 5th or early 6th centuries.


History

Although the stone has been known since the initial surveys of runestones in Sweden during the 1600s, its exact original location is not known. The runestone is in height and made of granite. It is considered to be fragile. To protect the stone and its shallow inscription, it was moved in 1948 from Möjbro to the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities.


Drawing

The Möjbro Runestone is notable not only for being one of few runestones in Proto-Norse, but also for showing what is considered to be an artistically crafted image of a rider on a horse with two dogs. It is believed to have been inspired by continental Germanic images of victorious warriors on horses and that it ultimately derives from the motifs of horsemen common on
tombstones A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, ...
of members of the
Roman cavalry Roman cavalry (Latin: ''equites Romani'') refers to the horse-mounted forces of the Roman army throughout the Regal, Republican, and Imperial eras. In the Regal era the Roman cavalry was a group of 300 soldiers called '' celeres'', tasked wit ...
in
late Roman Empire The Later Roman Empire spans the period from 284 AD ( Diocletian's proclamation as emperor) to 641 (death of Heraclius) in the history of the Roman Empire. Evidence Histories In comparison with previous periods, studies on Later Roman history ...
era art.


Inscription

The inscription is to be read from right to left, and from bottom to top. It transliterates as :''frawaradaz / anahahaisla na/z''. Several interpretations have been put forth for the inscription, but the only thing that can be said with certainty on the interpretation of the inscription is that ''Frawaradaz'' is the name of a man (and even the interpretation of the name is debated). The most common view is that the final part of the inscription is to be read as ''slaginaz'' "slain", indicating that the stone is a memorial and that it says that Frawaradaz was slain. Hempl (1900), by contrast, read ''langiniz'', reading the letter transliterated '' ' above as a
bind rune A bind rune or bindrune ( is, bandrún) is a Migration Period Germanic ligature of two or more runes. They are extremely rare in Viking Age inscriptions, but are common in earlier (Proto-Norse) and later (medieval) inscriptions.Enoksen, Lars Mag ...
(ligature) for ''ng'' (/ŋ/). The middle part of the inscription, reading ''anahahai'' or similar, has given rise to a wide variety of tentative interpretations, most of them assuming that it gives additional information on the person of Frawaradaz or on the circumstances of his death, including "Āna, the one-eyed", "the noble", "on the racer"/"on his steed/horse", "of Hagho", "in Hagho". Grønvik (1985) gives an alternative interpretation inasmuch as he has the ''slaginaz'' refer to the horse, not the dead man, reading "Frawarādaz s buried here- Over he dead one the horse was slaughtered." Elmevik (1978) interprets the final word as ''laikīnaz'', preceded by the copula ''is'': ''Frawarādaz ainahāhǣ is laikinaz.'' The ''ainahāhǣ'' is interpreted as "the only high one" (=the one most noble of all), and the ''is laikinaz'' either as "is eager to fight" or "is killed intentionally" or "is killed by witchcraft". Krause (1966) segments the top line of text into "ana hahai slaginaz." "Hahai" here is interpreted as "hanhē," indicating both the occurrence in speech of the aspirant h preceded by a vowel and a nasal to be realised as nasalised vowel (explaining the representation as "hahai" instead of expected "hanhai) and the development of the Proto-Germanic dative ending from /-ai/ to /-ē/ over time. This second indication would suggest that the spelling on the Möjbro Runestone is an inherited, archaicised spelling from earlier Proto-Germanic.The inscription is thus interpreted to mean "on (his) steed slain."


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 is found in Sweden, estimated at between 1,700 and 2,500 (depending o ...


References


Other sources

*The article ''Möjbrostenen'' in ''
Nationalencyklopedin ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish language, Swedish-language encyclopedia, initiated by a favourable loan from the Government of Sweden of 17 million Swed ...
'' (1994). *


External links


Photograph of runestone
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mojbro Runestone Proto-Norse language Runestones in Uppland Elder Futhark inscriptions