The Norsta runestone is an 11th-century

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 ...

inscribed in

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is 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 of Scandinavia and t ...

with the

Younger Futhark The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet and a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, with only 16 characters, in use from about the 9th century, after a "transitional period" during the 7th and 8th centuries. The r ...

that stands near

Wik Castle Vik Castle (''Viks slott'') is situated in Uppsala municipality and Balingsta district in Uppsala County, in the historical province of Uppland, Sweden. The name of the castle is sometimes spelled Wik or Wijk, which is a spelling according to o ...

outside

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

, Sweden. It is notable because of the mention of two people named "maiden" and Sweyn. The form ''møy'' which appears on this runestone is the accusative form of

Old East Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

''māʀ'' which meant "maiden" and this is the only attestation of this word as the name of a girl, in

, besides a mention in the '' Hervarar saga'', where a ''Mær'' ("maiden" in

Old West Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

) married the Swedish king Inge I. Her brother was

Blot-Sweyn Blot-Sweyn (Swedish:''Blot-Sven'') was a Swedish king c. 1080, who replaced his Christian brother-in-law Inge as King of Sweden, when Inge had refused to administer the blóts (pagan sacrifices) at the Temple at Uppsala. There is no mention of Sw ...

, who succeeded Inge. As the runestone is from about the same time as Blot-Sweyn, it is likely that the Sweyn mentioned in the runestone is the same as the Swedish king Blot-Sweyn.

Transliteration

:sihikþurn ' ... isa * stin' uk ' bru ' kera : at : aterf : sun : uk ' a(t) ' mai : tutor : sin : eþorn : uk : suen : uk ' (u)ikþu-... ' sikb--... ...(ʀ) ' isi

Transcription into Old Norse

:Sigþorn ... ræisa stæin ok bro gærva at Adiarf, sun, ok at Møy, dottur sina, Æiþorn ok Svæinn ok Vigþo n... ...

Translation in English

:Sigþorn ... the stone raised and the bridge made in memory of Ádjarfr, (his) son, and in memory of Mey, his daughter; Eiþorn and Sveinn and Vígþorn ..

Notes

{{reflist

Sources

*
Sveriges runinskrifter
' (1922) by

Erik Brate Erik Brate (13 June 1857 – 11 April 1924) was a Swedish linguist and runologist. Biography Brate was born in 1857 in Norberg, Västmanland County. In 1887 he married the Swedish painter Fanny Brate, née Ekbom (1861-1940). They had four ...

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 ...

Runestones in Uppland Runestones raised in memory of women 11th-century inscriptions

Transliteration

Transcription into Old Norse

Translation in English

See also

Notes

Sources