The Stentoften Runestone, listed 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 as DR 357, is a

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 ...

which contains a curse 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 was discovered in Stentoften,

Blekinge Blekinge () is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's second-smallest provin ...

, Sweden.

Inscription

English translation provided by

Interpretation

In lines AP and AQ, in the phrase "gaf j" ("gave j"), the j-rune is an

ideographic rune Ideographic runes (, , 'term/notion runes') are runes used as ideographs instead of regular letters, that is, instead of representing their phoneme or syllable, they represent their name as a word or term. Such instances are sometimes referred to b ...

that stands for the rune name *''jēra'', meaning "harvest" or "bountiful or fruitful year." One runologist suggests that line AQ is describing an

animal sacrifice Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing and offering of animals, usually as part of a religious ritual or to appease or maintain favour with a deity. Animal sacrifices were common throughout Europe and the Ancient Near East until the spread of Chris ...

in return for a good harvest as part of a fertility ritual.

History

The Stentoften runestone was discovered in 1823 by the dean O. Hammer. It was lying down with the inscription facing downwards, surrounded by five sharp larger stones forming a

pentagon In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...

or a

pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle around ...

. Consequently, the stone has been part of a larger monument like the

Björketorp Runestone The Björketorp Runestone (Rundata, DR 360 U) in Blekinge, Sweden. It is one of the world's tallest runestones measuring 4.2 metres in height. Inscription The runes were made in the 6th or the 7th century and in Proto-Norse language, Proto-Norse ...

further east. In 1864, the runestone was moved into the church of

Sölvesborg Sölvesborg is a locality and the seat of Sölvesborg Municipality in Blekinge County, Sweden with 10,024 inhabitants in 2013. Sölvesborg is, despite its small population, for historical reasons normally still referred to as a ''city''. Statis ...

. Most scholars date the inscription to the 7th century and it is carved with a type of runes that form an intermediate version between 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 Per ...

and the Younger Futhark. A characteristic example of this is the a-rune which has the same form as the h-rune of the younger futhark. This is the rune that is transliterated with A. The k-rune, which looks like a Y is a transition form between and in the two futharks. There are quite few intermediary inscriptions like this one. Three more are known from

, i.e. the

, the

Istaby Runestone The Istaby Runestone, listed in the Rundata catalog as DR 359, is a runestone with an inscription in Proto-Norse which was raised in Istaby, Blekinge, Sweden, during the Vendel era (–790). Inscription Interpretation The Istaby, Stentoften ...

and the

Gummarp Runestone The Gummarp Runestone, designated as DR 358, was a runestone from the Vendel era and which was located in the former village of Gummarp in the province of Blekinge, Sweden. Description The Gummarp Runestone was removed and taken to Copenhagen, ...

, which were moved to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

and lost in the

Copenhagen Fire of 1728 The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 was the largest fire in the history of Copenhagen, Denmark. It began on the evening of 20 October 1728 and continued to burn until the morning of the 23rd of October 1728. It destroyed approximately 28% of the city (me ...

. The Stentoften,

and

inscriptions can be identified with the same clan through the names that are mentioned on them, and the names are typical for chieftains. The

lacks names and is raised some tens of kilometers from the others. However, it is beyond doubt that the Björketorp runestone is connected to them, because in addition to the special runic forms, the same message is given on the Stentoften Runestone. These runestones are probably not carved by the same person, and so it appears that they reflect a specific runic tradition in the

area during the 7th century. Runologist Michael Schulte suggests that the archaic text of the Stentoften stone is more effective from a dramatic perspective than the younger and more explicit version on the Björketorp stone. The name Hariwulfa is a combination of ''hari'' meaning "warrior" and ''wulafa'' "wolf," while the ''haþu'' of Haþuwulfz means "battle." It has been suggested that the assignment of such lycophoric names may have been related to ritualistic practices and religious wolf-symbolism used in the initiation of young warriors. A shortened form of the name Hariwulfa survived into the

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 ...

and is attested in the inscription on the Hærulf Runestone.

References

Sources

* * * * * * *Thorngren, Karl-Gösta: ''Runstenar i Blekinge. Blekingeboken 1942''. pp. 63–96. *

{{runestones

External links