Uppland Runic Inscription 181 or U 181 is 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 number for 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 ...

located at Össeby-Garn, which is about one kilometer east of Karby,

Uppsala County Uppsala County () 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. Province The nor ...

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

This inscription on a granite stone, which is 1.85 meters in height, consists of runic text in the younger futhark that is carved on a serpent that circles a central area where it becomes intertwined with itself, with a

Christian cross The Christian cross, seen as representing the crucifixion of Jesus, is a religious symbol, symbol of Christianity. It is related to the crucifix, a cross that includes a ''corpus'' (a representation of Jesus' body, usually three-dimensional) a ...

in the upper part of the encircled area. 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 ...

Pr5, which is considered to be

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 ...

. This runestone style is characterized by slim and stylized animals that are interwoven into tight patterns. The animal heads are typically seen in profile with slender almond-shaped eyes and upwardly curled appendages on the noses and the necks. The text indicates that the inscription was carved by the

runemaster A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones. Description More than 100 names of runemasters are known from Viking Age Sweden with most of them from 11th-century eastern Svealand.The article ''Runristare'' in ''Nationalencyklo ...

Öpir Öpir or ''Öper'' (Old Norse: ''Øpiʀ''/''Œpir'', meaning "shouter") was a runemaster who flourished during the late 11th century and early 12th century in Uppland, Sweden.The article ''Öpir'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (1996). He was the m ...

, who was active during the late 11th century and early 12th century 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 ...

, Sweden. His name ubiʀ is on the serpent on the lower right of this inscription. Öpir is known for his Urnes style inscriptions and signed almost fifty surviving inscriptions, with many more unsigned inscriptions attributed to him. Runic inscriptions are often dated based upon comparative

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and stylistic analysis, and the inscription on U 181 has been dated as being carved approximately after 1100. The runic text indicates that the stone was raised by several brothers and possibly daughters as a memorial to their father named Eistr. In carving the text, Öpir left off the final "ʀ" in ''runaʀ'', or "runes," which he also did on inscriptions such as that on U Fv1976;107 at

Uppsala Cathedral Uppsala Cathedral () is a cathedral located between the University Hall (Uppsala University), University Hall of Uppsala University and the Fyris river in the centre of Uppsala, Sweden. A church of the Church of Sweden, the national church, in t ...

. p. 107. Öpir also used a dot as a

punctuation mark Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of written text should be read (silently or aloud) and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, consisti ...

between each word of the text of this inscription. The inscription was signed by the runemaster Öpir using 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 ...

phrase ''en Øpiʀ risti runaʀ'', which means "and Öpir carved the runes." This exact phrase was also used by Öpir when signing inscriptions on U 118 in Älvsunda, the now-lost U 262 in Fresta, U 287 in Vik, U 462 in Prästgården, U 541 in Husby-Sjuhundra, and U 566 in Vällingsö.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:askutr ' uk ' suain ' ikifastr ' uk ' ikibiarn ' uk ' tutr ' ... ...ain ' iftiʀ ' est ' faþur ' sin ' in ' ubiʀ ' risti ' runProject Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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entry for U 181.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Asgautr ok Svæinn, Ingifastr ok Ingibiorn ok døtr(?)/Dyntr(?) ... t�in æftiʀ Æist, faður sinn. En Øpiʀ risti runaʀ.''

Translation in English

:Ásgautr and Sveinn (and) Ingifastr and Ingibjǫrn and the daughters(?)/Dyntr(?) ... the stone in memory of Eistr, their father. And Œpir carved the runes.

References