Uppland Runic Inscription Fv1946;258 or U Fv1946;258 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 designation 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 ...

runic inscription A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of E ...

to two fathers that is located in Fällbro, which is about 5 kilometers northwest of

Täby Täby () was previously a trimunicipal locality, with 76,700 inhabitants in 2024. However, as from 2016, Statistics Sweden has amalgamated this locality with the Stockholm urban area. It is the seat of Täby Municipality in Stockholm County, Sw ...

, Stockholm County,

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 ...

, 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. The name literally ...

Description

This inscription was discovered in 1946 and is carved on a rock-face of a cliff. The runic inscription, which is 2.23 meters high and 1.14 meters wide, consists of text in the younger futhark carved on a serpent that is intertwined in an intricate design. Above the serpent is the figure of a man with raised arms. 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 ...

Pr4, which is also known as

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 runic text states that the inscription is a memorial by three sons in memory of their father. There are two transliterations of the runic text documented in

, the first, which is designated below as P, was performed by Sven B. F. Jansson and published in 1946, and the second, which is designated below as Q, was published in 1997. There are several differences between the two versions based not only on the reading of the runes, but also upon assumptions made regarding missing letters or assumed misspellings from the transliteration to the transcription into

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 ...

. Such assumptions are required since letters were often deliberately left out of the runic text under several accepted rules when carving inscriptions on runestones. For the text on U Fv1946;258, in the 1946 version Jansson transcribed the runes rauþkar, the name of the father, as an odd spelling of the Germanic name ''Hroðgæiʀ'', which means "Honor Spear." This interpretation, which ignores the a-rune in the name, was later re-interpreted by Evert Salberger as being ''Rauðkar'', a name given to a man with "red hair." The text is signed 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 ...

Visäte Visäte (Old Norse: ''Víseti'', ''Véseti'') was a runemaster who was active during the last half of the eleventh century in southern Uppland, Sweden. Work Most early medieval Scandinavians were probably literate in runes, and most people prob ...

, who was active during the last half of the eleventh century in southern Uppland. The runes (u)isiti * (r)i(s)ti, meaning ''Viseti risti'' ("Véseti carved"), are located near the head of the serpent. Seven other

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 ...

s signed by Visäte include U 74 in Husby, U 208 in Råcksta, U 236 in Lindö, U 337 in Granby, U 454 in Kumla, U 669 Kålsta, and U 862 in Säva. Over twenty additional runestones have been attributed to him on stylistic grounds. The Rundata designation for this inscription, U Fv1946;258, is from the year and page number of the issue of ''

Fornvännen (), ''Journal of Swedish Antiquarian Research'' is a Swedish academic journal in the fields of archaeology and Medieval art. It is published quarterly by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden. The jou ...

'' in which the inscription was first described.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:P: * uikr * uk * utryk * uk * bali * lata * raisa * mirki * iftʀ * faþur sn * rauþkar * uk skib * þu-- * -i-a-----i-iti * uk ---... skib * fa-t :Q: * uni(m)r * uk * utryk * uk * bali * lata * raisa * mirki * iftʀ * faþur sn * rauþkar * uk skib ' þu-ilia-- (u)isiti * (r)i(s)ti skibi * fa(s)tiProject Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
-

entry for U Fv1946;258.

Transcription into Old Norse

:P: ''Vigʀ ok Otryggʀ ok Balli lata ræisa mærki æftiʀ faður sinn Hroðgæiʀ ok skip(?) ... ... ok ... skip(?) '' :Q: ''Onæmʀ ok Otryggʀ ok Balli lata ræisa mærki æftiʀ faður sinn Rauðkar ok skip(?) ... Viseti risti, skip(?) .''

Translation in English

:P: Vígr and Ótryggr and Balli have raised the landmark in memory of their father Hróðgeirr and the ship(?) ... ... and ... ship(?) ... :Q: Ónæmr and Ótryggr and Balli have raised the landmark in memory of their father Rauðkárr and the ship(?) ... Véseti carved, ship(?) ...

References and notes

External links

Photograph of inscription
in 1997 - Swedish National Heritage Board
Photograph of inscription
in 2006 - Stockholm Läns Museum {{DEFAULTSORT:Uppland Runic Inscription Fv1946258 Runestones in Uppland