Westeremden Yew-stick

The Westeremden yew-stick is a yew-wood stick found in Westeremden in the Groningen province of the Netherlands in 1917.
It bears an Old Frisian runic inscription, dated to the second half of the 8th century.
With a total of 41 letters, this is the longest of the extant Frisian runic inscriptions.

Transliteration

The inscription is divided into three lines, as follows:
:ᚩᛈᚻᚳᛗᚢᛡᛁᛅᛞᚪᚳᛗᛚᚢᚦ:
:ᚹᛁᛗᛟᚳᚻᚦᚢᚴᛅ
:ᛁᚹᛁᚩᚢᛞᚢᚿᚩᛚᛖ:

Runes with unfamiliar shapes or uncertain values are:
* , a '' Spiegelrune'' of ᛒ, similar to a variant of ᛥ ''stan'', transliterated as ''B'' below
* , a ''Spiegelrune'' of ᛈ, similar to a variant of ᛥ ''stan'', transliterated as ''P'' below
* , like Younger Futhark ''kaun'', transliterated as ''K'' below
*ᚳ (like Anglo-Saxon ''cen'', occurring three times); it apparently represents a vowel, likely ''æ'', replacing absent ᚫ ''æsc''
*ᛅ (like Younger Futhark ''ar''), transliterated as ''A'' below
*ᚴ, a "bookhand-''s''", transliterated as ''S'' below
* ᚿ, like a short-twig ''n'', probably for ᚾ ''n''

with these decisions, the transliteration may be:
: ''ophæmujiBAdaæmluþ:''
: ''wimœBæhþuSA''
: ''iwioKuPdunale:''

Interpretations

Seebold (1990) reads (transliterating ''g'' for ''j'', ''v'' for ''B'', ''ë'' for ''A'', ''ô'' for ''œ''):
:''ophæmu givëda amluþ:iwi ok upduna (a)le wimôv æh þusë''

Looijenga (1997) reads:
:''op hæmu jibada æmluþ : iwi ok up duna (a)le wimœd æh þusa''

This reading gives rise to an interpretation along the lines of
:"luck (''amluþ'') stays (''gibada'') at home (''op hæmu''); and (''ok'') at the yew ('' iwi'') may it grow (''ale'') on the hill (''up duna''); Wimœd has (''æh'') this (''þusa'')."
or paraphrased more loosely, "At the homestead stays good fortune, may it also grow near the yew on the terp; Wimœd owns this."

In a controversial suggestion going back to 1937,
the sequence ''æmluþ'' has often been interpreted as a reference to Amleth ("Hamlet").
The inscription is here interpreted as
:''ophamu gistadda amluþ : iwim ost ah þukn iwi os ust dukale''
and given the translation
:"Amluth took his (fighting) position on the high place. Before his yews the waves cowered. May the waves cower before this yew."
The association has led to speculative proposals to the point that Quak (1991) called for a re-examination for the inscription with the ironic caveat "maybe disregarding associations with Hamlet or Amluth"."Es wäre vielleicht an der Zeit, namentlich die Inschrift von Westeremden
einer neuen Betrachtung zu unterziehen. Dabei könnte man vielleicht Assoziationen mit Hamlet oder Amluth außer Betracht lassen" Arend Quak, 'Altfriesische und altenglische Runen', in: A. Bammesberger (ed.), ''Old English runes and their continental background'' Heidelberg, 1991, 295.

References

{{reflist
*Tineke J. H. Looijenga,
Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150–700
', dissertation, Groningen University (1997), 183–185.

Runic inscriptions
Anglo-Saxon runes
Frisian languages