Runes 101 - Runes in History - The Faroese Stones

Translated carving on the Sandavágur Stone

It's always hard for me to accept that Iceland has no Runestones.  None.  Not any.  However, it does bring me some solace to know that the tiny Faroe Islands, with a population of just over 50,000, has three of them - the Sandavágur Stone (discovered 1917), the Kirkjubøur Stone (discovered 1832), and the Fámjin Stone (discovery date unclear).

Although they were all originally housed in churches with the same name as the stones, at least one reference said that they are all housed in the Faroese National Museum in Tórshavn, though I think that may be the case only for the Kirkjubøur Stone.

What is most interesting to me about these stones is the age range among them.  The Kirkjubøur Stone is the oldest, dating from the Viking Age (between the 8th and 11th centuries).  The Sandavágur Stone is next from the 13th century, while the Fámjin Stone is about 300 years younger dated to the middle/end of the 16th century.  That demonstrates Rune usage well into the Middle Ages.

The Fámjin Stone has Roman letters on it in addition to the Runes, but given how young it is, that is not so surprising.  Still, I couldn't find what was carved on the stone.

The oldest of the stones, the Kirkjubøur Stone, says something about peace being granted to someone named Vígulf.  Although I couldn't find a picture of the stone itself, the Runic carving appears on a stamp.  It's in the background and and image of the Sandavágur Stone is in the front.

The Sandavágur Stone also has the most complete inscription.  It refers to Thorkell Onundarson,claiming that he was the first to build there.  The impression seems to be that he was the first permanent settler at least in the Sandavágur area.

Researching these stones left me convinced that I need to put the Faroe Islands on my list of places to visit so that I can see them for myself and share more about them.  If you've been there and have pictures, you're willing to share, please let me know.

Runes 101 - Runes in History - The Vang Stone

Image from Wikipedia

The Vang Stone is a Runestone located in the central part of southern Norway. Although its runic inscription follows a fairly standard wording – someone has erected the stone in honor or memory of someone else – I am not sure if the stone was erected for the carvers' nephew or cousin.  In my research, I found both. The actual wording is interpreted as:  Gasa's sons erected (cut or carved) this stone in memory of Gunnar, their nephew/cousin.  But, this is only one aspect of the Vang Stone.

Vang Stone inscription

Of the roughly 3,000 Runestones in Scandinavia, Sweden hosts the vast majority of them.  There are none in Iceland, around 250 in Denmark, and Norway comes in with 50. Of course, other areas of the world also tout a runestone or runic carving (for example, Italy has the Pireaus Lion, there are some in the UK, including the Manx Crosses on the Isle of Man, even Greenland has one.)  So, this special stone is one of Norway's 50 and what makes it interesting is that the Vang Stone has some really fascinating features all based on location.

Changing location.  The Vang Stone was erected right around the time of the conversion to Christianity in Scandinavia (around the year 1000) and located originally near a stave church; and there it sat for more than 800 years.  When the stave church was taken apart and reassembled in Germany in 1844, the Vang Stone was also moved to the Vang Church and it still resides there.

Geographic location. On a larger scale, the Vang Stone lies just to the north of the Ringerike District of Norway, the area which is responsible for the ornate carving style on the Vang Stone's face, called the Ringerike style.  The design is topped off by a stylized lion with two small shells at the bottom.  In between are gently-curved swirls that crisscross in the middle. The top part of the crisscross appears a bit more symmetrical, though not entirely, than the lower portion.

Inscription location.  On a much smaller scale, the stone itself is different from most other stones, because its runic engraving runs along the side of the stone.  It is not above, below or integrated into the picture and design on the stone's face.  I tried to highlight (in the image to the left) the cut Runes that run along right side of the stone as you look at its face, but if you want a better view, I did find a reasonable image online. (Click to see the Vang Stone image.)  The location of the Runes on the stone is quite intriguing to me.  I can't help but wonder if carving them on the side was an intentional piece of the stone design so as not to take away from the carving on the front or if Gasa's sons simply forgot to leave space, so had no choice but to cut the Runes along the stone's side.

The Vang Stone is a good example of the importance of location, location, location.

Runes 101 - Runes in History - Maeshowe, Orkney

Orkney: Maeshowe neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave*

There can be no question about the reach of the Vikings during the roughly 300-year period named after them - the Viking Age (~790-1066).  Reaching Asia in the east and North America in the west, Vikings were the greatest navigators and explorers of their time.  They affected life and culture wherever they went, leaving behind evidence of their impact as grand as cities they founded and as simple as runic graffiti they carved.

Just over a year ago,  I provided an overview of some graffiti on the Piraeus Lion in Italy, carvings which were rather elaborate.  Much closer to the Viking homelands, however, lies one of the largest known groups of runic graffiti.

At the end of 1999, on mainland Orkney,  a UNESCO World Heritage Site was named and includes four neolithic structures - the Standing Stones of Stenness, Skara Brae (a neolithic village), the Ring of Brodger, and Maeshowe (pictured above).

However, Maeshowe is not famous just because of its age or its interior chambers and passages.  It is also home to at least 30 runic inscriptions, carved between the ninth and twelfth centuries.

These 30 inscriptions include at least one set of the Norwegian (Younger) Futhark, several common statements such as Vermunt carved (these runes) or Tryggr carved these Runes.  Some inscriptions mention women (Ingbjork the fair widow, for example), while others inform us about some of the men who broke into the cairn and carved the Runes on the walls.  They were crusaders and may have been in search of treasure or, at least, were aware that the cairn once contained treasure that had long since been taken, well before the Rune carvers showed up.

In addition to the Runes, there is also a worm knot and  very ornately carved dragon, which has become a common and recognizable Orkney symbol, appearing on T-shirts, jewelry, and even malt whiskey.  If you search online for images of the Orkney dragon, I guarantee you will see plenty of examples of it.  For now, here are a couple of links to sites that provide more images of and information about the Maeshowe Runic inscriptions:

The Project Gutenburg eBook

Orkneyjar

*Image from 123rf.com, photographer Juliane Jacobs

The Ogham Alphabet

Ogham, Image credit:
vrindavana / 123RF Stock Photo

Today is March 17th, Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland, which got me thinking about their ancient alphabet, Ogham.  I didn't know much about it before I researched it for this post, but it does seem to share more similarities with Runes than the Theban Alphabet does. However, what makes this alphabet most interesting to me is its link to trees.

Just as Berkana represents the birch, so too does the 'b' in Ogham.  In contrast, while Isa, the 'i' Rune represents ice, the Ogham's 'i' is the yew tree, which is Eihwaz in Runes.  For a full listing of Ogham names, you can check out this link.  I should also mention that the use of Ogham for divination purposes relates primarily to these meanings and is referred to as the 'tree Ogham'.

With potential origins ranging from being a secret code used by Irish Christians to an invention of Druids in Gaul, the Ogham's origins are shrouded in uncertainties. It is believed that Ogham was modeled after another script, with the Runes listed as one potential source, but Latin and Greek are also listed as possibilities.

Another uncertainty is the timing of its onset.  The range I found begins with the Gaulish Druids around 600 BCE through the 4th Century, although the earliest inscriptions that remain date to the end of that time frame - the 3rd or 4th centuries.

Whereas 'Runes' tend to be related to similar meanings, such as 'whisper' or 'secret', Ogham's potential meanings present another similarity to them.  They include a reference to the Irish god Ogma and an Irish phrase that means point seam, which is the seam made by a sharp weapon.  Both of these do have potential.  As much as the Runes are associated with Odin during his famous sacrifice hanging on the tree for nine days, before snatching them up, so too, in Irish Mythology, Ogma is credited with creating the alphabet named after him.  However, the idea of the seam carved by a weapon carries equal if not more weight given that (as we shall see shortly) Ogham is written along seams on stones.

Both Runes and Ogham are carved into natural fibers, such as wood and stone.  Moreover, just as many Runestones are carved in honor or memory of someone and establish lineage, so too do Ogham inscriptions, with most having a formula like - X son of Y.  Although Runic inscriptions are found in a larger geographical area, from Italy to Greenland and Sweden to Russia and Romania, they share ground with Ogham inscriptions in Scotland, England, and on the Isle of Man and Ireland, the latter being where Ogham dominates.  Within these countries, nearly 400 Ogham inscriptions have been found.

However, where Runes are carved on the face and/or sides of stones, Ogham is carved at the edge; this relates to the 'weapon seam' noted above.  For example, the figure to the right, shows what my name would look like carved or written in Ogham.  On a stone, it would be carved vertically along the edge from bottom to top.  In a manuscript, it would be horizontal from left to right.  The vertical version would have been carved into stones and is referred to as the orthodox version.  Due to its manuscript format, the horizontal depiction is called the scholastic version.

As we celebrate St.Patrick's Day today, it should be noted that while the earlier Orthodox version of Ogham would have no longer been used in Saint Patrick's time, the Scholastic Ogham would have.  In fact, it was used until the 16th century.

Runes 101 - Runes in History - The Piraeus Lion

Image from Wikipedia

The fact that the Piraeus Lion symbolized Saint Mark (the patron saint of Venice) was of little consequence to the Swedish Vikings, who, in the mid-eleventh century, carved Runes into both of the sitting lion's shoulders.  These weren't just simple runic carvings like we saw at the Borgund Church in Norway.  These were relatively elaborate carvings with one at least being on par with the Ramsund Stone carving in Sweden.

There are two really interesting images of the statue's carvings on a site called Darwaza, which looks at "global design history".  The images on this site show the location of the carvings on the lion and a drawing of the carvings displaying the Runes, which appear to be the younger Futhark.

While the carving on the left shoulder does have a nice curve to it, the engraving on the right shoulder is particularly intricate, in a long swirling dragon.

Although the carvings date to the mid-eleventh century, they went unnoticed until the late 1700s, when Swedish-born diplomat and orientalist Johan David Åkerblad noticed them.  Since their discovery, there have been many attempts to decipher their meaning, but centuries of pollution and weathering (erosion caused by rain, wind and other forces), have made the Runes hard to decipher.

The engravings appear to be an account the whereabouts of those involved in fighting and battles in the region. Even though the Greeks forbade it, at Harold the Tall's request, someone named Asmund "cut these runes".  With him were Thorleif, Thord and Ivar.  That is the left shoulder carving.

The right side is not only more intricate with its dragon shape, but the words being carved into that twisting dragon provide more insight into the events that transpired there.  It appears as though the Asmund, who carved the other runes, helped Hakon, Ulf, and Örn conquer the port.  As a result of their attempt to resist them, these vikings and Harold Hafi (another viking listed as imposing the fine, but not listed as one who secured the port) levied a large fine on the Greek people.  The carving also states that Dalk (presumably another viking) is being held captive in some far off land and Egil and Ragnar are on an exhibition to Romania and Armenia.

These interpretations are from translations by Carl Christian Rafn, who was secretary for the Royal Society of Norse Antiquities.  About sixty years after his translation, in 1914, Erik Brate, a renowned Swedish runologist did his own translation.  Although it does not include all the names and locations as the first, it is considered to be more accurate.  Moreover, this translation claims the Runes were carved in memory of Horsi, a good warrior that won gold in his travels.  Both translations can be found on Wikipedia.

The Piraeus lion is one of four located at the Venetian Arsenal. So, if you're ever there look for the one with Runes carved into its shoulders.  Look carefully, because weathering and pollution have made them difficult to spot, even when you know what you're looking for.  There are also copies of the Piraeus Lion at the Swedish History Museum  in Stockholm and the Piraeus Archeological Museum in Greece.

Runes 101 - Runes in History - Borgund Church

Image from Wikipedia of
the Borgund Church

The Borgund Church in Norway is one of the country's nearly 30 stave churches.  In fact, Norway hosts more stave churches than any other country, including the Urnes stave church, which is a UNESCO world heritage site.

While stave churches are interesting enough simply by virtue of their architecture, there are many carvings (graffiti) covering several hundred years and including pictures, such as stick figures, etched into their wooden walls.  Among these churches, the Borgund Church caught my eye not only because it is the best preserved stave church (according to many sources), but because of some very early graffiti engraved there.

I refer, of course, to runic inscriptions.  At least three runic inscriptions are legible inside the church.  One says only, "Ava Maria."

In his book, Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions, Terje Sperkland identified an inscription that asks god to help others, "May God help everyone who helps me on my journey."

It is the third inscription, however, which I find the most intriguing.  It says, "Thorir carved these runes on the eve of St. Olaf's mass, as he travelled past here. The norns presented measures of good and evil, great toil they created before me."

I found this inscription referenced on three websites, but only one included the second sentence about the Norns.   For me, that sentence is far more interesting than the first, because it indicates that, as late as the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century, long after worship of the ancient gods was supposed to have ceased, Thorir was writing about the Norns in a Christian church.  Moreover, he sums them up quite accurately, telling us that they filled his life with good and evil and, it seems, many struggles.

Tiwaz and
Ansuz

In addition to these inscriptions, I also came across a picture of some of the other graffiti that included what looked to me to be a bind Rune.  I recreated the image as best as I could, which appears to consist of two Runes - Tiwaz and Ansuz.  This shows another intrguing potential crossover between the Norse gods and Christianity, because Tiwaz is Tyr's Rune and Ansuz tends to be affiliated with Odin and, at the very least, an ancient Norse god in general.

If you are fortunate enough to visit one of these old churches, enjoy the architecture and history, but make sure to look around for subtle runic inscriptions, which offer their own twist on the experience.

Runes 101 - Runes in Mythology 9 - Ramsund Runestone

When we think of Runestones, we envision large, erect boulders, etched with runic inscriptions and generally also ornately decorated.  However, there is one Runestone that does not quite fit this image.  It has a runic inscription and is quite ornately carved, but it is not carved into a large boulder, rather into a slab of rock, an outcrop, if you will, in Sweden.  I refer, of course, to the Ramsund stone.

While there are no shortages of Runestones about which I could write, more than 1,700 in Sweden alone, there are at least three aspects of this stone that are of particular interest.  First is the fact that it is carved into a rock outcrop rather than on a standing stone.  For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as the Ramsund carving, instead of stone.  Looking at the image to the left, all that is visible on the rock are the glacial striations (scratch lines in the rock) from the Fennoscandia ice sheet that covered the region during the last ice age.

Upon closer look, we see reason number two why this Runestone is so interesting - the runic carving itself.  A woman named Sigurd Ormsdottir (daughter of Orm), had the "bridge" made for her husband Holmgeirr's soul.  It is likely that the bridge relates to Christian influence and the idea of a bridge to heaven or to the next life.  Vikings believed in a next life as evidenced by many Viking ship burials that include all of the things that the person buried would need in his or her next life.  Therefore, they may have found the idea of being able to build a bridge to it quite satisfying.

However, the third reason for writing about this Runestone may be the most intriguing - the imagery that accompanies the inscription.  It shows scenes from the story of Sigurd the dragon slayer.  I won't tell you the details of the story, rather I will point out what each image depicts, and you can consider it enticement for reading the Saga of the Volsungs: the Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer.  The translation this link takes you to was done by my former Old Norse professor at UCLA, Jesse Byock.

Although the scenes from Sigrud's story do not appear in order on the carving, I will go through them from left to right.  The first image shows Reginn, Sigurd's foster father, decapitated among his smithing tools. Above that image and looking a bit like a dog, is Otr, Reginn's brother; he is a shape shifter.  In the third scene, Sigurd is roasting the dragon's heart over a spit.  The horse in the next image belongs to Reginn and it is carrying treasure.  In the tree in the next scene, two birds warn Sigurd that Reginn will betray their reconciliation.  Finally, there is an image, under the runic inscription, actually stabbing it from below.  That is Sigurd killing Fafnir, Reginn and Otr's brother.

The Ramsund stone (or carving) is one of the coolest Runestones I've come across so far.  Which one is your favorite?  If there is one you'd like me to write about, let me know.

Runes 101 - Runes in History 8

In the last Runes 101 post, I wrote about the 1955 Bergen fire.  This time, while I complete etching the Runes on my wooden staves, I thought I would figuratively head to the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea and write about the Manx Crosses in general, and one in particular.

The Manx Crosses are actually Runestones, displaying both Celtic and Norse roots and blending early Christian imagery with Celtic/Norse ones.  This group of more than two dozen stones, dates back primarily to the 10th century, the height of the Viking Age.  There had been a long Celtic tradition of raising crosses to the dead (nearly 200 such stones have been found), prior to the Norse influx, but it is with their arrival that the two cultures merged to create some very interesting and artistic works.  For example, where the earlier crosses had wonderful Celtic knots carved into them in a variety of styles, the later ones build on that idea, twisting animals around each other in a similar fashion.

Another interesting aspect to these crosses is that there are multiple styles of Runes used on them.  There are Anglo-Saxon, elder Futhark, and short-twig or staveless Runes found on different crosses, though none together on the same cross, as far as I can tell.  In addition to Runic inscriptions, the first half of the Ogham alphabet appears on one and Ogham letters are visible on both sides of another.

Most of the Manx crosses are carved in memory to someone, a father, a wife, a son or daughter.  Some are dedicated to the person who raised the cross, while others are simply illegible.  At least one cross records a betrayal.

The Manx Cross that interests me the most is one from the Jurby parish in the northwest part of the island.  It is ornately carved (images above and to the right) and includes other ornamentation along with an Old Norse runic inscription:

"[s]on sinn en annan reisti/retti [hann] eptir Thorb" 

The inscription translates into something like the Rune carver has raised a stone for his son and raised another in memory of someone whose name began with Thor - Thorbjorn, Thorvald, etc.

I confess that it is not the inscription that intrigues me about this cross, rather the fact that this cross includes an image of Heimdall, the Norse gods' sentry, who happens to be the main historical character in my novel, The Son of Nine Sisters.   Although Heimdall is carved on this cross, no evidence exists to support the idea that there was ever a culture, tribe or group that worshiped or sacrificed to him.

I believe this image actually supports that idea and represents the call to the beginning of Ragnarök, the final battle of the Norse gods, rather than highlighting Heimdall as a deity.  As you can see in the enlarged image (left), Heimdall is clearly blowing Gjallarhorn to signal the battle's onset.

Across the Irish Sea, in Cumbria, England, another cross (The Gosforth Cross) depicts another Norse image of a god, which has been identified mistakenly as Heimdall, because he holds a horn in one hand while fighting a beast in the other.  I do not believe this is Heimdall, rather, if it is a god, it is Thor killing the Midgard serpent.  That aligns better with the final battle and Thor's own personality as being able to drink enough mead to lower sea level.  Besides, there is no record or story of Heimdall battling anything other than Loki.

Getting back to the Manx Crosses, The Isle of Man Manx National Heritage Museum is a great resource for learning more about these fascinating stones, including having replicas of some of the stones and a database of illustrated images of all the Manx Crosses.

Long ago, I added the Isle of Man to my places to visit.  How about you?  Have you traveled to the Isle of Man?  Did you see any of these crosses?  If so, please share your experience with us.

Runes 101 - Runes in History - Bergen Fire

Bergen, Norway

Over the weekend, I finally got around to reading an article I found quite a while back about some runic inscriptions from Bergen, Norway.  Well,  these were no ordinary inscriptions.  In fact, nearly 700 of them were discovered after a huge fire broke out in 1955. During the 14th century, the area had been home to a group of German merchants, called the Hanse or Hanseatic League, which controlled much of the northern European trade along the coast, including Bergen's fish trade.  The 1955 fire, which began when lightning struck the nearby wharf, burned through four large building complexes.

Two amazing discoveries were made as a result of this fire.  First, it was not the first fire in the area.  In fact,  "German Bryggen" (The German Bergen) has burned at least seven times since the late twelfth century.  What these past fires provide archeologists and other researchers with is a tool to date artifacts found in the area.  When a large fire like this occurs, basically, it leaves a charcoal line in the strata.  Because researchers know the dates of the fires, and thus the charcoal layers, they can determine the age of the artifacts in the surrounding layers.

The other aspect to this fire and the aspect which is relevant to this post is the findings of the archeological research that ensued following the burn.  As I mentioned above, archeologists found nearly 700 runic inscriptions in the area.  Some of the inscriptions occur as late as the 14th century, which surprised me, because I had assumed that the use of Runes had died out shortly after Christianity took over.  Apparently, many other people thought that it had ceased by the end of the 12th century as well.

The really cool thing about these inscriptions is that, not only do they give us a glimpse of daily life in Bergen over a number of centuries, but they are quite varied.  Occurring primarily on wooden sticks, the carvings range from simple labels that could be affixed to other items to declare ownership, to letters dealing with finances and other business matters, in addition to poems, quotes from mythology, biblical quotes or prayers, and even proclamations of love and romance, and a letter from a crown prince, who was seeking ships to build a naval force.  A few wooden sticks also included charms and spells.

I'm not sure which of these inscriptions I find the most interesting.  The fact that people carved complete letters into wood is pretty cool and the love poems are fun, but I may have to go with either the contrasting mythological and biblical quotes, demonstrating a potential culture clash, or the sticks with spells and charms - a.k.a. magic.  According to the article I read, more than 100 of the runic inscriptions are related to magic and about half of those use the Futhark as their magic.  That is to say the writer would inscribe something (such as a wish or a warning) on one side of the stick and, on the other, would carve out the entire Futhark.  What was interesting to me is that this is claimed to be an "immensely old" form of sorcery, yet the Futhark used (in the images I saw) was the Scandinavian and Younger Furthark which contains only 16 letters, whereas the Elder Futhark, from which this and the Anglo Saxon Younger Futhark derive, contains 24 (see my earlier post Runes 101 - Runes in History).  I would have expected that the Elder Futhark would have been used, but this represents regional variations of the Futhark that developed with time and distance.

This is a fascinating topic, one I feel I could spend years researching.  However, what I will do instead is add to this brief introduction a few links to information about the Bergen fire runic inscriptions and the article on the subject from 1966 that I read.

For those of you interested in learning more, please read on...

Links:

http://www.nb.no/baser/runer/eindex.html

http://www.nb.no/baser/runer/ribwww/english/runeindex.html

http://www.nb.no/baser/runer/drh98.html

Article:

The Runes of Bergen: Voices from the Middle Ages

Image credit: 123RF Stock Photo