The Bergen rune charm is a

runic Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

inscription on a piece of wood found among the medieval rune-staves of Bergen. It is noted for its similarities to the Eddaic poem ''

Skírnismál ''Skírnismál'' (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Skírnir') is one of the poems of the ''Poetic Edda''. It is preserved in the 13th-century manuscripts Codex Regius and AM 748 I 4to but may have been originally composed in the early 10th century. Many sc ...

'' (particularly stanza 36); Klaus von See, Beatrice la Farge, Eve Picard, Ilona Priebe and Katja Schulz, ''Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda'' (Heidelberg: Winter, 1997–), II 136-37. as a rare example of a poetic rune-stave inscription; and of runes being used in

love magic Love magic is the belief that magic can conjure sexual passion or romantic love. Love magic is often used in literature, like fantasy or mythology, and it is believed it can be implemented in a variety of ways, such as by written spells, dolls, ...

. The inscription has number 257 in the

Bryggen inscriptions The Bryggen inscriptions are a find of some 670 medieval runic inscriptions on wood (mostly pine) and bone found from 1955 and forth at ''Bryggen'' (and its surroundings) in Bergen, Norway. It has been called the most important runic find in the t ...

numbering and N B257 ''(Norway Bryggen no. 257)'' in the

Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base ( sv, Samnordisk runtextdatabas) is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way f ...

database, and P 6 in McKinnell, Simek and Düwel's collection. It is thought to date from the fourteenth century.

Description

The stave is four-sided, with text on each side, but one end is missing, leaving the text of each side incomplete. It is dated to ca. 1335, making it roughly contemporary to the

Ribe healing-stick The Ribe healing stick (with Rundata signum DR EM85;493, also known as DK SJy41) is a pinewood stick found at Ribe, Denmark, with a heavily pagan-inspired Christian spell. It dates to circa 1300 CE. Description Although ostensibly Christian, the ...

(ca. 1300).

Inscription

Scandinavian Runic-text Database

The Scandinavian Runic-text Database (Rundata) gives the following

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

and

normalization Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Most commonly it refers to: * Normalization (sociology) or social normalization, the process through which ideas and behaviors that may fall outside of ...

for the stick:

Runic transliteration

: §A rist e=k : bot:runa=r : rist : e=k biabh:runa=r : eæin:fa=l uiþ : a=luom : tuiua=lt uiþ : t=rolom : þreua=lt : uiþ : þ(u)-- : §B uiþ e=nne : skøþo : skah : ua=lkyrriu : sua:at : eæi mehi : þo:at æ uili : læuis : kona : liui : þinu g- - : §C e=k sende=r : þer : ek se a þe=r : ylhia=r : e=rhi o=k oþola : a þe=r : rini : uþole : a=uk : i(a)luns : moþ : sittu : ald=ri : sop þu : ald=r(i) - : §D a=nt : mer : sem : sialpre : þer : beirist : rubus : rabus : eþ : arantabus : laus : abus : rosa : ga=ua --

Old West Norse normalization

: §A ''Ríst ek bótrúnar, ríst ek bjargrúnar, einfalt við alfum, tvífalt við trollum, þrífalt við þurs m'' : §B ''við inni skoðu skag(?) valkyrju, svát ei megi, þótt æ vili, lævís kona, lífi þínu g

anda Anda or ANDA may refer to: Places China *Anda, Heilongjiang, a city in Heilongjiang, China *Anda railway station, a railway station in Anda, China Iran *Anda, Iran, a village in Fars Province, Iran Norway *Anda, Norway, an island in Øksnes mun ...

…'' : §C ''ek sendi þér, ek sé á þér, ylgjar ergi ok úþola. Á þér hríni úþoli ok ioluns(?) móð. Sittu aldri, sof þú aldri …'' : §D ''ant mér sem sjalfri þér. Beirist(?) rubus rabus et arantabus laus abus rosa gaua …''

Translation

Rundata translation

Rundata provides the following translation. : I cut runes of help; I cut runes of protection; once against the elves, twice against the trolls, thrice against the ogres … : against the harmful 'skag'-valkyrie, so that she never shall, though she ever would-evil woman!-(injure) your life … : I send to you, I look at you (= cast on you with the evil eye): wolfish evil and hatefulness. May unbearable distress and 'ioluns' misery take effect on you. Never shall you sit, never shall you sleep, … : (that you) love me as yourself. atinate magical wordsand agical words…

Interpretation of McKinnell, Simek, Düwel and Hall

As normalised and edited by McKinnell, Simek and Düwel, and 'somewhat tentatively' translated by Hall, the charm reads:

Theories

In the view of McKinnell, Simek and Düwel, : it is by no means certain that the inscriptions on all four sides of this stick belong to the same charm. A and B look like part of a protective charm against demons, while C and D seem to be love-magic of the most forbidden kind. However, it remains possible that they represent two contrary aspects of the same spell – a blessing if the woman gives her love to the carver combined with a curse if she refuses it. They point out that the addressee of side D is a woman, on account of the feminine form ''sjalfri''.John McKinnell, Rudolf Simek and Klaus Duwel, Runes, Magic and Religion: A Sourcebook, Studia Medievalia Septentrionalia, 10 (Vienna: Fassbaender, 2004), p. 132.

Parallels

It has been noted that the inscription has close parallels to magic charms found in eddic poetry, especially verse 36 of the poem ''Skírnismál''. According to

Finnur Jónsson Finnur Jónsson (May 29, 1858 – March 30, 1934) was an Icelandic-Danish philologist and Professor of Nordic Philology at the University of Copenhagen. He made extensive contributions to the study of Old Norse literature. Finnur Jónsson was b ...

's 1932 edition of the poem and

Carolyne Larrington Carolyne Larrington (born 1959) is a Professor of Medieval European Literature and Official Fellow of St John's College at the University of Oxford. Her research has primarily been on Old Norse and medieval Arthurian literature The Matter ...

's 2014 translation (with the line breaks adjusted to match the original):

Images

There is a photograph of a detail of the stave in Aslak Liestøl, ‘Runer frå Bryggen’, ''Viking: Tidsskrift for norrøn arkeologi'', 27 (1964), 5–53, reproduced in Stephen A. Mitchell, ‘Anaphrodisiac Charms in the Nordic Middle Ages: Impotence, Infertility and Magic’, ''Norveg'', 41 (1998), 19-42 (p. 29).

Gallery

File:Kat nr 064 Pinne av trä, från Norge - KMB - 16000300015505.jpg, Side A, starting with rist e=k : bot:runa=r :. File:Kat nr 064 Pinne av trä, från Norge - KMB - 16000300015508.jpg, Side B, starting with uiþ e=nne :. File:Kat nr 064 Pinne av trä, från Norge - KMB - 16000300015507.jpg, Side C, starting with e=k sende=r :. File:Kat nr 064 Pinne av trä, från Norge - KMB - 16000300015506.jpg, Side D, starting with a=nt : mer :.

References

{{reflist Runic inscriptions Bryggen inscriptions 14th-century inscriptions Historical runic magic Sources of Norse mythology Eddic poetry