Runestone DR 120, MJy 51, known as Spentrup stone 2 and the Jennum stone, is a
Viking Age
The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...
runestone
A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...
engraved with the
Younger Futhark
The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet and a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, with only 16 characters, in use from about the 9th century, after a "transitional period" during the 7th and 8th centuries.
The r ...
and a
Thor's hammer
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, and ...
.
Stone
The runestone was first mentioned by 18th-century scholar
Søren Abildgaard
Søren Pedersen Abildgaard (18 February 1718 – 2 July 1791) was a Danish naturalist, writer and illustrator. He was born in Flekkefjord in Norway and died in Copenhagen in Denmark.
Abildgaard traveled throughout Denmark in order to create dr ...
, who wrote that it was found at the end of a stone bridge in the village of Jennum. It was lost for a long time until it was rediscovered in 1913, but by then it had been split into seven pieces. It was repaired and raised at the museum in the town of
Randers
Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 62,802 (as of 1 January 2022). In the 1960s it was transferred to the new , during which it broke into 14 or 15 pieces; it has been restored.
The stone is granite, with a memorial inscription in the Younger Futhark in the RAK style, dated to 970-1020 or to 1000–1050. The top of the stone, including part of the inscription band, is missing.
The stone shows one of several pictorial representations of Thor's hammer, following the last punctuation mark (''x'') at the end of the inscription on the left; it resembles a cross or hammer on the front of the
Karlevi Runestone
The Karlevi Runestone, designated as Öl 1 by Rundata, is commonly dated to the late 10th century and located near the Kalmarsund straight in Karlevi on the island of Öland, Sweden. It is one of the most notable and prominent runestones and const ...
, Öl 1. Other stones with Thor's hammer include DR 26, VG 113, Sö 86 and Sö 111.Sawyer (2003:128).
Inscription
Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters