The Kulisteinen, also known as the Kuli stone and listed as N 449 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 ...

catalog, is a stone with a

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 El ...

that was originally located at Kuløy in

Smøla Smøla is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hopen, other villages include Dyrnes, Råket, and Veiholmen. The municipality i ...

municipality,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Description

For over 900 years the Kuli stone had been at Kuløy, but then 1913 it was moved to Vitenskapsmuseet i Trondheim. It had a

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

on the broad side, indicating that it was a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

marker. Then in 1956 curator Aslak Liestøl noticed that the stone had a runic inscription along the narrow edge. It reads in

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is 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 of Scandinavia and t ...

: "Tore and Hallvard erected this stone ... (for) twelve winters/years Christianity had been in Norway". In the mid-1990s the inscription was subjected to laser scanning and microcartography in an attempt to arrive at a more sure reading. It was then suggested that the word translated "been" (''vært'') above should be read as ''um rétt'', and that this could mean that Christianity had "supplied law and order" for twelve years. The runic stone would then have been propaganda for the new religion, Christianity. There are, however, serious paleographic and philological/linguistic problems with the new reading and interpretation. It was first suggested by Nils Halan that the inscription refers to a national event, the establishment of the law that formally made Christianity the religion of Norway at the Moster Thing in either 1022 or 1024 by King Olaf Haraldsson. The Kuli stone was later dated to 1034 since it was originally found adjacent to 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 ...

boardwalk dated

dendrochronologically Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmos ...

to that year, on the assumption that the two were contemporaneous. Others have suggested that the inscription refers to the conquest of Norway in 995 by King Olaf Tryggvason and his forced conversions. The transcription and translation below use that accepted in the Rundata database. The runic text refers to ''Nóregi'', or Norway. One other

runestone refers to Norway, the larger Jelling Stone DR 42, which was raised by King

Harald Bluetooth Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson ( non, Haraldr Blátǫnn Gormsson; da, Harald Blåtand Gormsen, died c. 985/86) was a king of Denmark and Norway. He was the son of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod. Harald ruled as king of Denmark from c. 95 ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

and uses the name ''Norveg''. The Kuli stone also marks the first known use of the word "Christianity" in Norway.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:þurir : auk : hal(u)arþr : rai(s)(t)(u) * stain : þins(i) * aft u(l)f(l)iu(t) ... ¶ tualf * uintr * ha(f)(þ)i : (k)r(i)(s)(t)(i)(n)*(t)umr : (u)iri(t) * (i) n(u)riki ...Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
-

entry for N 449.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Þórir ok Hallvarðr reistu stein þenna ept Ulfljót(?) ... Tolf vetr hafði kristindómr verit í Nóregi ...''

Translation in English

:Þórir and Hallvarðr raised this stone in memory of Ulfljótr(?) ... Christianity had been twelve winters in Norway ...

References

External links

Kulturnett.no
— in Norwegian
Photograph of runestone
{{coord, 63.2965, N, 8.0878, E, source:wikidata, display=title 11th-century inscriptions Runestones in Norway Archaeological sites in Norway