The Skarpåker Stone, designated by

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 ...

as Sö 154, is a Viking Age

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

runestone that originally was located in Skarpåker,

Nyköping Nyköping () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Nyköping Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 32,759 inhabitants as of 2017. The city is also the capital of Södermanland County. Including Arnö, the locality on the ...

, Sörmland, Sweden. It dates to the early eleventh century.

Description

The runestone was discovered in 1883 in a field at Skarpåker, but in 1883 was moved to

Lindö Lindö is a locality situated in Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 4,915 inhabitants in 2010. It is situated just a few kilometers from the centre of the city of Norrköping and is often considered part of it. Lindö i ...

and then moved to its current location in that city in 1928. The Skarpåker Stone is 1.8 meters in height and notable for a

skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditionally ...

ic younger futhark inscription in two, nearly-identical lines. The eschatology of the verse, "the Earth shall be rent, and the heavens above", apparently expressing a father's devastation at the loss of his son, may be compared to the father's lament in the '' Sonatorrek''. It also evokes the catastrophic end of the world in Germanic mythology, described in the '' Poetic Edda'' as

Ragnarök In Norse mythology, (; non, Ragnarǫk) is a series of events, including a great battle, foretelling the death of numerous great figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki), natural disasters, and the submers ...

and also alluded to in the ''

Muspilli ''Muspilli'' is an Old High German poem known in incomplete form (103 lines) from a ninth-century Bavarian manuscript. Its subject is the fate of the soul immediately after death and at the Last Judgment. Many aspects of the interpretation of the ...

''. The phrase "heavens above" or "high heaven" (literally "up-heaven") is used in three existing skaldic poems, in Old High German, Old Saxon and Old English religious poetry as well as on the charm on the Ribe runic healing stick DR EM85;493, with "earth and high heaven" apparently a common Germanic poetic phrase. The line on the Skarpåker Stone also invokes the following lines from the third stanza of the '' Völuspá'': :::Of old was the age , when Ymir lived; :::Sea nor cool waves , nor sand there were; :::Earth had not been, , nor heaven above, :::But a yawning gap, , and grass nowhere. The text is carved on a serpent who arches over a depiction of a ship with a cross as its mast. Other runic inscriptions from the Viking Age that depict ships include DR 77 in Hjermind, DR 119 in Spentrup, DR 220 in Sønder Kirkeby, DR 258 in Bösarp, DR 271 in Tullstorp, DR 328 in Holmby, DR EM85;523 in Farsø, Ög 181 in Ledberg, Ög 224 in Stratomta, Ög MÖLM1960;230 in Törnevalla, Sö 122 in Skresta, Sö 158 in Österberga, Sö 164 in Spånga, Sö 351 in Överjärna, Sö 352 in Linga, Vg 51 in Husaby, U 370 in Herresta, U 979 in Gamla Uppsala, U 1052 in Axlunda, U 1161 in Altuna, and Vs 17 in Råby. Three stones, the Hørdum and Långtora kyrka stones and U 1001 in Rasbo, depict ships, but currently do not have any runes on them and may never have had any. While including older

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

references in the runic text, the overall theme of the inscription on the Skarpåker Stone, with the ship and cross, is Christian. p. 63-65. The inscription on the Skarpåker Stone has been attributed to a

runemaster A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones. Description More than 100 names of runemasters are known from Viking Age Sweden with most of them from 11th-century eastern Svealand.The article ''Runristare'' in ''Nationalencyklo ...

named Traen,Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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entry for Sö 154. and is classified as being carved in runestone style Pr1, which also is known as the

Ringerike style Viking art, also known commonly as Norse art, is a term widely accepted for the art of Scandinavian Norsemen and Viking settlements further afield—particularly in the British Isles and Iceland—during the Viking Age of the 8th-11th centuries ...

. This is the classification for inscriptions with runic text bands that end in serpent or animal heads, depicted as seen from above.

Transliteration of inscription into Latin letters

:§P kunar : raisþi : stain : þansi : at lyþbiurn : sun : sin : iarþsalr ifna uk ubhimin :§Q kunar : raisþi : stain : þansi : at lyþbiurn : sun : sin : iarþ sal rifna uk ubhimin

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skarpaker Stone 11th-century inscriptions 1883 archaeological discoveries Runestones in Södermanland