![Hogs kyrka runestone01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Hogs_kyrka_runestone01.jpg)
Staveless runes were the climax of the simplification process in the evolution of
runic alphabet
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 ...
s that had started when the
Elder Futhark
The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Peri ...
was superseded by the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 ...
.
[Enoksen 1998:75] In order to create the staveless runes, vertical marks (or staves) were dropped from individual letters (or runes). The name "staveless" is not entirely accurate, since the
i rune consists of a whole stave and the
f,
þ,
k and the
s runes consist of shortened main staves.
Since their discovery on
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 ...
s at
Hälsingland
Hälsingland (), sometimes referred to as Helsingia in English, is a historical province or ''landskap'' in central Sweden. It borders Gästrikland, Dalarna, Härjedalen, Medelpad and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is part of the land of Norrland.
Ad ...
in the 17th century, staveless runes have also been known as the Hälsinge runes. This label is, however, misleading since staveless runes also appear in
Medelpad
Medelpad ( or ) is a historical province or ''landskap'' in the north of Sweden. It borders Hälsingland, Härjedalen, Jämtland, Ångermanland and the Gulf of Bothnia.
The province is a part of Norrland and as such considered to be Northern Sw ...
,
Södermanland
Södermanland ( or ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latin form ''Sudermannia'' or ''Sudermania'', is a historical province or ''landskap'' on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västmanla ...
, and the
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
town of
Bergen
Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...
.
Shape
The staveless runes may appear hard to recognize at first glance, but the only difference between them and the preceding
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 ...
is – in fact – their omission of main staves. If main staves are added, it is apparent that the ''
a'', ''
n'', ''
t'', ''
l'' and ''s'' runes are identical to their staved predecessors.
[Enoksen 1998:76] No ''
ą'' rune has been found in inscriptions, but it has been postulated that it was a mirrored form of the ''
b'' rune due to pairings indicated in the staveless runes.
[Enoksen 1998:77]
Scholarship
It appears from the title page of
Johannes Bureus
Johannes Thomae Bureus Agrivillensis (born Johan Bure; 1568–1652) was a Swedish polymath, antiquarian, mystic, royal librarian, poet, and tutor and adviser of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. He is a well-known exponent of Gothicism.
Life an ...
'
runic primer that Bureus had some understanding of the staveless runes in 1611, but that this has been denied by virtually all runologists.
[Enoksen 1998:183] Since Bureus had not succeeded in deciphering the runes, a large poster with the image of two runestones with staveless runes was published in 1624 together with the announcement of a royal reward for the one who could decipher them.
[Enoksen 1998:194] It would, however, take half a century before someone found the solution.
At the end of the 1660s,
Athanasius Kircher
Athanasius Kircher (2 May 1602 – 27 November 1680) was a German Jesuit scholar and polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans ...
, who was an interpreter of
hieroglyphs
A hieroglyph (Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatonis ...
, studied the runes, but he arrived at the conclusion that the staveless runes were nothing but meaningless scribbles and that the stones had been erected in order to protect against snakes.
The verdict of the hieroglyph expert was too much for the mathematician, antiquarian and Hälsingland native
Magnus Celsius
Magnus Celsius (16 January 1621 – 5 May 1679) was a Swedish astronomer and mathematician, decipherer of the staveless runes. His grandson was Anders Celsius.
He was the father of Olof Celsius
Olof Celsius (the elder) (19 July 1670 – 24 June ...
. Celsius departed for Hälsingland in the early 1670s and made meticulous drawings of the runestones. When he was back in Stockholm, he worked hard on deciphering the runes but had to give up. Eventually he tried to add staves to the runes and suddenly deciphered some of the staveless runes. By 1674, he had deciphered all the runes except for the
R rune, which he interpreted as a distinguishing mark.
The following year, Celsius made a speech at
Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...
, where he made his discovery public. He started the process of publishing his discovery shortly after making the speech but died suddenly before the printing was finished.
However, the news of the discovery spread quickly among scholars and it was used as the basis of the claim that
stenography
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...
had originated in Sweden.
[Enoksen 1998:195] It would be
Olof Celsius
Olof Celsius (the elder) (19 July 1670 – 24 June 1756) was a Swedish botanist, philologist and clergyman, He was a professor at Uppsala University, Sweden. Celsius was a mentor of the botanist and scientist Carl Linnaeus. Celsius wrote his most f ...
who finally published his father's discovery.
Examples
The following runestones are some of those that feature staveless runes:
*
Österberga stone
*
Skarpåker stone
The Skarpåker Stone, designated by Rundata as Sö 154, is a Viking Age memorial runestone that originally was located in Skarpåker, Nyköping, Sörmland, Sweden. It dates to the early eleventh century.
Description
The runestone was discovered ...
*
Sö 137 at Aspa bro
*
Spånga stone
Notes
References
*Enoksen, Lars Magnar (1998). ''Runor : historia, tydning, tolkning''. Historiska Media, Falun.
See also
*
Bind rune
A bind rune or bindrune ( is, bandrún) is a Migration Period Germanic typographic ligature, ligature of two or more Runic alphabet, runes. They are extremely rare in Viking Age inscriptions, but are common in earlier (Proto-Norse) and later (med ...
{{list of writing systems
Younger Futhark