Södermanland Runic Inscription 270 or Sö 270 is the

Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Database () is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of transliterated runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future resea ...

catalog number for a

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

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 such as home ...

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 E ...

. It is located in

Tyresta National Park Tyresta National Park () is a national park with a surrounding nature reserve in Sweden, located in Haninge Municipality, Haninge and Tyresö Municipality, Tyresö municipalities in Stockholm County. Geography About from central Stockholm ar ...

, Tyresta, which is about two kilometers east of

Brandbergen Brandbergen is a suburb in Haninge Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden. It is a residential area located about south of Stockholm. As of September 2017, the population is estimated to be around 10,000. Most of the buildings are dense apartme ...

, Stockholm County,

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, which is in the historic province of

Södermanland Södermanland ( ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latinisation of names, Latinized form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a Provinces of Sweden, historical province (or ) on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Österg� ...

Description

This runic inscription is carved into a

gneiss Gneiss (pronounced ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. This rock is formed under p ...

rockface and is about 1.65 meters in height. It consists of runic text on a serpent that surrounds a

Christian cross The Christian cross, seen as representing the crucifixion of Jesus, is a religious symbol, symbol of Christianity. It is related to the crucifix, a cross that includes a ''corpus'' (a representation of Jesus' body, usually three-dimensional) a ...

with a bird on top of it. This bird has been interpreted as being a cock. p. 127-128. Placed on a cross, the cock would be interpreted as a Christian symbol meaning rebirth and vigilance, similar to weathercocks that are on top of churches today. A similar depiction of a bird on a cross is on the runestone fragment Sö 245 in Tungelsta. The head and tail of the serpent on Sö 270 are shown bound as if to prevent it from leaving the surface of the stone. The inscription is classified as being carved in either

runestone style :''The term "runestone style" in the singular may refer to the Urnes style.'' The style or design of runestones varied during the Viking Age. The early runestones were simple in design, but towards the end of the runestone era they became increas ...

Pr3 or Pr4, which is also known as

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

. This runestone style is characterized by slim and stylized animals that are interwoven into tight patterns. The animal heads are typically seen in profile with slender almond-shaped eyes and upwardly curled appendages on the noses and the necks. The runic text is in the younger futhark and states that the inscription is a memorial by a father named either Farbjôrn or Freybjôrn for his son Háulfr. If the father's name is Freybjôrn, it would contain the Norse pagan god

Freyr Freyr (Old Norse: 'Lord'), sometimes anglicized as Frey, is a widely attested Æsir, god in Norse mythology, associated with kingship, fertility, peace, prosperity, fair weather, and good harvest. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was ...

as a

theophoric name A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or a god's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that d ...

element and mean "Freyr Bear." The text also states that the inscription was carved by 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 Halfdan, which is

normalized Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in ...

as Halvdan. Although over fifteen other

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic alphabet, runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th centur ...

s in Södermanland have been attributed for stylistic reasons to this runemaster, this is the only surviving inscription that was signed by him. The other inscriptions listed in Rundata that are attributed to Halvdan based upon stylistic analysis include Sö 235 in Västerby, Sö 237 in Fors, Sö 239 in Häringe, Sö 244 in Tuna, Sö 245 in Tungelsta, the now-lost Sö 247 in Ålsta, Sö 252 in Säby, Sö 256 in Älby, Sö 262 in Blista, Sö 269 in Söderby Malm, Sö 272 in Upp-Norrby, Sö 274 in Södersluss, Sö 290 in Farsta, Sö 292 in Bröta, Sö 297 in Uppinge, Sö 298 in Uringe Malm, and Sö 301 in Ågesta Bro. For this inscription, Halvdan used a

punctuation mark Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of written text should be read (silently or aloud) and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, consisti ...

usually consisting of two dots between each word in the runic text.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:far(e)biarn : lit : hagua : stain : et : haulf : sun * si- : hal(t)an : hiak : runaProject Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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entry for Sö 270.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Farbjôrn/Freybjôrn lét hôggva stein at Háulf, son si n Halfdan hjó rúnar.''

Translation in English

:Farbjôrn/Freybjôrn had the stone cut in memory of Háulfr, his son. Halfdan cut the runes.

References

External links

Photograph
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Swedish National Heritage Board The Swedish National Heritage Board (; RAÄ) is a Swedish government agency responsible for World Heritage Sites and other national heritage monuments and historical environments. It is governed by the Ministry of Culture. The goals of the agen ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sodermanland Runic Inscription 270 Runestones in Södermanland