Uppland Runic Inscription 181 or U 181 is 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 number for 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 ...

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 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 ...

located at Össeby-Garn, which is about one kilometer east of Karby,

Uppsala County Uppsala County ( sv, Uppsala län) is a county or ''län'' on the eastern coast of Sweden, whose capital is the city of Uppsala. It borders the counties of Dalarna, Stockholm, Södermanland, Västmanland, Gävleborg, and the Baltic Sea. Provi ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Description

This inscription on a granite stone, which is 1.85 meters in height, consists of runic text in 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 ...

that is carved on a serpent that circles a central area where it becomes intertwined with itself, with a Christian cross in the upper part of the encircled area. The inscription is classified as being carved in

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 ...

Pr5, which is considered to be

Urnes 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 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 text indicates that the inscription was carved by the

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 ...

Öpir Öpir or ''Öper'' (Old Norse: ''Øpiʀ''/''Œpir'', meaning "shouter") was a runemaster who flourished during the late 11th century and early 12th century in Uppland, Sweden.The article ''Öpir'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (1996). He was the mo ...

, who was active during the late 11th century and early 12th century in

Uppland Uppland () is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. On the small uninhab ...

, Sweden. His name ubiʀ is on the serpent on the lower right of this inscription. Öpir is known for his Urnes style inscriptions and signed almost fifty surviving inscriptions, with many more unsigned inscriptions attributed to him. Runic inscriptions are often dated based upon comparative

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and stylistic analysis, and the inscription on U 181 has been dated as being carved approximately after 1100. The runic text indicates that the stone was raised by several brothers and possibly daughters as a memorial to their father named Eistr. In carving the text, Öpir left off the final "ʀ" in ''runaʀ'', or "runes," which he also did on inscriptions such as that on U Fv1976;107 at

Uppsala Cathedral Uppsala Cathedral ( sv, Uppsala domkyrka) is a cathedral located between the University Hall of Uppsala University and the Fyris river in the centre of Uppsala, Sweden. A church of the Church of Sweden, the national church, in the Lutheran tra ...

. p. 107. Öpir also used a dot as a

punctuation mark Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...

between each word of the text of this inscription. The inscription was signed by the runemaster Öpir using the

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 ...

phrase ''en Øpiʀ risti runaʀ'', which means "and Öpir carved the runes." This exact phrase was also used by Öpir when signing inscriptions on U 118 in Älvsunda, the now-lost U 262 in Fresta, U 287 in Vik, U 462 in Prästgården, U 541 in Husby-Sjuhundra, and U 566 in Vällingsö.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:askutr ' uk ' suain ' ikifastr ' uk ' ikibiarn ' uk ' tutr ' ... ...ain ' iftiʀ ' est ' faþur ' sin ' in ' ubiʀ ' risti ' runProject Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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entry for U 181.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Asgautr ok Svæinn, Ingifastr ok Ingibiorn ok døtr(?)/Dyntr(?) ... t�in æftiʀ Æist, faður sinn. En Øpiʀ risti runaʀ.''

Translation in English

:Ásgautr and Sveinn (and) Ingifastr and Ingibjǫrn and the daughters(?)/Dyntr(?) ... the stone in memory of Eistr, their father. And Œpir carved the runes.

References

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