Uppland Runic Inscription 824 is the Rundata 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 Germ ...

memorial

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 d ...

located at Holms, which is about eight kilometers east of Örsundsbro,

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. Prov ...

, Sweden, and in the historic province of

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 ...

. The inscription features a facial mask and a bind rune in the text.

Description

This inscription consists of runic text carved on a serpent that is intertwined with and encircles other serpents. 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 increa ...

Pr3 or Pr4, both of which are 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 centurie ...

. 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. At the top of the inscription but within the outer serpent is a mask of a man's face. This is a common motif and is found on several other runestones including DR 62 in Sjelle, DR 66 in Århus, DR 81 in Skern, DR 258 in Bösarp, the now-lost DR 286 in Hunnestad, DR 314 in Lund, DR 335 in Västra Strö, Vg 106 in Lassegården, Sö 86 in Åby ägor, Sö 112 in Kolunda, Sö 167 in Landshammar, Sö 367 in Släbro, Nä 34 in Nasta, U 508 in Gillberga, U 670 in Rölunda, U 678 in Skokloster, U 1034 in Tensta, and U 1150 in Björklinge, and on the

Sjellebro Stone The Sjellebro Stone is a Viking Age image stone located at Sjellbro, which is about 12 kilometers southeast of Randers, Denmark. The stone is inscribed with a facial mask. Description The Sjellbro Stone is about 1.7 meters in height and features t ...

. The runic text on this stone, which is 2.2 meters in height, is 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 ...

. Although damaged, it states that it was raised by two brothers named Jógeirr and Áfríðr as a memorial to Hróðelfr. The text is signed by the runemaster

Åsmund Kåresson Åsmund Kåresson was a Viking Age runemaster who flourished during the first half of the 11th century in Uppland and Gästrikland, Sweden. The early Urnes style is represented in his art. pp. 197, 208–09. Work Most early medieval Scandinavian ...

on a separate band at the bottom of the inscription. Åsmund was active in the first half of the 11th century. He is associated with the Urnes style and signed about twenty of the surviving runestones. Other surviving runestones that are signed by Åsmund include U 301 in Skånela, the now-lost U 346 in Frösunda, U 356 in Ängby, the now-lost U 368 in Helgåby, U 847 in Västeråker, U 859 in Måsta, U 871 in Ölsta, U 884 in Ingla, U 932 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 t ...

, U 956 in Vedyxa, U 969 in Bolsta, the now-lost U 986 in Kungsgården, U 998 in Skällerö, U 1142 in Åbyggeby, U 1144 in Tierp, U 1149 in Fleräng, U Fv1986;84 in Bo gård, U Fv1988;241 in Rosersberg, Gs 11 in Järvsta, Gs 12 in Lund, and Gs 13 in Söderby. The text contains a bind rune that combines the final u-rune of the word litu with the initial r-rune of the word rita, but it has been suggested that this was done possibly as a result of an error in carving the runes. The text in two locations follows the rule that two consecutive identical letters are represented by a single rune, even when the two identical letters are at the end of one word and the start of a second word. When the text shown as Latin characters, the

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

runes are doubled and separate words are shown. This inscription uses one a-rune in the runes þinabtiʀ, which is transliterated as the words þina, , abtiʀ, and in the runemaster's signature, osmuntritsi, an additional r-rune is added in the transliteration to form the words osmuntr, , ritsi ("Ásmundr carved"). Åsmund signed his name in this same manner on two other inscriptions, U 1142 and U 1144.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:iukiʀ auk * ifriþr * litu= =rita stian þina, , abtiʀ bruþur * rhuþilfaʀ * i u-(r)bhrki osmuntr, , ritsi runaʀProject Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
- Rundata entry for U 824.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Iogæiʀʀ ok Afriðr(?) letu retta stæin þenna æftiʀ broður Hroðælfaʀ i < u-r>bergi. Asmundr risti runaʀ.''

Translation in English

:Jógeirr and Áfríðr(?) had this stone erected in memory of Hróðelfr of ... -bergi's brother. Ásmundr carved the runes.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Maskesten - Billedsten fra Vikingtiden
- Arild Hauge webpage on mask stones Uppland Runic Inscription 0824