Westeremden - taxushout met runeninscriptie

The Westeremden yew-stick is a yew-wood stick found in Westeremden in the

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

province of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in 1917. It bears an

Old Frisian Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries along the North Sea coast, roughly between the mouths of the Rhine and Weser rivers. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Friesl ...

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 El ...

, dated to the second half of the 8th century. With a total of 41 letters, this is the longest of the extant Frisian runic inscriptions.

Transliteration

The inscription is divided into three lines, as follows: :ᚩᛈᚻᚳᛗᚢᛡᛁᛅᛞᚪᚳᛗᛚᚢᚦ: :ᚹᛁᛗᛟᚳᚻᚦᚢᚴᛅ :ᛁᚹᛁᚩᚢᛞᚢᚿᚩᛚᛖ: Runes with unfamiliar shapes or uncertain values are: * , a '' Spiegelrune'' of ᛒ, similar to a variant of ᛥ ''stan'', transliterated as ''B'' below * , a ''Spiegelrune'' of ᛈ, similar to a variant of ᛥ ''stan'', transliterated as ''P'' below * , like

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 ...

''kaun'', transliterated as ''K'' below *ᚳ (like Anglo-Saxon ''cen'', occurring three times); it apparently represents a vowel, likely ''æ'', replacing absent ᚫ ''æsc'' *ᛅ (like Younger Futhark ''ar''), transliterated as ''A'' below *ᚴ, a "bookhand-''s''", transliterated as ''S'' below * ᚿ, like a short-twig ''n'', probably for ᚾ ''n'' with these decisions, the transliteration may be: : ''ophæmujiBAdaæmluþ:'' : ''wimœBæhþuSA'' : ''iwioKuPdunale:''

Interpretations

Seebold (1990) reads (transliterating ''g'' for ''j'', ''v'' for ''B'', ''ë'' for ''A'', ''ô'' for ''œ''): :''ophæmu givëda amluþ:iwi ok upduna (a)le wimôv æh þusë'' Looijenga (1997) reads: :''op hæmu jibada æmluþ : iwi ok up duna (a)le wimœd æh þusa'' This reading gives rise to an interpretation along the lines of :"luck (''amluþ'') stays (''gibada'') at home (''op hæmu''); and (''ok'') at the yew ('' iwi'') may it grow (''ale'') on the hill (''up duna''); Wimœd has (''æh'') this (''þusa'')." or paraphrased more loosely, "At the homestead stays good fortune, may it also grow near the yew on the

terp A ''terp'', also known as a ''wierde, woerd, warf, warft, werf, werve, wurt'' or ''værft'', is an artificial dwelling mound found on the North European Plain that has been created to provide safe ground during storm surges, high tides an ...

; Wimœd owns this." In a controversial suggestion going back to 1937, the sequence ''æmluþ'' has often been interpreted as a reference to

Amleth Amleth (; Latinized as ''Amlethus'') is a figure in a medieval Scandinavian legend, the direct inspiration of the character of Prince Hamlet, the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Hamlet, Prince of Denmark''. The chief authority for the l ...

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

"). The inscription is here interpreted as :''ophamu gistadda amluþ : iwim ost ah þukn iwi os ust dukale'' and given the translation :"Amluth took his (fighting) position on the high place. Before his yews the waves cowered. May the waves cower before this yew." The association has led to speculative proposals to the point that Quak (1991) called for a re-examination for the inscription with the ironic caveat "maybe disregarding associations with Hamlet or Amluth"."Es wäre vielleicht an der Zeit, namentlich die Inschrift von Westeremden einer neuen Betrachtung zu unterziehen. Dabei könnte man vielleicht Assoziationen mit Hamlet oder Amluth außer Betracht lassen" Arend Quak, 'Altfriesische und altenglische Runen', in: A. Bammesberger (ed.), ''Old English runes and their continental background'' Heidelberg, 1991, 295.

References

{{reflist *Tineke J. H. Looijenga,
Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150–700
', dissertation, Groningen University (1997), 183–185. Runic inscriptions Anglo-Saxon runes Frisian languages