The Grumpan bracteate, designated as

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 ...

Vg 207 by

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 ...

, is a gold type C

bracteate A bracteate (from the Latin ''bractea'', a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age (including the Vende ...

found in

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Väs ...

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 ...

in 1911. It is dated to the 6th century.

Runic inscription

The Grumpan bracteate was found together with two other bracteates, two gold rings, two bronze hooks, and some glass beads. It is notable as an early attestation of the division of 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 ...

row into three groups or ''ættir'' of eight runes each ætt. On the Grumpan bracteate, the runes of each ætt are separated by a row of dots. The following is a drawing of the inscription made by Sigurd Agrell (''Lapptrummor och Runmagi'', 1934): : : Transliteration: :fuþarkgw : hnijïp s: tbeml(ŋ)(o)dProject Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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entry for Vg 207. The Grumpan bracteate is damaged at the upper end near the eyelet, at the end of the second ætt, so that the ''z'' and ''s'' runes are no longer readable. The rune transcribed above as (ŋ) actually has the shape of the elder futhark ''z'' rune but is placed in the location for the ŋ rune. Full listings of the elder futhark are known from the beginning of the 5th century, with the

Kylver stone The Kylver stone, listed in the Rundata catalog as runic inscription G 88, is a Swedish runestone which dates from about 400 AD. It is notable for its listing of each of the runes in the Elder Futhark. Description The Kylver stone was found durin ...

, and other early examples such as the

Vadstena bracteate The Vadstena bracteate (Rundata Ög 178) is a gold C-bracteate found in the earth at Vadstena, Sweden, in 1774.''Nordisk Familjebok'', Owl Edition, pp. 262-26/ref> Along with the bracteate was a gold ring and a piece of gold sheet: all were nea ...

and the

Charnay Fibula The Charnay Fibula is a mid-6th century fibula or brooch which was discovered in Burgundy in 1857. It has a runic inscription consisting of a horizontal partial listing of the first twenty of the twenty-four rune sequence of the Elder Futhark: : ...

. The sequences of the runes in the futhark given in these listings are mostly in agreement, except for the possible inversions of the positions of the ''p'' and ''ï'' and of ''d'' and ''o'' runes. It is believed that bracteates such as that found at Grumpan were used as

amulet An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word amuletum, which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protects ...

s with the futhark inscription part of the amulet's magical power.{{cite book , last=Antonsen , first=Elmer H. , title=Runes and Germanic Linguistics , publisher=Walter de Gruyter , year=2002 , pages=178–179 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gvSi3JVNRFQC , isbn=3-11-017462-6

References

Elder Futhark inscriptions Bracteates Individual items of jewellery