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Källby Runestones
The Källby Runestones are two Viking Age memorial runestones located in Källby, Västra Götaland County, Sweden, which was in the historic province of Västergötland. Vg 55 Västergötland Runic Inscription 55 or Vg 55 is the Rundata designation for an inscription consisting of runic text in the younger futhark inscribed on two serpents that frame a Christian cross, cross. The inscription, which is on a sandstone stone that is 4.4 meters in height, is classified as being carved in Runestone style Pr2, which is also known as Ringerike style. This is the classification for inscriptions where the text bands have attached serpent heads depicted as seen from above. Vg 55 has been known since the Swedish runestone surveys of the 16th century, and was described by Ole Worm in 1555. Although carved in sandstone, an inspection in 1995–96 found that 84% of the runes were intact. The runic text states that the stone was raised by two sons named Ulfr and Ragnarr in memory of their fath ...
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Greece Runestones
The Greece runestones () are about 30 runestones containing information related to voyages made by Norsemen to the Byzantine Empire. They were made during the Viking Age until about 1100 and were engraved in the Old Norse language with Younger Futhark, Scandinavian runes. All the stones have been found in modern-day Sweden, the majority in Uppland (18 runestones) and Södermanland (7 runestones). Most were inscribed in memory of members of the Varangian Guard who never returned home, but a few inscriptions mention men who came back with wealth, and a #U 112, boulder in Ed was engraved on the orders of a former officer of the Guard. On these runestones the word ("Greece") appears in three inscriptions, the word ("Greeks") appears in 25 inscriptions, two stones refer to men as ("traveller to Greece") and one stone refers to ("Greek harbours"). Among other runestones which refer to expeditions abroad, the only groups which are comparable in number are the so-called "England run ...
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Ingvar Runestones
The Ingvar runestones () is the name of around 26 Varangian Runestones that were raised in commemoration of those who died in the Swedish Caspian expeditions of the Rus, Viking expedition to the Caspian Sea of Ingvar the Far-Travelled. The Ingvar expedition was the single Swedish event that is mentioned on most runestones,Pritsak 1981: 424 and in number, they are only surpassed by the approximately 30 Greece Runestones and the approximately 30 England Runestones. It was a fateful expedition taking place between 1036 and 1041 with many ships. The Vikings came to the south-eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, and they appear to have taken part in the Battle of Sasireti, in Georgia (country), Georgia. Few returned, as many died in battle, but most of them, including Ingvar, died of disease. The expedition was also immortalized as a saga in Iceland in the 11th century, the ''Yngvars saga víðförla'', and in the Georgian language, Georgian chronicle ''The Georgian Chronicles, Kartlis t ...
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Västergötland Runic Inscription 73
Västergötland Runic Inscription 73 or Vg 73 is the Rundata catalog number for a Viking Age memorial runestone that is located near the Synnerby church, which is about nine kilometers west of Skara. The stone was raised in memory of a man who was a thegn. Description The inscription on Vg 73 consists of runes carved in the younger futhark in a text band that runs along the edge of a tall, narrow stone that is 2.55 meters in height and then curves into the center. A cross is at the top of the inscription. The stone is classified as being carved in runestone style RAK, which is considered to be the oldest style. This is the classification where the ends of the text bands are straight and do not have any attached serpent or beast heads. The stone was noted in a wall of the church in 1936, and was removed and raised in its present location in the churchyard. Before the historic significance of runestones was recognized, they were often re-used as materials in the construction of churc ...
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Skern Runestone
The Skern Runestone, designated as Danish Runic Inscription 81 or DR 81 in the Rundata catalog, is a Viking Age memorial runestone located in the small village of Skjern, Denmark between Viborg, Denmark, Viborg and Randers. The stone features a facial mask and a runic inscription which ends in a curse. A fragment of a second runestone designated as DR 80 was also found in Skjern. Description This inscription consists of runic text in the younger futhark that circles a facial mask, with text listed as line B located on the top of the stone. The inscription is classified as being carved in runestone styles, runestone style RAK, which is the oldest classification. This classification is used for inscriptions where the runic bands have straight ends without any attached serpent or beast heads. The facial mask on this stone is a common Motif (visual arts), motif and is found on several other Scandinavian runestones including DR 62 in Sjelle, Danish Runic Inscription 66, DR 66 in Århu ...
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Sigtrygg Runestones
The two Sigtrygg Runestones, designated as DR 2 and DR 4 in the Rundata catalog, are two of the Hedeby stones that were found in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, which during the Viking Age was part of Denmark. The runestones were raised after the Danish king Sigtrygg Gnupasson by his mother Ásfriðr. Together with the account of Adam of Bremen, the two inscriptions constitute evidence for the House of Olaf on the Danish throne. The stones are dated as being carved after 934 C.E. as the historian Widukind of Corvey recorded that King Gyrd and Gnupa, Gnupa, who is mentioned in both inscriptions, was forced to pay a tribute to the German king in that year. DR 2 DR 2 was found at Haddeby in Schleswig-Holstein in 1797. At one time, scholars considered the word and rune selection on this runestone, when compared with the inscription on DR 4, along with other inscriptions as evidence of Swedish influence in Denmark during the 10th century. For example, although both DR 2 and DR 4 use the Y ...
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Odin
Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Empire's partial occupation of Germania ( BCE), the Migration Period (4th–6th centuries CE) and the Viking Age (8th–11th centuries CE). Consequently, Odin has hundreds of names and titles. Several of these stem from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic theonym ''Wōðanaz'', meaning "lord of frenzy" or "leader of the possessed", which may relate to the god's strong association with poetry. Most mythological stories about Odin survive from the 13th-century ''Prose Edda'' and an earlier collection of Old Norse poems, the ''Poetic Edda'', along with other Old Norse items like '' Ynglinga saga''. The ''Prose Edda'' and other sources depict Odin as the head of the pantheon, sometimes called the Æsir, and bearing a spear and a ring. Wid ...
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Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is 'reborn' into a new role. Examples of initiation ceremonies might include Christian baptism or confirmation, Jewish bar or bat mitzvah, acceptance into a fraternal organization, secret society or religious order, or graduation from school or recruit training. A person taking the initiation ceremony in traditional rites, such as those depicted in these pictures, is called an ''initiate''. Characteristics William Ian Miller notes the role of ritual humiliation in comic ordering and testing. Mircea Eliade discussed initiation as a principal religious act by classical or traditional societies. He defined initiation as "a basic change in existential condition", which liberates man from profane time and histor ...
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Cult (religious Practice)
Cult is the care (Latin: '' cultus'') owed to deities and their temples, shrines, or churches; cult is embodied in ritual and ceremony. Its presence or former presence is made concrete in temples, shrines and churches, and cult images, including votive offerings at votive sites. Etymology Cicero defined '' religio'' as ''cultus deorum'', "the cultivation of the gods". The "cultivation" necessary to maintain a specific deity was that god's ''cultus'', "cult", and required "the knowledge of giving the gods their due" ''(scientia colendorum deorum)''. The noun ''cultus'' originates from the past participle of the verb ''colo, colere, colui, cultus'', "to tend, take care of, cultivate", originally meaning "to dwell in, inhabit" and thus "to tend, cultivate land ''(ager)''; to practice agriculture", an activity fundamental to Roman identity even when Rome as a political center had become fully urbanized. ''Cultus'' is often translated as "cult" without the negative connotations ...
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Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 their Viking expansion, overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with the Viking Age, the Christianization of Scandinavia, and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 8th to the 15th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid- to late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not precise, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects: Old West Norse (Old West Nordic, often referred to as ''Old Norse''), Old East Norse (Old East Nordic), and Old Gutnish. Old West Norse and O ...
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Shaman
Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world for the purpose of healing, divination, or to aid human beings in some other way. Beliefs and practices categorized as shamanic have attracted the interest of scholars from a variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, archeologists, historians, religious studies scholars, philosophers, and psychologists. Hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peer-reviewed academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism. Terminology Etymology The Modern English word ''shamanism'' derives from the Russian word , , which itself comes from the word from a Tungusic language – possibly from the southwestern dialect of the Evenki spoken by the Sym Evenki peoples, or from the ...
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