The Skåäng Runestone, designated as Sö 32 under

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 an Iron Age

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 in Skåäng,

Södermanland Södermanland ( or ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latin form ''Sudermannia'' or ''Sudermania'', is a historical province or ''landskap'' on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västmanla ...

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 ...

, which is inscribed in

Proto-Norse Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic, Ancient Scandinavian, Ancient Norse, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Proto-Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a ...

with 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 ...

. During the

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 ...

, a second runic inscription was added in

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 ...

using 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 ...

Description

The Skåäng Runestone consists of a younger futhark inscription that is within a serpent on the edge of the stone and an older inscription in the center of the stone. The younger futhark inscription was discovered in 1830, but the older central inscription was not noticed until 1867. The Elder Futhark inscription is harija ÷ leugaz which is interpreted as the Proto-Norse names ''Harija'' and ''Leugaz''. The name ''Harija'' is a hypocoristic form of names ending with -''harjaz'' ("warrior"), or a name beginning with ''Harja-'', and it is part of the place name ''Häringe''. (Lexicon of Nordic personal names before the 8th century) The name ''Leugaz'' is a

nomen agentis In linguistics, an agent noun (in Latin, ) is a word that is derived from another word denoting an action, and that identifies an entity that does that action. For example, "driver" is an agent noun formed from the verb "drive". Usually, ''derive ...

of the same word as the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

''liugan'' ("swear an oath") and means "oath taker." Between the two names there is a rune (the shape of younger futhark rune '' hagall''), but there is no consensus on how to interpret it. Two different forms of the z rune algiz are used in this inscription, the first a double or mirrored form similar to that used in the inscription on 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: : ...

and the second the standard form. The younger futhark inscription is classified as being carved in runestone style Fp. The text on the serpent states that the stone was part of "landmarks" made by Skammhals and Ólôf in memory of their father Sveinn. The prayer at the end of this text uses the Norse word ''salu'' for soul, which was imported from English and is first recorded as being used on a different runestone dating from the tenth century.

Inscription

Runic

:§A :§B

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:§A harijah ÷ leugaz :§B skanmals auk × olauf × þau × litu × kiara × merki × þausi × eftiʀ × suain × faþur × sin × kuþ × hialbi salu hansProject Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
-

Transcription into Proto Norse and Old Norse

:§A ''Harja, Leugaz'' :§B ''Skammhals ok Olof þau letu gæra mærki þausi æftiʀ Svæin, faður sinn. Guð hialpi salu hans.''

Translation in English

:§A Harja, Leugaz :§B Skammhals and Ólôf, they had these landmarks made in memory of Sveinn, their father. May God help his soul.

References

Other sources

*The article
Skåängstenen
' in ''

Nordisk familjebok ''Nordisk familjebok'' (, "Nordic Family Book") is a Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. Despite their consi ...

'' (1917). *(Lexicon of Nordic personal names before the 8th century) {{DEFAULTSORT:Skaang Runestone Proto-Norse language Runestones in Södermanland Elder Futhark inscriptions