Södermanland Runic Inscription 239 or Sö 239 is the

Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Database () is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of transliterated runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future resea ...

catalog listing for a

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic alphabet, runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th centur ...

fragment that is located in Häringe, which is about one kilometer east of

Landfjärden Landfjärden is a locality situated in Nynäshamn Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders No ...

, Stockholm County,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, which is in the historic province of

Södermanland Södermanland ( ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latinisation of names, Latinized form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a Provinces of Sweden, historical province (or ) on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Österg� ...

Description

The damaged inscription on Sö 239, which is missing its upper section, is 1.4 meters in height and consists of runic text in the younger futhark that is carved on a serpent along the outer edge of the stone with a rider on a horse depicted in the center of the inscription. Several other

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

n runestones include depictions of horses, including DR 96 in Ålum, N 61 in Alstad, Sö 101 in Ramsundsberget, Sö 226 in Norra Stutby, Sö 327 in Göksten, U 375 in Vidbo, U 488 in Harg, U 599 in Hanunda, U 691 in Söderby, U 855 in Böksta, U 901 in Håmö, U 935 at the

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, and U 1003 in Frötuna. The inscription is classified as being carved in

style Pr3, which is also known as Urnes style. This runestone style is characterized by slim and stylized animals that are interwoven into tight patterns, with the animal heads typically seen in profile with slender almond-shaped eyes and upwardly curled appendages on the noses and the necks. Based on stylistic analysis, Sö 239 has been attributed to a

runemaster A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones. Description More than 100 names of runemasters are known from Viking Age Sweden with most of them from 11th-century eastern Svealand.The article ''Runristare'' in ''Nationalencyklo ...

with the

normalized Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in ...

name of Halvdan, who was active in the mid-11th century in Södermanland and signed the inscription Sö 270 in Tyresta. Over fifteen other runestones have been attributed to him, including Sö 235 in Västerby, Sö 237 in Fors, Sö 244 in Tuna, Sö 245 in Tungelsta, the now-lost Sö 247 in Ålsta, Sö 252 in Säby, Sö 256 in Älby, Sö 262 in Blista, Sö 269 in Söderby Malm, Sö 272 in Upp-Norrby, Sö 274 in Södersluss, Sö 290 in Farsta, Sö 292 in Bröta, Sö 297 in Uppinge, Sö 298 in Uringe Malm, and Sö 301 in Ågesta Bro. Sö 239 was noted in the early 1800s, and was found during an inspection in 1865 with the inscription side face-down. The stone was erected in 1897 east of the entrance to the Häringe slott, a Swedish castle. The remaining runic text on this fragment, which appears to follow the memorial formula typical on runestones of this period, suggests that the sponsor of the runestone was a man named Bjôrn who raised the stone in memory of his brother Ulfr. Similar to his other inscriptions, Halvdan used a word divider punctuation mark between each word of the surviving text.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:biarn * li(t) ... ...- * ul- -(o)(r)oþur * sen *Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
- Rundata entry for Sö 239.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Biorn let ... ... Ul

, b The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight, but inclined from the vertical; others give it the appearance of a miniature fille ...

oður senn.''

Translation in English

:Bjôrn had ... ... Ulfr, his brother.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sodermanland Runic Inscription 239 Runestones in Södermanland 11th-century inscriptions