The Tune stone is an important

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 ...

from about 200–450 AD. It bears runes 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 Per ...

, and the language is

Proto-Norse Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic; Danish and ; ; ; ) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic in the first centuries CE. It is the earliest stage of a c ...

. It was discovered in 1627 in the church yard wall of the church in Tune,

Østfold Østfold () is a county in Eastern Norway, which from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2023 was part of Viken. Østfold borders Akershus and southwestern Sweden (Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold are on the other ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Today it is housed in the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. The Tune stone is possibly the oldest Norwegian attestation of burial rites,

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

, and

beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

Inscription

The stone has inscriptions on two sides, called side A and side B. Side A consists of an inscription of two lines (A1 and A2), and side B consists of an inscription of three lines (B1, B2 and B3), each line done in

boustrophedon Boustrophedon () is a style of writing in which alternate lines of writing are reversed, with letters also written in reverse, mirror-style. This is in contrast to modern European languages, where lines always begin on the same side, usually the l ...

style.Antonsen (2002:126–127) The A side reads:
::A1: ekwiwazafter·woduri ::A2: dewitadahalaiban:worahto·?[--- The B side reads:
::B1: ????zwoduride:staina: ::B2: þrijozdohtrizdalidun ::B3: arbijasijostezarbijano The transcription of the runic text is: ::A: Ek Wiwaz after Woduride witandahlaiban worhto r[unoz]. ::B: [Me]z(?) Woduride staina þrijoz dohtriz dalidun(?) arbija arjostez(?) arbijano.Projektet Samnordisk runtextdatabas
–

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 ...

The English translation is: ::I, Wiwaz, made the runes after Woduridaz, my lord. For me, Woduridaz, three daughters, the most distinguished of the heirs, prepared the stone. The name ''Wiwaz'' means 'the promised one', from Proto-Indo-European * ''h₁wegʷʰ-ós'', while ''Woduridaz'' means 'fury-rider'. The phrase ''witandahlaiban'', translated as 'my lord', literally means 'ward-bread' or 'guardian of the bread'.Nielsen (2006:267). (The English word ''lord'' similarly originates from Old English ''hlāford'' < ''hlāf-weard'', literally 'loaf-ward', i.e. 'guardian of the bread'.)

Interpretations

The

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 E ...

was first interpreted by Sophus Bugge in 1903 and Carl Marstrander in 1930, but the full text was not interpreted convincingly until 1981 by

Ottar Grønvik Ottar Nicolai Grønvik (21 October 1916 – 15 May 2008) was a Norwegian philologist and runologist. He was a lecturer from 1959 and associate professor from 1965 to 1986 at the University of Oslo. His doctoral thesis, which earned him the dr.p ...

in his book ''Runene på Tunesteinen''. A later interpretation was made by Terje Spurkland in 2001.Terje Spurkland. I begynnelsen var Futhark. Cappelen akademisk forlag, 2001. Spurkland's translation differs somewhat from the translation given above, running: :''I, Vi, in memory of Vodurid, the bread lord, made runes'' :''I left Vodurid the stone. Three daughters prepared the burial ale, the most godborne of the heirs'' Grønvik and Marstrander also agree the three daughters prepared the burial ale, rather than the stone.

Notes

References

* * Grønvik, Ottar (1981). ''Runene på Tunesteinen: Alfabet, Språkform, Budskap''. Universitetsforlaget * * {{refend 5th-century inscriptions Runestones in Norway Proto-Norse language

Inscription

Interpretations

See also

Notes

References