Västergötland Runic Inscription 90 or Vg 90 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 ...

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 ...

located in Torestorp, which is about three kilometers northwest of Gudhem,

Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County () is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1,616,000 amounts to 17% of S ...

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 ...

, and in the historic province of

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. Vä ...

Description

The inscription on Vg 90 consists of runes carved in the younger futhark in a text band that forms an arch that then curves back in the interior for one word. A small

cross A cross is a religious symbol consisting of two Intersection (set theory), intersecting Line (geometry), lines, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of t ...

is in the upper part of the interior. The stone, which is made of limestone and is 2.1 meters in height, is classified as being carved in

runestone style :''The term "runestone style" in the singular may refer to the Urnes style.'' The style or design of runestones varied during the Viking Age. The early runestones were simple in design, but towards the end of the runestone era they became increas ...

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 runestone, which is located on a natural hill, was noted in a letter written by King Magnus III in 1287. This is believed to be the first modern notice of the existence of runestones in Sweden. The unnamed

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 ...

who carved Vg 90 is also believed to have carved inscription Vg 85 in Stora Dala. The runic text states that the stone was raised by a man named Bróðir as a memorial for a son whose name cannot be clearly determined. The deceased son is described as being ''harða goðan dræng'' or "a very good valiant man," using the term drengr. A drengr in Denmark was a term mainly associated with members of a warrior group. It has been suggested that drengr along with

thegn In later Anglo-Saxon England, a thegn or thane (Latin minister) was an aristocrat who ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and ealdormen. He had to be a substantial landowner. Thanage refers to the tenure by which lands were ...

was first used as a title associated with men from Denmark and Sweden in service to Danish kings, but, from its context in inscriptions, over time became more generalized and was used by groups such as merchants or the crew of a ship. Other runestones describing the deceased using the words ''harþa goþan dræng'' in some order include DR 1 in Haddeby, DR 68 in Århus, DR 77 in Hjermind, DR 127 in Hobro, DR 268 in Östra Vemmenhög, DR 276 in Örsjö, DR 288 and DR 289 in Bjäresjö, Sm 48 in Torp, Vg 61 in Härlingstorp, Vg 112 in Ås, Vg 114 in Börjesgården, the now-lost Vg 126 in Larvs, Vg 130 in Skånum, Vg 153 and Vg 154 in Fölene, Vg 157 in Storegården, Vg 162 in Bengtsgården, Vg 179 in Lillegården, Vg 181 in Frugården, Vg 184 in Smula (using a plural form), the now-lost Ög 60 in Järmstastenen, Ög 104 in Gillberga, and possibly on U 610 in Granhammar. On Vg 90, the runes trik for "drengr" have been emphasized by their placement on the portion of the text band that bends back in the interior, although one scholar has suggested that this arrangement may have been caused by "faulty planning" on the part of the runemaster. p. 469. If the name of the father is correctly read as Bróðir, the runemaster spelled the name as burþiʀ using a reverse-read "ur." A punctuation mark consisting of a × was used as a word divider between each word of the runic text.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:burþiʀ × sati × stin × þonsi × iftiʀ × h(i)--o × sun × sin × harþa × kuþan × trik ×Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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entry for Vg 90.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Broðiʀ satti stæin þannsi æftiʀ , sun sinn, harða goðan dræng.''

Translation in English

:Bróðir placed this stone in memory of his son, a very good valiant man.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vastergotland Runic Inscription 90 Vastergotland Runic Inscription 090