Tune stone

The Tune stone is an important runestone from about 200–450 CE. It bears runes of the Elder Futhark, and the language is Proto-Norse. It was discovered in 1627 in the church yard wall of the church in Tune, Østfold, Norway. Today it is housed in the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. The Tune stone is possibly the oldest Norwegian attestation of burial rites and inheritance.

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 style.

The A side reads:

A1: ekwiwazafter`woduri

A2: dewitadahalaiban:worathto`?[---

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.

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 "darter" while Woduridaz means "fury-rider." The phrase witandahlaiban that is translated as "my lord" means "ward-bread" or "guardian of the bread." (The English word "lord" similarly originated from Old English hlāford < hlāf-weard literally "loaf-ward", i.e. "guardian of the bread".)

Interpretations

The runic inscription 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 in his book Runene på Tunesteinen.

See also

• Åsetesrett

References

• Grønvik, Ottar (1981). Runene på Tunesteinen: Alfabet, Språkform, Budskap. Universitetsforlaget ISBN 82-00-05656-2