In the 11th century it was not necessary to be literate in order to recognize the runic inscriptions. At the same time, those who knew how to read could extract much more information from the rune stone than was written on it. Such conclusions were reached by scientists from Uppsala University in Sweden.
Runestones are an important part of Sweden's cultural heritage and many of them still stand in their places and bear signs of people who lived a thousand years ago. They represent a unique source of knowledge about the Viking Age and, among other things, allow us to learn about family relationships of those times, travel, beliefs and much more, and in a language that literate people understand quite easily.
“The language and factual information in runic inscriptions has been fairly well researched, but we still know relatively little about how the Viking Age people read the runestones,” says Marco Bianchi of the School of Scandinavian Languages, whose thesis focuses on Viking Age writing in the provinces of Södermanland and Uppland.
There are runic inscriptions that do not carry any linguistic meaning. In Uppland, similar inscriptions were found both in regions rich in runestones and in regions where there were very few such stones.
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“But the more rare the runestones were in a particular area, the worse writers were those who inscribed these non-verbal inscriptions. Thus, we can conclude that they were trying not to convey a linguistic message, but to create a runic engraving that would be perceived by the local population as convincing,”the researcher writes.
However, runestones without any linguistic load are quite rare. Most of the stones bear a short story in the form of a commemorative note. At first glance, the labels may seem chaotic, but in fact they are well structured. Usually, reading them should start from the lower left corner. Another observation by Marco Bianchi is that many stones do not have a fixed reading order. In such cases, the labels are visually separated and can be read in any order.
“You can compare the text of runestones with a modern spread of a newspaper or a web page, where the user is attracted by headlines and images, on many stones the interaction of ornament and runes is really impressive. For the people of the Viking age, the runes themselves were only part of the information that the stone carried,”the scientist writes.
Runes are a pagan alphabet, known since the 2nd century. n. e. It was believed to have magical powers. Therefore, runic signs were carved on standing gravestones as a talisman. Apparently, for the same purpose, they were accompanied by images of fantastic monsters with open jaws. The runic art reached particular sophistication at the end of its existence - in the 11th century. Inscriptions during this period were placed on ribbon-like dragons, forming, as it were, a picture frame, inside which there are various figures. These may be silhouettes of fabulous animals, but very often we see a cross in the center of the composition.
In total, about 5000 runic inscriptions have been found, of which 3000 are in Sweden. The most ancient monuments of runic writing were found in Denmark; in total, about 500 runic inscriptions were found there. About 600 runic inscriptions were found in Norway, about 140 in the British Isles, about 60 in Greenland, and about 70 in Iceland. Several inscriptions were found in Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, Germany, Austria. Also, runic inscriptions were found in France, Greece, Romania, Turkey, the Netherlands.
Runic inscriptions were carved or carved on metal, wood, stone - among the ancient Germans, the art of wood carving was at a high level. Runic inscriptions were of the most diverse content: there were various magical inscriptions and appeals to the gods, but, for the most part, memorial inscriptions were written in runes. A vivid example of this is the runestone from the River, praising King Tjordik, who lived in the 6th century, but the first lines of this inscription read “These runes speak about Vemud. Varin folded them in honor of his fallen son”, which can speak of the memorial value of the stone.
Another runestone from Norway serves as an obituary. It reads: "Engle erected this stone in memory of his son Toralda, who died in Vitaholm, between Ustakholm and Gardar."
Other rune monuments praised the valor of Vikings returning from travel. Here is a typical inscription on a stone from the city of Esch near Stockholm: “The runes were carved at the behest of Ragnwald. He was in Greece at the head of the army. " Runestones, such as the stone from Hillersier (Sweden), speak of the exclusive rights of women among the Germans - the woman's right to own property. The names of the owners of weapons and artists were carved in runes. But runic inscriptions of a household character are also known. [7] A large number of runic inscriptions represent bracteates, runic calendars are also known.
