Ribe skull fragment

The Ribe skull fragment is a section of human skull bone inscribed with runes and unearthed in 1973 in an archaeological excavation at Ribe, Denmark. It dates to circa 725 CE.[1]

Description

The skull fragment is approximately 6 x 8.5 cm in size and has been taken from the top of a cranium.[2] It has a hole bored in it and it is inscribed with transitional younger futhark runes. The runic inscription retains two characters from the elder futhark, ᚺ and ᛗ.

  • ᚢᛚᚠᚢᛦᚼᚢᚴᚢᚦᛁᚾᚼᚢᚴᚺᚢᛏᛁᚢᛦ ᚺᛁᚼᛚᛒᛒᚢᚱᛁᛁᛋᚢᛁᚦᛦ ᚦᚼᛁᛗᚼᚢᛁᚼᚱᚴᛁᚼᚢᚴᛏᚢᛁᚱᚴᚢᚾᛁᚾ ᛒᚢᚢᚱ

These transliterate as:

  • ulfuRAukuþinAukHutiuR HiAlbburiisuiþR þAimAuiArkiAuktuirkunin buur

Interpretation

A possible interpretation of the inscription is:

  • Ulfr auk Ōðinn auk Hō-tiur. Hjalp buri es viðr þæima værki. Auk dverg unninn. Bōurr.
  • Ulfr and Odin and High-tiur. Buri is help against this pain. And the dwarf (is) overcome. Bóurr.[3]

Where "Ulfr" may refer to the wolf Fenrir, "Odin" to the god Odin, "High-tiur" to the god Týr and "Buri" to the god Búri. It has been suggested that the existence of a hole in the fragment may indicate its use as an amulet.[4] However, there is a general lack of wear of the type that would be expected if it had been used in this way.[3]

References
  1. Stoklund, Marie (1996), ""The Ribe cranium inscription and the Scandinavian transition to the younger reduced futhark.", Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 45, pp. 199–209, retrieved July 15, 2019
  2. Macleod, Mindy; Mees, Bernard (2006), Runic Amulets and Magic Objects, Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press, ISBN 1843832054
  3. Schulte, Michael (2006), "The transformation of the older fuþark: Number magic, runographic or linguistic principles?", Arkiv för nordisk filologi, 121, pp. 41–74, retrieved July 15, 2019
  4. "Odin's Skull: A Macabre Amulet from Denmark", Irish Archaeology, September 17, 2015, retrieved July 15, 2019
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.