<< Our Photo Pages >> Eggja Runestone - Carving in Norway in Sogn og Fjordane
Submitted by kenntha88 on Monday, 04 September 2017 Page Views: 4638
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: Eggja RunestoneCountry: Norway Fylke: Sogn og Fjordane Type: Carving
Nearest Town: Sogndal
Latitude: 61.239009N Longitude: 7.052042E
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
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External Links:
The Eggja stone is one of the most well known runestones from Scandinavia and Norway and it has the longest runic inscription with the older futhark with around 200 runes! It is currently located in the history museum of Bergen and in the article I have put the original place where it was found. Over the years it has been several attempts to translate the runes and many books have been written about it.
The runestone was found in 1917 on the edge of a high plateu overlooking the town of Sogndal and with a beautiful view over the Sognefjord. It was found when two farmers were plowing their field and hit a large stone slab. The runes were on the under side of the slab and could not have been seen from the surface. The runestone was the top slab or lid covering a small burial chamber. Some small pieces of grave goods, an iron knife and some flint for making fire were found but no human remains. The grave has probably never contained a human body and could have been a kenotaf, a burial with no human remains. The slab was found under a small hill called Bergahaugen.
The stone is 1,6 metres in length and around 70 cm wide. The runes are aligned in three lines, the top line is around 1,2 metres long and contains 110 runes, the lower line is 1 metre long and has 70 runes. Between them is a small and short line with 9 runes and these runes are turned upside down. Between the two lines is a stylized horse figure. It is uncertain whether the horse figure is connected to the runes or added later or already present when the runes were carved.
The runes are in older futhark but has some transition runes typical for the time between the older and younger futhark, this and the dated grave goods shows that the stone has been carved around 600 AD. The runes have been difficult to translate since it is probably written as some sort of poetry rather than the normal short messages normally found on older runestones and also some runes have almost eroded away making it even more difficult to translate.
The most common translations:
In this translation the lines are read with the longest rune line read to the last and the short one first:
Over my (relatives) the wild one cast a corpse wave (blood)
the fulcrums were torn in pieces by it in the drill-weary masthead.
Who brought the host over to yonder land?
The man-fish from the current-paths round Firney
swimming in great haste from the land of the fen-folk
Always (be) help, when (?) write a poem!
Not in the sun and not with a sword one may come to the carved stone
Not may the man who cries over a naked corpse
(and) no mentally disturbed men come to the grave
Another suggested intepretation is that the stone tells of a shipwreck in bad weather in a more prosaic interpretation from 1985:
The household wanes, *Vil threw a death wave over those The oarlocks wore out for, with the tired mast-top"
Who brought the horde to the land afar?
The godly-fish from Firnøy’s streams
Swimming in the drift of the land of shining meadows.
Be it of help, I work this.
Not has the sun seen, nor the sword shorn, this stone,
Do not seek who call forth the naked dead,
Nor wildly men, this bed of rest!
The most accepted translation is that the line with the smallest runes are read first and it is generally aggreed that it is written in stylized poetry and in a partly metrical form containing a protection for the grave and the description of a funerary rite. This translation seems to be the most accepted one:
No sun sought and no sax stone scarred
No man laid it nude as the niþ (moonlight?) runs
No bewildered men lay it aside
Hither stone the man stained with corpse-sea (blood), made thus oarpins in the bearing-worn boat
Whom as came harrier-god here to goð 's (goth) land?
Fishlike, out of river-fear swimming, as bird, our of f(?) crowing
Protection against the wrong-doer
The stone is mentioned in many works of litterature and several websites has more information of the stone, I have added some links to other websites:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggja_stone<46> www.sffarkiv.no/sffbasar/print.asp?p=result&db=dbatlas_leks&art_id=176&spraak_id=2&ptype=single
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