Thralls in Runic Inscriptions

2021 ◽  
pp. 105-121
Author(s):  
Stefan Brink
Keyword(s):  
Viking Age ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Freed Slaves ◽  
Runic Inscriptions

Runes are the indigenous writing system in Viking-Age Scandinavia, and therefore a very important source for this, otherwise, oral society. There are around 3,000 runic inscriptions, but the mentioning of thralls are extremely rare. Only a handful examples can be discussed, such as the words bryti and fostri/fostra, and a couple concerning freed slaves, løysar. This should not be surprising, since there probably was no cause for commemorating a slave in a runic inscription.

scholarly journals SOMETHING ABOUT THE MENTAL MAP OF THE VIKING AGE: UKRAINIAN LANDSCAPE IN THE SCANDINAVIAN RUNIC INSCRIPTIONS (OVERVIEW OF THE PILGÅRDS AND THE BEREZAN’ RUNESTONES)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alla Kurzenkova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
The People ◽  
Content Analysis Method ◽  
Mental Map ◽  
Structured Information ◽  
Geography Information ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Runic Inscriptions

The main aim of the article is to investigate the text of the Pilgård’s runestone concerning the place name which are connected with Ukrainian landscape, and at the same time, understanding the role of Berezan’ Island in the trade communication is shaped by researching its rune inscription. The main purpose of research is to understand how fellows-in-trade in the Viking Age have perceived places and how they reflected their mental map in the inscriptions of runestones. The content analysis method became the principal idea of the research methodology. The research was carried out in two stages. The first stage involved the grouping of conceptual components into logical categories recorded in the runic inscriptions. The second stage involved examining the text on different contextual levels. The scientific novelty of the article is to investigate the geography information of runestones as the mental maps, which were connected with long-distance trade networks on the Eastern way, combining knowledge of travel routes extended to Ukrainian landscape, and how traders encountered and experienced it. The runestones show us something what the people have been pondering about before. The text on the stones are perceived as a common place for the development of the cultural experience, it attracts attention to the life of people and the cultural environment that made impact on the stone and where it was formed due to the trade activity of human beings. Understanding the scale of Scandinavian activities beyond the island Berezan' fosters the increasingly necessary knowledge to explain such term as felagi that is found on runestone. The inscriptions on runestones were fused the physical, humans and the cultural landscape into the mental map, which was comprehensible to a certain group of the Swedish fellows-in-trade. The Pilgårds and the Berezan’ runestones structured information about Ukrainian landscape and gave the evaluation of the purpose of a place.

Kenningar in den metrischen Runeninschriften der Wikingerzeit und des Mittelalters

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-101
Author(s):  
Jana Krüger
Keyword(s):  
Viking Age ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
Runic Inscriptions

Abstract There are several reasons why it is of great importance to include the kennings of the metrical runic inscriptions in thorough investigations of kennings, albeit their number is not particularly high. One reason for this is that there are Viking-Age metrical inscriptions with kennings attested from Eastern Scandinavia, and mostly in eddic metres. Further, some of these kennings belong to the oldest kennings we know at all from Scandinavia, e. g. the kennings of the Theoderic-stanza on the Swedish Rök stone are older than the work of Bragi Boddason. To make it easier for further research to include these kennings, this article gives a short overview of this material. It is worth considering the kennings of the metrical runic inscriptions, for they show a great variety and they are highly developed. Beside the use of tvíkennt and rekit kennings, they testify the knowledge of half-kennings and the poetic device of ofljóst in medieval Norway.

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