Hogganvik runestone explained

The Hogganvik runestone is a fifth-century runestone, bearing an Elder Futhark inscription, that was discovered in September 2009 by Arnfinn Henriksen, a resident of Hogganvik, in the Sånum-Lundevik area of Mandal, Vest-Agder, Norway, while working in the garden.

Description

The Hogganvik runestone is a stone slab of about 1.5sqm, weighing approximately 800kg (1,800lb). It was lying face down and the runic inscription is therefore well preserved. The inscription, which is in Proto-Norse, can be approximately dated to between 350 and 500 CE and consists of 62 characters, one a bind-rune. This is an exceptionally long text for the early period, either the second longest after that of the Tune stone (known since 1627),^{[1] [2]} or possibly the third; the inscription on the Rö stone has missing and illegible runes.^[3]

A report was issued in October 2009 by runologist James E. Knirk,^[4] and provides a transliteration of the inscription.

Text

The stone is a memorial. The meaningless sequences, with the repeated a runes, may be alphabet magic. The fourth line is hard to interpret. The middle two lines name the carver of the runes.^[4]

Archaeological investigation

In May 2010 an archaeological investigation was carried out. The face of the stone with the inscription was shown to be more weathered than the underside, indicating it had been raised over a grave, and a large Iron Age burial was found under the site, but was not excavated.

See also

• List of runestones

Further reading

• News: Knirk . James E. . 2011 . Hogganvik-innskriften: en hard runologisk nøtt . Viking . 0332-608X . 74 . 25–39 . Norwegian.
• Schulte . Michael . 2011 . Die sprachliche Deutung der Hogganvik-Inschrift. Ergänzungen zum vorläufigen Bericht. . Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik . 0165-7305 . 67 . 57–68 . 10.1163/9789401200783_006 . German.
• Schulte . Michael . 2013 . The Norwegian Hogganvik Stone as an Emblem of Social Status and Identity . Journal of the North Atlantic Special . 1935-1933 . 4 . 120–128 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140714230758/http://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/cultural/centre-for-nordic-studies/publications/21JS5052411Schulte9.pdf . dead . 2014-07-14 .

External links

• • Web site: Kulturminnesøk: Hogganviksteinen . . Norwegian . 6 October 2013 . https://archive.today/20130629200320/http://www.kulturminnesok.no/Lokaliteter/Vest-Agder/Mandal/Hestehaven2 . 29 June 2013 . dead .

Notes and References

1. News: Fant runestein i hagen . . 29 September 2009 . Norwegian.
2. News: Kan ha funnet til nå ukjent runestein . . 28 September 2009 . Norwegian.
3. Web site: Hogganvik Proto-Norse Runestone, Norway (Sept. 2009) . . https://web.archive.org/web/20110429004556/http://www.khm.uio.no/forskning/publikasjoner/runenews/hogganvik.htm . 29 April 2011.
4. Web site: Knirk . James E. . Revised preliminary report: Runic inscription from Hogganvik, Mandal, Vest-Agder (2009) . 27 October 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110604175927/http://www.khm.uio.no/forskning/publikasjoner/runenews/hogganvik/report-2.pdf . 4 June 2011 .