Granavollen Runestone
Encyclopedia
The Granavollen stone is a runestone located behind Nikolaikirken at Granavollen in Gran
, Oppland
county, Norway
. This church is also known as one of the two medieval Sister Churches. The inscription is classified as being carved in runestone style RAK, which is the oldest style. This classification is used for those inscriptions where the ends of the runic text bands are straight and do not have any animal or serpent heads attached.
The runic text is dated as being from the last half of the eleventh century and reveals that the stone was erected in memory of a brother named Aufi. The text ends in a prayer for Aufi's sál, or soul
, a word which was not used until after the introduction of Christianity
.
Gran, Norway
is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hadeland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Jaren. There is also a village of Gran located within the municipality....
, Oppland
Oppland
is a county in Norway, bordering Sør-Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The county administration is in Lillehammer. Oppland is, together with Hedmark, one of the only two landlocked counties of Norway....
county, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. This church is also known as one of the two medieval Sister Churches. The inscription is classified as being carved in runestone style RAK, which is the oldest style. This classification is used for those inscriptions where the ends of the runic text bands are straight and do not have any animal or serpent heads attached.
The runic text is dated as being from the last half of the eleventh century and reveals that the stone was erected in memory of a brother named Aufi. The text ends in a prayer for Aufi's sál, or soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
, a word which was not used until after the introduction of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
.
Transliteration
A transliteration of the runic text into Latin letters is:- × cRnir ¤ aunar ¤ rRkiu ¤ ricþtu [¤] ...(f)tir ¤ aufa ¤ bruþur ¤ cin ¤ hialbi ¤ kuþ × col × aufa