Runamo
Encyclopedia
Dike (geology)
A dike or dyke in geology is a type of sheet intrusion referring to any geologic body that cuts discordantly across* planar wall rock structures, such as bedding or foliation...
that was for centuries held to be a runic inscription and gave rise to a famous scholarly controversy in the 19th century. It is located 2.7 km from the church of Bräkne-Hoby
Bräkne-Hoby
Bräkne-Hoby is a locality situated in Ronneby Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with 1,769 inhabitants in 2005.It and it does have a högstadium . Bräkne-Hoby Parish is a parish in the Church of Sweden. Historically the inhabitants of the parish belonged to Bräkne Hundred in Blekinge...
in Blekinge
Blekinge
' is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden , situated in the south of the country. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea.The name "Blekinge" comes from the adjective bleke, which corresponds to the nautical term for "dead calm"....
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. For hundreds of years people said it was possible to read an inscription, and learned men referred to it.
As early as the 12th century, the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus also known as Saxo cognomine Longus was a Danish historian, thought to have been a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, foremost advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the first full history of Denmark.- Life :The Jutland Chronicle gives...
reported in the introduction to his Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...
that the runic inscription was no longer legible being too worn down. This had been established by a delegation sent by the Danish king Valdemar I of Denmark
Valdemar I of Denmark
Valdemar I of Denmark , also known as Valdemar the Great, was King of Denmark from 1157 until 1182.-Biography:...
(1131–1182) to read the inscription:
Harald Wartooth
Harald Wartooth or Harold Hiltertooth was a legendary king of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the historical northern German province of Wendland, in the 8th and 9th century...
to his father's great deeds:
In spite of Saxo's report that the inscription was illegible as early as the 12th century, the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and antiquary Ole Worm
Ole Worm
Ole Worm , who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician and antiquary.-Life:...
declared in the 17th century that he had managed to read four letters in the description: Lund
Lund
-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...
.
There was considerable interest in the inscription during the Gothicismus
Gothicismus
Gothicismus, Gothism, or Gothicism is the name given to what is considered to have been a cultural movement in Sweden, centered around the belief in the glory of the Swedish ancestors, originally considered to be the Geats, which were identified with the Goths. The founders of the movement were...
of the early 19th century. The Swedish writer Esaias Tegnér
Esaias Tegnér
Esaias Tegnér , was a Swedish writer, professor of Greek language, and bishop. He was during the 19th century regarded as the father of modern poetry in Sweden, mainly through the national romantic epos Frithjof's Saga. He has been called Sweden's first modern man...
referred to it in his unfinished poem on the giantess Gerðr and Axel who became bishop Absalon of Lund.
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters is a Danish non-governmental science Academy, founded 13 November 1742 by permission of the King Christian VI, as a historical Collegium Antiquitatum...
sent an expedition led by an Icelandic professor at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
named Finnur Magnússon. The mission was to explore the signs making use of geological and artistic expertise, including the geologist Johan Georg Forchhammer
Johan Georg Forchhammer
Johan Georg Forchhammer was a Danish mineralogist and geologist.Forchhammer was born at Husum, Schleswig. After studying at the universities of Kiel and Copenhagen from 1815 to 1818, he joined Hans Christian Ørsted and Lauritz Esmarch in their mineralogical exploration of Bornholm, and took a...
. At first, Finnur was unable to read the signs, but resolving to read them from right to left and by interpreting some of them as cipher runes
Cipher runes
Cipher runes, or cryptic runes, are the cryptographical replacement of the letters of the runic alphabet.-Preservation:The knowledge of cipher runes was best preserved in Iceland, and during the 17th and the 18th centuries, Icelandic scholars produced several treatises on the subject...
, he believed he discerned a poem. This poem was an incantation by Harald Hildekinn (sic.), i.e. Harald Wartooth, for victory against the Swedish king Sigurd Ring
Sigurd Ring
Sigurd Hring was a Swedish and Danish king mentioned in many old Scandinavian legends. According to Bósa saga ok Herrauds, there was once a saga on Sigurd Hring, but this saga is now lost...
at the Battle of Brávellir, or stanzas from the skaldic poem that the champion Starkad
Starkad
Starkad, Old Norse: Starkaðr or Störkuðr, Latin: Starcaterus, and during the late Middle Ages, also known as Starkodder, was a legendary hero in Norse mythology....
composed on the battle.
Finnur's report prompted the famous Swedish scientist Jöns Jacob Berzelius to undertake his own study in 1836, and he concluded that the inscription was nothing but natural cracks in the rock. Finnur defended his thesis in an extensive publication in 1841, but the Danish archaeologist Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae
Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae
Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae was a Danish archaeologist, historian and politician, who was the second director of the National Museum of Denmark . He played a key role in the foundation of scientific archaeology. Worsaae was the first to excavate and use stratigraphy to prove C.J...
made a third study at the location in 1844, which turned the general scholarly opinion towards Berzelius' theory. Since then, it is generally considered to be a dolerite dike
Dike (geology)
A dike or dyke in geology is a type of sheet intrusion referring to any geologic body that cuts discordantly across* planar wall rock structures, such as bedding or foliation...
with cracks.