What’s New in Scandinavian Rune Stones
Lise Gjedssø Bertelsen, Non Resident Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University started with her presentation, Introduction to the World of Images of the Scandinavian Rune Stones. She shows us that three styles emerged to form the bases of Late Viking Age (ca. 950 – 1135 AD) art: Mammen, Ringerike, and Urnes. These three styles can be found all over Scandinavia from this time. Mammen style increased in popularity following the raising of the rune stone of King Harald Bluetooth in Jelling, Denmark where as Ringerike style flourished under King Canute the Great of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden. These styles shared similar motifs, most notably the cross of Christ, crucifix, triquetrae, quadrupeds, birds, ships, and masks.
Prior to Dr. Booth’s discovery, the previous earliest use of the word was in them poem Flen flyys, written around 1475. It had a line that read “fvccant vvivys of heli”, a Latin/English mix meaning “…they fuck the wives of Ely”. Historians have come across earlier uses of the word in medieval England, but have doubted that it was being used as a sexual reference. For example, the name John le Fucker appears in 1278, but this likely could be just a different spelling for the word ‘fulcher’ which means soldier.
In his book, The F Word, Jesse Sheidlower explains “fuck is a word of Germanic origin. It is related to words in several other Germanic languages, such as Dutch, German, and Swedish, that have sexual meanings as well as meaning such as ‘to strike’ or ‘to move back and forth’.”
Danielle Turner reports on the papers from the session The World of Images of the Scandinavian Rune Stones, which was part of the 105th Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study held earlier this year in Columbus, Ohio.
Medieval News
McKee family outside JORVIK with Viking re-enactor, Arnor (Max O’Keeffe) – Photo courtesy York Archaeological Trust
The Vik stone (U 288), Uppland, Sweden. 12th cent., Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; photographer: Robin Iversen.