Rune stone from the River – one of the most famous artifacts of the Viking age with the longest known runic inscription (it comprises of 762 runes).
the inscription on the stone dates from the first half of the IX century. The runes covering the stone from all sides, including from above.
the Reading and the interpretation of these runes is still a daunting task.
a Few excerpts on rekskom stone suggests that the inscription dedicated to the battles. More than a hundred years researchers have tried to associate the runes with the military exploits of the king of the Ostrogoths of Theodoric.
meanwhile, the opening words testify to the fact that the stone is a memorial: “Wemade say About these runes. Varin put them in honor of a fallen son.”
In the new work, experts from three universities in Sweden has introduced a new interpretation. They believe that the runic text gives an account of another battle between light and darkness, warmth and cold, life and death.
the Authors used an interdisciplinary approach, referring to several Sciences – Philology, archaeology, religious studies and runology.
According to experts, several recent archaeological studies have been devoted to climate disaster 536 years, which affected Scandinavia. Speech, in particular, significant cooling, crop failure, famine and mass death of people.
it is believed that these disasters were caused by a series of volcanic eruptions: they sharply decreased average temperature. Cold, of course, affected the crops, and the consequence was a famine.
According to scientists, during this period, the population of the Scandinavian Peninsula was reduced at least twice.
Experts believe that people had reasons to fear another cataclysm of this kind. A runic inscription on a stone from the River connected with the anxiety caused by the death of his son (or children in a larger perspective?), as well as the fear of a new climate crisis.
“Before the erection of rune-stones from the River there was a series of events that must byt, it seemed extremely sinister: a powerful solar storm painted the sky in dramatic shades of red, yields fell due to the extremely cold summer, and later there was a solar Eclipse,” explains co-author Professor of archaeology Graslund Bo (Bo Grslund) from Uppsala University.
According to him, even one of these events would be enough to give the local population has increased the fear of the phenomenon known as fimbulwinter. So in Norse mythology is called apocalyptic three-year winter before will Ragnarok – death of the gods and the world following the last battle between the gods and the chthonic monsters.
According to the new interpretation of the researchers, runic inscription consists of nine puzzles. Response to five of them – “the Sun”. The other four puzzles dedicated to Odin and his warriors.
Sundquist Olof (Olof Sundqvist), Professor of history of religions from Stockholm University, explains this connection: “the Powerful elite of the Viking era considered itself a guarantor of good crops. They were the leaders of the cult, which kept the delicate balance between light and darkness. And finally, in Ragnarok they had to fight alongside Odin in the final battle for the light.”
by the Way, according to the researchers, some fragments of runic inscriptions have obvious Parallels with other Norse texts.
“For me it was almost like the opening of a new literary source for the Viking age. Answer of Sweden on the Icelandic poetic Edda!”, says Henrik Williams (Henrik Williams), Professor of Scandinavian languages and specialist in runology from Uppsala University.
read More about the study discussed in the article presented in the book Futhark: International Journal of Runic Studies.
by the Way, before “Conduct.Science” (nauka.vesti.ru) talked about how the European trees have helped scientists to understand the causes of the Great famine of the fourteenth century, as well as the largest volcanic eruption in history of Iceland USKarilo the adoption of Christianity. By the way, and rebellion in Hellenistic Egypt could be caused by eruptions.
Text: To.Science