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The Lister Rune Stones and the Heruls Troels Brandt

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The Lister Rune Stones and the Heruls Troels Brandt The Lister rune stones The Lister rune stones and the Heruls Troels Brandt Abstract Scholarly papers conclude that the Listerland in the 6th - 7th century was ruled by a warrior society between the ordinary Scandinavian societies in Skåne and Västra Vång. This article will in an interdisciplinary way investigate the connections between the Eastern and Western Heruls arriving to the Scandinavian Peninsula around 500 AD, the four rune stones in Lister/Blekinge, the Rök Stone, the coastal landscape and the names Lister, Eorle, Wicingas and Marings. Possibly the rune stones were raised by some of the Western Heruls, the sea-warriors who disappeared from the East Frisian coast after 478 AD. They may have been the Wicingas and Eorle of Widsith and Beowulf. Maybe they assisted or joined the Eastern Heruls, who from their kingdom in Mähren settled first time in Blekinge / Värend around 512 AD - until they were expelled by the Danes. The expulsion of the terrifying Herulian mercenaries made suddenly the unknown Danes famous from Constantinople to England. They may have been the archaeologic and scaldic connection between Scandinavia and East-Anglia. 1 The Lister rune stones 1 The four rune stones in Lister and Björketorp In Blekinge four connected rune stones are found written at a stage between the old and the young Futhark. They are dated to 550-700 AD. Three are found at different places around Listerland and one is found 60 kilometres east of Listerland – but all located in the coastal region. The Istaby Stone: The stone was found in the village of Istaby close to the sandy beaches of Sandviken at the southern coast of Listerland. It is now placed at Historiska Museet in Stockholm. The transcription is: “Aftr Hariwulfa. HaþuwulfR HeruwulfiR wrait runaR þaiaR” The English translation is: “In memory of Hariwulfa. HaþuwulfaR, HeruwulfiR's son wrote these runes.” The Stentoften Stone The stone was found in 1823 near the ruins of Sølvesborg and moved to Sølvesborg Church. It was placed among 5 stones forming a pentagram. The scripture is younger than the one of Istaby. The transcription is: “niu habrumR, niu hangistumR HaþuwulfR gaf j[ar], HariwulfR ... ... haidiz runono, felh eka hedra ginnurunoR hermalausaR argiu, weladauþs, sa þat briutiþ”. The English translation in Lillemor Santesson’s modern version is now generally accepted: “nine bucks, nine stallions, HaþuwulfaR gave fruitful year. Hariwulfar ... ... I, master of the runes(?) conceal here runes of power incessantly (plagued by) maleficence, (doomed to) insidious death (is) he who this breaks.” The Gummarp Stone The stone was probably placed a little north of Sølvesborg and Stentoften (Schulte) at Vesensund. The stone disappeared in the fire of Copenhagen in 1728: The transcription is: “(h)AþuwolAfA sAte (s)tA(b)A þr(i)a fff” The English translation is: “HaþuwulfaR placed staves three fff” The Bjørketorp Stone The 4,2 metres high stone is still placed 60 kilometres from Lister in Björketorp, Listerby Sogn, 5 kilometres east of Ronneby together with two other stones – forming a monument like Stentoften. The transcription is: “Haidz runo runu, falh'k hedra ginnarunaR.argiu hermalausz, ... weladauþe, saz þat brytR | Uþarba spa” The English translation is: “I, master of the runes(?) conceal here runes of power. Incessantly (plagued by) maleficence, (doomed to) insidious death (is) he who breaks this (monument). | I prophesy destruction” The last three inscriptions have an obvious cultic content. 2 The Lister rune stones First of all, it must be noticed that Stentoften and Björketorp contain nearly the same incantation and that they are both parts of monuments with other raised stones, but Björketorp does not contain any names like the three stones in Lister. The conclusion must be that the carver of Björketorp was related to Lister, but not necessarily one of the three names in Lister, who appear to be two or three generations of a dynasty. Hathuwulf appears to be the man behind the memorials, offerings and incantations in Lister. Interesting are the three names on the Istaby Stone, as they obviously are a family and as the stone reveals how the names were created with a first alliteration (H) and a common suffix (-wulf). One or two of the names are also found at the other stones in Lister. Wulf-names are supposed normally to belong to a warrior aristocracy. It is obvious that the identical sentences at Stentoften and Bjørketorp are a protection formula. Consequently, we do not need to understand its exact wording. It is also obvious that the first line of Stentoften is a boast or a reminder about the offerings made by Hathuwulf – though we are missing the text following the name Hariwulf in the next line. The sentence in Gummarp “Haþuwulfar placed staves three fff“ is also a religios statement about an incantation – a parallel to the offerings in Stentoften. It is known from later poems1. In Stentoften the symbolic meaning of the rune jara was used in the text. The f-rune may in the same way be used as a symbol of wealth – but in combination with the unnecessary “staves three” it has probably a double meaning. We will discuss the second meaning in next chapter regarding the Rök Stone. The first part of this article is based on an article by Michael Schulte2 from 2014. He is a professor in linguistics and a specialist in runic inscriptions. His linguistic arguments and facts regarding the stones are used above, but his main conclusion was “that the Blekinge rune stones functioned as emblems of identity and power of the ruling warrior clan in this territory.” Also Lisbeth Imer, The Danish National Museum, has in 2016 in a book3 mentioned the Lister stones and written that the power must have been concentrated on few hands. She writes that a contemporary development may have taken place here as a parallel to Tissø and Lejre. In 2014 Antonia Hellstam wrote at the Lund University “The wolves in the borderland” with similar conclusions after studying also the archaeological landscape4 – a research which is used below. In 2012 she wrote an excellent paper about the Heruls, “Huns or Heruls?”, but in the new Master’s dissertation she does only mention the Heruls one single time as speculation – maybe a protection against the common Swedish antipathy against Heruls. Also the historian, Dick Harrison, has in an essay in 2015 suggested a possible separate kingdom in Lister. Hans Milton criticized his use of the name Niuha and Lister as an earlier separate län (county) – which appear to be correct. He also criticized the use of the word “kingdom”, but that does not change the conclusion of Harrison, which is the same as Schulte, Imer and Hellstam. 1 Ae. Skirnismal. 2 Michael Schulte, “Die Blekinger Runensteine als Machtembleme”, 2014 3 Lisbeth Imer: ”Danmarks Runesten”, 2016. 4 Antonia Hellstam, Ulvarna i gränslandet, 2014. http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=7370126&fileOId=7370138 3 The Lister rune stones I accept the arguments and agree that there probably existed an independent power centre at Listerland – situated between the Danes in Skåne and the old society which is now found in Västre Vång. It must be irrelevant if the ruler was called king, earl or chieftain. It is more important to notice the sacral monuments and the wulf-names indicating an independent clan of warriors. The names may indicate that they were berserks / ulfhednar – the legendary warriors of that time dressed in bear- or wulfskin – as the helmet plate above from the nearby Öland. Identical or at least similar plates were found at the Sutton Hoo-helmet. 2 Similarities between Lister and the Rök Stone First we shall look at the possible connections with the Rök Stone. If we compare the names of the Lister Stones "Hariwulf", "Haþuwulf" and "Hæruwulf" with the names "Raþulf", "Hraiþulf" and "Rukulf" in a list of 8 names from the Rökstone dated around 815 AD, it is obvious that both groups were using both alliteration and wulf in the names – though the number of letters should fit at the Rökstone – breaking an original rule of alliteration. This could indicate that the stones belonged to the same tribe or dynasty – separated by 150 years. However, we shall be aware that the idea of berserks and naming probably faded out and the names were spread as names like Hjorolf and Rolf as general Germanic names. In relation to the Rök Stone we shall notice that the name "Raþulf" is the same as the last Herulian king being killed at their defeat at the Danube in 509 AD, Hrodolphus (Greek) / Rodulf (Latin) – just before they left for Scandinavia. We do only know the names of two of his ancestors at the Danube – both called Alarik, which is also known as a royal Scandinavian name in the legends - Alrik. The East Germanic name in Greek spelling, "Erioulphos", was maybe the name "Hari- wulf", which is also found at the later Rävsala Stone in Bohuslän. The Rök Stone – Frontside - TB The names are not sufficient to appoint a convincing connection, but in this case we shall also notice another similarity. The last three stanzas of the Rök Stone are written as a frame with old and decrypted runes opposite the rest of the stone. This frame is set up in 8 rune lines each consisting of 24 runes5. Statistically it is nearly impossible to claim that it is a coincidence (less than 0,01%). Furthermore, an unusual sign is introducing the last three stanzas of the Rök Stone, which has never been explained by the runologists. They assume the sign to be "þ" based on the rest of the text.
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