The Bones of Birka by C.M. Surrisi

Author:C.M. Surrisi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2023-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Runic Inscriptions Tell of Battles

Runic inscriptions were etched on stones and are typically a formula: X raises this stone for Y (his/her father/mother, son/daughter, leader/king). On a warrior’s stone, the inscription includes information about the warrior’s battles and military adventures. The inscriptions also tell something about social roles of warriors and the “warrior ideal.” They mention rank and status and tell of the “war band,” which the warrior had signed up to defend. War bands could be family related, commercial and trading related, kingdom related, or any other group position where a warrior cast his allegiance and was compensated.

The common runic phrase used for bravery and group loyalty (as translated by the Victorians) is that “the warrior fled not.” Modern translations are less poetic: He didn’t run away, or He fought while he could hold weapons, or He kept on killing as long as he could hold weapons.

Not all runic inscriptions are fancy and praising. Some are casual. A mid-twentieth century discovery at Bergen and Trondheim, Norway, recovered hundreds of medieval, water-preserved wooden slips inscribed with runes with a variety of mundane purposes: merchants’ tallies, shopping lists, name tags of ownership (“Sigmund owns this sack”), and scrawls (“Things are bad with me, partner. I did not get the beer or the fish.…”), among other things.

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