Book reviews 261

Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions. By Terje Spurkland.

Translated by Betsy van der Hoek. Woodbridge, UK and Rochester,
NY: Boydell Press. 2005. ix + 206 pp. + 42 b/w illustrations + 3 line
illustrations. £25.00/$47.95 US (hardback). ISBN 1843831864.

This is a very accessible introduction to what can be a very arcane

subject. The book is filled with lively and engaging case studies
concerning individual inscriptions. These are the best feature of the
book and are in keeping with the author’s emphasis on the evidence
of runes as an often overlooked aspect of Norwegian cultural history.
One continuing debate in runology is whether runes were created to
serve a practical or a more magical function. The author is not
particularly forceful in championing one specific function for runes
within society, perhaps since the inscriptions, as with modern messages,
served many functions depending on the content, context and
medium of transmission (see pp. 3–4, 11–15, 117–19 and 200 –1 for
discussions).
The eight chapters and (curiously) unnumbered introduction divide
the material chronologically. The author outlines the benefits of runic
evidence in his brief introduction. Chapters 1–2 discuss the origin and
development of runes. These chapters are clearly written and give an
excellent overview of the subject. Chapters 3–4 discuss the elder fupark
and inscriptions, from c.200 –500 AD. The author makes an honest
appraisal of the difficulties of working with runic inscriptions and the
process of transcribing, transliterating and then translating an inscription
as best one can. One of the difficulties in working with runes (or indeed
any system of communication) is the problem of predetermination of
meaning caused by ‘outside assumptions that serve as the foundation
for analysis’ (p. 55). He ruminates on various interpretive difficulties
particular to runes and he works through some inscriptions, including
that on the well-known whetstone from Strøm, the island of Hitra,
Trøndelag. He takes issue with a previous reading in connection with
the whetstone as a grave-good (‘He awakened the man, the drinking
brother of the dead, / the shameful injurer of the high one’), preferring
instead to produce a reading based on the specific function of the object
in question (‘May the horn wet this stone. May the hay be cut! May
the mown hay lie!’). His practical approach is compelling. Chapter 4 is
an extended study of the Eggja Stone. With its 190 runic characters,
this is probably the most difficult of all Norwegian inscriptions and
has been interpreted as: a lament for a dead father and a promise
of revenge; a notice of a blood sacrifice; or news of a shipwreck. The
variant readings which he works through are interesting in their own
right, but of more interest to this reader is an increased appreciation of
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262 Book reviews

runic inscriptions as contemporary evidence that may provide alternative

historical narratives.
The author returns to more philological matters in Chapter 5, with
a discussion as to why and how the elder fupark of twenty-four runes was
shortened in the Viking Age to the younger fupark of sixteen (before
1200), leading to multiple usage of certain runes for various sounds.
This discussion was comprehensible to the non-runologist, but a full
list of all of these sounds changes would have been useful. Chapter 6
then applies the same sort of practical thinking to the interpretation of
Viking Age inscriptions. His discussion of the Kuli stone (pp. 108 –12)
illustrates the benefit of a combined philological, historical and
archaeological approach to arrive at a fully considered interpretation of
a particular stone. At times he strives to link names on inscriptions with
historical persons, which is perhaps over ambitious. The author also
briefly touches upon the body of Manx runic inscriptions but in a
multicultural community with cultural convergence, one must be
careful about assigning ethnicity to a carver on the basis of a personal
name ( pp. 125– 9).
Chapter 7 deals with relative versus absolute chronologies in dating
inscriptions. The author uses the Vang stone as a good illustration of
the difficulties of interdisciplinary work. Sometimes the translations
can be a bit awkward, for example ölhúsmenn which he translates as
‘boon-companions’, perhaps could be literally translated as ‘alehouse
men’ (p. 138). A brief discussion of the Maeshowe inscriptions from
Orkney precedes Chapter 8, where we move into the third chronolo-
gical period of runic development, the high Middle Ages. A brief
explanation of the linguistic changes is followed by a discussion of the
influence of Latin and Christian culture on runic inscriptions from this
period, to the point where some inscriptions are direct quotations from
classical Latin verse. This Latinate influence is certainly increasingly
evident in the Bryggen material dating from the late twelfth to the
fifteenth centuries.
Besty van der Hoek should be commended for producing a clear and
readable translation: only a few phrases might have been improved upon.
There are, however, some general formatting problems with the book.
The tripartite transcription, transliteration and translation formula
advocated by the author (p. 17) is not consistently adhered to throughout
the book, which is immensely frustrating. More attention could have
been paid to maps and illustrations. Maps of Norway which appear on
pp. 52 and 119 are uncaptioned and do not explicitly locate major sites
discussed in the work. At times figures were misplaced from corres-
ponding text without proper captions, and not all runic inscriptions
discussed in the case studies were illustrated. Numbered captions and a
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complete list of figures in the front matter would have been useful.
There are some errors in the normalized Old Norse quotations and
transcriptions, and minor typographical errors. Notwithstanding these
criticisms, the book is readable, enjoyable and provides a clear overview
of runes and their importance to reading the past.

Memorial University of Newfoundland SHANNON LEWIS-SIMPSON

Early Medieval Europe   ()

© 2007 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd