Runestone of Sanda II

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Photo-request.svg
 Image wanted 
BW

The rune stone of Sanda II (there is a picture stone that is listed under Sanda I) belongs to a Gotland grave box . Its dating between 1000 and 1100 AD is supported by a contemporary runic inscription on a double-headed serpent. Grave boxes are mostly in use in Sweden between 700 and 1100. The stones of the late grave boxes show symbolic and naturalistic representations, but the scenes have mythological content. The rune stone found in the Sanda cemetery has a width of about 90 cm and an illustrated height of about 70 cm.

Triskele

In its center it shows three men in profile turned to the left. Above that, framed with an open rectangle, is a scene that is difficult to interpret and also shows three figures, next to it a triskelion . The inscription in the upper curve of the stone gives the names "Rodvisl and Farbjörn and Gunnbjörn".

In the central depiction, the right wingman carries an object that can be interpreted as a sickle , the middle figure a spade-shaped standard and the left a spear . All three attributes appear on other representations in a different context.

The attempts to interpret the content of the picture are inconsistent. For some researchers, the sickle indicates that it represents the fertility god Freyr . The spear would speak for Odin . The figures would then be Odin, Thor and Freyr and would correspond to the veneration of a pagan "trinity" handed down from Adam of Bremen at the end of the 11th century from Uppsala , which also corresponds to the triskele. It was also suggested that it was a land survey. Such an act was a solemn procedure in which an open fire was carried. The sickle in this case would be a torch.

The stone is now in the Gotlands Fornsal Museum in Visby .

literature

  • Hugo Jungner: Den gotländska runbildstenen från Sanda , in: Fornvännen 1930, ISSN  0015-7813 , pp. 65–82 ( online ; PDF; 2.3 MB)
  • Erik Nylén , Jan Peder Lamm: Picture stones on Gotland. Wachholtz, Neumünster 2nd expanded and completed edition 1991, ISBN 3-529-01823-6
  • Jörn Staecker: Hjältar, kungar och gudar. Receptionen av bibliska element och av hjältediktning i en hednisk värld , in: Åsa Berggren, Stefan Arvidsson, Ann-Mari Hållans (eds.): Minne och myt: konsten att skapa det förflutna , Nordic Academic Press, Lund 2004, ISBN 91-89116 -75-5 , pp. 41-79

Web links