Runestones from Haithabu
The rune stones from Haithabu represent valuable historical documents, the importance of which is that the early history in southern Denmark from the time before and after the unification of the Danish Empire can be linked with real events. The purpose of rune stones is to pass on to posterity the memory of important men. The erection of such memorial stones is therefore limited to a socially detached group. The four rune stones related to the city of Haithabu are exhibited in the Viking Museum Haithabu and are divided into two groups, the "Sigtrygg stones" and the "Sven stones".
The Sigtrygg stones
The older group is represented by the stones set for her son Sigtrygg by a queen named Asfrid and dates from the middle or second half of the 10th century.
The great Sigtryggstein
The stone, discovered in 1797, lay broken at the ford between the Haddebyer and the Selker Noor . His inscription is carved into Swedish runes. A stone was used that probably bore Bronze Age marks. The text says:
- "Asfrid copied this monument (in memory of) Sigtrygg, her and Knuba's son."
The little Sigtryggstein
The second rune stone found in the foundations of a bastion of Gottorf Castle in 1887 is smaller than the first. The runes come from a Danish rune master . The inscription reads:
- “Asfrid, Odinkar's daughter, imitated these monuments (in memory of) King Sigtrygg, her and Knuba's son. Gorm scratched the runes. "
The sources
These rune stones are important as contemporary sources for an otherwise scarcely preserved event.
- Adam von Bremen reports that a noble named Olaf from Sweden conquered Denmark at the beginning of the 10th century. His sons are called Chnob (Knuba) and Gyrd. The last representative of this family, named Sigtrygg, was stripped of his kingship by a man named Hardegon. There is further evidence of the presence of Swedish Vikings on the southern Cimbrian Peninsula in the first half of the 10th century , Sweden is mentioned on the runestone of Sædinge on the Danish island of Lolland , i.e. directly on the sea route between the Schlei and Sweden.
- We owe the second note to the Saxon chronicler Widukind von Corvey , who reported about a generation after the events that the German King Heinrich I advanced to the Schlei in 934, subjugated a king named Chnuba, made tribute and converted to Christianity.
King Sigtrygg's father ruled over the area around Haithabu (not all of Denmark) in 934. His mother Asfrid survived her husband Chnuba and their son Sigtrygg and set the two rune stones. Despite this historical evidence of the invasion of the Swedish dynasty, which ruled for only three generations, the history of the family remains in the dark. Above all, it remains to be seen by whom it was ousted from Haithabu. Hardeknud would only come into question as a conqueror of Haithabus if the conquest had taken place immediately after that of Henry I, because Gorm the Old died in 958 AD.
The rune stones testify that the dynasty came from Sweden, because there is no other way to explain the Swedish runes and language forms on the larger stone. The custom of setting two stones at the same time is also more common in Sweden - in contrast to Denmark. The age of the stones is limited by the fact that Knuba was still alive in 934 and was left in office by Heinrich I. When Sigtrygg died, however, is completely open. His equation with a Norman named Setricus, who died in Normandy in 943 , remains a vague assumption that would explain why his mother had the opportunity to set the stones, which would hardly have been possible if Haithabu had been conquered by the enemy.
Inconsistencies in the church chronicle
In 948, the Danish King Harald Blauzahn is said to have already allowed the establishment of dioceses, including the one in Schleswig, although he was only baptized in 960, but was guaranteed the Eider-Schlei border by the German Empire, so that rule in Haithabu continued him or one of his vassals should have taken place at the latest by this time.
The name of King Chnob or Knuba zu Haithabu
According to a comment by a former Hamburg archivist, the name Chnob (Knuba) in Germany seems to be Knop. Presumably from this name the surname Knop or Knoop, which still exists today, arose, which is still found increasingly in northern Germany.
The Svensteine
The second group of rune stones found near Haithabu is somewhat younger. It also comprises two stones, one of which stood in its place for a long time and is now in the Haithabu Museum.
The skartone
The stone found south of the town of Busdorf on the old country road in 1857 was at the point where the road leads between the burial mounds "Twebargen". The remains of a wooden coffin, traces of a skeleton, small iron remains and a piece of leather with pressed ornamentation were found in the grave pit of the approximately 3 m high hill in 1889. It is a burial from the younger Viking Age, the exact age of which could not be determined. It is not certain that it belongs to the rune stone, but it is likely. The inscription on the stone is in the old Danish language and of a type that is slightly younger than that of the famous rune stones from Jelling . It is:
- "King Sven put this stone after (in memory of) Skarthe, his henchman who had gone west (England), but now fell near Haithabu."
Which King Sven is meant cannot be decided with certainty. It was either Sven Gabelbart or Sven Estridsen . Both according to the form of the name and the type of runes and the font are theoretically possible. If one assumes, however, that the grave found in the burial mound (next to the rune stone) contains the remains of Skarthe, then it can only be about Sven Gabelbart, because at the time of Sven Estridsen the construction of the large burial mound, for which Sven Gabelbart stands, was no longer common. The revival of pagan customs can also be observed in other places during the reign of Sven Gabelbart.
Which historical event formed the background for Skarthe's death and which personally brought the king to Haithabu cannot be determined with certainty, since Haithabu is said to have belonged to the Danish Empire even before the year 986, when Sven became king.
The Erikstein
The second stone in this group found in 1796 is the so-called Erikstein. He was found overturned between two closely adjacent burial mounds near the village of Wedelspang, about 500 m south of the semicircular wall of Haithabu. In one of the hills, traces of cremation were found during excavations, but nothing that could be understood as the burial of a Viking-era chief. The inscription on the stone reads:
- "Thorolf, Sven's henchman, built this stone after (in memory of) his comrade Erik, who was killed when the warriors besieged Haithabu, and he was a helmsman, a well-born warrior."
In terms of language, runes and font, the Erikstein is of the same age as the Skarthestone. This simultaneity of the stones suggests that Sven des Skarthesteines and Sven des Eriksteines are identical and therefore both monuments refer to a siege of Haithabu. When this took place, however, is unclear. Assuming that Sven and Skarthe drove "west" together, the event is at least limited to the period between Sven's first trip to England in 1003 and his death in 1014.
See also
literature
- Herbert Jankuhn : Haithabu. A trading center from the Viking Age , 8th revised and greatly expanded edition. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1986, ISBN 3-529-01813-9 .
- Ernst GJ Knoop: Archive of the Knop families . 1939-1950, ZDB ID 974238-4 .
- Rochus von Liliencron : The rune stone from Gottorp. King Sigtrygg's stone in the Schleswig-Holstein Museum of Patriotic Antiquities in Kiel. University bookstore, Kiel 1888
- Lutz Mohr : The "big" and the "little Sigtrygg stone" in Schleswig - the legacy of the Viking queen Asfrid von Haithabu. In: Stone Cross Research (SKF). Studies on German and international stone cross research. (= Contributions to rune stone research, Vol. 10. Ed. By Rainer H. Schmeissner.) Regensburg 1999, pp. 6-13.
- Lutz Mohr: The "Skarthi stone" from Haithabu / Schleswig. A royal rune memorial for a Pomeranian Joms Viking? In: Ebda, pp. 14-22.
Web links
- The Erikstein on Grosssteingraeber.de
Footnotes
- ^ Johann Matthias Schultz : Description and explanation of two rune stones found near Schleswig . Friedrichstadt 1799, p. 32–33 ( full text in Google Book Search - author according to British Library catalog entry BLL01003280655 ; "two friends" are named as the author on the title page).
- ↑ According to the literature cited (Jankuhn, 1986) p. 72: “The Danish runologist Lis Jacobsen, based on a statement in the great saga of Olav Tryggvason, suggested that it was the Danish King Gorm, the son of a chief named Hardeknud , was. "
- ^ Johann Matthias Schultz : Description and explanation of two rune stones found near Schleswig . Friedrichstadt 1799, p. 25–29 ( full text in the Google book search - author according to catalog entry BLL01003280655 of the British Library ; “two friends” are named as the author on the title page).
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