Pilgårds rune stone
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The so-called Pilgårds rune stone (G 280) is a rune stone that was found in 1871 near the Pilgårds farm in the parish of Boge in northeast Gotland .
inscription
- biarfaa: statu: sis [o] stain hakbiarn: bruþr ruþuisl: austain: imuar is af [a]: st [ai] n [a]: stata: aft: raf [a] sud [þ] furi ru [f] staini : kuamu uiti aifur: uifil [ba] uþ [um]
Translation: “Hegjarn and his brothers Rodvisl, Øystein and Imuar set up this stone, brightly painted, who set up the stones in memory of Rafn south of Rufstein. They came into the Aifor from far. Vifil gave them the order (or: had the command) ”.
interpretation
The originally colored inscription dates from the last years of the 10th century. It is not a memorial stone for Rafn, rather it is said that the brothers had already erected memorial stones for Rafn in front of Rufstein (the "f" cannot be made out with certainty). It is believed that it was either a relative or a member of the same guild (félag).
Research was particularly interested in the localization of Rufstein and Aifor . It is related to the rapids of the Dnieper . Emperor Konstantinos Porphyrogenetos wrote in his work “De administratio imperio” from around 950 about the Rus who lead with their dugout canoes from Rus to Constantinople and have to overcome the dangerous Dnieper rapids (Dnieper-Porogen). The fourth rapids are called ἀειφόρ (Aeiphor) by the Rus and νεασήτ by the Slavs. The name "Aeiphor" results Old Swedish * Æifor (r), Old Gutnish * Aifur, "the more violent" . The Slavic name is attested as Nenasytec ("The Insatiable") until modern times . If the Rufstein reading is correct, then that could have been the first stone step of the Nenasytec. It's called Rvana or Rvanaja , and there is a prominent stone "Ravnoj Kamen" (= crack stone). In 1912 an almost round stone setting with 40 man-high blocks with a diameter of 19 m was discovered above it . Local tradition tells of a skeleton burial at this point. However, it was not dated.
The inscription is considered an important document for the connections between eastern Sweden and this area, especially for the importance of the Dnieper for the route into the Black Sea and to Byzantium .
literature
- Klaus Düwel : Pilgårds. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 23, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-017535-5 , pp. 160-162.
- Wolfgang Krause : The rune stone from Pilgårds In: News from the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. I. Philological-historical class No. 3 (1952) pp. 53-68.
Web links
- Runestone from Pilgårds - entry in the database "Fornsök" des Riksantikvarieämbetet (Swedish)
- guteinfo.com: Gutarnas Aifur (Swedish)