Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps, Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Introduction: Looking across the Baltic Sea and over Linguistic Fences
- Section 1 Mental Maps
- 1 The Northern Part of the Ocean in the Eyes of Ancient Geographers
- 2 Austmarr on the Mental Map of Medieval Scandinavians
- 3 The Connection Between Geographical Space and Collective Memory in Jómsvíkinga saga
- Section 2 Mobility
- 4 Rune Carvers Traversing Austmarr?
- 5 Polish Noble Families and Noblemen of Scandinavian Origin in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: The Case of the Awdańcy Family: By Which Route did they come to Poland and why?
- 6 A Medieval Trade in Female Slaves from the North along the Volga
- Section 3 Language
- 7 Ahti on the Nydam Strap-ring: On the Possibility of Finnic Elements in Runic Inscriptions
- 8 Low German and Finnish Revisited
- Section 4 Myth and Religion Formation
- 9 Mythic Logic and Meta-discursive Practices in the Scandinavian and Baltic Regions
- 10 The Artificial Bride on Both Sides of the Gulf of Finland: The Golden Maiden in Finno-Karelian and Estonian Folk Poetry
- 11 Local Sámi Bear Ceremonialism in a Circum-Baltic Perspective
- 12 Mythologies in Transformation: Symbolic Transfer, Hybridisation, and Creolisation in the Circum-Baltic Arena (Illustrated Through the Changing Roles of *Tīwaz, *Ilma, and Óðinn, the Fishing Adventure of the Thunder God, and a Finno-Karelian Creolisation of North Germanic Religion)
- Contributors
- Indices
4 - Rune Carvers Traversing Austmarr?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps, Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Introduction: Looking across the Baltic Sea and over Linguistic Fences
- Section 1 Mental Maps
- 1 The Northern Part of the Ocean in the Eyes of Ancient Geographers
- 2 Austmarr on the Mental Map of Medieval Scandinavians
- 3 The Connection Between Geographical Space and Collective Memory in Jómsvíkinga saga
- Section 2 Mobility
- 4 Rune Carvers Traversing Austmarr?
- 5 Polish Noble Families and Noblemen of Scandinavian Origin in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: The Case of the Awdańcy Family: By Which Route did they come to Poland and why?
- 6 A Medieval Trade in Female Slaves from the North along the Volga
- Section 3 Language
- 7 Ahti on the Nydam Strap-ring: On the Possibility of Finnic Elements in Runic Inscriptions
- 8 Low German and Finnish Revisited
- Section 4 Myth and Religion Formation
- 9 Mythic Logic and Meta-discursive Practices in the Scandinavian and Baltic Regions
- 10 The Artificial Bride on Both Sides of the Gulf of Finland: The Golden Maiden in Finno-Karelian and Estonian Folk Poetry
- 11 Local Sámi Bear Ceremonialism in a Circum-Baltic Perspective
- 12 Mythologies in Transformation: Symbolic Transfer, Hybridisation, and Creolisation in the Circum-Baltic Arena (Illustrated Through the Changing Roles of *Tīwaz, *Ilma, and Óðinn, the Fishing Adventure of the Thunder God, and a Finno-Karelian Creolisation of North Germanic Religion)
- Contributors
- Indices
Summary
Abstract
In the eleventh century ad, the picture stone tradition on Gotland is replaced by a runestone tradition similar to that of the Mälar valley on the Swedish mainland. It has been suggested that the Gotlandic runestones can be traced to the treaty between the Gotlanders and the Svear that was probably agreed upon in around AD 1030. Since the runestone tradition continues longer on Gotland, it has been suggested that rune carvers from the mainland found a new arena on Gotland. This article argue that the constellations of rune carvers may reflect power relations, territorial limits, centers for literacy and social relations. The results indicate co-operation and areas of mutual exchange.
Keywords: Runestone, picture stone, Gotland, Viking Age, 3D scanning, rune carvers
Introduction
In the late eleventh century AD, a picture-stone tradition with a strong local character on Gotland is transformed into a runestone tradition similar to that of the Mälar area on the Swedish mainland. Gotland places its own distinguishing mark on the runestone tradition by imitating the mushroom or door shape of the slab just as on earlier picture stones, but the runic ornament is similar to that of runestones of the Mälar area.
In her dissertation on the language and chronology of the Gotlandic runic inscriptions (Snædal 2002), Thorgunn Snædal reaches the conclusion that the background to Gotlandic runestones of central Scandinavian runestone style lies in Swedish influence on Gotland resulting from the treaty between Gotlanders (gutar) and Swedes (svear), supposed to have been agreed upon in ca. AD 1030 (Snædal 2002: 230). Snædal further suggests that the fading of the runestone tradition on the Swedish mainland induced the Upplandic rune carvers to look around for another area and find a new arena on Gotland, resulting in an increase in runic monuments on Gotland (Snædal 2004b: 62; cf. 2002: 230). To my mind, this is a rather bold suggestion, which awakens curiosity. This implies that some rune carvers who were earlier active in Uppland would have left traces on Gotland, which is very interesting in the perspective of mobility. Was there an actual influx of rune carvers? Would it be possible to trace them back to the mainland?
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- Information
- Contacts and Networks in the Baltic Sea RegionAustmarr as a Northern Mare Nostrum, ca. 500–1500 AD, pp. 91 - 116Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019