Tune stone
A memorial stone recording an inheritance divided among three daughters. It is one of the longest older-futhark texts (the Eggja stone is the only clearly longer one), and its reading has been argued over for more than a century.
At a glance
- Alphabet
- Elder Futhark
- Date
- c. AD 400
- Found at
- Tune, Østfold, Norway
- Now
- Museum of Cultural History, Oslo
- Signature
- N KJ72
The text
Why none is reproduced here.
Not reproduced. This inscription is either too long to quote in full or its reading is contested enough that printing one transliteration would suggest a settled text where there is not one. Look it up under N KJ72 in the standard catalogues, where the readings are given with their apparatus.
Discovery
Found in 1627 in the churchyard wall at Tune in Østfold, where it had been reused as building material. It carries text on two faces, written boustrophedon (the lines alternate direction), which is one reason the reading order alone has been disputed.
Why it matters
The text names a carver, Wiwaʀ, commemorates a man called Woduridaʀ, and refers to three daughters and the sharing out of an inheritance. That makes it one of the very few early inscriptions that appears to record a legal or social transaction rather than a name or a maker's formula, and it is cited constantly in arguments about early Germanic inheritance and the status of women.
Common misconceptions
Claims about this object that circulate widely and do not hold up.
The key word arbija is read by some as an inheritance and by others as a funeral feast, and the verb governing it is read correspondingly differently. The stone is quoted in support of firm claims about early inheritance law rather more often than that disagreement is mentioned.
Runes attested here (1)
Every dictionary entry that cites this object, with the reason it gives.
- RaidōElder
One of the longest early Norwegian inscriptions, recording an inheritance. Its reading has been debated for over a century.
Sources
Full references on the sources page.