Staveless runes

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Staveless runes were the climax of the simplification process in the evolution of

Since their discovery on runestones at Hälsingland^[1] in the 17th century, staveless runes have also been known as the Hälsinge runes. This label is, however, misleading since staveless runes also appear in Medelpad, Södermanland, and the Norwegian town of Bergen.^[1]

Shape

The staveless runes may appear hard to recognize at first glance, but the only difference between them and the preceding

It appears from the title page of Johannes Bureus' runic primer that Bureus had some understanding of the staveless runes in 1611, but that this has been denied by virtually all runologists.^[4] Since Bureus had not succeeded in deciphering the runes, a large poster with the image of two runestones with staveless runes was published in 1624 together with the announcement of a royal reward for the one who could decipher them.^[5] It would, however, take half a century before someone found the solution.^[5]

At the end of the 1660s,

The verdict of the hieroglyph expert was too much for the mathematician, antiquarian and Hälsingland native Magnus Celsius. Celsius departed for Hälsingland in the early 1670s and made meticulous drawings of the runestones. When he was back in Stockholm, he worked hard on deciphering the runes but had to give up. Eventually he tried to add staves to the runes and suddenly deciphered some of the staveless runes. By 1674, he had deciphered all the runes except for the R rune, which he interpreted as a distinguishing mark.^[5]

The following year, Celsius made a speech at

• Österberga stone
• Skarpåker stone
• Sö 137 at Aspa bro
• Spånga stone

Notes

References

• Enoksen, Lars Magnar (1998). Runor: historia, tydning, tolkning. Historiska Media, Falun.
  ISBN 91-88930-32-7

• Bind rune