Vadstena bracteate

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Copy of the stolen bracteate from Vadstena, Östergötland, Sweden.
The Vadstena bracteate. Older picture from Nordisk familjebok.

The Vadstena bracteate (

Swedish Museum of National Antiquities
and has not yet been found.

The bracteate is believed to have been made about AD 500. In the middle of the bracteate is a four-legged animal with a man's head above it, and in front of this a bird separated from the other images by a line.

runic alphabet. The runes in the futhark are divided by dots into three groups of eight runes which are commonly called an ætt.[3] The entire inscription reads:[1][2]

tuwatuwa; fuþarkgw; hnijïpzs; tbemlŋo[d]

The last rune (d) is hidden below the necklace holder piece that has been molded on top of the bracteate, but archaeologists know what it is because a duplicate bracteate was found in Motala (image) which read:

(t)uwatuwa; fuþarkgw; hnijïpzs; tbemlŋod.

The first part of the inscription is not yet understood but is assumed to be associated with magic, however this is a common stock-explanation for runic text that has not yet been interpreted.[2]

The Motala bracteate was struck with the same die and was found at a nearby town in the same province, Östergötland, in 1906.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bracteates.

References

  1. ^
    Nordisk Familjebok, Owl Edition, pp. 262-263 [1]
  2. ^
    ISBN 91-88930-32-7
    .
  3. ISBN 0-7190-0787-9
    .


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