Westeremden yew-stick
Pre–Old Frisian runic inscription
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The Westeremden yew-stick is a yew-wood stick found in Westeremden in the Groningen province of the Netherlands in 1917. It bears an Old Frisian runic inscription, dated to the second half of the 8th century.[1] With a total of 41 letters, this is the longest of the extant Frisian runic inscriptions.
Transliteration
The inscription is divided into three lines, as follows:
- ᚩᛈᚻᚳᛗᚢᛡᛁ
ᛅᛞᚪᚳᛗᛚᚢᚦ: - ᚹᛁᛗᛟᚳᚻᚦᚢᚴᛅ
- ᛁᚹᛁᚩ
ᚢ
ᛞᚢᚿᚩᛚᛖ:
Runes with unfamiliar shapes or uncertain values are:
, a Spiegelrune of ᛒ, similar to a variant of ᛥ stan, transliterated as B below- , a Spiegelrune of ᛈ, similar to a variant of ᛥ stan, transliterated as P below
- , like Younger Futhark kaun, transliterated as K below
- ᚳ (like Anglo-Saxon cen, occurring three times); it apparently represents a vowel, likely æ, replacing absent ᚫ æsc
- ᛅ (like Younger Futhark ar), transliterated as A below
- ᚴ, a "bookhand-s", transliterated as S below
- ᚿ, like a short-twig n, probably for ᚾ n
with these decisions, the transliteration may be:
- ophæmujiBAdaæmluþ:
- wimœBæhþuSA
- iwioKuPdunale:
Interpretations
Seebold (1990) reads (transliterating g for j, v for B, ë for A, ô for œ):
- ophæmu givëda amluþ:iwi ok upduna (a)le wimôv æh þusë
Looijenga (1997) reads:
- op hæmu jibada æmluþ : iwi ok up duna (a)le wimœd æh þusa
This reading gives rise to an interpretation along the lines of
- "luck (amluþ) stays (gibada) at home (op hæmu); and (ok) at the yew (iwi) may it grow (ale) on the hill (up duna); Wimœd has (æh) this (þusa)."
or paraphrased more loosely, "At the homestead stays good fortune, may it also grow near the yew on the terp; Wimœd owns this."
In a controversial suggestion going back to 1937, the sequence æmluþ has often been interpreted as a reference to Amleth ("Hamlet").[2] The inscription is here interpreted as
- ophamu gistadda amluþ : iwim ost ah þukn iwi os ust dukale
and given the translation
- "Amluth took his (fighting) position on the high place. Before his yews the waves cowered. May the waves cower before this yew."[3]
The association has led to speculative proposals to the point that Quak (1991) called for a re-examination for the inscription with the ironic caveat "maybe disregarding associations with Hamlet or Amluth".[4]