Latin i runinskrifter och en nytolkning av gravhällen från Skärvum (Vg 129)

Abstract

A grave slab found at Skärvum church in Västergötland, Sweden (Vg 129), bears a chal­leng­ing inscription consisting of two lines of runes. Due to ext­en­sive dam­age, almost all the runes are difficult to read, and in the latest edition only the be­gin­ning and the end have been interpreted. This article pro­poses a new read­ing for the sec­ond half of the inscription. This sequence is not in­scribed in the ver­nac­u­lar, as pre­vi­ously thought, but in Latin, and it reads in no­mi­ne patris et filii et spiritus sancti. Vg 129 is the sole example of a runic fu­ner­ary inscription con­tain­ing the tri­ni­tar­ian for­mu­la, with only two parallels in Roman alphabet fu­ner­ary in­scrip­tions from medi­eval Scandi­navia. On the basis of sev­er­al par­al­lels in runic amu­lets, however, a link between Vg 129 and amulet in­scrip­tions is suggested here. An ortho­graphic analysis of Vg 129 shows the inscriber’s familiarity with Latin writing conven­tions, dis­playing an al­most error-free Latin text. The use of a single þ rune to abbreviate Latin et is also notable, as its only parallel is a late medieval runic example from Got­land. The use of an ortho­phonic spelling (æþ or eþ) to produce a Latin ab­bre­vi­a­tion, to­geth­er with other characteristics of this Latin text and observations based on the wider runic corpus, challenge the per­cep­tion of orthophonic spel­lings as merely distorted rep­re­sen­tations of a Latin lit­er­ate norm caused by unschooled in­scribers learning Latin by ear. Instead, they can in some instances be seen as written conventions in their own right and a sign of literate awareness.