En uartig historisk runeindskrift

A historic runic inscription from Bergen A wooden stick found during the excavation of mediaeval Bergen bears a rather unorthodox runic inscription. The text consists of three sentences, naming three men each of whom is given a nickname: »Jon silkifuþ owns me, and Guthormr fuþsleikir inscribed me, and Jon fuþkula reads me.« The three sentences may have been cut by three separate hands, in which case we may have the signatures of the men concerned. The nicknames all contain the indelicate element fuþ, 'cunt', which looks like a joke, perhaps a bright idea somebody got during a riotous party. Otherwise the names are silki, 'silk', sleikir, from the verb sleikja, 'lick', and kula, 'swelling, growth'. Ignoring the common intrusive element, we have here names of three people known from historical sources. As individuals we know little about them, but collectively they can be placed in the upper ranks of Norwegian society from the beginning of the thirteenth century. One of them may even have been half-brother to the king. At the date to which the inscription belongs they must still have been young men, and we may surmise that, when they invented this joke on their nick­names, they had met together in Bergen on a communal business enterprise.Aslak Liestøl