Tjurkö bracteate
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The Tjurkö Bracteates are two bracteates (coins) found on Tjurkö, Eastern Hundred, Blekinge, Sweden, bearing Elder Futhark inscriptions, in Proto-Norse.
Tjurkö 1, dated to between AD 400 and 650 (the Germanic Iron Age), now at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities (SHM 1453:25). It is a typical C-bracteate, like the Vadstena bracteate showing a stylized head in the center, above a horse and beneath a bird. This iconograpy is usually interpreted as depicting an early form of Odin with his associated animals (horse and raven). The inscription reads
- ᚹᚢᚱᛏᛖᚱᚢᚾᛟᛉᚨᚾᚹᚨᛚᚺᚨᚲᚢᚱᚾᛖ··ᚺᛖᛚᛞᚨᛉᚲᚢᚾᛁᛗᚢᚾᛞᛁᚢ···
- wurte runoz an walhakurne : heldaz kunimudiu
- "Helda wrought runes on the welsh coin for Kunimundi."
While it is undisputed that walhakurne (the dative of *walha-kurna-) refers to the bracteate itself, identification of the second element as "grain" (from Proto-Germanic *kurna-, c.f. English corn) is uncertain. An early loan from Latin corona "crown" has been suggested, but is unlikely ("crowns" as currency appear only in medieval times, from images of crowns minted on the coins' faces). The PN Helda- is derived from *heldī "battle", while Kunimundi- is from kuni- "kin, offspring, chieftain" (cognate to king) and mundi- "protection".
Tjurkö 2 is dated to the same period and has an inscription of just three runes, reading ota.
[edit] References
- Erik Brate, Sverges runinskrifter (1922) [1]
