Björketorp stone
A tall standing stone from the transitional period carrying a curse against anyone who damages the monument, one of the clearest cases of runic writing used to threaten rather than to record.
At a glance
- Alphabet
- Elder Futhark
- Date
- c. AD 600–700
- Found at
- Blekinge, Sweden
- Signature
- DR 360
The text
Why none is reproduced here.
Not reproduced. This inscription is either too long to quote in full or its reading is contested enough that printing one transliteration would suggest a settled text where there is not one. Look it up under DR 360 in the standard catalogues, where the readings are given with their apparatus.
Discovery
One of a group of stones in Blekinge, standing in a setting with two uninscribed stones. It belongs to the transitional period between the Elder and Younger Futhark, and its language and rune forms are correspondingly awkward to classify, which is part of why it is so heavily discussed.
Why it matters
The text warns that whoever breaks the monument will suffer, and it is closely related in wording to the nearby Stentoften stone. Together the two are the strongest evidence in the older corpus that runic inscriptions could carry apotropaic or malevolent intent of their own, rather than having that intent read into them by later interpreters.
Common misconceptions
Claims about this object that circulate widely and do not hold up.
The sequence usually read as a word for "runes of ill-omen" is the pivot of every dramatic translation of this stone, and its analysis is disputed. The general sense of a curse is not in doubt; the specific wording quoted in popular accounts often is.
Runes attested here (3)
Every dictionary entry that cites this object, with the reason it gives.
Sources
Full references on the sources page.