The Rök Runestone (with Dr. Henrik Williams)
Professor Henrik Williams (Uppsala University) gives an in-person reading of the Rök runestone, the longest known runic text in stone.
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As a swedish person, listening to Henrik going through this over a thousand year old ancient runic inscription from my ancestors depicting history and the norse spirituality and beliefs sends chills down my spine. Thank you Crawford and Williams for this enlightening content!
To be fair, if the people who wrote this still have descendants then they are probably the ancestors of most currently living humans
@@cerdic6305 Not enough time depth for the whole world, though very likely all of Europe. Of course the OP probably had more than just the guys carving the runes in mind.
This is so incredibly valuable to those of us who will likely never be able to visit this stone, much less have a subject matter expert like Prof. Williams join us to explain in detail every cut made into it. Thank you for this.
I've been to the Rök stone, and live in the runestone-densest area of the world (greater Stockholm), and I heartily agree on this being a very valuable video. Thank you to both Jackson & Henrik!
The preschool I went to is located across the street from the rök stone, even though I was young I remember the feeling the texture of the stone ( it was oddly smooth )
@@GustavSvard
Tack så mycket! Det var väldigt intressant att få djupare insikt i vad riksklenoden Rökstenen betyder. Tack Henrik och tack Jackson.
Note the clip differs from the established interpretation found on the Riksantikvariet's sign at the Rökstenen: The segment raiþiaurikʀ hin þurmuþi has in previous interpretations been read as rēð Þiōðrīkʀ hinn þurmōði with the meaning 'then Tjodrik the bold ruled'. Tjodrik has been assumed to be the Gothic king Theoderic the Great. In Bo Ralph's evaluation of Rökstenen's text from 2007, the segment is instead interpreted as rēð iau rinkʀ hinn þurmōði with the meaning 'rode on the horse the huge warrior'. Inspired by Bo Ralph's interpretation, including that it is not about Teoderik at all, but a warrior on horseback and that the inscription consists of riddles, the linguist Per Holmberg put together an interdisciplinary group consisting of himself, the rune researcher Henrik Williams, the religious scholar Olof Sundqvist, the archaeologist Bo Grass grove. In January 2020, they presented the result, that the text consists of nine riddles, where four have the answer Odin and five have the answer Sun. The riddles are about Ragnarök, and they suggest that it may be a spell or a call to battle when it comes. They believe that the riddles refer to a strong climate deviation five hundred years earlier (nine generations according to the interpretation) which Gräslund previously connected with the fimbul winter that precedes Ragnarök.
If you are on a horse you can see the top.
The horses we had in Sweden was very small thou.
Did we even ride horses that much?
Or wooden stool..?
@@GratDuForloradeArgumentet just read what the scientist say, im born and raised in Sweden and know my history. The Viking hade small horses.
Maybe that was around the time where they started to breed them taller? There probably dates and stuff to check that
Dr. Williams' interpretation of the Rök stone is Insightful and convincing. Thank you so much 🌷
It is factual yes. /Lived under that era too
Well i agree most with the explanation that format historia give to this stone and other professors that give a more logic explanation on what is written on the stone too. But i must say im not a expert in the futhark so i can only go after what my logic leads me when listen to different people make their explanationon the runes. My english is not perfect so i hope this make any sense what i try to say in words here.
Ancient Scandinavian: "Oh, nice rock... Imma write some absolute fire on it!"
Dr. Henrik Williams is so intelligent and eloquent. Thank you for this video!!
Man, what a great lecture. 👍
Fun fact: Many Vikings got severe neck and back pains, while trying to read all these rune stones 😂
yes I actually think that you are right
Yes, thank god we have books now
Only reading? Probably the least exhausting thing to do, not even writing them or drawing images could not have been as severe as cutting them out or even getting them out of the soil, let alone to transport them to where they was heading to loot, burn religious buildings or settle down and trading with wares or something else of some value.
@@ChristofferOrrmalmUtsi the vikingseceetary had it's work cut out for him.
If Dr Williams's interpretation is on-point, it would pretty much confirm that the post-Ragnarok rebirth was part of pagan tradition and not a product of later christianization. Super neat.
A captivating topic. Riddles and secrets seem to be an intrinsic part of the Germanic written tradition, which makes its study all the more interesting. Thank you for sharing.
I actually live an hour away from Rök, was there this summer. Really cool piece of history! There are many old norse and older carvings around this area.
Love these videos! Thank you!
Thanks Craford and Henrik for this episode, i was standing infront of Rökstenen for the second time this summer with a Norwegian friend (Tjommi). Very impressive and remarkable cultural remain from our ancestors and Henriks interpretation is also very impressive and makes sense. Thanks to all of You who works with this to get us a better understanding. /Mattias
This enigmatic stone always remind me of how deep our forefathers were. And now that you were there, it would only be a 5 hour ride by train or car to Hleiðra/Lejre, the seat of Danish kings since ca. year 500 and the probable scene of the Beowulf Drape. There could be some very intriguing parallels between the apocalyptic theme on the Rök stone and the Grendel monster in Beowulf. Could that be a metamorphosis of the Fenris Wulf and maybe the 536 cataclysm? And from Lejre it's just a couple of hours to Jelling, one of the two gigantic gigantic monuments devoted to the Asa worship.
That's a very interesting point. Simply that different areas/cultures (depending on location) made up their own stories upon the visions of the cataclysm. And in combination with their believes and fantasy they created a new tale, with new characters, inspired by what they already have knowledge of. More or less a metamorphosis, just like you said.
Also interesting how it flips from one to twelve as statements said to Odin. After speaking about Day/night, I'd also say year but were there even 12 months in Old Norse cosmology/time keeping at the time? And to be fair I'm ignorant if time was even measured in a day by 24 hours then. In any case an interesting structure for the messages.
The Ostrogoths being mentioned also lines up with the fact that there are place names in the region of Gotaland for both the Visigoths and Ostrogoths, with the name Gautigoths also cited by Jordanes, another name for the Geats of Beowulf. So it is likely that Beowulf himself, as a Geat, was a kind of Goth.
They called thenselves Götar and still does, Geat is the anglified version and Goth originally latin.
Incredible. Thank you for all the hard work you went through to let us all find out more about this.
Great episode…thank you!
Wow! This was truly awesome!
This was wonderful, thank you for your time!
Wonderful! Thank you both.
wonderful video Henrik and Jackson!
Tusen takk,dr.Crawford,for at du år etter år prøver å tette mine kunnskapshull😊Er glad for at jeg kan være med på å gi deg en liten påskjønnelse tilbake….
Very interesting! Thanks Henrik for a very interesting reading of the stone!
Very informative and interesting. Thank you very much!
Incredible stuff!!
This was fantastic. Thank you.
Really interesting! I'm fairly sure I saw you filming this when I drove by! Tack så mycket för denna inblick!
this was an abosule gem, I've visited the Rök stone and listened to people talk about it on youtube before but this is the most cohevise & technical yet easy to udnerstand summary of it's potential meaning. You are awesome Jackson, and big thanks for Henrik of course!!
21:07 They're all named after the oldest brother. So like the Mario Brothers. Got it.
Or George Foreman the boxer! Named all his sons George too!!
Beautiful products, congratulations
Fascinating
Awesome video. Thank you Dr Crawford, and Prof Williams :)
Driven past it so many times and never bothered to stop and have o look. Next I will! Thank you Henrik and Jackson.
Great videos lately sir, love the actualt sight-seeing approach. Fun with the slightly confused younger/elder futhark-inscription, treasure! Thank you!
Thank you Dr Henrik, what an exciting animated, ceremonial puzzle...a myth-journey around a 5 sided monolith. A veritable written ritual performance in the text-ure of rock itself.. I thought rubics cubes were tricky. There should be more cyphers and stories on gravestones then your children would conceivable turn up to work out the puzzles....Mmmmmm
Cool to see you coming to Sweden and visiting Rökstenen. I live not too far from it and remember clearly when my school class went to see it back in elementary school. Have not been back since then but would love to go back again. Östergötland (the cultural and historical region) where Rökstenen is has many other locations and old scriptures and such, dating back to the iron age.
Good video Jackson!
I grew up in the region, so I have been to the Rök stone sk many times. After this video I wanna go there again :)
This is so cool to actually see this stone! You always hear of them but to see it really is perplexing and intriguing! :D
Great stuf! Thank you. What a magnificent piece of history and culture. And a beautiful valley in the background!
Tusen tack. Väldigt intressant.
Mycket intressant, very interesting. Love these explanations of what these stones actually says. Thank you.
Holy moly, I live nearby Rökstenen, fantastic place, hope you enjoyed your stay.
This is amazing. I grew up approx 40 km from Rökstenen and went there many many times with my grandparents in the late 70’s early 80’s. Who could think I would Watch a video about it +40 years later explaining what was a total enigma to us back then :-)
Thank you Dr Jackson
Fantastic 😍 Thank you for the in-depth look!
Thanks for sharing !
They keep on coming! Love your videos. Have you read Harald Bjorvands and Fredrik Otto Lindemans Våre arveord? It deserves a video of its own!
This was amazing; thank you for sharing this moment with us.
Thank you so much & also to Prof Williams for this wonderful understanding & broader historical context that this runestone illuminates in Norse history & mythology. It is interesting to see again in ancient religions & belief systems the concepts of self-sacrifice, afterlife, a final struggle and ultimately a hope for a meaningful end to life & eternal purpose after life. Wonderful stuff.
Many thanks to our exceptional guide, Dr. Williams. Your kindness is much appreciated.
Thanks for video!
Very good! I think his interpretation of it is very cool.
I live pretty close by and every time we have relatives or friends visiting we go to places like Omberg, Vadstena, Alvastra and, of course, Rökstenen (and so on, there are many places to visit, depending on your interests). Edit: I forgot, this was a really interesting video!
Very good. I really enjoyed listening to this man. He is very knowledgeable Bruce Howard, MG.
Another fantastic video….
Östergötland, Crawford hope you saw Omberg and Hjässan, the views over Vättern. Dr Henrik, proffsig.
what an amazing video. you can tell this guy both knows what he's talking about and loves to talk about it. and great job to Jackson for letting him speak uninterrupted. all around interesting and informative!
I noticed this as well - a time to every purpose…a time to speak and a time to listen.
Thank you for this great video. I have Professor William's book in my collection. I had honor to have it signed by him in one of seminars in Uppsala.
Yeah, I'm getting that book.
I was watching this and thinking that I could read a whole book about this stone! Can't wait for the English version to come available.
When I was little and visit Rökstenen, it was said to be random runes with no meaning... So much has change in 40 years.
Another great video. If I could ask for a special request though, could you do something on Alexanders Saga?
Runestones are truly fascinating. My wife and always try to look up stones when traveling in Sweden. I have a friend in Israel who is fond of runes to say the least. The Rök stone stands not to far from my place of birth!
gonna buy that book
Very intersting video
Interesting clip, close to home for me, lots of runstenar around lake Mälaren and Roslagen.
Fantastic!! I hope the english version for us American Heathens will be available soon and in hard bound cover with a nice dust jacket.
Very enjoyable and interesting presentation and information. Thank you very much! A former Northern Europe student. Keep up the good work!
I'd buy a copy of that book.
I'll buy an English copy of Dr. William's book!
Terrific!
You had an interesting trip to Northern Europe. some work, some play, some kettlebells.
I've been there several times to see the stone, and it is really majestic. Since it has such a mix of styles and alphabets, maybe there wasn't just one author of the stone. Maybe a few different people over several generations.
(svarar på engelska så fler kan läsa) We can tell that it was made by one carver from its uniformity. While it employs several ciphers, including a form of elder futhark, they are all carved by the same steady hand and follow a clearly designed layout.
@@germanicgems Thanks Mårten.
I had the luck to visit it myself,very impressive
Fully earned lifestyle. You are top notch dude
I live 2 km from th Rök-stone. It is truly an amazing piece of history and mythology.
Thank you Jackson (Professor? Mr? What is the man's title these days? Expert? Dr! Probably doctor Crawford) for sharing this distilled version of the interpretation! Having read the book, getting to listen to it gave a great review of the matter. Having said that, the book is good. If you can get hold of it in english (unless you read swedish, of course), I highly recommend it. Tack Henrik! Kul att äntligen få lite mer grepp om Rökstenen. Den har funnits i min mentala fatabur sedan 80-talet och boken landade mycket lägligt. Min stackars son lär utsättas för en biltur till Rök i sommar...
Such an interesting video about an intriguing artefact from the past. While I sat watching this with my partner, when Professor Williams got to the "Thor? Dare?" part, because of the earlier part about a man on a horse, and then the mention of a shield, I was wondering if the word might be interpreted as "challenged" as the story told seems to be about an individual fighting a wolf. Something like "the man challenged the wolf to a battle" which feels like it makes sense in context to the ending of the story. I'm a story writer by profession so I'm just adding my spin of my imaginative mind thinking about the possible meaning. I'm not trying to be smarter than Professor Williams. It's just that in another video (about other runes) the person had said "if many minds think over the meaning the easier it is to solve the riddles in the runes" which is what I was thinking about when I saw the "Thor? Dare?" part. I've subscribed to the channel and plan on buying the English language edition of the book. 🙂
18:19 The pillars were lined up in a row. One side is the low half, the other side is the high half. I would say 1 through 10, and 11 through 20.
Even though we can read the Stone, we still miss it's total meaning. It has important references that you & i don't understand. I'm hoping our new age can preserve as much possible. Context is everything. I'm hoping we look around these areas to find more of our forefathers.
That makes sense, since it is my opinion Christianity has absorbed and incorporated many practices of the old ways.
Christianity stole just about everything. I suppose the built in element deception prevalent in the Abrahamic faiths is original though.
Some questions I have by just looking at the stone: Why are the lines not spaced out evenly? Since carving runes would be a daunting task, would it not be relatively easy to have straighter and more evenly spaced out lines? Why is one line broken? The second line from the left has a gap in it? What does that mean? My major question is this: if the left bottom corner has a piece broken off, that took some letters, how come the bottom line has letters starting inside the broken piece: while the line above it is gone? Was it restored at an earlier age, perhaps very early?
Amazing video! Thanks to you both for this! At 41:02, has Henrik become influenced by Jackson's pronunciation of "why"?
A local myself, I should go look at it again.
8:20 Interesting, the Japanese have a similar story about the sun going into hiding, could it be the same event?
What and when is that Japanese story? really interested :)
@@Aria432 It's the story of Amatarasu the sun goddess (8th century in the "Kojiki" and "Nihon Shoki"), the story goes that Susano the god of storms was playing around in heaven and accidentally destroyed some of Amatarasu's things. Saddened she hid in her room and withheld her light from the world. For this Susano was cast down to the earth for a time.
It’s weird that these stones are such a rarity. We translated these in primary school, visited them on school trips, and I could even see one looking out of my window while growing up. To me these rune stones aren’t rare, but to non-Scandinavians I guess they are.
that's awesome
This is deeply fascinating, but I got confused - when is he talking about the SON and when is he talking about the SUN? If I understand correctly: It's the SUN gets eaten by Fenris Wolf (eclipsed) but whose daughter lights up Gimli the new paradise. It's the SON who dies in battle and is taken to Valhalla.
I'm confused as well. I will have to rewatch the video. So annoying that they are homophones in English.
Hey ! here in Sweden ! 😎
I suppose it will inevitably sound churlish if I say that I am not _really_ on board with the interpretation of the Rök inscription given here (or as published in the paper in "Futhark" from Williams and others in 2019), but I should emphasize that although I have issues with this _particular_ argument, in general I hold the work of Henrik Williams and his colleagues in the highest respect. 👍
Disagreeing is always allowed, this is science.
For what it is worth, here is a post on the 2019 Rök article I put on Facebook back when the article had first been published. I hope it shows that I'm open the re-interpretations, though I'm still fully on board with this one: It’s interesting [the article's argument], but I’m having trouble being convinced. There really seem to be several things going on in the article: it wants to link the “536 AD climate event” to the author’s interpretation of the early 9th-century Rök inscription. Firstly, the authors want to emphasize that the “536 AD climate event” had a significant impact on contemporary Scandinavian economics and society, and hence culture - and I think many are sympathetic to this understanding. They also want it to be understood that the effects of the “536 event” had a long afterlife in Scandinavian culture, still present even in the apocalyptic Ragnarök mythology of the Viking Age as reflected in medieval Icelandic sources. This is not entirely unreasonable, but it has to be fairly speculative, given the relative lack of earlier written (or comparative) sources. Then, the authors have a particular interpretation of the Rök stone, which is essentially that the father Varinn wishes to place the untimely death of his son VāmōðR in the context of the Norse myth of Ragnarök. This is not unreasonable; it reminds me of Joe Harris’s arguments that the death of Varinn is being placed in the context of a Baldr-type myth. However, I feel like their argument glosses very rapidly over some of the complicated philological problems of the inscription. To pick just one example, they accept Nordenstreng’s 1912 reading of “sakumukmini” as “Sagum Ygg minni”, noting that this is not “the standard linguistic interpretation” but not really providing an argument in support of their preferred “alternative” linguistic interpretation. I kind of feel like I want to see that argument. There are other similar issues of this kind, too, though this one is certainly a key element in their overall interpretation of the presence of the Ragnarök myth in the inscription. Overall, I think it’s one thing to argue that Scandinavian society and culture was affected by the “536 event”, or even that this effect might have had a lasting impact on the mythology, but then quite another to suggest an early 9th-century inscription is making fairly explicit reference to that event. Also, I think it’s one thing to argue that the Rök stone seeks to place the untimely death of the memorialized son within a mythic context (as others have done), but I think that the particular interpretation that the authors put forward would (potentially) benefit from more detailed philological support, especially where they choose to depart from more “familiar” interpretations. So, this is all fun and interesting, and very far indeed from the craziest things written about the Rök stone (some of which are quite crazy!), though I think the arguments should be stronger (especially on the linguistic/philological side). If that could be done, I think those arguments themselves would carry more weight than the interesting though inevitably speculative effort to link the inscription to the “536 event”.
I would acknowledge that it's quite possible (perhaps even probable) that the space available in a single journal article would not have been sufficient to allow the (probably detailed and complicated) philological arguments that might more fully support the overall argument.
Seem to be just as enigmatic as the Malt stone in Denmark, also from the 800´s. it´s quite cryptic..
Amazing video. Ty both. Stay curious & open to interpretations. IMHO I really dislike the word "heathen". 🙄 It's ugly. Everyone has some form of belief system. Who is to say what is correct. There are a million systems. Which is right?
I think you would like Anundshög in Västerås, not far from Uppsala.
Den bedste forklaring på en Runesten til dags dato - tusind tak
I used to live 500 meters from that stone
George Foreman comes to mind… he named his Boys George… Five of them I believe?
The discussion at ~40:05 could also be interpreted in terms of the climate crisis of 536. Because of the excess aerosol in the atmosphere, a lunar eclipse will not be as red, even becoming grey or disappearing all together. So the "wolf doesn't redden" could be referring to the lack of red color in a lunar eclipse, as Dr.Henrik Williams points out the next line about "lady in waters of the holy" is likely in reference to the Sun or Moon. So one possible interpretation is that the wolf doesn't make the moon red when the Sun is reborn, which might make sense because of how lunar eclipses would have appeared when the Sun disappeared / came back.
Hoppas Den Står Kvar ❤❤❤
The first part of the Rune-stone could be a description of the start of the dark ages, as the moon and sun would dim down (maybe for 12 moons/months). And that many people died . The back side, the one about the brothers could well be they had the same lastname, like Olafsøn and there sons would be called Olafsøn also.