Södermanland Runic Inscription 84

This inscription is on a granite runestone is 1.8 meters in height and consists of a Christian cross surrounded by a runic serpent text band. The place name Skyttingi in the runic text, sometimes read as Skytiki, refers to the modern hamlet of Skyttinge located in Tumbo parish.{{Cite book |last=Larsson |first=Mats G. |editor-last=Düwel |editor-first=Klaus |contribution=Runic Inscriptions as a Source for the History of Settlement |title=Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde |publisher=de Gruyter |year=1998 |page=645 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KYqsisEVQHEC&pg=PA201 |isbn=3-11-015455-2}} The inscription is classified as being carved in runestone style KB, which is the designation used for runestones with crosses circled with a runic inscription.

The runic text indicates that the stone was raised as a memorial to someone's brother named Þorbjôrn and ends with a prayer for his soul. Although the memorial stone has a Christian cross on it, two of the personal names in the inscription include the Norse pagan god Thor as a theophoric name element. Þorbjôrn translates as "Thor's Bear" and Þorsteinn as "Thor's Stone."{{Cite book |last=Yonge |first=Charlotte Mary |author-link=Charlotte Mary Yonge |title=History of Christian Names |publisher=MacMillan & Company |year=1884 |location=London |pages=cxxx, 219, 301 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924031230182 }} The names in the Sö 84 inscription also reflect a common practice of that time in Scandinavia of repeating an element in a parent's name in the names of the children.{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Lena |editor-last=Bandle |editor-first=Oskar |editor2-last=Elmevik |editor2-first=Lennart|contribution=Developments of Personal Names from Ancient Nordic to Old Nordic |title=The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2002 |pages=745–753 |volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P6bMn9c6musC |isbn=3-11-014876-5|display-editors=etal}} p. 750. Here the Þor from the father's name, Þorsteinn, is repeated in the name of the son, Þorbjôrn, to show the family relationship.

:× a...ʀ ...et * raisa * stain * at * þorbiorn * boroþur * sin * sun * þorstainʀ * i skytiki * kuþ * hiolbi * ant * ¶ * þorbiornaʀ *[http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk] - Rundata entry for Sö 84.

:... [l]ét reisa stein at Þorbjôrn, bróður sinn, son Þorsteins í Skyttingi. Guð hjalpi ônd Þorbjarnar.

:... had the stone raised in memory of Þorbjôrn, his brother, Þorsteinn of Skyttingi's son. May God help Þorbjôrn's spirit.

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Category:Runestones in Södermanland