Futhark: International Journal of Runic Studies 8

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to make an inventory and then establish a register of the Scandinavian runic inscriptions that belong to the period of the early Viking Age (circa 700-950/970).The beginning of the period is demarcated by a change in the system of writing characters: the older Proto-Nordic rune-row with twenty-four characters is replaced by the younger Viking Age rune-row with sixteen.The spread of the tradition of Christian memorial inscriptions marks the end of the period.The inventory necessitates the formulation of criteria for this delimitation based on these two pivotal moments.A secondary purpose of this article is therefore to elaborate such criteria.The transition from the older to the younger rune-row can be used as a criterion for the entire Scandinavian rune-carving tradition, although it is necessary to develop separate selection criteria with respect to the end of the period for Danish, Swedish and Norwegian territories respectively.The group of inscriptions found outside Scandinavia is also discussed separately.On the basis of the established criteria, a total of 132 inscriptions are classified as belonging to the early Viking Age.This includes both inscriptions on portable objects and on stone.Of the 132 inscriptions, fifty-six are from Danish territory, fifty-three from Swedish, nineteen from Norwegian and four from outside the Nordic region. Keywords: Runic inscriptions, early

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