Kragehul I


Kragehul I is a migration period lance-shaft found on Funen, Denmark. It is now in the collection of the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark. The spear shaft was found in 1877 during the excavation of the classic war booty sacrificial site Kragehul on southern Funen. The site holds five deposits of military equipment from the period 200 to 475 AD. The spear shaft probably belongs to the latest deposit.

Inscription

The Elder Futhark inscription reads:
The first part is read as:
Interpreted as "I, the nobleman of Āsugīsalaz, am called Muha, ga-ga-ga!", where "ga-ga-ga" is some sort of ritual chant or battle cry. Āsugīsalaz contains āsu-, "god", and gīsalaz, "pledge", and is a personal name. Muha appears to be a personal name. The runes of gagaga are displayed as a row of three bindrunes based on the X-shape of the g rune with sidetwigs attached to its extremities for the a. A similar sequence gægogæ is found on the Undley bracteate.

Interpretations

The gagaga and the remaining part of the inscriptions have prompted varying and partly fanciful interpretations.

Schneider

Schneider opts for bull sacrifice, reading g-a as "gift, god!" and the remaining as

Düwel

Düwel reads the thrice repeated g-a as g a "I give good fortune". For the second part of the inscription, he has

Pieper

Pieper reads g-a as g a "gift to the god ", with following

MacLeod and Mees

MacLeod and Mees read gagaga as an onomatopoeia related to forms like the Undley bracteate's gægogæ, and read the expression as a metrical charm