Tjurkö bracteates


The Tjurkö Bracteates, listed by Rundata as DR BR75 and DR BR76, are two bracteates found on Tjurkö, Eastern Hundred, Blekinge, Sweden, bearing Elder Futhark runic inscriptions in Proto-Norse.

Description

The Tjurkö bracteates were discovered in 1817 near Tjurkö when cultivating, for the first time, a field on a stony hill. The bracteates were found in the roots of the grass among the rocks. Also discovered with the bracteates was a gold coin of the Emperor Theodosius II of the Eastern Roman Empire that has been dated to 443 AD.
The Tjurkö 1 bracteate is dated to the Germanic Iron Age between 400 and 650 AD and is now at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities. It is a typical C-bracteate, similar to the Vadstena bracteate, and shows a stylized head in the center above a horse and beneath a bird. This iconography is usually interpreted as depicting an early form of the Norse pagan god Odin with his associated animals, a horse and a raven.

Inscription

Tjurkö 1 bracteate

The inscription of the Tjurkö 1 bracteate reads:
Transliteration:
Proto-Norse transcription:
English translation:
There is a consensus that walha-kurne is a compound word referring to the bracteate itself, and that walha means "foreign, non-Germanic" - here perhaps more specifically "Roman" or "Gallic." However, differing explanations have been proposed for the second element kurne. According to one interpretation, kurne is the dative singular of kurna, and walha-kurne "Roman or Gallic grain" is a kenning for "gold;" cf. the compounds valhöll, valrauðr and valbaugar in the Old Norse poem Atlakviða. This may refer to the melting of solidi as source of the gold for the bracteate. An alternative interpretation of the second element sees kurne as an early loan from Latin corona "crown," but this is now considered to be unlikely since "crowns" as currency appear only in medieval times, from images of crowns minted on the coins' faces. The personal name Heldaz is derived from *held- "battle", while Kunimundiu is from kuni- "kin" and mund- "protection."

Tjurkö 2 bracteate

The Tjurkö 2 bracteate is dated to the same period and has an inscription of just three runes that read ota, which translates as "fear." This formulistic word is also used on other bracteates such as DR IK55, DR IK152, and DR IK578.