The ängnäSträngnäs stone (), or runic inscription Sö Fv2011;307 (formerly Sö ALLHSÖDERM;77), is a runestone inscribed with runes written in Proto-Norse using the Elder Futhark alphabet. It was discovered in 1962, when a stove was demolished in a house at Klostergatan 4, in Strängnäs, Sweden. The stone is of Jotnian sandstone and measures in length, in width and in thickness.
The inscription consists of just two words, both of them notable in the study of Germanic languages – Erilaʀ and Wodinʀ – which are of such mythical character that the stone's authenticity has often been questioned. The first word is compared to that of the Heruls, a Germanic tribe with a traditional homeland in Scandinavia, and to the title jarl and its Anglo-Saxon form earl. The second word is a late Proto-Norse, and otherwise unattested, form of Odin, a deity in Germanic mythology.
In spite of international interest from prominent scholars in the field, it took 49 years before the stone was formally described by runologists. A 2011 study remarks that the poor documentation concerning the discovery of the inscription creates uncertainty about its authenticity, but four independent geological and technical analyses support that it is an authentic Proto-Norse inscription, in addition to linguistic and runological support.
Discovery
Curator Carl Gustaf Blomberg reported to the Swedish National Antiquarian Sven B. F. Jansson that the stone had probably been inserted among bricks when an iron stove was installed in a private home at the end of the 1870s. The district antiquarian, Ivar Schnell, was in the midst of finishing a publication and asked Jansson for a picture and a description of the inscription. Jansson reported that the stone consisted of the inscription and stated:
Schnell published a picture of the stone with a caption that agreed well with Jansson's and a tentative dating to the 5th century.
Possible origin
The stone may originally have come from the island of Selaön east of Strängnäs. The island was historically an important settlement, and the Old Norse Ynglinga saga tells that Selaön (ON: ) was where the legendary king Granmar of Södermanland went to a feast at one of his farms. An important estate on this island was Tuna, at Kolsundet strait.
International interest
In 1968, Austrian philologist Otto Höfler, at the University of Vienna, asked Jansson if the inscription was authentic and when it would be published. Elisabeth Svärdström at the Swedish National Heritage Board answered him that it was by appearance Proto-Norse, but both she and Jansson considered it to be a recent inscription. Höfler was at the time working on erilaz inscriptions and protested in defense of the inscription, remarking that a presumed forger would have had to be rather sophisticated in his method and also be remarkably well-versed in phonological developments. He again insisted that the inscription be formally discussed and published. Svärdström answered that the National Antiquarian intended to publish it formally in Fornvännen, but was delayed due to other commitments. It had taken several months before a proper study could be performed on the circumstances surrounding the find, and so information was lacking, and moreover the iron stove proved to be of a type that was produced no earlier than 1910. German linguist Wolfgang Krause, at the University of Göttingen, also became involved, being sent copies of the correspondence. Despite two prominent foreign scholars showing interest in the find, there was no formal publication regarding the stone until 2011.
Linguistic analysis and context
In one of his later letters in 1968, Otto Höfler stated that if the inscription was a forgery, the forger must have been sophisticated enough to know about the historic loss of final vowels after long vowels in Proto-Norse (… . '...at a time when ... the ending vowel after the long ō in would have already disappeared'). The forger would also need to have known that an Elder Futhark inscription would be read from right to left instead of from left to right. Moreover, at the end of the 19th century when the stone was placed in the wall, there were not yet any scholarly discussions about or which might have inspired a forger.
The word was not known until 1918, when Erik Noreen made the academic world aware of his interpretation of the Järsberg runestone in Värmland. Neither could the fake inscription Wodana hailag on the Kärlich brooch from Rheinland-Pfalz have inspired the inscription from Strängnäs.