An engraving on an almost 2,000-year-old knife believed to be the oldest runes ever found in Denmark has been discovered by archaeologists.
The runic inscription – the alphabet of Denmark’s earliest written language – was etched into an 8cm iron knife found in a grave below an urn near the city of Odense on the island of Funen. The five characters, each about 0.5cm tall, followed by three grooves, spell out hirila, which means “little sword” in Old Norse.
Along with an inscribed bone comb found nearby in 1865, they are the oldest runes ever found in Denmark. Jakob Bonde, the city’s museum curator and archeologist who made the discovery, said he at first thought it was an ordinary knife, as the runes were not visible, but after it was cleaned by conservators it became clear that it contained a word.
“It’s like getting a note from beyond, from the past. It’s an extraordinary find for us and it says something about the development of the earliest Scandinavian language,” he said. “And for me personally it’s fantastic to have made this discovery.”
The inscription is believed to refer to the knife as opposed to the owner, about whom nothing is known other than that they were probably someone with high status in society.
Bonde said such people were highly influenced by Romans.
“We are in a period of time where we in Denmark had a lot of connection with the Romans and the ones who were high[ly] placed in society tried to look Roman, so to speak, by importing things and making a Roman display of themselves. Everything Roman was very in.”
The knife, which will go on display at Museum Odense in Møntergaarden from 2 February, will be shown alongside other artefacts found at the site.
It is believed to be 800 years older than the Jelling stones in Jutland, which include one erected by King Harald Bluetooth in about 965 in memory of his parents. The stone’s inscription, often referred to as “Denmark’s birth certificate”, describes Harald’s achievements and contains Scandinavia’s oldest image of Christ.
Lisbeth Imer, a runologist from the National Museum of Denmark, said the discovery could help to reveal more about Danish history.
“It is incredibly rare for us to find runes that are as old as those on this knife, and it offers a unique opportunity for us to gain more knowledge about Denmark’s earliest written language – and thereby about the language actually spoken during the iron age,” she said.
“During that period of history, proficiency in reading and writing was not particularly widespread, which means that to be able to read and write was connected to both special status and power.
“In the early days of runic history, those able to write constituted a small intellectual elite, and the first traces of such people is to be found on Funen.”
