Glavendrup Part II: Tryggevaelde. Rune Stones. Ragnhild. The Holes in the Stones. Torghatten.

Glavendrup Part II
Meaning of Drill Holes in Rune Stones
Search for Ragnhild, who erected the Stones.

Stone Ship Site:  Ragnhild honors Husbands Alle and Gunnulfr
Part I at http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2011/07/glavendrup-viking-stone-ship-ragnhild.html

Update: August 3, 2013. See 4.7 below. Is Ragnhild's use of drill holes in the stone ship standing stones also to signify her origins in Norway, area of the distinctive Torghatten rock formation with its tunnel hole on Torget Island, Norway, once an area of the Nitherians, Nidaros?  Scroll down for this latest entry, the Torghatten rock connection, possible.

 Ragnhild erected a stone-ship Glavendrup, 
 rune stones including Tryggevaelde with many drill holes, at the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen.

Two remain at Glavendrup with solitary drill holes.

What do they mean? 


Then read the comment, with yet another possibility.

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I.  Ongoing Mystery I. 
Holes in Stones at Glavendrup Stone Ship Site
Why, Ragnhild?

1.  Who is Ragnhild. See her stone ship in Denmark at http://www.vikingdenmark.com/glavendrup-stone-ship-runic-stone-funen-denmark.html.  The date is given as early 10th Century. 

Ragnhild is a woman of the Scandinavian Viking era, 10th Century. She is a person of means, who can afford not one but two rune stones and at least one stone ship for her husbands, that at the same time pay deserved tribute to herself for doing it. I did this. Good for her. She erected Glavendrup rune stone for Alle, a priest and clan chieftan.  She erected Tryggevaelde rune stone for Gunnefi, a "clamorous" man.

Pronounce Ragnhild as "Wrong-heel" says http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=644001.  

Name itself.  The name itself, Ragnhild, has come down to us as "regin" for advice, and "hildr", for battle.  Ragnhild is no mere domestic goddess, the the shadow of the other.  See http://www.behindthename.com/name/ragnhild  If a woman is wealthy and powerful, this elaborate setting demonstrates that she can show it. Was there polyandry at that time? Or was this a more modern sequential monogamy, after casting one aside; or widowhood.

This stone-ship formation is at Glavendrup, in the woods. See it at http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2011/07/glavendrup-viking-stone-ship-ragnhild.html.  There are two stones there with holes drilled through at top, to the side.  A third, Tryggevaelde, is in the Copenhagen Museum, and we did not see it.  See it at FN 1, Wikimedia Commons. The holes are unexplained.

2. What is the meaning of the drill holes.

At the Glavendrup stone ship site are two stones with drill holes:  Here, the first, with a front view of the stone hole. 

Glavendrup stone ship, Denmark. Burial commemoration stone, drill hole. erected by Ragnhild.

A second stone ship stone, same location, shows the hole off to one side, and a vaguely heart-shaped drill hole. 

Glavendrup DK, stone ship commemorative site, erected by Ragnhild.

Be still, heart.

The heart shape means courage in the old symbolism, the heart as the seat of courage, warlike virtue. See http://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/10394/1/RAEI_21_03.pdf.  This stone bears some resemblance to the heart, but beyond that, we cannot go.  There is a modern stone erected to Ansgar, Apostle of the North, with a heart also on it, see the Glavendrup Part I site.

Glavendrup DK stone ship, stone drill-hole, rear view.

3.  Who were the people commemorated.

Parse the runes and the meaning so far.  They tell us she has relatives, and was married, at least two times.

• Stone 1:  Glavendrup, erected by Ragnhild to honor, as written in runes,
• Alle, who was
• her husband, and a
• clan chieftain, and
• priest of the Soelve. 
• There was a Soelve Soelvedal who went with Erik to colonize Greenland, see http://usazweb.com/lib/news/Norse-Discovery-of-America.html
• Gamers find Soelve, Sea-King Jutland, in Pendragon, see http://www.scribd.com/doc/37672574/Pendragon-Chaosium-2718-Land-of-Giants

See inscription and  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryggev%C3%A6lde_Runestone.

Soto carved the runes.  Who is Soto?  A slave? A superior?

• Stone 2:  Tryggevaelda, now at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, see FN 1, and erected by Ragnhild to honor, as written in the runes,
• another husband, Gunnulfr, who was
• a "clamorous" man. 
• Ragnhild is the sister of Ulfr.  
• Gunnulfr is son of Nerfir. 

Tryggevaelde, rune stone erected by Ragnhilde, drill holes, now at the National Museum of Denmark at Copenhagen:  Wikimedia Commons.

Tryggevaelda, Rune Stone erected by Ragnhild, National Museum of Denmark, WikimediaCommons

 

Nationalmuseet [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

• See inscription and same site, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryggev%C3%A6lde_Runestone ; http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Tryggev%C3%A6lde%20Runestone

Rune-carver Soto carved the runes again.  What would the status be of a rune-carver? Another rune-carver of a rune-stone, but in Sweden, did his work for his master, so perhaps this Soto is also a slave. See http://swedenroadways.blogspot.com/2011/02/anundshog-viking-burial-mound-at.html

4.  Search for Ragnhild.  Several stories of other (some same?) Ragnhilds

4.1  Was this the same Ragnhild, daughter of Hakon who was King of the Nitherians?  Here is the old historian Saxo's account of Danish history-myths. 

4.1  Was this Hakon the same as one Hadding.  Similar spellings, sounds.  Hadding.

Hadding is a hero. He is said to be called "Ing" by his people, see http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/tml/tml14.htm
[The King Inge buried at Vreta Kloster in Sweden?? See http://swedenroadways.blogspot.com/2010/12/linkoping-berg-burials-at-vreta-kloster.html]. He may also be Hadingus, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadingus

"Hadding chanced to hear that a certain giant had taken in troth Ragnhild, daughter of Hakon, King of the Nitherians; and, loathing so ignominious a state of affairs, and utterly abominating the destined union, he forestalled the marriage by noble daring. For he went to Norway and overcame by arms him that was so foul, a lover for a princess."

Fair use, Saxo, see http://omacl.org/DanishHistory/book1.html;nsee also http://www.vildbabel.dk/viking/saga/saxo/book1.htm

Hadding and the Nitherians are also in Investigations into Germanic Mythology, by Viktor Rydberg, see http://www.germanicmythology.com/ugm1/UGM1NEW44-95.pdf

The story continues, with perhaps an explanation of the hollowed holes like ring holds in the stones:  

Ring tale.  Here, Ragnhild and the ring story --

"For he thought so much more of valour than of ease, that, though he was free to enjoy all the pleasures of a king, he accounted it sweeter than any delight to repel the wrongs done, not only to himself, but to others. The maiden, not knowing him, ministered with healing tendance to the man that had done her kindness and was bruised with many wounds. And in order that lapse of time might not make her forget him, she shut up a ring in his wound, and thus left a mark on his leg. Afterwards her father granted her freedom to choose her own husband; so when the young men were assembled at banquet, she went along them and felt their bodies carefully, searching for the tokens she had stored up long ago. All the rest she rejected, but Hadding she discovered by the sign of the secret ring; then she embraced him, and gave herself to be the wife of him who had not suffered a giant to win her in marriage."

http://www.vildbabel.dk/viking/saga/saxo/book1.htm

But no Hadding is listed on the stone.  See The Danish History - no names there except for Ragnhild. 

The story of a ring seems to be alive, because the coat of arms of the Rinkerike Commune, an area south of Trondheim, inland, shows a gold ring and red ground.

Ringerike Coat of Arms, Norway.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARingerike_komm.svg

That is said to be a modern granting, but the old story also rings true (intended) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringerike. 

The then King of Ringerike was father to Ragnhild Sigurdsdotter, later mother of Harald Fairhair. If this were the same Ragnhild, surely the Danish Glavendrup tradition would have included it.

4.3  Is Ragnhild in this speculative alternate angle on the Hadding story.

• Perhaps Raghnild, in her gratitude for deliverance by Hadding the Hero from the proposed marriage to the giant, sewed a ring in one of Hadding's (the hero's) wounds, so it left a mark on his thigh, and she then could feel it later and find him. That would make the "clamorous" man, Gunnulfr, on whose rune stone as husband is the ringmark, her heart's delight?  But this story would reflect not so much on Alle, because the holes on the the ship stones are not on his rune stone.

4.4  Do the husband's names enlighten the Ragnhild story.  Alle.  Gunnulfr.

Check again on the husbands.

Look for husbands Alle or Gunnulfr, a sister Ulfr, Gunnulfr son of Nerfir. Those do not appear in the Saxo Danish History, or anywhere we can find so far. Try sites: Medieval Danish Families --  http://medievaldanishfamilies.blogspot.com/2010/08/hakon-jyde-1131-ragnhild-daughter-of_20.html .

Hakon:  date given as 1131, but that and other names do not fit?

• Modern people attach themselves to the old stories. Why not? See genealogy at http://fabpedigree.com/s001/f602571.htm.  Still, no other names fit.

4.5.   Ragnhild is not an unusual name.

The name Ragnhild is common, but none seem to fit the story -- http://home.comcast.net/~homerbjames/HBJ/V01/V01_NorthSeas.htm

4.6.  Was Ragnhild, then, an illegitimate daughter of Haakon? But other names do not fit. http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/NORWEGIAN%20NOBILITY.htm

UPDATE AUGUST 2013. 

4.7.   Ragnhild as Norwegian, a daughter of the Norwegian Haakon - Hadding - Hakon, King of the Nitherians.

a.  Nitherians.  From the name, a warlike people.  The word means to put down.  See The Dialect of Cumberland by Robert Ferguson.  A stone at Glavendrup declares that she is the daughter of Hakon, King of the Nitherians.  Was she from there? And/or her husband?

King Haakon lived 935-960 in a time of multiple kingdoms in Norway, and he tried unsuccessfully to convert his realm on the coast. See A Brief History of Norway at http://www.localhistories.org/norway.html.   King Olav, 995-1000 did complete a conversion of the coast, and there is a Nidaros Cathedral at Trondheim, also known as the Cathedral of King Olav, see http://www.visitnorway.com/en/Where-to-go/Central/Trondheim/What-to-do-in-Trondheim/Attractions-in-Trondheim/Nidarosdomen-Cathedral/ who died in the 11th Century at the Battle of Stiklestad.  It is a place of pilgrimage, once it became Christianized.  Construction began about 1070.

b.  Nidaros:  semantically similar to Nitherian, in a place and time of runes, histories by others and not the people themselves. Is that so?

Haakon IV ruled 1217-1263, a time too late to be related to Ragnhild.

c.  Are the solitary drill holes suggestive of the place from where the deceased came, or from where the erector of the stone came.   There is a distinctive such rock formation hole north of Trondheim, on Torget Island.  Do a map search.

• See a nearby huge rock formation at Torget Island, known as Torghatten, in Bronnoy, Norway.  Now look back at the rune stones with the drill holes.  Then go to old stories, local legend.  It is said that a princess refused to marry a horseman.  He became maddened at the rejection, and tried to shoot her with his bow and arrow.  The king, however, distracted the angry suitor and threw his big hat so that the arrow pierced it instead of the princess.   Torghatten, the hat-shaped mountain, is the vestige of the tale. Believe.

See Explore Torghatten's Legendary Hole, http://www.gadventures.com/travel-news/arctic/explore-torghattens-legendary-hole-800776487/  We are going to Norway this summer, if current travel warnings abate, and hope to see this for ourselves. 

Torghatten, Torget Island, Brannoy, Norway, rock formation with hole. Clue to identity of Ragnhild at Glavendrup, Denmark? Wikimedia Commons, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Torghatt.JPG

Wikimedia Commons:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATorghatt.JPG
By Sondrekv (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

So:  this idea does not shed light on Tryggevaelde with its many holes, but it may as to the solitaries.

4.8.  Dates here are different, 818 BC for this fair use snippet from a family geneology, http://thestebbins.com/

Hadding King of Denmark (m) Princess Ragnhild (d) King of the Nitherians had Princess Ulfhild who (m) Scot and founded the Scottish name and had Frode King of Denmark and had Princess Swanhwid who married Regner the King of Sweden.

So:  experts, please take over. 

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Glavendrup Part I - Viking Stone Ship. Ragnhild; Commemorative Stones

Glavendrup Part I.  

Glavendrup is an archelogical monument north of Odense, a little west of Otterup. It is a fine Viking era stone ship and rune stone, back in the woods.  There is also a less apparent barrow, or burial mound.  It was constructed by one Ragnhild, for her husband, Alle. See more of Ragnhild at Glavendrup Part II.

The symbol with the four-square loops means an attraction or monument. Follow them and hope.

The stone ship and stone date from the 10th Century and looks interesting. This is off the usual track, but surely worth a country drive. Remote, one lane road, if everything is gone when you get back, or the Beast slips up the path after you, life is tough.

Dan Widing at Glavendrup Runestone carpark DK

The barrow burial in Scandinavia: Put the body in a circular depression, on stones, and cremate it.  Cover the remains with more stones, and layers of turf, to make a tumulus. A hill-size tumulus may have an opening (later opened?), others have no visible entry place. In other countries where barrow burials were common, the body was buried under the tumulus without burning, but the Scandinavian countries followed Odin (Odin: Sweden, Scandinavian Origins of a People real person in a real migration, a Sigge Fridulfson or some such who took the name Odin, or a deity manifest, or both?).

Trust the fates, leave your car hanging out there, and head up the long path with no end in sight

Daniel Widing heads down the path to the Ragnhild runestone, Glavendrup DK

The crematory burials: fair use of a snippet of the Ynglinga Saga, Norse oral histories and stories written down finally by one Snorri Sturulson, poet from Iceland, in 1255.  This Heimskringla part relates the tales of the ancient Norse kings and their accomplishments, see the section numbered 8 --

"Odin established the same law in his land that had been in force in Asaland. Thus he established by law that all dead men should be burned, and their belongings laid with them upon the pile, and the ashes be cast into the sea or buried in the earth. Thus, said he, every one will come to Valhalla with the riches he had with him upon the pile; and he would also enjoy whatever he himself had buried in the earth. For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other warriors who had been distinguished for manhood a standing stone; which custom remained long after Odin's time."

http://omacl.org/Heimskringla/ynglinga.html

Ragnhild. It was Ragnhild who erected the runestone at the head of the ship, and added a curse at the end. See http://www.vikingdenmark.com/glavendrup-stone-ship-runic-stone-funen-denmark.html

Ragnhild.  A Viking lady of means and drive. She erected another rune stone for another husband, Ganulf; and that one is said to be in the museum in  Copenhagen, see the vikingdenmark site.

Path to Glavendrup, rune stone, stone ship, Denmark

A stone ship is standing stones erected in the shape of a ship, with a memorial marker usually to one side.  It is not always an actual burial site.  See the plan. It is clear by the ages of the components that the grave is not that of the person memorialized by the runestone at the left, but a far older barrow grave is there, Bronze Age, on the plan to the right. A little hard to follow. The rune stone here should be placed more to the left, to be in its original location; without that particular mound in front of it. The site has been  "improved".

Stone ship archeological plan, fair use small section, Glavendrup DK

The setting was discovered in 1794, and saved from a recycling stone mason in 1808.

Glavendrup Rune Stone Ship setting, Denmark

Where is the tumulus for the Bronze Age barrow burial?

On to the Rune Stone:  three views, same stone.

Glavendrup Rune Stone, Glavendrup DK, front view

Glavendrup Rune Stone, side view, Denmark

Glavendrup Rune Stone, rear view, Denmark

The text on the rune stone:

Glavendrup runes inscription, translated to Danish

The text is the longest on any Danish rune stone, 210 characters, and reads:

"Ragnhild placed this stone in memory of Alle, priest of the Soelve, honorable clan chieftain. Alle's sons made these runes after their father and his wife after her husband. And Sote carved these runes in memory of his master. Thor hallow these runes.  To a 'something you do not want to become ' become he who uses violence on this stone or drags it away to stand in memory of somebody else."

Spend time with the individual stones.

To the fey among us, it soon appears that they are conversing, watching.  An imagination is a good thing.

Our numbering of stones is arbitrary and for our own identification, and not based on placement. Start with the one with the eye.

Glavendrup stone ship stone #1

Move on to the puzzled stone.

Glavendrup stone ship stone #2

There is an integrated cluster of listeners. And, for the curious, Denmark is very much an integrated country and addressing the same kinds of immigration-assimilation-ethnic identity issues as any other country in transition to a global-people world.

Glavendrup stone ship stones 3-5

This side looks too artificially lined up.
#

Glavendrup stone ship stones, row #6-13

The bare minerals blush stone. Are those drilled impressions, or just lichen?

Glavendrup stone ship stone #12

Are those drilled impressions? These are in a line, part of an original drill pattern to split off this from a larger stone, or with meaning of their own.

Glavendrup stone ship, stone #14

Circular impressions.

The three circular areas on the stone look intentional.  Part of a splitting off process from a larger stone?  Or is there a resemblance related to the three circular areas (with dots in the middle) in patterns also on this representation of a Viking man's head.  This head in the pointy helmet is shown on the Glavendrupexhibit there. 

There are three more circular areas with a dot in the center, along the browline of the helmet, and possibly more.  Shield representations? Rank?  The Vikings had a "vibrant culture" of their own, so no element should be ignored as meaningless. See http://britishbattles.homestead.com/files/europe/baltic/denmark/danskhistoria.htm. 

 Their symbols, then, had meaning - as to these, what?  

• Small linear symbol.  The linear symbol to the right with the radiating lines like legs at each end could be an element of a runic charm, an Aegishjalmur simplified, for a "helm of awe", or a Vegvisir for runic compass, both using this element Algiz or Elhaz (all this from a totally reliable scholarly site, for tattoos, at http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/tattoos.html). 
• Circle with dot.  Here it is!  A circle with a dot in the center is a circumpunct, see Symbols and their Meaning at http://www.crossroad.to/Books/symbols1.html.  This is widespread among ancient and contemporary cultures:  the sun as in Ra in Egypt; gold in alchemy; archangel Kabbalah; "emotional restraint" in Freemasonry; creative spark, divine consciousness, astrology; dot as male and circle as female in Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

• What we know:  Alle was a priest, see Glavendrup Part II; so the symbols on the exhibit helmet might well signify the divine consciousness idea, and on we go. Or that he went on voyages and that is part of the compass.
  

Recess.

Glavendrup stone ship stones #15, #16 and again #14

So what is the drill hole in our numbering, Stone #17? 

Researching Ragnhild herself, the one who erected this stone ship for her husband, Alle, we came up with new information:  she erected a second rune stone for a second husband, called Tryggevaelde, and that one is in the Copenhagen Museum, and that also has an unexplained drill hole.  See http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2011/07/glavendrup-tryggevaelde-rune-stones.html

Drill hole, stone ship stone #17, Glavendrup DK

We found a second stone with a hole at Glavendrup - and there are perhaps more that we missed.  These holes are not on the main rune stone, however; so the Tryggevaelde stone is unique in that regard.

Drill hole, stone ship stone #18, Glavendrup DK

A stone left without full re-upping.  This one looks restful, not as forced at attention as the others.

Standing stone #19, stone ship, Glavendrup Denmark

The area was in a field when first noted as something to be preserved; not in the woods.

1874 view, Glavendrup, fair use of small part of tourist explanation

II.  Contemporary Uses

The area is used by other groups, and our understanding is that this second artificial stone ship shape area is a recent construction, in order to preserve the original area from damage.



Second and artificial stone ship arrangement, for civic and other groupvceremonies, Glavendrup Denmark; later construction

1.  Ansgar Stone, modern.

Ansgar was an early missionary, known as the Northern Apostle.  The Biographicon site, http://www.biographicon.com/view/o5t2n, is good for neutral life stories, acknowledging what is verifiable, and what is tradition.

This is a 1100-year memorial to Ansgar, erected in 1926.

Heart symbolism:

Note the little heart shape in the center, with a cross top above.  The heart symbol in Scandinavia means a number of things, including energy and courage -- take heart, etc -- as well as other meanings and uses of heart, some purely speculative.  The heart here is not only courage, but heart-heart. Ansgar kept at it despite great and frequent setbacks, and practised charity - another meaning for heart - see http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/20/2018.html

There are several non-Viking inscriptions on various stones, later uses, ceremonies, modern civic occasions.


2.  Stone Commemorating the Reformation 1536.

This stone, erected in 1936, appears to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the arrival of the Reformation to Denmark.  I cannot read the Danish words, but looked up the date. See the account at the History of Denmark at http://www.worldrover.com/history/denmark_history.html

Old ways.  Standing stones to memorialize important events and people.


Have a seat a while, rest up.  Petrified penguin behind. Is that so?

Seat stump and companion stone, Glavendrup DK.