Maltstenens tekst

Hvordan dæmonen uddrives

Abstract

The runic inscription on the Malt-stone (probably from the early ninth century) consists of two parts: a memorial formula and an instruction for protecting the monument from demons in the shape of dwarfs threatening to disrupt its peace. The memorial formula has two possible readings, both runologically consistent. One follows the classical pattern praising both the erector uifrþur and his deceased father; the other reading praises the erector for having set gold as compensation for his deceased father, thus praising the father’s merits as well.

The text contains the words taitirunąr ‘joy-runes’, ‘teasing runes’ and aiuinrunąr ‘everlasting runes’, ‘safeguarding runes’, and these two functions are central to the instruction. The content is a ritual for expelling a dwarf from the monument: what to say: æi titultitul ‘the deceit did not delude the god’, and what to do utu : tuuut ‘early in the morning, strike with yew, expel him’.

Safeguarding formulas and invocations like those found in the older inscriptions from Blekinge and in contemporary stones address possible human assaults on the memorial. In the Malt inscription, the disturber of the peace is a dwarf, and the most important textual and pragmatic parallel is the Ribe skull, which mentions a dwarf possessing a human being, resulting in physical or mental illness. Dwarfs disturb the peace of both the living and the dead. The language of the inscription contains several old features: free definiteness, an example of -u- retained after a short syllable, the archaic acc. sg. fǫðr, the pronominal form hwar corresponding to Gothic hwas, retention of the adjective afarr and retention of the singular of the word tir in the sense of ‘god’. Innovations are found as well: the generalised middle form in -s and a differentiation between the negation æi and the adverb ē ‘forever’. No specifically West Norse or East Norse features are found, and the text can be viewed as an example of Common Norse.