Westeremden yew-stick

The Westeremden yew-stick is a yew-wood stick found in Westeremden B, in the Groningen province, in 1917, bearing a Old Frisian Futhorc inscription.

ᚩᛈᚻᚳᛗᚢᛡᛁᛅᛞᚩᚳᛗᛚᚢᚦ:

ᚹᛁᛗᛟᚳᚻᚦᚢᚴᛅ

ᛁᚹᛁᚩᚢᛞᚢᚿᚩᛚᛖ:

Runes with unfamiliar shapes or uncertain values are:

• , a Spiegelrune of ᛒ, similar to a variant of ᛥ stan, transliterated as B below
• , a Spiegelrune of ᛈ, similar to a variant of ᛥ stan, transliterated as P below
• , like Younger Futhark kaun, transliterated as K below
• ᚳ (like Anglo-Saxon cen, occurring three times); it apparently represents a vowel, likely æ, replacing absent ᚫ æsc
• ᛅ (like Younger Futhark ar), transliterated as A below
• ᚴ, a "bookhand-s", transliterated as S below
• ᚿ, like a short-twig n, probably for ᚾ n

with these decisions, the transliteration may be:

ophæmujiBAdaæmluþ:

wimœBæhþuSA

iwioKuPdunale:

Seebold (1990) reads (transliterating g for j, v for B, ë for A, ô for œ):

ophæmu givëda amluþ:iwi ok upduna (a)le wimôv æh þusë

Looijenga (1997) reads:

op hæmu jibada æmluþ : iwi ok up duna (a)le wimœd æh þusa

Interpreted as something like "luck (amluþ) stays (gibada) at home (op hæmu); and (ok) at the yew (iwi) may it grow (ale) on the hill (up duna); Wimœd has (æh) this (þusa)." or "at the homestead stays good fortune, may it also grow near the yew on the terp; Wimœd owns this."

For paleographical reasons (the bookhand-s and Younger Futhark influence), Looijenga dates the stick to after AD 750.

References

• J. H. Looijenga, Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150–700, dissertation, Groningen University (1997), 183–185.