[4] Professor Munch supposes that the Jerusalem travellers, who are
described in No. 13 as having broken into the how, were connected with an
expedition organized by Earl Ragnvald to the Holy Land. He says "many of
the northern warriors joined the Earl in 1152. They assembled in Orkney,
and after passing the winter there, sailed in the spring of 1153, and
after being in Spain in December of that year, reached the Holy Land in
August 1154; they went thence to Constantinople, where they passed the
Christmas of 1154-55, returning home by different routes. During their
stay in Orkney they had frequent quarrels with the inhabitants." As some
of the inscriptions seem to indicate the existence of treasure in the
tumulus, it is not unlikely that it should have been examined by these
warriors, and that they afterwards inscribed their names, together with
other remarks, on the walls.
[5] There is a similar allusion to hid treasure on the wall of a rock at
Berrig, in the Star valley North Throndheim County--"gull faitu nin alna
nither"--They hid some gold nine ells deep in the earth.
[6] This ("evidently very difficult carving," says Professor Stephens) may
be taken as a fair specimen of the Bind-rune form of writing.
"The first letter is B, a very rare form; the second an ornamental O, with
three side strokes instead of two; the third a T, the strokes being
reversed and repeated above and below; the fourth H/g, here used for AE;
the fifth, R; sixth, O, as before; seventh, Kt--[rune] and [rune]; eighth,
[rune] (i and a), the side stroke being placed below; ninth, At,
Bind-rune; tenth, an S; eleventh, O again; twelfth, KU--K and U;
thirteenth, the monogram Asuo, A ([rune]), the side stroke thrice
repeated, then S ([rune] for [rune]), an uncommon form, then U ([rune])
below, and then ([rune]) with three strokes; fourteenth, the Bind-rune I N
K ([rune] [rune] [rune]); fifteenth, an O; sixteenth, an ornamental T;
seventeenth, the monogram Alant--A ([rune]) L ([rune]) reversed and below,
and [rune] taken again, and N ([rune]) and T ([rune]) above twice; then
eighteenth, the Bind-rune Sua, S ([rune]) U ([rune]) and A ([rune]) in the
centre; nineteenth, The Bind-rune Ink, I [rune], and [rune]; and lastly
the monogram lant L ([rune]), A [rune], and N [rune], and T in the
centre--formed thus [rune]."
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
Superscripted letters are indicated by {superscript}.
The original text includes Runic characters. For this text version, these
letters have been replaced with [rune].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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