Ramsund carving

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The Ramsund carving in Sweden depicts 1) how Sigurd is sitting naked in front of the fire preparing the dragon heart, from Fafnir, for his foster-father Regin, who is Fafnir's brother. The heart is not finished yet, and when Sigurd touches it, he burns himself and sticks his finger into his mouth. As he has tasted dragon blood, he starts to understand the birds' song. 2) The birds say that Regin will not keep his promise of reconciliation and will try to kill Sigurd, which causes Sigurd to cut off Regin's head. 3) Regin is dead beside his own head, his smithing tools with which he reforged Sigurd's sword Gram are scattered around him, and 4) Regin's horse is laden will the dragon's treasure. 5) is the previous event when Sigurd killed Fafnir, and 6) shows Otr from the saga's beginning

The Ramsund carving also known as the Sigurd carving is a runic carving with the official name Södermanlands runinskrifter 101 (Sö 101). The carving is not quite a rune stone as it is not carved into a stone, but into a flat rock close to Ramsund, Eskilstuna Municipality, Sudermannia, Sweden. It is believed to have been carved around year 1000. The carving clearly depicts the story of Sigurd in the Volsunga saga in its nordic form. It is generally considered an important piece of norse art.

The runic words in the carving reads:

siriþR kiarþi bur þosi muþiR alriks tutiR urms fur salu hulmkirs faþur sukruþar buata sis

Which translates into roughly:

Sigriþr, Alrikr's mother, Ormr's daughter, made this bridge for the soul of Holmgeirr, father of Sigruþr, her husbandman

The writing is ambiguous, but the general interpretation, based on carvings on other rune stones found nearby, is that Sigriþr (a woman) was the wife of Sigruþr who has died. Holmgeirr is her father in law. Alrikr has erected another stone for his father, named Spjut, so even though Alrikr is the son of Sigriþr, he was not the son of Sigruþr.

Ramsund carving

See also