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.

:unicode|ᚩᛈᚻᚳᛗᚢᛡᛁᛅᛞᚩᚳᛗᛚᚢᚦ::unicode|ᚹᛁᛗᛟᚳᚻᚦᚢᚴᛅ:unicode|ᛁᚹᛁᚩᛞᚢᚿᚩᛚᛖ:

Runes with unfamiliar shapes or uncertain values are:
* " of unicode|ᛒ, similar to a variant of unicode|ᛥ "stan", transliterated as "B" below
* , a "Spiegelrune" of unicode|ᛈ, similar to a variant of unicode|ᛥ "stan", transliterated as "P" below
* "kaun", transliterated as "K" below
*unicode|ᚳ (like Anglo-Saxon "cen", occurring three times); it apparently represents a vowel, likely "æ", replacing absent unicode|ᚫ "æsc"
*unicode|ᛅ (like Younger Futhark "ar"), transliterated as "A" below
*unicode|ᚴ, a "bookhand-"s", transliterated as "S" below
*, like a short-twig "n", probably for unicode|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, " [http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/faculties/arts/1997/j.h.looijenga/ Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150–700] ", dissertation, Groningen University (1997), 183–185.