Westeremden yew-stick facts for kids

The Westeremden yew stick.

The Westeremden yew-stick is a yew-wood stick found in Westeremden in the Groningen province of the Netherlands in 1917. It bears an Old Frisian runic inscription, dated to the second half of the 8th century. With a total of 41 letters, this is the longest of the extant Frisian runic inscriptions.

Transliteration

The inscription is divided into three lines, as follows:

ᚩᛈᚻᚳᛗᚢᛡᛁᛅᛞᚪᚳᛗᛚᚢᚦ:

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: