8 C. Save and G. Stephens, 



This stone is of course unintelligible in Liljegren (No. 1683), 

 whose only authority is the barbarousl}^ copied fragment in the »Delsboa 

 lUustrata» of K. N. Len^us (Stockholm 1764, 8vo., p. 179). In 1844, how- 

 ever, the Rector of Delsbo, now Bishop, the Rev. L. Landgren, found 

 in the churchyard another piece of the same slab, and in 1847 forwarded 

 a good drawing of both pieces to Prof. C. Save, who favored me with a 

 facsimile in 1860. I could not then make it out, as little as Save himself. 

 The large lower piece was the one given b}- Len^us; the bit fitting in 

 on the top was the fragment happily recovered by Landgren. 



I now fancy I have solved the mystery, and give the tracing 

 Heliotyped by Pacht. 



I think that the whole will be clear, and that the still missing- 

 letters may be reasonabl}' suppHed, if we take the RUt'UR to be yet 

 anotliei' instance of a feminine in the genitive with the frequent local 

 archaisiic -UR ending. 



As, from the bend, we can see that the rune-lines have not gone 

 high at the top, onl}- a couple of letters are wanting there. , The first 

 word was therefore almost certainly the common mansname ANUNTR. 

 By the peculiar position of t'INI on the left below, onh^ a few staves 

 can want at that end. And as the break there is slanting, there is about 

 1 character fewer in the last left line. Thus, say, 4 on the extreme 

 right, 4 (or: and 3) in the inner right line, 2 or 3 (or: and 1 or 2) on 

 the outward left line. The carver began this last left line with letters 

 to be redd from below, as we see in the still left . .. APL The phrase 

 HAN KARÏ^I is a standing runic formula, and for KARt^I or KIARÏ^I 

 we not unfrequently find KAt>I or KIAI^I, with the well-known slurring 

 of the R. Still more likely, the verb was FAM, FAWED^ got ready. 

 But the stone-smith soon found this reading from below inconvenient, 

 and placed the remaining words in the left line so, as to be redd from 

 the top doirniranh., like all tlw rest of the inscription. 



« I therefore believe that we cannot go very far wrong, if we divide 

 and read: 



(aniUNTR, KIlîIBIS^SUN, lilSTI (kuml) KUPl'i;, HANAß A UA/MU. 

 AlKIL (luiu f)APl (auk maR)KA!^J STIN I'LNI. 



ANI'NT (= ANVKD), KEIBS'S (-= GRIPS SON, RAISED (these cuin- 

 hrJ.s, = iirai-e-marlis) of-RUTHA, HER ON (at) UAR-EY. AlKIL (= EG IL) 

 (he faw)EI) (= prepared) EKE MARKT (nmrihed) STONE THIS. 



