494 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



eud ; the sides approximate to one another with a gentle curve. The present 

 length of the stone is 2 ft. 2 ins., but it is clear that both ends are broken. 



A marginal line runs parallel with the two long sides, following their 

 curve, and enclosing the inscription. The latter, though weathered, is 

 perfectly clear, except that the initial letter of each line is damaged by the 

 fracture, and the M at the end of the first word is slightly battered. The 

 accompanying cut (p. 493) is a facsimile, carefully drawn from a rubbing. 

 Of the reading there can be no doubt : it is 



-"o 



JJUEIvEIM EISTl 



REUS _praA 

 " Thorgrim raised this cross." 



From this it becomes evident that the stone is part of the dexter arm of 

 a cross, the outline of which must have been as shown in the small sketch 

 added to the cut. The opposite arm probably contaiued a continuation of the 

 inscription, setting forth, in accordance with the common formula, the name 

 of the person in whose memory the cross was set up, and his relationship to 

 Thorgrim. 



The stone has, as I hope to show, several points of interest. In the first 

 place, it is the only Painic inscription on stone as yet found on the mainland 

 of Ireland. Only two other runes have hitherto been yielded by this country. 

 The first is on a small strip of bronze, from Greenmount in Co. Louth, whicli 

 has for many years been in the Academy's Museum. The second is on a 

 fragment of stone discovered by Dr. Marstrander on the Great Blasket, 

 and bearing three Runic letters.' It has long seemed strange to Irish 

 archaeologists that, considering the extent of the Scandinavian settlements 

 round the coast of the country, not a single Eunic inscription on stone had 

 ever come to light — especially as there are so many inscriptions of this class 

 in Scotland and in the Isle of Man. Now that the reproach has been 

 removed, I trust that this new chapter in the epigraphy of the country will 

 prove rich and fruitful." 



The next point that calls for notice in this new "find" is its palaeography, 

 a subject that in Kunic inscriptions is of considerable intricacy. There is, 



' Dr. MarstiHuder tells me that he has published this inscription in the Oeografislce 

 Selskabs Aarboy for 1908 or 1909. I have not seen it, and know it only from the 

 account that Dr. Marstrander has communicated to me. 



* I do not forget that one of the Kilmainham swords, in the Academy's Museum, 

 bears inscribed the name of its former owner. This inscription is not, however, in 

 Runes, but in the ornamental so-called " Lombardic " variety of the Roman alphabet, in 

 which the names of the Danish kinc's of Dublin are written on theii' coins. 



