Viking Objects
Reproduction Rune Inscribed Rib
Runes were used not only for monumental inscriptions, or to mark ownership of valuable objects, but also in more informal contexts. In this case the animal bone suggests an after-dinner pastime after a good meal in the Anglo-Scandinavian trading centre of Lincoln. The runes read ——l × hitir × stin × … Only two words of the Old Norse inscription can be read with certainty, and even so they are ambiguous. One possible interpretation is ‘[someone] is heating a stone’ the other is ‘[someone] is called Stein’. The bone is fragmentary, but the inscription may never have been intended to make much sense. The original object dates from around the tenth century. It is one of only three runic inscriptions from the East Midlands.
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Haverholme
Haverholme, in Kesteven, Lincolnshire, comes from Old Norse hafri ‘oats’ and Old Norse holmr ‘an island, an inland promontory, raised ground in marsh, a river-meadow’. In 1137 the site was given by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, to the Cistercians of Fountains Abbey who later left Haverholme for Louth Park and the manor was passed to the Gilbertines in 1139.