Dvärgarna på Ribekraniet

Abstract

Jackie Nordström has recently presented a new reading of the runes at the Ribe skull. She claims that the two words dvärg ‘dwarf’ and dvärgynja ‘female dwarf, dwarfess’ occur in the inscription, written tuiᴀrki and tuirkuniu (both words in dative singular). She transcribes them dværgi and dværgyniu, i.e. with æ, which in both cases is unlikely.
Instead, the words should be transcribed as dwiargi and dwergynju – the first word with a breaking e > ia. Broken forms of this word are well attested in some Swedish dialects as djärg, järg or järv. In the end of the inscription the pronoun þaim probably is dative plural, referring forward to both the dwarf and the dwarfess.