ᛒ bjarkan

Line of descent

History

b keeps the two-bowed shape of the Elder Futhark berkanan in the long-branch form ᛒ. The short-twig form ᛓ keeps only the upper half, or a pair of short strokes. The row had no p rune (the Elder pertho was dropped), so b wrote both b and p. The name of the Uppland carver Œpir appears as ubiR on U 961. On the Jelling stones, kubl is kumbl "monument". The m is unwritten before b, a common habit with nasals before consonants.

The name bjarkan is found only as the name of this rune. It is a derivative of bjǫrk "birch", matching Old English beorc. The Norwegian poem calls the birch "the greenest-leaved of boughs" and pairs it with an obscure line about Loki's deceits. The Icelandic poem has "leafy branch", "little tree" and ungsamligr viðr, a word not otherwise known, and its Latin gloss is abies "fir". The first line of the Icelandic stanza is damaged in AM 687 d, and its reading is partly editorial.

In the medieval alphabet a dotted form, ᛔ, was introduced for p, around the late 11th or early 12th century. An "open" variant, ᛕ, called plástr in Icelandic sources, appears from about the 13th century. Plain ᛒ was then kept for b. Modern note: the Bluetooth logo combines ᚼ and ᛒ for Haraldr blátǫnn.

In the rune poems

Original text from the public-domain editions named on each poem's page; translations are our own.

Where it is found

• Uppland stone U 961: ubiR 'Œpir', b for p
• Jelling stone 2 (DR 42): haraltr kunukR baþ 'King Haraldr ordered'
• Jelling stone 1 (DR 41): tanmarkaR but 'Denmark's adornment (or salvation)'

On inscriptions described on this site

Sources

• Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata), signa U 961, DR 42, DR 41
• Spurkland, Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions (2005), pp. 151–152 (via Wikipedia: Medieval runes)
• Dickins (1915), notes to the Norwegian poem, stanza 13