A New Runic Inscription from Sockburn Hall, County Durham: E 19 Sockburn

In May 2014, a previously unknown runic inscription was recognised by a team of academics and doctoral students visiting Sockburn Hall, County Dur­ham. Sockburn was an important ecclesiastical centre as early as the eighth cen­tury, and an outstanding collection of stone sculpture of Viking Age and later medi­eval date is witness to the continued importance of the site in later cen­turies. The fragmentary inscription is in Viking Age Scandi­navian runes and is inter­preted here as part of a memorial inscription in Viking Age Norse. The inscrip­tion has marked similarities with inscriptions from the Isle of Man, in­clud­ing the use of the word krus ‘cross’ and parallels between the rune forms of the in­scrip­tion and those of inscriptions from the Isle of Man. The occurrence of the Goidelic personal name Máel Muire in the memorial inscrip­tion is further evidence for links with the Irish Sea region. This is an important discovery, demon­strating the existence of a Norse-speaking community with links to the Irish Sea region at or near Sockburn in the tenth or early eleventh century.https://doi.org/10.33063/diva-385701