Eggja stone

Someone has stained this stone with blood (kenned as corpse-sea); perhaps as part of a sacrifice to facilitate the passage of the deceased or call on whatever power the inscription is addressed to.

Panel 3 above is relegated to the middle, as part B: (Parenthesis denotes reconstructed or anticipated forms) The Old Norse equivalent is here said to be: Translation: According to this interpretation, A1 is a description of a shipwreck in bad weather.

The mast seems to have broken, and the oars could not save them, as a mythical creature, *Vil (possibly the sea-god Aegir, or simply divine will,) casts a wave upon the boat.

Panel 2 has been suggested to contain a stanza in the Galdralag meter, i.e.: The inscription loosely follows the pattern of the Merseburg Incantations, divided into two complementary parts, but where the Merseburger invokes a mythic event and calls for an exorcistic repetition, the Eggja composer seems to twice invoke a ritual, the first time listing two desired outcomes, in the second instance asking a question and answering it.

Both inscriptions may represent some of the few remaining examples of pre-Christian ljoð or galdr, ritual verse chanted by the cult leaders, shamans or oracles of Norse Scandinavia.