Uppsala University’s new chair in runology and his favorite runestone: U 519 Salmunge. Photo: Marco Bianchi (CC BY).

The Rune Blog has been inactive ever since the pandemic started, but runic activities have not ceased.

The past year has for natural reasons seen much fewer events, especially public, but we did have two Rune Rede colloquia last spring, one this past autumn, and at least one more to follow this month (see below).

My new title as of April 1 will be Professor of runology

This spring’s most important runic news is the establishment of two new positions in runology at Uppsala University. The generosity of mainly American benefactors has proven that runes also are of international interest and that runology attracts substantial donations. To show that Uppsala is serious about runic research the former Vice-Chancellor and her Deputy allocated some SEK 5 million as a strategic investment. This will finance a chair in runology and an assistant professorship.

April 1. My new title will be Professor of runology, the second one ever in Sweden and the only current one in the world (as far as I know). My former chair of Scandinavian Languages has already been announced.

Today also will be published the Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions, Nyköping, Sweden, 2–6 September 2014 in the series Runrön. Runologiska bidrag utgivna av Institutionen för nordiska språk vid Uppsala universitet 24 (DOI: 10.33063/diva-437002). Everything comes (eventually) to those who wait!

The Mustang Mountains stone in Arizona. Photo: W. Sherwood 2013.

April 14: Frands Herschend will give a talk at Rune Rede 105 on ”Is U 29 an 11th century Swedish sequence?” Music will be involved!

April 20. Celebration of the new Chair in Runology. The Celebration via Zoom will include an address from Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Uppsala University, Professor Coco Norén, and traditional Swedish folk music, as well as a lecture by me entitled “From Rök to the Mustang Mountains – The Challenges of Runology”, followed by a Q&A session. The event takes place 18:00-19:00 CET (Central European Time), 11 AM Minneapolis, 9 AM Seattle and will be recorded and available on this web site. Those of you who have not already received an invitation to attend the event digitally may send an e-mail to me to get one.

Later in April, the new issue of Futhark: International Journal of Runic Studies 11/2020 will be published.

Before the summer, a job will be announced as (tenured or tenure-track) Assistant Professor in Scandinavian Languages with specialization in runology. This appointment guarantees a continuous position for runic research at Uppsala University. After I retire in a few years there will thus be at least one other runologist at the Department apart from my present colleague Marco Bianchi. The future for runology at Uppsala University looks bright!

The cover of Runrön 24. The issue was published Open Access today and is available for free.