Henrik Williams

Last updated
Henrik Williams
Born
Alma materUppsala University
AwardsRudbeck Medal (2014)
Scientific career
Institutions University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Uppsala University

Henrik Williams is a noted expert on runes. He is currently a Professor of Scandinavian Languages at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Contents

Early life and education

Williams was born in Kalmar, Sweden. After graduating from school in his hometown, he spent a year as an exchange student in Ohio. After returning to Sweden in 1978, he settled in Uppsala and enrolled at Uppsala University. He studied Scandinavian languages, and in 1983, when he spent some time as a faculty assistant at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, he became interested in researching runestones. When returning to Sweden he wrote his PhD thesis on Swedish runestones. [1]

Career

Academic career

Williams received his PhD at Uppsala University in 1990 and became a senior lecturer, later associate professor, at the Department of Scandinavian languages at that university. In 1998, Williams served as visiting associate professor at University of California, Berkeley. Williams also held visiting professor position at University College London and University of Central Oklahoma in 2015 and 2017 respectively, and has had fellowships and positions as visiting professor at several academic institutions in Scandinavia. [2]

Williams has been invited as a guest speaker and lecturer at various museums and institutions in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Nordic countries. [2]

Editorial work

From 2002 to 2008 and later from 2011 to 2014 Henrik Williams served as a member of the electoral college of the Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences [2] subsequently becoming its board member. [3] Since 2010, he serves as a co-editor of Futhark: International Journal of Runic Studies [4] and is a member of the editorial board of Scripta Islandica. [5] Williams is also a member of the American Association for Runic Studies. [6]

Awards and honors

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kensington Runestone</span> Faked Scandinavian runestone

The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke stone covered in runes that was allegedly discovered in central Minnesota in 1898. Olof Öhman, a Swedish immigrant, reported that he unearthed it from a field in the largely rural township of Solem in Douglas County. It was later named after the nearest settlement, Kensington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rök runestone</span> Runestone

The Rök runestone is one of the most famous runestones, featuring the longest known runic inscription in stone. It can now be seen beside the church in Rök, Ödeshög Municipality, Östergötland, Sweden. It is considered the first piece of written Swedish literature and thus it marks the beginning of the history of Swedish literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Runes</span> Ancient Germanic letter

A rune is a letter in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised purposes thereafter. In addition to representing a sound value, runes can be used to represent the concepts after which they are named (ideographs). Scholars refer to instances of the latter as Begriffsrunen. The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark or fuþark ; the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc or fuþorc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elder Futhark</span> System of runes for Proto-Germanic

The Elder Futhark, also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Period. Inscriptions are found on artifacts including jewelry, amulets, plateware, tools, and weapons, as well as runestones in Scandinavia, from the 2nd to the 10th centuries.

The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future research. The database is freely available via the Internet with a client program, called Rundata, for Microsoft Windows. For other operating systems, text files are provided or a web browser can be used to interact with the web application Runor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skarpåker Stone</span>

The Skarpåker Stone, designated by Rundata as Sö 154, is a Viking Age memorial runestone that originally was located in Skarpåker, Nyköping, Sörmland, Sweden. It dates to the early eleventh century.

A number of runestones have been found in Oklahoma. All of them are of modern origin dating to the 19th century "Viking revival" or being produced by 19th-century Scandinavian settlers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Öpir</span>

Öpir or Öper was a runemaster who flourished during the late 11th century and early 12th century in Uppland, Sweden. He was the most productive of all the old runemasters and his art is classified as being in the highly refined Urnes style.

Runic transliteration and transcription are part of analysing a runic inscription which involves transliteration of the runes into Latin letters, transcription into a normalized spelling in the language of the inscription, and translation of the inscription into a modern language. There is a long-standing practice of formatting transliterations in boldface and transcriptions in Italic type, as the two forms of rendering a runic text have to be kept distinct.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Södermanland Runic Inscription 86</span>

Sö 86 is the Rundata catalog number for a Viking Age memorial runic inscription located in Åby, which is about one kilometer north of Ålberga, Södermanland County, Sweden, and in the historic province of Södermanland. The inscription features a depiction of the hammer of the Norse pagan god Thor named Mjöllnir and a facial mask.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bjälbo runestones</span>

The Bjälbo runestones are three Viking Age memorial runestones, one of which has been lost, located at Bjälbo, which is a village in Mjölby Municipality, Östergötland, Sweden. One of the inscriptions provides evidence of the existence of guilds in Sweden during this period.

Uppland Runic Inscription 896 or U 896 is the Rundata catalog listing for a Viking Age memorial runestone originally located at Håga in the historic province of Uppland, Sweden, but is now at the Universitetsparken of Uppsala University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vidbo Runestones</span>

The Vidbo Runestones are two Viking Age memorial runestones that are located in the churchyard of the Vidbo church, which is about 10 km (6.2 mi) east of Knivsta, Uppsala County, Sweden, in the historic province of Uppland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolsta Runestones</span> Viking Age memorial runestones

The Bolsta Runestones are two Viking Age memorial runestones and two fragments of a third that are located in Bolsta, which is on the east edge of Uppsala, Uppsala County, Sweden, and in the historic province of Uppland. One runestone is signed by the runemaster with the normalized name of Åsmund Kåresson and the other by the runemaster named Öpir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Krogsta Runestone</span> Runestone in Uppsala Municipality, Sweden

The Krogsta Runestone is a runestone designated as U 1125 in the Rundata catalog. The stone is located in Krogsta near Tuna, in Uppsala Municipality, Sweden, in the historic province of Uppland. It was first described by Johannes Bureus in 1594.

Bo Gunnar Almqvist was a Swedish academic and folklorist.

Nancy L. Wicker is professor of art history at the University of Mississippi. She was previously professor in the department of art at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Professor Kersti Börjars is a linguist who is Master of St Catherine's College, Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Södermanland runic inscription 140</span> Viking Age runic inscription in Sweden

Södermanland runic inscription 140 is a Viking Age runestone inscribed in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark runic alphabet. It and Sö 139 stand close together on the south side of the road next to the brook at Korpbro, between Lid and Aspa in Ludgo parish, Nyköping Municipality, in Södermanland, but Sö 140 was found broken and has been re-erected. A cross in the centre of the stone formed by five bind runes has been variously interpreted as an invocation of Thor or as part of the inscription.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Södermanland Runic Inscription 113</span> Swedish runic inscription

Södermanland Runic Inscription 113 is the Rundata catalogue index for a 0.9 metres (35 in) high, 0.5 metres (20 in) wide granite runestone in Kolunda, Stenkvista Parish, Eskilstuna Municipality, Sweden, within the historic province of Södermanland. It was found in 1856 on a hill believed to have once had many other graves and monuments, and is believed to have originally stood atop a burial mound before falling over and being buried. It has since been moved, and now stands next to the runestone known as Sö 112 and a partial runestone discovered in 1997. Its inscription in the Younger Futhark alphabet when translated into English reads "They placed the stone here, the sons of Þorketill and Folka, in memory of father and mother. [They] made [it] valiantly."

References

  1. Joan Fredriksson (10 May 2019). "Exclusive Interview with Henrik Williams". Swedish Press. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 "Henrik Williams". Uppsala University. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  3. "Områdesnämnden för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap" [Committee on Humanities and Social Sciences] (in Swedish). Uppsala University. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  4. "Editorial board". Futhark: International Journal of Runic Studies. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  5. "Scripta Islandica" . Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  6. "Henrik Williams". American Association for Runic Studies. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  7. "Five new medal recipients named". Uppsala University. 10 December 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2019.