Bryggen Runic inscription 257

The Bergen rune charm is a runic inscription on a piece of wood found among the medieval rune-staves of Bergen. It is noted for its similarities to the Eddaic poem Skírnismál ; as a rare example of a poetic rune-stave inscription; and of runes being used in love magic.
The inscription has number 257 in the Bryggen inscriptions numbering and N B257 in the Rundata database, and P 6 in McKinnell, Simek and Düwel's collection.
It is thought to date from the fourteenth century.

Description

The stave is four-sided, with text on each side, but one end is missing, leaving the text of each side incomplete. It is dated to ca. 1335, making it roughly contemporary to the Ribe healing-stick.

Inscription

The Scandinavian Runic-text Database gives the following transliteration, normalization, and translation for the stick:

Translation

Interpretation of McKinnell, Simek, Düwel and Hall

As normalised and edited by McKinnell, Simek and Düwel, and 'somewhat tentatively' translated by Hall, the charm reads:

Theories

In the view of McKinnell, Simek and Düwel,
They point out that the addressee of side D is a woman, on account of the feminine form sjalfri.

Parallels

It has been noted that the inscription has close parallels to magic charms found in eddic poetry, especially verse 36 of the poem Skírnismál. According to Finnur Jónsson's 1932 edition of the poem and Carolyne Larrington's 2014 translation :

Images

There is a photograph of a detail of the stave in Aslak Liestøl, ‘Runer frå Bryggen’, Viking: Tidsskrift for norrøn arkeologi, 27, 5–53, reproduced in Stephen A. Mitchell, ‘Anaphrodisiac Charms in the Nordic Middle Ages: Impotence, Infertility and Magic’, Norveg, 41, 19-42.