the goggles do nothing

Nostalgia for the circa-1993 SGI Indy lab at college prevented me from resisting this $15 bargain at the local recycled computer store. Returning to CRTs after a long time with LCDs makes you appreciate the benefits of not having to worry about horizontal and vertical convergence, as well as drives home just how bright LCD backlight on Glossy screens are.

Driving from San Francisco to Seattle takes you through Redding, California, where there's an improbable pedestrian and bicycle bridge built by Santiago Calatrava. The Spanish architect came through Seattle a few years ago and gave a talk on his design work. More pictures here.

I chose this particular runestone, which is about 4km southwest of the Uppsala city center, as the destination for my own field trip as part of my Runology class. I checked the references sources and recorded the GPS coördinates, but tried to keep my hand over the rest of the page so I wouldn't see any transliterations or translations until I stood in front of the stone itself.

The hike to the stone took me past the 1970s bedroom community of Flogsta, where a lot of Uppsala students live, and it's this geographical designation which is most often associated with runestone #895. Yet just south of Flogsta the territory turns sharply rural, with red barns on rolling acres.

Part of this landscape is Hågahögen, a Bronze-age gravemound dating to about 1000 BC. In much later times (ca. 800 AD), a semi-legendary king called Björn at Haugi was said to have established his residence here, taking his name from the mound (haugi, which became håga as part of a fixed place-name, while the word for a mound evolved in parallel to hög -- thus Hågahögen is arguably redundant.) Such overlapping of Bronze- and Viking-age settlements and monuments is a pattern across Scandinavia (cf. Jelling in Denmark) but it's unclear exactly what meaning these sites had for medieval rulers, apart from their pre-manufactured monumentality.

The runestone I went to look at dates from about 1000 AD, long after Björn reigned. It stood originally at the foot of the Håga mound, but is now in the middle of a privately-owned horse pasture about 200 meters south. Modern repairs to a crack at the base of the stone have resulted in three iron bars which hold the roughly 6' tall piece upright. The stone has three main faces, of which two are carved. The inscription continues from one side to the next, in the middle a sentence. Here's the first side -- mouse over the picture to see the runes that are intact:

The inscription starts,

tan uk skali uk biarn
Dan and Skalli and Björn

litu risa stain
let [this] stone be raised

The inscription continues on the other side, which is much better-preserved and easier to read. I've rotated this image so that it's at a 90° angle -- mouse over to see the runes highlighted:

at borfast faþu-
to the memory of Borfast, father

Though the last runic character is clearly an "i" in the carving, we think that must have been a mistake: faþui just doesn't make any sense at all, so we suspect that the lone stave must have been intended to be an r originally, yielding faþur.

Here I am with the Swedish Minister of Higher Education and Research, Lars Leijonborg, as well as my professor Lotta from Seattle. Interestingly enough Lars is a big Selma Lagerlöf fan. Each of the Fulbrighters who had been in Sweden this year had a few minutes to stand up and present a summary of their research. Pictures from the rest of the event are online here.

The Spring plantings have started to appear along Uppsala's many pedestrian and vehicular bridges crossing the Fyris river.

Walpurgis (sv. valborg) is perhaps the highlight of the social calendar in Uppsala. The Swedish-language Wikipedia has an entire sub-article on the events of the day, which I’ll copy here and amend with my own annotations:

07.00-09.30 Champagne Breakfast on Castle Hill: Yes, most people are drunk by 7 am. Skipped this.

10.00-12.00 Waterfall Rafting on Fyrisån

The idea here is that student clubs build makeshift rafts and dress up according to a chosen theme (mimes, squid, clowns, etc). They float down the Fyris river and, at the sharp drop by the old mill, go over the waterfall. This usually means the end of of the rafts, but they’re judged on style at the precise moment they rush over the edge, wading out after they come out of the water downriver.

12.00-14.30 Herring Picnic Lunch: Nothing like pickled fish on top of the champagne from breakfast. Skipped in favor of less-traditional pasta.

15.00 Rector magnificus bids welcome to Spring from the balcony of the library by lifting his student cap, signaling great celebration and consequent stampede down Carolina Hill to the Champagne Gallop at various student clubs.

Anders Hallberg, the rector, steps out on the balcony:

…and puts on his hat, the “Mösspåtagning” which signals the arrival of spring:

I stayed for the hat-waving but skipped any and all galloping. An interesting part of Valborg is how it functions as a kind of Alumni Reunion weekend, with older folks who once attended Uppsala blending in with the rest of the student body:

21.00 Curator curatorum (Student Body President) gives Spring Speech on top of Castle Hill, followed by a concert given by Allmänna Sången.

This I did attend, which proved to be quite atmospheric. Representatives of all the Student Nations had their respective flags and banners fluttering atop the hill next to the castle at sunset, while 420-year-old Gunilla bell was rung. The renowned choir Allmänna Sången sang while attired in evening gowns and tuxedos. The tradition of student choirs in Uppsala dates back to the early 19th century, and like many other things in Swedish academic arose under the influence of Germans who came northwards to work. Swedish Radio broadcasted the talk and the concert live from the top of the hill.

The gallery of photos from Valborg is online here.

Some pictures from a walk along the northern edge of Kungsholmen.