BRYGGENS MUSEUM

Guided tour in the world´s largest collection of runes

GUIDED TOURS
Which tales does the world´s largest collection of runic inscriptions tell? Get to know the people who lived on Bryggen hundreds of years ago through the written messages they sent to each other.

A dark night, more than 750 years ago, Gyda was perhaps tired of her husband once again staying too long at the tavern. Maybe she carved the runic letters on a wooden stick and sent one of the kids with the message: gya:sæhir:atqu:kakhæim: Gyda tells you to go home.

Gyda’s message is one of many hundreds runic inscriptions that were found during the archaeological excavations at Bryggen in Bergen. These excavations gave us the largest collection of runic inscriptions in the world. The inscriptions provide a direct insight into everyday life in the Middle Ages. We find letters of trade, name tags, receipts, magic formulas, religious inscriptions, Old Norse poems, Latin poems and references to literature, secret messages, sexual conquests, drunken nonsense, and incomprehensible messages. The messages were not meant for our eyes, but they are still talking to us directly from the past.

Messages have been carved with a knife on a piece of wood one had on hand, given to the recipient, (hopefully) read and thrown away. In medieval Bergen, long before post-its and text messages, this was the easiest way to communicate in writing.

Come and get to know the people that lived at Bryggen hundreds of years ago through the written messages they left behind.

Meeting point by the reception at Bryggens Museum. Duration approximately 45 minutes.