I pass along the following, which is genealogy-adjacent, as a distraction from the spam.

A new study has been published in the journal Antiquity that addresses the name Thyra appearing on several runestones. The two Jelling runes that name Thyra, wife of Gorm and mother of Harald Bluetooth, have been compared with a second set of stones associated with rune carver Ravnunge-Tue. Two of these stones also refer to a Thyra. It has long been a matter of discussion whether this was the same Thyra as on the Jelling stones.

The authors have applied some recently-developed evaluative protocols that claim to distinguish the carving styles of individual artisans to address who carved the stones. They conclude that the Jelling 2 stone was carved by the same carver as the Læborg Stone, which says 'Ravnunge-Tue carved this stone in memory of his lady, Thyra'. It has a different artisan than the Bække 1 stone, also mentioning a Thyra, but they are in turn linked by both referring to Ravnunge-Tue. This, they suggest, makes it likely that these four instances of runestones naming Thyra all refer to the same person, Gorm's wife, making her the most-named female rune subject of the era. They speculate (from some pretty flimsy bases) what it all means in terms of her how her societal status should be viewed, suggesting that she was not just king's consort, that she likely held great power in her own right.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/lady-of-leadership-3dscanning-of-runestones-in-search-of-queen-thyra-and-the-jelling-dynasty/AAB7888A86FFF997927143CB68E872E0

Op vrijdag 13 oktober 2023 om 22:54:40 UTC+2 schreef taf:
> I pass along the following, which is genealogy-adjacent, as a distraction from the spam.
>
> A new study has been published in the journal Antiquity that addresses the name Thyra appearing on several runestones. The two Jelling runes that name Thyra, wife of Gorm and mother of Harald Bluetooth, have been compared with a second set of stones associated with rune carver Ravnunge-Tue. Two of these stones also refer to a Thyra. It has long been a matter of discussion whether this was the same Thyra as on the Jelling stones.
>
> The authors have applied some recently-developed evaluative protocols that claim to distinguish the carving styles of individual artisans to address who carved the stones. They conclude that the Jelling 2 stone was carved by the same carver as the Læborg Stone, which says 'Ravnunge-Tue carved this stone in memory of his lady, Thyra'. It has a different artisan than the Bække 1 stone, also mentioning a Thyra, but they are in turn linked by both referring to Ravnunge-Tue. This, they suggest, makes it likely that these four instances of runestones naming Thyra all refer to the same person, Gorm's wife, making her the most-named female rune subject of the era.. They speculate (from some pretty flimsy bases) what it all means in terms of her how her societal status should be viewed, suggesting that she was not just king's consort, that she likely held great power in her own right.
>
> https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/lady-of-leadership-3dscanning-of-runestones-in-search-of-queen-thyra-and-the-jelling-dynasty/AAB7888A86FFF997927143CB68E872E0

Taf,

I noticed this too in some magazine reviews.

>> They speculate (from some pretty flimsy bases) what it all means in terms of her how her societal status should be viewed, <<

Why, what makes you write this?
Their conclusion is not so far fetched.

I recently reread some of the contibutions in The FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for this group
Danish Kings - Kings of the Danes prior to 887. Stewart Baldwin, Nov 1996.
- Gorm of Denmark and his immediate predecessors. Stewart Baldwin, Feb. 2001.

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~medieval/list.htm#Scand

Hans Vogels

On Sunday, October 15, 2023 at 1:13:48 AM UTC-7, Hans Vogels wrote:
> Op vrijdag 13 oktober 2023 om 22:54:40 UTC+2 schreef taf:
> > I pass along the following, which is genealogy-adjacent, as a distraction from the spam.
> >
> > A new study has been published in the journal Antiquity that addresses the name Thyra appearing on several runestones. The two Jelling runes that name Thyra, wife of Gorm and mother of Harald Bluetooth, have been compared with a second set of stones associated with rune carver Ravnunge-Tue. Two of these stones also refer to a Thyra. It has long been a matter of discussion whether this was the same Thyra as on the Jelling stones.
> >
> > The authors have applied some recently-developed evaluative protocols that claim to distinguish the carving styles of individual artisans to address who carved the stones. They conclude that the Jelling 2 stone was carved by the same carver as the Læborg Stone, which says 'Ravnunge-Tue carved this stone in memory of his lady, Thyra'. It has a different artisan than the Bække 1 stone, also mentioning a Thyra, but they are in turn linked by both referring to Ravnunge-Tue. This, they suggest, makes it likely that these four instances of runestones naming Thyra all refer to the same person, Gorm's wife, making her the most-named female rune subject of the era. They speculate (from some pretty flimsy bases) what it all means in terms of her how her societal status should be viewed, suggesting that she was not just king's consort, that she likely held great power in her own right..
> >
> > https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/lady-of-leadership-3dscanning-of-runestones-in-search-of-queen-thyra-and-the-jelling-dynasty/AAB7888A86FFF997927143CB68E872E0
> Taf,
>
> I noticed this too in some magazine reviews.
> >> They speculate (from some pretty flimsy bases) what it all means in terms of her how her societal status should be viewed, <<
> Why, what makes you write this?
> Their conclusion is not so far fetched.
>

I didn't say it is far fetched. I said the basis was flimsy - they are reading a lot into a small amount of data. If one even accepts their conclusion regarding the carving of the runes, which is based on a novel approach with (of necessity) very few datapoints, it still comes down to the fact that she was named multiple times by a single artisan and his team, and that artisan used a word that could be (but need not be) interpreted in a particular way. The conclusions are reasonable, and typical of the types of conclusions one sees when scholars address someone with such a poor historical record, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking they aren't deducing a whole lot from four inscriptions by a proud vassal and his workshop, only one of which describes her beyond naming husband and/or son, and that description amounts to a single ambiguous word.

taf