Kirkdale Sundial - Inscription

Inscription

The inscription on the sundial reads a follows:

+ ORM GAMAL / SVNA BOHTE SCS / GREGORIVS MIN / STER ÐONNE HI / T ǷFS ÆL TOBRO // CAN ⁊ TOFALAN ⁊ HE / HIT LET MACAN NEǷAN FROM / GRVNDE ΧΡE ⁊ SCS GREGORI / VS IN EADǷARD DAGVM CNG / IN TOSTI DAGVM EORL +

Orm Gamal suna bohte Sanctus Gregorius minster ðonne hit wæs æl tobrocan and tofalan, and he hit let macan newan from grunde Christe et Sancti Gregori, in Eadward dagum cuning, in Tosti dagum eorl. (ǷFS being a mistake for ǷES or ǷÆS)

"Orm son of Gamal son bought St. Gregory's minster when it was all broken and fallen down and he let it be made new from the ground, for Christ and St. Gregory, in the days of Edward king, in the days of Tosti the eorl"

The sundial itself is inscribed with

+ ÞIS IS DÆGES SOLMERCA + / ÆT ILCVM TIDE

þis is dæges solmerca, æt ilcum tide.

"This is the day's sun-marker, at every tide."

And at the bottom of the central panel is the line

+⁊ HAǷARÐ ME ǷROHTE ⁊ BRAND / PRS

and Haward me wrohte, and Brand, presbyter(i).

"And Haward wrought me, and Brand, priest(s)."

The reference is to Edward the Confessor and Earl Tostig, Edward's brother-in-law, who was the son of Earl Godwin of Wessex and the brother of Harold. Tostig held the Earldom of Northumbria from 1055 to 1065 fixing the date of the church's reconstruction to that decade. He is also known for the murder of Gamal, Orm's father. The language of the inscription is late Old English, with a failing case and gender system. The compound solmerca is otherwise unattested in English, and has been ascribed to Scandinavian influence (Old Norse solmerki "sign of the zodiac").

Part of the sundial's significance is that it suggests that, 100 years after the Viking invasions, Vikings such as Gamelson were now writing in English, not Norse.