Inscription
The Kylver stone is inscribed with the earliest known sequential listing of the 24 runes of the elder futhark,
- u þ a r k g h n i j p ï z s t b e m l ŋ d o
with the a, s and b runes mirrored compared to later use, and the z rune upside down.
After the last rune follows a spruce- or tree-like rune, with six twigs to the left and eight to the right of a single stave. This is interpreted as a bindrune of stacked Tiwaz rune, or possibly of six Tiwaz and four Ansuz runes to invoke Tyr and the Æsir for protection.
At a separate space the word sueus is inscribed. The meaning of this latter palindromic word is unknown, but it is possible that it is associated with magic. One suggestion presented by Marstrander is that it is a magical writing of the word 'eus' (the nominative form of the word horse) starting from the e and writing either way. However, this suggestion has been criticized as being "linguistically impossible" for that time period. The small inscription also uses the younger futhark version of the s-rune.
Read more about this topic: Kylver Stone
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