| Corpus Refs: | none |
| Site: | NDRUM |
| Discovery: | arch excav, 1921 Lawlor, H.C. |
| History: | Barnes/Hagland/Page/1997, 2: `fragmentary grave-slab from Nendrum, Co. Down found in 1921'. |
| Geology: | |
| Dimensions: | 0.0 x 0.0 x 0.0 (Unknown) |
| Setting: | inc |
| Location: | inc Hamlin/2001, 56--57, does not mention where the stone is now. |
| Form: | cross-slab Down/1966, 292: `grave-slab'. |
| Condition: | frgmntry , some Hamlin/2001, 56: `broken slab'. |
| Folklore: | none |
| Crosses: | none |
| Decorations: | Hamlin/2001, 56--57: `with part of an inscription and a design in a circle'. |
| Macalister, R.A.S. (1925): | [--]BRIMOBATA | [--][…..][-- Expansion: [--] BRIMOBATA [--] Translation: [--] (PN) of the chief abbot [--] Lawlor/1925 70--71 reading only |
| Macalister, R.A.S. (1925): | [--]BRIMABOTA | [--][…..][-- Expansion: [--] BRIMABOTA [--] Translation: [--] (PN) of the chief abbot [--] Lawlor/1925 70--71 reading only |
| Handley, M.A. (2002): | [--][.]R[.]MOBOS+ | [--]O[.]MC[.][-- Expansion: [--][.]R[.]MOBOS + [--]O[.]MC[.][-- |
| Orientation: | horizontal |
| Position: | n/a ; broad ; below cross ; undivided |
| Incision: | inc |
| Date: | None published |
| Language: | Incomplete Information (rcaps) |
| Ling. Notes: | Hamlin/2001, 57: `Macalister took this to be a runic inscription and attempted a reading: the Old Norse for `of the chief abbot'. There has always been doubt over this claim, and Professor Page has recently rejected the inscription as `a doubtful example' of runes.'. |
| Palaeography: | Barnes/Hagland/Page/1997, 2: `Another doubtful example [of a Runic inscription] from Ireland (which in this case survives to be examined) is the fragmentary grave-slab from Nendrum ... The published drawing of this shows an inscription of which only one letter coincides with a runic graph, a, though another is a marginal possibility, l; the rest are pretty clearly not runic. Macalister suggested, `after much deliberation', an interpretation of the first line as BRIMABOTA or BRIMOBATA, with the eighth letter `a runic L' of a type which `has been found, in the Killaloe runic inscription, used as a T'. The last letter `is clearly a runic short A'. So he reads a form of primábóta (a word not, we think, recorded in the dictionaries), `"of the chief abbot"', following the name of the deceased, which unfortunately is missing'. It is worth noting that Macalister's reading of the fifth and seventh graphs as the two vowels A and O is pure speculation. The eighth letter is not very convincingly l and even less convincingly t. The last could certainly be a long-branch a. Though it could equally well be an English runic 'n'. The second line of the inscription he did not attempt; perhaps it was just as well'. CISP: A case can be made that this inscription is in Roman capitals. The three square Os with extended strokes are paralleled on Breton inscriptions (SMGRV/1, PLAGT/1, BAIS/1), with other letters possibly being a `trident' form of M, a half-uncial S, and R and a B. The final letter of the first line could be a minuscule T, half-uncial S or a final cross. The second line appears to have an M with splayed ascenders, a square C and a superscript square O. |
| Legibility: | some CISP: Quite a few of the letters are damaged, and even those that are complete cause problems regarding their interpretation. |
| Lines: | 2 |
| Carving errors: | 0 |
| Doubtful: | no |