This brass ring was collected from a site alongside the River Thames in the City of London. It is inscribed in runes, but the translation is not exactly known. The translation provided by the Museum of London reads “t futhniine” and is believed to consist of the first three letters of the runic alphabet, as well as the name of the owner. The significance of this object speaks to developments within Norse culture as a result of their established presence in England from the late 9th to 10th centuries.

Runic inscriptions on objects have been known for marking possession, so the inscription could tell the name of the owner, or perhaps some other association that they might have held such as marriage, family or occupation. However, it is also possible that the inscription represents the maker’s mark, which was commonly found on other metal goods such as coins.

London in the years 901 to 1000 was experiencing the revitalization efforts of King Alfred and had developed into a regional and somewhat international trade center. With the creation of Danelaw in 878, that is, the piece of land in central and eastern England where the Norse settled after their successful invasion, there would have been many people with knowledge of the runic alphabet. However, very few finger rings have been found in traditional Norse archaeological sites and thus this object likely represents something picked up from Anglo-Saxon culture.

Although the context of this find is relatively unknown, we know that the Norse presence in England around 900-1000 A.D. was stable and had developed far past raiding activity. Changes within society would have been certain in this period of time, and the use of finger rings by Norse peoples may be an example of this.1

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