Runic calendar

The calendar bar is a perpetual calendar, based on the 19-year Metonic cycle of the moon. He is a Swedish invention, may also be a further development of older continental calendar rods. The oldest known, and only from the Middle Ages, the Nyköping staff, probably from the 13th century. Most of the several thousand obtained are wooden calendar from the 16th and 17th centuries. The calendar rods were written on parchment or carved into sticks of wood, bone or horn. During the 18th century, the runic calendar through a renaissance, around 1800 such calendars were produced as snuff boxes made ​​of brass.

A typical calendar rod consisting of several superposed horizontal rows of symbols.

In a series of 52 weeks were represented to seven days by 52 repetitions of the first seven runes of the Younger Futhark. The runes that belonged to each day of the week, varied from year to year.

In another were the number of days represented by one of 19 symbols, which one of the 19 golden numbers of years of the Metonic cycle. In the early calendars, each of the 19 years of the cycle was represented by a rune; the first 16 were the 16 runes of the Younger Futhark, plus special runes for the remaining three years: Arlaug ( Golden Number 17) Tvimadur ( Golden Number 18), and Belgthor ( Golden Number 19). On this day of the cycle of the new moon will fall in the corresponding year. For example, will fall on all marked with the Tvimadur data in the 18th year of the cycle the new moons. Later calendar used numbers in Pentesimal system for the values ​​1 to 19

Special days like solstices, equinoxes, and holidays were marked in an additional row with symbols. The calendar is independent of the knowledge of the length of the tropical year or the occurrence of leap years. He was placed at the beginning of the year by the observation of the first full moon after the winter solstice. The first full moon also marked the date of Disting, a pagan festival and fair.