Till tolkningen av runföljden huli (U 604)

The inscription on the runestone from Stäket in Uppland (U 604) begins with an uninterpreted runic sequence, huli , which clearly denotes a male personal name. A consideration of the orthography of the inscription as well as onomastic parallels allows a number of possible interpretations to be discussed. The interpretation deemed most likely identifies the rune sequence huli as a name, Runic Swedish Hulli , connected to the Old Swedish adjective hulder , meaning either ‘huld, välsinnad, trogen, tillgifven; kär; benägen (för), hängifven (åt); trogen, god’ (‘fair, well meaning, faithful, affectionate, in love, inclined (to), good’ or similar) or ‘vid hull, hullig’ (‘fleshy’ or similar). The name Hulli could therefore be translated as ‘the well meaning, the faithful’ or ‘the fleshy, the fat’ or the like.