The Identification and Localization of the Place-Name Ustaulm in Eastern Europe (to the Interpretation of the 11th Century Runic Inscription on the Stone from Ålstad, Norway)

Abstract

The article proposes an identification of the toponym “*ustaulmr / *Ustahólmr” from the runic inscription of the middle of the 11th century on the stone from the Norwegian village Ålstad as a Scandinavian variant of the Slavic oeсonym “*Оусть-островъ”, which was called the settlement of the people of Rus’ on the island of St. Aitherios (presumably, contemporary Berezan’ Island) at the mouth of the Dnieper. The article proves that the three main camp-settlements of the Rus’ people on the way down the Dnieper River in the 10th and 11th centuries are named in this runic inscription: Russia = Kiev (= *Garðar), Vitichev (= *Vitahólmr) and a village on an island in the mouth of the Dnieper *Oust-island (*Ustahólmr). The sequence “*Garðar —*Vitahólmr — *Ustahólmr” fully coincides with the sequence of stays Rus’ fleet from the Byzantine treatise ‘De Administrando Imperio’ (the mid of the 10th century): “Kiev — Vitichev — the island of St. Aitherios”.