Westeremden yew-stick

The Westeremden yew-stick is a yew-wood stick found in Westeremden in the Groningen province of the Netherlands in 1917. It bears an Old Frisian runic inscription, dated to the second half of the 8th century. With a total of 41 letters, this is the longest of the extant Frisian runic inscriptions.

Transliteration
The inscription is divided into three lines, as follows:
 * ᚩᛈᚻᚳᛗᚢᛡᛁ[[Image:Rune-Stan2.png|12px|]]ᛅᛞᚪᚳᛗᛚᚢᚦ:
 * ᚹᛁᛗᛟ[[Image:Rune-Stan2.png|12px|]]ᚳᚻᚦᚢᚴᛅ
 * ᛁᚹᛁᚩ[[Image:Long-branch Kaun2.png|12px|]]ᚢ[[Image:Rune-Stan.png|12px|]]ᛞᚢᚿᚩᛚᛖ:

Runes with unfamiliar shapes or uncertain values are:
 * [[Image:Runic letter stan.svg|14px|]], a Spiegelrune of ᛒ, similar to a variant of ᛥ stan, transliterated as B below
 * [[Image:Rune-Stan.png|14px|]], a Spiegelrune of ᛈ, similar to a variant of ᛥ stan, transliterated as P below
 * [[Image:Long-branch Kaun2.png|14px|]], like Younger Futhark kaun, transliterated as K below
 * ᚳ (like Anglo-Saxon cen, occurring three times); it apparently represents a vowel, likely æ, replacing absent ᚫ æsc
 * ᛅ (like Younger Futhark ar), transliterated as A below
 * ᚴ, a "bookhand-s", transliterated as S below
 * ᚿ, like a short-twig n, probably for ᚾ n

with these decisions, the transliteration may be:
 * ophæmujiBAdaæmluþ:
 * wimœBæhþuSA
 * iwioKuPdunale:

Interpretations
Seebold (1990) reads (transliterating g for j, v for B, ë for A, ô for œ):
 * ophæmu givëda amluþ:iwi ok upduna (a)le wimôv æh þusë

Looijenga (1997) reads:
 * op hæmu jibada æmluþ : iwi ok up duna (a)le wimœd æh þusa

This reading gives rise to an interpretation along the lines of
 * "luck (amluþ) stays (gibada) at home (op hæmu); and (ok) at the yew (iwi) may it grow (ale) on the hill (up duna); Wimœd has (æh) this (þusa)."

or paraphrased more loosely, "At the homestead stays good fortune, may it also grow near the yew on the terp; Wimœd owns this."

In a controversial suggestion going back to 1937, the sequence æmluþ has often been interpreted as a reference to Amleth ("Hamlet"). The inscription is here interpreted as
 * ophamu gistadda amluþ : iwim ost ah þukn iwi os ust dukale

and given the translation The association has led to speculative proposals to the point that Quak (1991) called for a re-examination for the inscription with the ironic caveat "maybe disregarding associations with Hamlet or Amluth".
 * "Amluth took his (fighting) position on the high place. Before his yews the waves cowered. May the waves cower before this yew."