The calendar that once ruled Norway
Light Box

Before printing made almanacs and calendars everyday articles, Scandinavians used calendric devices made of wood, with lines or notches for the days of the year and carved characters for solstices, equinoxes, festivals, and holidays. Most were slender wooden staffs, called primstav in Norway and Denmark (hyphenated in Danish) and runstav in Sweden.

The names are descriptive. The word primstav is a compound that comes from the Latin primatio lunae, which means “first appearance of a new moon,” which designates it as the basis of the calendric details presented in symbols. Moreover, prim is the Old Norse word for “new moon.” The word runstav means “rune staff,” which denotes the presentation of calendric details in runes, the first example of which is the 13th century Nyköpingsstaven.

The primstav and runstav are perpetual calendars based on the Metonic cycle, named for the Greek astronomer Meton of Athens who in 432 BC observed that a period of 19 years is within a few hours equal to 235 lunar months, so over the period of a single cycle the solar and lunar calendars agree. Each year in a Metonic cycle has a gyllentall (golden number), though not all primstav show it.