The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-197 - museum specimen

Madla, Stavanger, Rogaland — maker Tormod Ropeid of Hafrsfjord

Norway - Rogaland - Stavanger - Europe - Scandinavia

Play / practical

The Madla snorlebein — pig's foot-bone on its long cord.
The Madla snorlebein — pig's foot-bone on its long cord. · CC BY-SA 4.0 Image source
Second view of the bone, hole and knot.
Second view of the bone, hole and knot. · CC BY-SA 4.0 Image source

snorlebein Norwegian

snorlebein — 'cord-bone'; the whirled bone hums (brumme) on its long thread.

A pig's foot-bone is the whole instrument here. At Madla on the Hafrsfjord, Tormod Ropeid bored a hole through the knuckle, knotted in a long cord, and whirled bone and string round in the air until they gave their humming roar — the snorlebein, the cord-bone, a farmyard cousin of the carved blades of other latitudes, spun for nothing more than the pleasure of the sound.

Object
A pig's foot-bone with a single through-hole and a long cord; whirled in the air, bone and cord together, to make a humming roar ('brummelyd'). Norsk Folkemuseum NF.1964-0080.
Function
Sound-making toy: the bone is spun on its cord in the air to produce a hum.
Map confidence
high - Madla district, Stavanger — locality-exact record.
Source location
Norsk Folkemuseum record NF.1964-0080

View source Open this point on the interactive map