Runes, Stones

Rune stones are stones with runic inscriptions dating from the early Middle Ages but are found to have been used most prominently during the Viking Age. Compared to western Europe, Scandinavia has poor written evidence for its early medieval history in favor of an oral skaldic tradition. more...

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It wasn’t until the twelfth century that their earliest law codes and histories were compiled in writing. The only existing texts dating to earlier periods (besides a few finds of inscriptions on coins) were found amongst the Runic inscriptions, some of which were scratched onto pieces of wood or metal spearheads, but for the most part they have been found on actual stones.

There are approximately 6,000 known rune stones in Scandinavia. Out of those discovered runes, 3,000 of them date from the tenth and eleventh centuries and have been found in Sweden. Some of them are found on the exposed rock surfaces of the fjords or simply erected in the center of parks or schoolyards. Most of these inscriptions carved into the rune stones announce the deaths of local people who lived and died in their home country. Approximately ten percent of the known rune stones announce the travels and tragic deaths of men abroad. These runic inscriptions coincide with certain Latin sources, such as the Annals of St. Bertin and the writings of Liudprand of Cremona which contain valuable information on Scandinavians/Rus who visited Byzantium.

The inscriptions seldom provide solid historical evidence of events and identifiable people but instead offer insight into the development of language and poetry, kinship and habits of name-giving, settlement, place-names and communications, viking as well as trading expeditions, and, not least, the spread of Christianity.Though the stones offer the Scandinavian historian his or her main resource of information concerning early scandinavian society, not much can be learned by studying the stones individually. The wealth of information that the stones provide can be found in the different movements and reasons for erecting the stones, in each region respectively.

Tradition

The tradition of raising runestones probably evolved from the old tradition of raising menhirs in honour of a deceased during the Pre-Roman and Roman Iron Ages. The tradition is both mentioned in the Heimskringla and Hávamál. The menhirs probably had painted inscriptions which disappeared over time, but they were later replaced by carvings that lasted longer. Although the stones seem to overwhelmingly mark the passing of ones life into the next, one must not forget to place the raising of stones in their historical perspectives. For example, the majority of the 3,000 rune stones found in the region of Uppland in eastern Sweden have Christian references. One may ask why these particular christian rune stones are so prominent in this specific area and they will discover that the region near modern day Stockholm was one of the last pagan strongholds. It may sound strange to hear that Christian rune stones flourished in a predominantly pagan area, but it is important to take a step back and process the thought. The purpose for this abundance of Christian reference placed amongst the rune stones was because of standard practice which stated that one must declare ones faith if it is different from the local majority. Since the majority of people in that area still held on to their pagan beginnings, the newly converted Christians made it a point to differentiate from the rest of the population. This case may also represent the intention to overwhelm the resistant pagans and make their Christian belief seem more prominent in order to switch that popular local faith. Rune stones were used for more than simply commemorating the dead. In the later years, erecting rune stones showed, for the most part, that the erector had money, education and even political power and influence. Keep in mind that education meant learned in the Latin religious texts.

Read more at Wikipedia.org