Imagine billboards from the Viking Age. These weren’t paper and ink. Instead, Vikings communicated with ornate runestones. These stones used runic alphabets to share important messages.
These runestones are effectively ancient billboards. They delivered important messages. These messages were written in runic alphabets. Vikings used this method as a preferred mode of communication.
Let’s talk about Runskrift in Stockholm. Over 2,000 of the world’s 7,500+ recorded rune stones are in Sweden. You can find them in the woods around Stockholm. The biggest concentration of preserved runestones is in Runriket. It is located just north of Stockholm.
Runriket sits in the woods around Vallentunasjön. Anyone can visit for free. To make the most of your Viking hike, begin at the official park entrance. Start at Jarlbankes bridge and work your way around the trail. You can book a guided tour with a personal guide.
The Gällsta Runestones are near here. They date back to the 11th century. These stones commemorate four generations of the same family. They lived in Viking Age Sweden. There are three runestones here. U 229, U 231, and U 232. There is also a raised stone with only a cross on it. That is U 230. The Gällsta Runestones are on Stockholm’s northern outskirts. They are just northwest of Vallentunasjön lake. The world’s greatest concentration of runestones is around this lake. Öpir created all the Gällsta Runestones. He was the most productive of the old runemasters.
U 229 mentions the oldest two generations. These are Thorbjörn and his son Oddi. The runestone says that Oddi had two sons. They were Halfdan and Tobbi or Tubbi. Halfdan’s four children raised U 231 in his memory. His children were Heðinvé, Eysteinn, Ulfr, and Ólafr. Tobbi/Tubbi’s three sons raised U 232 in his memory. His sons were Tosti, Sigfuss, and Sigmarr.
U 229 is a granite runestone. It is in the Pr4 style or Urnes style. Öpir, the runemaster, made it. He made over 60 runestones. The inscription says, “Halfdan and Tobbi/Tubbi had the stone raised in memory of Oddi, their father, Thorbjörn’s son. Öpir carved the runes.”
U 231 is a gneiss-granite runestone. It is in the Pr5 style or Urnes style. Öpir has been identified as the runemaster. The stone dates to around 1080 to 1130 AD. It was discovered in 1633. Runologists depicted it at that time. It was lost for a long time. It was rediscovered in the 1870s. It was on the nearby Söderlund farm. The magistrate of the hundred owned this farm. The magistrate had divided the stone. He used the pieces as gate posts. Richard Dybeck, an antiquarian, heard about this. He went to see the magistrate and severely admonished him. The magistrate was surprised. Even the surveyor could not read the “figures.” The stone has been reassembled. The upper part is still missing. The inscription says, “Heðinvé and Eysteinn and Ulfr and Ólafr had the stone raised in memory of Halfdan, their father.”
U 232 is a granite runestone. It is in the Pr5 style. Öpir is identified as the runemaster. The inscription says, “Tosti and Sigfúss and Sigmarr had the stone raised in memory of Tobbi/Tubbi, their father.”
Wherever you go in southern Sweden, you are likely to find runestones. These ancient Viking stones have distinctive red paint. They also have cryptic markings. They seem to be everywhere.
These stones were created as memorials to the dead. Unlike modern tombstones, they were rarely placed next to graves. Often, they commemorated great warriors who died overseas. In some areas, stones were raised for family members, both men and women. In a few cases, people raised stones for themselves. It was a form of self-aggrandizement.