Rune stone: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Rune stones are somewhat flat standing stones with runic stone carvings from the Iron Age (Viking Age) and early middle ages found in most parts of Scandinavia. Gotland, the largest island in the Baltic still contains many rune stones. The inscriptions are made in different dialectal variants of the Old Norse language.

The majority of these stones date after the introduction of Christianity; they often include the Christian cross and use the younger futhark. But older stones are pagan Norse and use the older futhark. Their inscriptions are the oldest written source texts created in the Nordic countries and some give a few clues about mythology and the society in Scandinavia at this time. Numbers are written out in text, i.e. "123" is "onehundredtwentythree", since the Indo-Arabic numerals were not yet employed. Years are counted through father generations, or the number of elapsed winters.

Most stones are put up as memorials for a dead person: in many cases death caused by sudden and unexpected events. These typically have an inscription of the type: "X had this stone carved for Y, a great man, God help his soul. Z carved it". Other stones are put up as landmarks. Several stones have obviously been erected by women.

Several inscriptions include works of art, for example, the runes may be inscribed inside a serpent-like creature, and some stones ("image stones") found on Gotland contain artistic imagery without any runes.

When the stones were carved, the runic letters were also painted with some color, mostly red (based on archaeological analysis), so they would be easily visible. Newly discovered stones often lack this color because of erosion, but caretakers nowadays make sure they are repainted and readable.

Famous rune stones and image stones from Gotland

• The Rök Stone
• The Austers Hangvar Stone
• The Halla Bora stone
• The Husaby Stone
• The Hogrän Stone
• The Klinte Stone
• The Kylver Rune Stone
• The Martebo Stones
• The Pilgards Rune Stone, Boge
• The Sanda Stones
• The Sjonhem Stone
• The Stenkjyrka Stone, Lillebjärs
• The Stora Hammars Stone and the Tägarda Rune Stone, Lärbro parish
• The Timans Rune Stone
• The Tängvida Stone
• The Adre stones, which were desecrated by the Christians and re-used as paving under the wooden floors of the local church, which ironically preserved them. When the church was restored about 1900, ten rune stones and picture stones (illustrated above, left) were found under the wooden floor, and are now preserved in the National Museum of Antiquities, Stockholm.

Compare Megalithic Standing stones, Gaelic High crosses, and the Kensington runestone from Minnesota US.