Jarlabanke Runestones

The Jarlabanke Runestones (Swedish: Jarlabankestenarna) is the name of about 20 runestones written in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark rune script in the 11th century, in Uppland, Sweden.

They were ordered by what appears to have been a chieftain named Jarlabanke Ingefastsson and his clan (Swedish: Jarlabankeätten), in Täby. Jarlabanke was probably a hersir (chieftain of a hundred) responsible for the local leidang organization and on several runestones he stated that he was a Christian and not a Pagan.

Five of the runestones contain very much the same message: "Jarlabanke had these stones made after himself while he was alive. He made this bridge for his soul. He alone owned all of Täby".One stone at the church of Vallentuna also shows the following text on its second side: "Jarlabanke had this stone made after himself while he was alive. He made this assembly location and he alone owned this hundred".

The so-called Jarlabanke's bridge is a causeway in Täby which was originally bordered by four runestones and many raised stones. It is c. 116 metres long and 6.4 metres wide, and there were inscriptions (U 164 and U 165) by Jarlabanke both at the southern and the northern end of the causeway. One of the runestones was moved during his lifetime to the location of the local assembly of the Vallentuna Hundred, where it received a new text and it was replaced with a new fifth one at Jarlabanke's bridge and which had a different design.

Three other runestones present Jarlabanke as the builder of roads and bridges, and ten or so mention his family members making it possible to follow his family during four generations. His pride at building roads and bridges shows that this was something that gave prestige in 11th-century Sweden.

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