Viking runestones
| Runestones that mention expeditions outside of Scandinavia |
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The Viking runestones are runestones that mention Scandinavians who participated in Viking expeditions. This article treats the runestone that refer to people who took part in voyages abroad, in western Europe, and stones that mention men who were Viking warriors and/or died while travelling in the West. However, it is likely that all of them do not mention men who took part in pillaging. The inscriptions were all engraved in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark.
The largest group consists of 30 stones that mention England, and they are treated separately in the article England runestones. The runestones that talk of voyages to eastern Europe, the Byzantine Empire and the Middle East are treated separately in the article Varangian runestones and its subarticles.
The most notable of the Viking runestones is the Kjula Runestone and it contains a poem in Old Norse in the metre fornyrðislag that refers to the extensive warfare of a man called "Spear":
Below follows a presentation of the runestones based on the Rundata project. The transcriptions into Old Norse are in the Swedish and Danish dialect to facilitate comparison with the inscriptions, while the English translation provided by Rundata gives the names in the de facto standard dialect (the Icelandic and Norwegian dialect):
This runestone located at Odenslunda was documented during the Swedish runestone surveys in the 17th century, but has since disappeared. It is classified as being carved in runestone style RAK. This is considered to be the oldest style, and is used for inscriptions with runic text bands that have straight ends without any attached serpent or beast heads.
Latin transliteration:
Old Norse transcription:
English translation:
This runestone was a boulder which was located at Gådersta, but it has disappeared. It was possibly in runestone style Pr4, which is also known as Urnes style. In this style the text bands end in serpert or beast heads depicted in profile.
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