Wednesday, March 14, 2012

A Viking Legacy

A Viking Legacy

This rune-stone from the Viking Era stood by the side of a road near the Söderby Farm in Handen for a few hundred years. In modern times it was rediscovered on a field belonging to the estate, back in 1921, when a farmer was out plowing a field. Today you will find the rune-stone next to a bulding at the old estate. The inscription reads: Hjälmvid reste stenen efte rTorgöt Hjälmvidsson , sin son, Amunde ristade runorna. Or in English,Hjälmvid had the rune-stone raised after Torgöt Hjälmvidsson , his son, Amunde was the runecarver. It is hard to see the inscription today, but if you look closely you can see two snake-like creatures.

11 comments:

Luis Gomez said...

Really cool Steffe!

Animesh said...

good searching

Deb said...

Fascinating and beautiful stone

Unknown said...

Fascinating indeed! I wonder how old these carvings are.

Stefan Jansson said...

They go back to the Viking Era. So around 1000 years.

AL said...

Is there a significance in the snakes? Are there many of these rune stones left?

Peter said...

Love this sort of historical finds, very cool.

Stefan Jansson said...

I think there are around 30 rune-stones in Haninge. And in the region, Södermanland, around 400. The snake pattern is a Lindorm, also known sometimes as a Dragon. A mythical figure in the folklore. Back in Viking times the rune stones looked more impressive as they were very colorful. Most of that is of course gone now, but a few runestones have been adopted by organisations and are being looked after, sadly that isn't the case with this stone.

Scylla said...

Du får väl adoptera stenen och underhålla den med lite borstning och rödfärg :)

VP said...

Carved stones are always fascinating...

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Fascinating Steffe. I remember seeing someone once telling fortunes using Rune stones, I think there were different images on each stone.