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The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia: Denmark has 250 runestones, Norway has 50 while Iceland has none. [5] Sweden has between 1,700 [5] and 2,500 [3] [8] depending on definition. The Swedish district of Uppland has the highest concentration with as many as 1,196 inscriptions in stone, whereas Södermanland is second with 391. [8]
The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia: The majority are found in Sweden, estimated at between 1,700 [2] and 2,500 (depending on definition). Denmark has 250 runestones, and Norway has 50. [2] There are also runestones in other areas reached by the Viking expansion, especially in the British Isles. [3]
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 in Södermanland, Sweden, and it contains a poem in Old Norse in the metre fornyrðislag that refers to ...
Their distribution is mostly limited to southern Scandinavia, northern Germany and Frisia (the "North Sea Germanic runic Koine"), with stray finds associated with the Goths from Romania and Ukraine. Linguistically, the 3rd and 4th centuries correspond to the formation of Proto-Norse , just predating the separation of West Germanic into Anglo ...
[4] It has been pointed out that the Old Norse phrase in the runic text, reistu kuml ("raised this monument"), is somewhat rare, but does appear on seven other runestones, Sm 27 in Berga, Ög 94 in Harstads, DR 13 in Skivum, DR 383 in Vester Marie, Sö 173 in Tystberga, U 735 in Långarnö (where the wording is reversed), and U 1066 in Åkerby. [5]
They and their apprentices were contracted to make runestones and when the work was finished, they sometimes signed the stone with the name of the runemaster. [2] Many of the uncovered runic inscriptions have likely been completed by non-professional runecarvers for the practical purposes of burial rites or record-keeping. [ 3 ]
Several other Scandinavian runestones include depictions of horses, including DR 96 in Ålum, N 61 in Alstad, Sö 101 in Ramsundsberget, Sö 226 in Norra Stutby, Sö 239 in Häringe, Sö 327 in Göksten, U 375 in Vidbo, U 488 in Harg, U 599 in Hanunda, U 691 in Söderby, U 901 in Håmö, U 935 at the Uppsala Cathedral, and U 1003 in Frötuna. [3]
The origin of the Rundata project was a 1986 database of Swedish inscriptions at Uppsala University for use in the Scandinavian Languages Department. [2] At an international runic seminar in 1990, it was proposed to expand the database to cover all Nordic runic inscriptions, but funding for the project was not available until a grant was received in 1992 from the Axel och Margaret Ax:son ...