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Modern runestones (as imitations or forgeries of Viking Age runestones) began to be produced in the 19th century Viking Revival. The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base ( Samnordisk runtextdatabas ) is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runestones in the Rundata database.
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 ...
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 runestone styles were part of the general evolution of art in Scandinavia. This is a part of the decoration of the Urnes stave church which is in the same as the later runestone styles. The term "runestone style" in the singular may refer to the Urnes style. The style or design of runestones varied during the Viking Age.
Below follows a presentation of the runestones based on the Rundata project. The transcriptions into Old Norse are mostly 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):
The name "Rök Stone" is something of a tautology: the stone is named after the village, "Rök", but the village is probably named after the stone, "Rauk" or "Rök" meaning "skittle-shaped stack/stone" in Old Norse. The stone is unique in a number of ways. It contains a fragment of what is believed to be a lost piece of Norse mythology.
Before the historical significance of runestones was understood, they were often used as materials in the construction of buildings, walls, and roads. The stone first ended up in the wall surrounding the church yard, later it was moved to the current position inside the church yard. It is dated from about 1000 AD.
The runestones are located at the northern outskirts of Stockholm, just northwest of the lake Vallentunasjön, around which is found the world's greatest concentration of runestones. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] All the Gällsta Runestones are attributed to Öpir , the most productive of all the old runemasters .