Toles Sten

I found out about this rune stone purely by accident. I was driving down a small road in the forest on my way to visit another rune stone, when i suddenly noticed a stone with a small sign by the side of the road. This I had to check out after finding a proper place to turn the car around.

What I had noticed on the side of the road was indeed Toles sten (Toles stone) a rune stone that is also known as Vg 162. The stone is erected by the side of a road in Älmestad Möne, Västergötland, Sweden.

The current location of the stone isn’t where it was originally found. It was found in 1932 as a part of a bridge drum under the road a few meters to the west from the current location. Even if it was officially found in 1932 someone noticed it already in the 1870s but no one seems tho have done anything about it until 60 years later.

The stone is 1,65 meters tall and 0,9 meters wide with a thickness of 20-30 centimeters. It is made of dark gneiss. The back has a partly eroded carving of a cross which I missed at my visit. It’s something that I always try to remember is to look at the backside of these stones.

The inscription is made with the younger futhark and reads as follows:

uebiurn – sa(t)(i) – (i)stin – (þ)ina – eftir – tuli – sunu – sin – tereke – haraþa kuþan

Væbiorn satti sten þenna æftiR Toli, sun sinn, dræng harða goðan.

Väbjörn placed this stone after Tole, his son, a very capable young man.

The inscription is of a very common type and does not in any way stick out when it is compared to other rune stones. Even so it should be cared for better and a real sign next to it would have been nice as the current one is just a laminated paper one. No one has filled in the runes since 1979 which makes it hard to read it in its current state.