The Rör Rune Stone

The time has come to write about the third out of a total of four rune stones in the province of Värmland. I have previously written about the pre Viking Age rune stone Järsbergsstenen and the Viking Age rune stone Hovlandastenen.

The stone that I got the chance to visit today is known as Rörstenen or VR 2. Sometimes it is referred to as Väsestenen. It’s a rune stone that I have visited many times before as it stands on the land of a friend’s family farm.

We are now in Väse that is located to the east of Karlstad in Värmland, Sweden. The stone was found in 1864, 50 meters to the south of its current location underground in a field belonging to the Rör farm.

This location is of importance as it is the original road that is known as Letstigen. A road that once connected the Mälardalen area on the east coast of Sweden with Vestfold in Norway. This road might date as far back as the 7th century. It’s interesting as also Järsbergsstenen is located along the same road but outside of Kristinehamn.

The Rör rune stone is dated to the Viking Age and most likely the 11th century. The inscription is made with the younger futhark.

The inscription reads:

uibiurn · bruþur · sin

Vibiorn, broður sinn.

Vebjörn, his brother

It is believed that the stone was once one in a pair of two rune stones that flanked a bridge. The other supposed stone hasn’t been found.

This is based on the knowledge that the text is written in a strange way that lacks a person who commissioned it. So it is likely that the missing rune stone had the name of the person that commissioned the rörstone in the memory of his brother Vebjörn. Maybe it mentions the construction of the bridge as well?

The name Vebjörn is in this context very interesting as 300 meters to the east the farm of Ve is located. Ve is also an Old Norse name for a sacrificial grove, this word is also found in the name Väse which is the name of the area. So it is obvious that this area had an important religious function. Maybe it was Vebjörn who led the blots here as the leading man and Goði?

The Rörstone is 145 centimeters high and 60 centimeters wide at the base, it is made from a reddish granite.