Kategori: Viking Age
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Advent calendar Flap 5, the Hedeby Mask
Flap 5 Behind flap 5 in the Advent calendar we find the Hedeby Mask. This mask was discovered during excavations at the Viking Age trading town of Hedeby/Haithabu. According to archaeologists, it had been reused as caulking in the hull of a Viking ship. The mask is felted from wool and shaped like an animal.…
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Tingsflisan
En svensk version av texten finns längre ner på sidan. English: Just southeast of Köpings Church in Köpingsvik, on the Swedish island of Öland, the Tingsflisa rises towards the sky atop a mound. ”Flisa” (Shard) is a dialectal word for erected limestone stones, like the runestone inscribed here. This is indeed a runestone designated Öl…
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The Pittfall traps at Västanbäck-Kortingön
En svensk version av texten finns under den engelska. English: The Pittfall traps at Västanbäck-Kortingön On my trip to the most northern part of Scandinavia during the summer of 2024, I chose to take a break 16 km northeast of Junsele along road 90 at a place called Västanbäck-Kortingön to stretch my legs. The driving…
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Inglinge Hög
En svensk version av texten finns längre ner på sidan. English: Inglinge Hög A few miles south of Växjö in Sweden lies Inglinge Hög, also known as King Inge’s mound. This site has long been important and a popular stopping point when traveling between Värend and Blekinge. Inglinge Hög is the name of the largest…
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The Skärkindstone
En svensk version av texten finns nedanför den engelska. English: The Skärkindstone At Skärkind Old Church in Östergötland County, Sweden two runestones stand, one more unusual than the other. Skärkind Old Church dates back to the 12th century and was originally built of limestone. The church is now a chapel and contains some notable artifacts.…
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The Velanda Runestone
En svensk version av texten finns under den engelska. English: The Velanda Runestone May Thor Hallow!” Thus ends the inscription on this very unusual Swedish runestone. The Velandastenen, or Vg 150 as it is also known, stands by a small gravel road in Väne-Åsaka, Trollhättan Municipality. It is one of nearly 200 known runestones from…
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The chieftains warrior division at Åse
Texten finns på svenska längre ner. Last summer, I traveled to my neighboring country, Norway. I generally find it more difficult to locate ancient monuments in Norway than at home in Sweden, likely due to the algorithms of various search engines favoring the language one most commonly uses, which in my case is Swedish. This…
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The Frösö Stone
En svensk version av texten finns nedanför den engelska. Some runestones have that little extra something that makes them stand out from the rest, and the Frösö stone is no exception. This summer, I visited this runestone, which, located in Östersund on Frösön in Jämtland, is Sweden’s northernmost runestone. Frösön is an island in Lake…
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The Hälsingtuna Stone
A Swedish version of the text can be found below. Approximately five kilometers northwest of the city Hudiksvall in Hälsingland, Sweden lies Hälsingtuna Church. The site appears to have been important early on, especially due to the runestones that are found in the churchyard. Outside the church runs the road that once led to the…
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The Blomskog Portal
A Swedish language version can be found below. In today’s post, I would like to write about the Blomskog portal. This is a partially preserved portal from a stave church. The stave church once stood in Blomskog, not far from Årjäng in Värmland, Sweden. Unfortunately, the stave church no longer exists. The portal was discovered…
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