The Picture Stones of Gotland

Long before the Edda was written down, the people of Gotland told their stories in stone – in images that still puzzle us today.

On the Swedish Baltic island of Gotland, hundreds of picture stones have survived – upright stone slabs decorated with images over many centuries. They are a unique source: here we see the myths as the people themselves imagined them.

Stories in Pictures

On the larger stones, scenes are stacked one above another like the panels of a comic: at the top often a rider on an eight-legged horse – Odin on Sleipnir riding into Valhalla – below it a longship under full sail, along with warriors, women with mead-horns and mysterious knots like the Valknut.

From Paganism to Christianisation

The oldest stones date from the 5th century, the most artful from the Viking Age. Many stood by roads and graves as memorials. Because we often know the accompanying stories only in fragments, some scenes remain uninterpreted to this day.

Why They Matter to Us

The picture stones show a basic principle of Norse culture: a whole story can be held in a single image. Our laser-engraved Atli motif on teak takes up exactly this idea – a saga told in a single image.

We link to the picture-stone database and museums in our Library.

Images instead of letters

Unlike runestones, most picture stones bear hardly any writing – they tell in images. One sees sailing ships with full sails, riders, battles, processions and scenes recalling the sagas of gods and heroes. Originally they were brightly painted.

Ships and riders

Especially frequent are ships – a sign of the importance of seafaring – and riders received by a woman with a drinking horn. Many interpret this scene as the arrival of a fallen warrior in an otherworldly hall, but the interpretation is not certain.

A chronology in stone

The archaeologist Sune Lindqvist arranged the picture stones into stylistic groups from the Migration Period into the Viking Age. Thus the change of art, fashion and worldview over many centuries can be read from them.

Why they are so valuable

Because written sources of the pagan age are lacking, the picture stones are an irreplaceable window into the imaginative world of the northern people – for us at GLANZ & GRAVUR a fascinating source of genuine Norse visual language.

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