Rune rows, runestones and formula words – writing, craft and an honest look at “rune magic”.
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England, the year 1073 – seven years after the Norman Conquest. In the margin of a Christian manuscript someone carves a charm in runes. And he …
Read more →On the Danish island of Funen stands the Glavendrup stone – it bears the longest runic inscription in Denmark, along with a divine invocation and a …
Read more →Most runestones honour lords and warriors. The Danish Hørning stone, however, gives space to a very different voice: that of a former slave.
Read more →It is the largest group of runestones commemorating a single event: about 26 stones, scattered across central Sweden, raised for men who went east …
Read more →When one thinks of Vikings, one thinks of England and the North Sea. But the way of the Swedes led east – and the Kälvesten stone is one of the …
Read more →Not every runic text honours a dead man. Some tell of a flight. The Oklunda inscription in Östergötland is a rare legal witness – probably the oldest …
Read more →A granite block nearly four metres tall, densely covered on all five faces with around 760 characters: the Rök Stone from Sweden is the Everest of …
Read more →It is one of the most powerful scenes in all Norse poetry: Odin, the highest god, hangs nine nights self-sacrificed in a tree, wounded by his own …
Read more →Before the runes became oracle stones in a pouch, they were simply the first alphabet of the North – for names, trade, remembrance and, yes, the odd …
Read more →Some runic inscriptions form no smooth sentence, but only single, recurring words: alu, laukaʀ, laþu. They stand on amulets, bracteates and in …
Read more →Some runestones move us across a thousand years. The Skarpåker stone in Södermanland is one: a father casts his grief into an image of the end of the …
Read more →A Danish stone from the early 9th century carries two riddles at once: a symbol of three interlocking drinking-horns and a rare title – that of the …
Read more →A runestone from Jutland reveals how closely the North was interwoven with the southern shore of the Baltic – through a prince’s daughter named Tófa.
Read more →The passage from the heathen to the Christian North did not happen overnight – and sometimes both worlds stand on one and the same stone. Two crosses …
Read more →A single rune, cleanly lasered into slate or wood, is a strong motif: minimal, ancient, full of meaning. The only question is – which one? We'll walk …
Read more →Leifr Eiríksson, Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir, Ragnar Loðbrók: names from the North sound like little stories – and that is exactly what they were. Once you …
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