Arkils tingstad ("Assembly location of Arkil") is the remains of the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period The ...

thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focus ...

or assembly location of a hundred in

Uppland Uppland () is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. On the small un ...

, Sweden. It is situated on the outskirts of Stockholm. The remains consist of a rectangular stone formation and two

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...

s. The runestones and the assembly location were created by the Skålhamra clan who also had the two

Risbyle Runestones The Risbyle Runestones are two runestones found near the western shore of Lake Vallentunasjön in Uppland, Sweden, dating from the Viking Age. Description The Risbyle Runestones, listed in the Rundata catalog as U 160 and U 161, were engraved in ...

made across the lake near their estate. It consequently appears that they owned land on both sides of the lake.A presentation on the website
of the Stockholm County Museum They also made the runestone U 100 at a path in the forest. Scholars disagree on the function of a Viking Age assembly location. According to one view, all the people in the vicinity assembled there in order to reach agreements and to mete out justice. Another view sees the assemblies as meetings for the chieftains only who merely stated what they had decided to do and where they interrogated and punished their subordinates. Before the

Christianization of Scandinavia The Christianization of Scandinavia, as well as other Nordic countries and the Baltic countries, took place between the 8th and the 12th centuries. The realms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden established their own Archdioceses, responsible direc ...

, the pagan blóts were performed by chieftains and magnates. When Christianity arrived, the Christian rites and especially

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

were central to the community. It is possible that the Skålhamra clan created the assembly location in order to have settlements around the lake baptized by priests from

Sigtuna Sigtuna () is a locality situated in Sigtuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 8,444 inhabitants in 2010. It is the namesake of the municipality even though the seat is in Märsta. Sigtuna is for historical reasons often still ref ...

. The inscriptions suggest that the location had no continuity from Norse paganism. Based on the styles of the inscriptions, the assembly location was created in the 1010s, and the runestones are some decades older than the Jarlabanke runestone U 212 which tells of the creation of another assembly location.

Runestones

Below follows a presentation of the runestones based on information collected from the Rundata project, organized according to location. The transcriptions from runic inscriptions into standardized

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

are in the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

and Danish dialect to facilitate comparison with the inscriptions, while the English translation provided by Rundata give the names in standard dialect (the Icelandic and Norwegian dialect).

U 225

The two runestones constitute a twin monument such that the text on U 225 is to be read as continuing on U 226. p. 202. Both runestones were carved by a

runemaster A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones. Description More than 100 names of runemasters are known from Viking Age Sweden with most of them from 11th-century eastern Svealand.The article ''Runristare'' in ''Nationalencykl ...

with the normalized name of Gunnar, with U 225 classified as being in runestone style RAK. This is the classification for inscriptions with a runic text has no dragon or serpent heads and the ends of the runic bands are straight.

Latin transliteration

:... uk * arkil * uk * kui * þiʀ * kariþu * iar * þikstaþ ... ...unu * iki mirki * maiʀi * uirþa * þan * ulfs * suniʀ * iftiʀ * kir... ...iʀ * suinaʀ * at * sin * faþur

Old Norse transcription

:'' lfkell?) ok Arnkell ok Gyi þæiʀ gærðu hiar þingstað ... nu æigi mærki mæiʀi verða, þan Ulfs syniʀ æftiʀ gær �u niallʀ svæinaʀ, at sinn faður.''

English translation

:Ulfkell(?) and Arnkell and Gýi, they made the Assembly-place here ... No landmark will be more (great), than (the one) the sons of Ulfr made in (his) memory; able lads in memory of their father.

U 226

This runestone was also made by Gunnar and is classified as being carved in runestone style Pr1. This is the classification, which is also known as Ringerike style, for those inscriptions that have runic bands that end in serpent or animal heads depicted in profile. In the text there is some question regarding whether the

words ''i grati'' should be translated as meaning "in tears" or "in

lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about somethi ...

," meaning that Gyríðr composed poetry in

mourning Mourning is the expression of an experience that is the consequence of an event in life involving loss, causing grief, occurring as a result of someone's death, specifically someone who was loved although loss from death is not exclusively ...

her deceased husband. It has been suggested that the inscription Vg 59 in Norra Härene describes another widow who may have composed a lament. U 226 is the only surviving runestone signed by Gunnar, although more than forty other inscriptions have been attributed to him based on stylistic analysis. The runes kunar ik stin for "Gunnarr cut the stone" are carved in a line below the rest of the inscription.

Latin transliteration

:ristu * stina * uk * staf * uan * uk * in * mikla * at * iartiknum uk kuriþi * kas at * uiri * þu mon i krati * kiatit lata kunar ik stin

Old Norse transcription

:''Ræistu stæina ok staf unnu(?) ok inn mikla at iarteknum. Ok Gyriði gats at veri. Þy man i grati getit lata. Gunnarr hiogg stæin.''

English translation

:(They) raised stones and produced the staff(?) and the great signs (of acclaim); Gyríðr also cherished her husband: he will therefore be commemorated in weeping. Gunnarr cut the stone.Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk - Entry U 226 in Rundata.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arkils Tingstad Runestones in Uppland Thing (assembly)