150px, U 194 in Väsby has been erroneously attributed to Frögärd. U203

Frögärd Ulvsdotter i Ösby (11th century) was a Swedish Norse woman. She was according to a common misconception believed to be a

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

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 ''Nationalencyklo ...

who was a woman. This notion is based on Erik Brate's Erik Brate
Svenska runristare
(Swedish runmasters) (1925), p. 13 erroneous interpretation of runestone U 203. As early as 1943,

Elias Wessén Elias Wessén (15 April 1889 – 30 January 1981) was a prominent Swedish linguist and a professor of Scandinavian languages at Stockholm University (1928–1956). In 1947, he was honoured with seat 16 in the Swedish Academy, which he held until h ...

convincingly demonstrated that the sequence in question cannot be read as a carver's signature. Also, the place name uisby should be read ''Väsby'' rather than ''Ösby''. U 203 was raised by Ale (or Alle) in memory of his son Ulv, “father to Frögärd in Väsby”. Ale (Alle) is also responsible for runestone U 194, which he raised in memory of himself while he was still alive. According to this inscription, Ale (Alle) received a share of

Canute the Great Cnut ( ; ; – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rul ...

’s

Danegeld Danegeld (; "Danish tax", literally "Dane yield" or tribute) was a tax raised to pay tribute or Protection racket, protection money to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the ''geld'' or ''gafol'' in eleventh-c ...

in 1017. Thus, Frögärd was probably a member of a wealthy family and the only beneficiary of her father's and grandfather's inheritance. Birgit Sawyer suggests that Ale's (Alle's) purpose with U 203 could have been to take care of his underage granddaughter's inheritance.Birgit Sawyer (2000)
''The Viking-age Rune-stones: Custom and Commemoration in Early Medieval Scandinavia.''
Oxford University Press. p. 58 n., 65. . Both U 194 and U 203 are carved by

Åsmund Kåresson Åsmund Kåresson was a Viking Age runemaster who flourished during the first half of the 11th century in Uppland and Gästrikland, Sweden. The early Urnes style is represented in his art. pp. 197, 208–09. Work Most early medieval Scandinavians ...

. An actual Swedish Viking Age

who was a woman was

Gunnborga Gunnborga (fl. 11th century), also known as ''Gunnborga den goda'' (literary: 'Gunnborga the Good'), was a Viking Age Swedish runemaster A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones. Description More than 100 names of runemas ...

References

11th-century Swedish people Runemasters 11th-century deaths Year of birth unknown 11th-century Swedish women {{Sweden-artist-stub