The Hedeby stones are four

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic alphabet, runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th centur ...

s from the 10th century found at the town of

Hedeby Hedeby (, Old Norse: ''Heiðabýr'', German: ''Haithabu'') was an important Danish Viking Age (8th to the 11th centuries) trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig ...

Northern Germany Northern Germany (, ) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony and the two city-states Hambur ...

. This area was part of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

during the

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 ...

Stone of Eric

The Stone of Eric (cataloged as Hedeby 1 or DR 1 under the

Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Database () is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of transliterated runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future resea ...

system) was found in 1796 at

Danevirke The Danevirke or Danework (modern Danish language, Danish spelling: ''Dannevirke''; in Old Norse language, Old Norse: ''Danavirki'', in German language, German: ''Danewerk'', literally meaning ''Earthworks (archaeology), earthwork of the Danes'') ...

and moved to a park in

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been di ...

. Like the Skarthi Stone, it is believed to have been raised around 995, the year when Hedeby was attacked by the Swedish king

Eric the Victorious Eric the Victorious (Old Norse: ''Eiríkr inn sigrsæli'', Modern Swedish: ''Erik Segersäll''; c. 945 – c. 995) was a Swedish monarch as of around 970. Although there were earlier Swedish kings, he is the first Swedish king in a consecutive re ...

who took advantage of the fact that

Sweyn Forkbeard Sweyn Forkbeard ( ; ; 17 April 963 – 3 February 1014) was King of Denmark from 986 until his death, King of England for five weeks from December 1013 until his death, and King of Norway from 999/1000 until 1014. He was the father of King Ha ...

was campaigning in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Sigtrygg Runestones

The big Sigtrygg Stone (Hedeby 2 or DR 2) was found in 1797 in Hedeby, and the small Sigtrygg Stone (Hedeby 4 or DR 4) was found in 1887. The Sigtrygg Stones was raised around the year 938.

Skarthi Stone

250px, Side view of the Skarthi Stone. The Skarthi Stone (), also known as Hedeby 3 or DR 3 for its

catalog number, was found in 1857 at

. It was raised in about 982. This granite runestone is currently displayed at the

Hedeby Viking Museum The Hedeby Viking Museum () is a museum near the site of Hedeby, a former medieval city in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany focusing on the Viking Age history of the region. While the region is now in modern Germany, it was once the oldest city in D ...

. The reference in the inscription to King Sveinn is believed to refer to

(

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...

''Sveinn Tjúguskegg''), and "the west" to a campaign in England. The king commissioned the stone in honor of Skarði, who had the title ''heimþega'' or ''heimþegi'' (pl. ''heimþegar''), meaning "home-receiver" (i.e., one who is given a house by another). A total of six runestones in Denmark refer to a person with this title, the others being DR 1, DR 154, DR 155, DR 296, and DR 297. The use of the term in the inscriptions suggest a strong similarity between ''heimþegar'' and the

term ''húskarl'' (literally, "house man"), or

housecarl A housecarl (; ) was a non- servile manservant or household bodyguard in medieval Northern Europe. The institution originated amongst the Norsemen of Scandinavia, and was brought to Anglo-Saxon England by the Danish conquest in the 11th centur ...

. Like housecarls, ''heimþegar'' are in the service of a king or lord, of whom they receive gifts (here, homes) for their service. Some, like

Johannes Brøndsted Johannes Balthasar Brøndsted (5 October 1890 - 16 November 1965) was a Danish archaeologist and prehistorian. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen and director of the National Museum of Denmark. Biography Brøndsted was born at ...

, have interpreted ''heimþegi'' as being nothing more than a local Danish variant of ''húskarl''.

Runic inscription

Translations

References

{{reflist Runestones in Germany 10th-century inscriptions