This

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 ...

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 ...

, listed under

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 ...

runic inscription A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of E ...

U 489, was originally located in Morby,

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. The name literally ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, and is a

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

to a woman.

Description

This runestone was shipped together with two other runestones, runic inscriptions U 896 and U 1011, to the Exposition Universelle in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1867. Today it is located at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

at the ''Universitetsparken'' (University Park). The reference to bridge-building in the runic text is fairly common in rune stones during this time period. Some are

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

references related to passing the bridge into the afterlife. At this time, the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

sponsored the building of roads and bridges through the use of

indulgence In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for (forgiven) sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission bef ...

s in return for intercession for the soul. There are over one hundred examples of bridge runestones that have been dated from the eleventh century, including inscriptions Sö 101 in Ramsund, Sö 328 in Tynäs, U 617 in Bro, U 861 in Norsta, and U 993 in Brunnby. On this runestone, the Christian message is reinforced by the image of the cross within the serpent text band. It is unusual for a memorial runestone to be dedicated to a woman, and even more unusual for a memorial to a woman be sponsored by a woman. A survey indicated that less than 1 per cent of all runestones fall into this later category. The husband of Gillaug is not mentioned in the inscription as a sponsor of the stone. This could be because Ulfr was dead at the time of the carving of this memorial for his wife. This runestone is signed by the

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 ...

Öpir Öpir or ''Öper'' (Old Norse: ''Øpiʀ''/''Œpir'', meaning "shouter") was a runemaster who flourished during the late 11th century and early 12th century in Uppland, Sweden.The article ''Öpir'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (1996). He was the m ...

, who was active in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. It is classified as being carved in

runestone style :''The term "runestone style" in the singular may refer to the Urnes style.'' The style or design of runestones varied during the Viking Age. The early runestones were simple in design, but towards the end of the runestone era they became increas ...

Pr4, also known as late

Urnes style Viking art, also known commonly as Norse art, is a term widely accepted for the art of Scandinavian Norsemen and Vikings, Viking settlements further afield—particularly in the British Isles and Iceland—during the Viking Age of the 8th-11th ...

. This runestone style is characterized by slim and stylized animals that are interwoven into tight patterns. The animal heads are typically seen in profile with slender almond-shaped eyes and upwardly curled appendages on the noses and the necks.

Inscription

References

{{coord, 59.8577, N, 17.6314, E, source:wikidata, display=title Runestones raised in memory of women Uppland Runic Inscription 0489 11th-century inscriptions 12th-century inscriptions

Description

Inscription

See also

References