U 678 is 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 ...

catalog number for 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 ...

image stone with a

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 ...

located in Skokloster,

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 ...

Description

This runestone was found walled inside a church at Skokloster, and has been moved to a location behind the church. One side of the stone has an image of a man on a horse, and the other side has a similar image with a surrounding runic inscription within runic bands. At the top of the second side with the runic text is carved a man's mask above a

Christian cross The Christian cross, seen as representing the crucifixion of Jesus, is a religious symbol, symbol of Christianity. It is related to the crucifix, a cross that includes a ''corpus'' (a representation of Jesus' body, usually three-dimensional) a ...

. Other runestones with a similar mask above a cross motif include inscriptions on Sö 86 in Åby, Sö 112 in Kolunda, Sö 367 in Släbro, Nä 34 in Nasta, and U 1034 in Tensta. Other inscriptions with facial masks include DR 62 in Sjelle, DR 81 in Skern, the now-lost DR 286 in Hunnestad, DR 314 in Lund, Vg 106 in Lassegården, Sö 167 in Landshammar, U 508 in Gillberga, U 670 in Rölunda, U 824 in Örsundsbro, and U 1150 in Björklinge, and on the

Sjellebro Stone The Sjellebro Stone is a Viking Age image stone located at Sjellbro, which is about 12 kilometers southeast of Randers, Denmark. The stone is inscribed with a facial mask. Description The Sjellbro Stone is about 1.7 meters in height and features ...

. The inscription 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 ...

Fot, who was active in the mid eleventh century. His signature in the runic text or ('Fótr cut the runes') is located on the text bar under the figure on the horse. Other inscriptions signed by him include U 167 in Östra Ryds, U 177 in Stav, U 268 in Harby, U 464 in Edeby, U 605 in Stäket, U 638 in Mansängen, and U 945 in Danmarks. He is also noted for the consistency of his use of the

punctuation mark Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of written text should be read (silently or aloud) and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, consisti ...

× between the words of the runic inscription, and this mark is used to separate the words in the text on this stone. Due to the unusual imagery of the inscription, assumed to be from an earlier time period, it has been suggested that Fot used earlier carved imagery to add his new runic text to. This runestone 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 ...

RAK.Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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entry for U 678. This is the classification for inscriptions with runic text without dragon or serpent heads and where the ends of the runic bands are straight.

Inscription

A transliteration of the runic inscription into roman letters is: :

References

{{coord, 59.7045, N, 17.6245, E, source:wikidata, display=title Uppland Runic Inscription 0678

Description

Inscription

See also

References