This runic inscription, designated as U 839 in 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, is on 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

located in Ryda kungsgård, which is about 6 kilometers north of

Enköping Enköping is a locality and the seat of Enköping Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 30,000 inhabitants in 2018. Geography Enköping is situated near Lake Mälaren, about 78 km west of Stockholm. A comparably large number of S ...

Uppsala County Uppsala County () is a county or '' län'' on the eastern coast of Sweden, whose capital is the city of Uppsala. It borders the counties of Dalarna, Stockholm, Södermanland, Västmanland, Gävleborg, and the Baltic Sea. Province The nor ...

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 in the historic province of

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 ...

Description

The design on this stone has the runic text inscribed within a serpent band. The stone is granite and is 2.25 meters in height. The inscription has been attributed to 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 ''Nationalencyklo ...

named Torgöt Fotsarve,Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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entry for U 839. who on the signed runestone U 308 describes himself as the son of the runemaster Fot. Other inscriptions signed by Torgöt include U 746 in Hårby and U 958 in Villinge. This inscription 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, which is also known as

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. The runic text is in the younger futhark and states that Ámundi and Auðgerðr raised the stone and had a bridge made as a memorial to their son Ǫnundr. The reference to bridge-building is fairly common in runestones 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 a practice similar to 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 the church's intercession for the soul of the departed. pp. 490-492. There are many examples of these bridge stones dated from the eleventh century, including runic inscriptions Sö 101 in Ramsundsberget, U 489 in Morby, and U 617 at Bro. The name of the woman in the inscription, Auðgerðr or Ödgärd, is also mentioned on another memorial runestone, U 821, which is located in Mysinge, Uppland. As U 821 is located approximately two miles from U 839, it is possible that both runestones refer to the same woman, although there is no other evidence of this besides the same name being used in the text.

Inscription

Runic text

:ᚼᛅᛉᚢᚾᛏᛁ᛫ᛅᚢᚴᚽᚱ᛫ᛚᛁᛏᚢ᛫ᚱᛅᛁᛋᛅ᛫ᛋᛏᛁᚾ᛫ᚦᛁᚾᛅ᛫ᚽᛓᛏᛣ᛫ᛅᚾᚢᚾᛏ᛫ᛋᚢᚾᛋᛁᚾ᛫ᛅᚢᚴ᛫ᛒᚱᚢ᛫ᚵᛁᛅᚱᛅ

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:* hamunti * auk * auþker * litu * raisa * stin * þina * eftʀ * anunt * sun sin * auk * bru * giara

Transcription into Old Norse

:Ámundi ok Auðgerðr létu reisa stein þenna eptir Ǫnund, son sinn, ok brú gera.

Translation in English

:Ámundi and Auðgerðr had this stone raised and the bridge made in memory of Ǫnundr, their son.

References

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