Viking Runestones are large carved stones that memorialize ancient Scandinavians who participated in various Viking expeditions over land and sea. These expeditions went as far west – across the Atlantic no less – and into modern day Newfoundland. They also went as far east as Byzantium and the Middle East.
It is unlikely that the stones mention all the Vikings who participated in these expeditions, nor is there sufficient evidence to point to any specific Vikings who partook in any pillaging, despite the fact that pillaging certainly occurred.
All of the inscriptions are engraved in Old Norse. The stones were carved during the so-called “Viking Age” which is somewhat arbitrarily defined as ranging between 793 and 1066.
The Kjula Runestone (final picture) is considered to be the most famous, as it contain an Old Norse poem in the alliterative poetic meter known as fornyrðislag: a verse form common in Old Norse Eddas. Fornyrðislag roughly translates to “way of ancient words.” The Kjula Runestone recites the poem of a man called “Spear” and his war-like ways. The poem and its translation are below.
saʀ vestarla who had been
um vaʀit hafði, in the west,
borg um brutna broken down and fought
i ok um barða; in townships.
færð han karsaʀ He knew all
kunni allaʀ. the journey’s fortresses.
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