The Viking Age and the Rune Stones – Roots in Stone

Drive around Lake Vallentuna, just under thirty kilometers north of Stockholm, and you'll pass through one of the world's most remarkable landscapes. Here, runestones stand more densely than anywhere else on Earth. Nowhere in the world are there as many preserved runic inscriptions as in Täby and Vallentuna, and together they form the area now marketed as Runriket – an open-air museum where Iron Age Roslagen speaks directly to us from the stone.

Roden – Roslagen's oldest name

The name Roslagen has its roots in the word Roden, which referred to the coastal regions around Lake Mälaren and Roslagen and their obligation to provide ships and crews for the ledung, the early naval military organization. Roden was thus a crewing and maritime organization, and it is no coincidence that this landscape, with its proximity to the Eastern Route and Lake Mälaren's waterways, became so rich in runestones. Here lived the farmers, chieftains and seafarers who traveled east – towards Gardariki, Miklagard and beyond.

Jarlabanke – the man who owned Täby

The most famous figure in Runriket is the great landowner Jarlabanke, born around 1035. On a handful of stones he had the same message proudly carved. At Jarlabanke's bridge in Täby stand two of the originally four stones he raised (U164 and U165). The inscription reads roughly in translation: "Jarlabanke had these stones raised during his lifetime, and he built this bridge for his soul, and he alone owned all of Täby."

It is a text that is both pious and boastful at once. Jarlabanke raises stones for himself – not for a deceased relative – and asserts both his own power and his Christian faith. The bridge he had built around 1050 was approximately 150 meters long and 6 meters wide, a causeway across a sunken area at the southern boundary of his property. Building a bridge was a Christian good deed believed to benefit the soul, but it was also a practical demonstration of power. Archaeological investigations in 2005–2006 showed that the causeway rested on a foundation layer of bundles of twigs, covered with stone, gravel and sand, and it was used as a land route to Stockholm as late as the 1960s.

Estrid and the journey to Jerusalem

Jarlabanke belonged to a powerful family that dominated the Mälaren region for approximately a century, and its matriarch was Estrid, Jarlabanke's grandmother, born at Snåttsta in present-day Vallentuna municipality around 1000. Several of the family's stones stand at Broby bridge. On one of them, Estrid raises a stone in memory of her husband Östen, and the inscription tells that he "traveled to Jerusalem and died abroad in Greece". The stone is the only preserved runic inscription in Sweden that mentions a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Östen set out toward Christ's tomb but never came home – he died on the journey, in the Byzantine empire. It is one of the most moving personal stories left behind by the Viking Age, carved into gray granite.

The content and function of the stones

Runestones were raised mostly during the late Viking Age, around 1000–1100, and the vast majority are memorials to deceased relatives. They often follow a set formula and typically end with a Christian prayer – "May God help his soul" – which shows that they were created during the transition from paganism to Christianity. But the stones also had a worldly function: they marked ownership and inheritance. By raising a stone over the deceased, the raiser publicly demonstrated who had the right to the farm and land. At Arkil's assembly site on the eastern side of Lake Vallentuna, there is a stone-bordered square – an assembly place – combined with runestones, a place where justice and memory merged together.

The Eastern Route and the ledung

Many of Roslagen's runestones bear traces of the Eastern Route journeys. They mention men who died "on the eastern way", in Gardariki, or further away. The region around Lake Vallentuna was a staging ground for these journeys, and the combination of fertile agricultural land and proximity to waterways made it both wealthy and outward-looking. The density of runestones is in itself a testament: here lived many who had the means, reason and self-confidence to carve their names in stone.

Visiting Runriket today

Runriket is a collaboration between Vallentuna and Täby municipalities and encompasses nine cultural historical sites around Lake Vallentuna, including Jarlabanke's bridge, Broby bridge, Risbyle, Vallentuna church and Arkil's assembly site. The sites are marked and connected by paths, and you can walk or cycle between them on your own. The entrance in Täby is located at Jarlabanke's bridge just north of Täby church. Guided tours can be booked, and a Viking weekend is held every spring. Few places in Sweden let you get as close to the people who lived a thousand years ago – they stand there, with names, families and fates, right in the Roslagen landscape.

Sources

• Runriket, Jarlabanke's bridge, Broby bridge – Vallentuna Municipality
• Runriket – Täby Municipality
• Runriket – Stockholm County Museum