Runestones in Scandinavia that mention voyages to the East
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Clickable map of the geographic distribution of the Varangian Runestones in southern Scandinavia (modern administrative borders and cities are shown)
A map of the main routes east from Scandinavia.
The Varangian Runestones are runestones in Scandinavia that mention voyages to the East (Old Norse: Austr) or the Eastern route (Old Norse: Austrvegr), or to more specific eastern locations such as Garðaríki in Eastern Europe.
There are also many additional runestones in Scandinavia that talk of eastward voyages such as the Greece Runestones, Italy Runestones, and inscriptions left by the Varangian Guard. Other runestones that deal with Varangian expeditions include the Serkland Runestones (dealing with expeditions to the Middle East) and the Ingvar Runestones (erected in honor or memory of those who travelled to the Caspian Sea with Ingvar the Far-Travelled).[1][2][3] There is also a separate article for the Baltic expeditions runestones. In addition, there were also voyages to Western Europe mentioned on runestones that are treated in the articles Viking Runestones, England Runestones and Hakon Jarl Runestones.
Most of the runestones were raised during the Christianization of the 11th century when the making of runestones was fashionable, but notably, the Kälvesten Runestone Ög 8 was made in the 9th century when the Varangians played a central role in what would become Russia and Ukraine. This vast area was a rich source of pelts, hides and people, and it was an important component in the contemporary Swedish economy.[4] Its Old Norse name meant 'land of fortresses' and was derived from the chains of fortresses that had been constructed along the trade routes.[4]
All of the stones were engraved in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark and the message of many of the inscriptions can be summarized with a poem in the fornyrðislag style found on the Turinge Runestone Sö 338:
Brøðr vaʀu
þæiʀ bæzstra manna,
a landi
ok i liði uti,
heldu sina huskarla ve[l].
Hann fioll i orrustu
austr i Garðum,
liðs forungi,
landmanna bæzstr.[5]
These brothers were
the best of men
in the land
and abroad in the retinue,
held their housecarls well.
He fell in battle
in the east in Garðar (Russia),
commander of the retinue,
the best of landholders.[6]
Below follows a presentation of the runestones based on the Rundata project. The transcriptions into Old Norse are mostly in the Swedish and Danish dialect to facilitate comparison with the inscriptions, while the English translation provided by Rundata gives the names in the de facto standard dialect (the Icelandic and Norwegian dialect):
^Jones 1968, p. 267: "This was that Yngvar the Widefarer whose exploits in the east entered Norse legend - and Norse history inasmuch as twenty-five east Swedish memorial stones of the early mid-eleventh century tell of men who took the eastern road to Serkland and fell with Yngvar's host".
^Thunberg 2010, p. 6.
^Thunberg 2011, p. 56.
^ abJansson 1980, p. 31.
^Runor Sö 338, section Inscription, Runic Swedish: "Brøðr vaʀu þæiʀ bæztra manna, a landi ok i liði uti, heldu sina huskarla ve[l]. Hann fioll i orrustu austr i Garðum, liðs forungi, landmanna bæztr."
^Runor Sö 338, section Inscription, English: "These brothers were the best of men in the land and abroad in the retinue, held their housecarls well. He fell in battle in the east in Garðar (Russia), commander of the retinue, the best of landholders."
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