Sparlösa Rune Stone

On our return to Mormor and Morfar we decided to do one last outing, to somewhere we have been wanting to go for a while, to discover the Sparlösa rune stone.

This is one of the most mystic rune stones in Sweden. It is kept just inside a small building next to Sparlösa church. 

This rune stone has an amazing history, and the scientists are still debating the runes, the images and the exact dating of it.

It was discovered in 1937 having been part of the church wall for centuries with only the front of the stone being seen. When it was removed from the wall, the runes and images on the rest of the stone was seen for the first time.

The runic text on this stone is so mysterious that scholars disagree, on almost everything. Some say that is is a legal document covering a land deal, according to others it is a monument over a fallen king. Probably it was erected in the beginning of the 9th century.

It has the largest runes ever found. They are 50 cm tall and cover most of the front of the stone. Why they are so exceptionally large is unknown (normally runes are around 10 cm in height).
What is known is that when the stone was about 200 years old it was repurposed and reused, so next to the gigantic runes there are more "normal" sized ones inscribed.

Normally rune stones are extremely local, but on this stone experts have found signs of contact with most of ancient Europe: Stockholm, England, Ireland, Rome, Holland and Denmark.

The image here is a viking ship, extremely detailed. You can even see the nails holding together the gunwhale, marked out with dots.

This image shows a warrior on a horse, accompanied by a dog. This is probably a hunting scene even though it is unusual for someone to hunt armed with a sword. This is probably the man named Öjuls, mentioned on the stone.

After the visit to the rune stone we went to Vara to fika at Nordpolen.

And I even managed to do some shopping this day too! I returned to one of the shops I had visited with Carin, regretting not having bought a specific pair of trousers there. Ended up getting the whole suit, as it was on mega sale by now!