The Aars stone ( da, Års-stenen) or DR 131 is a late

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...

located on a mound in the churchyard at

Aars Aars or Års, () is a Danish town with a population of 8,474 (1 January 2022)Himmerland Himmerland is a peninsula in northeastern Jutland, Denmark. It is delimited to the north and the west by the Limfjord, to the east by the Kattegat, and to the south by the Mariager Fjord. The largest city is Aalborg; smaller towns include Hobro, A ...

, Denmark. Dated to the late 10th to early 11th century, it bears an inscription in the Younger Fuþark in memory of Toke Gormsson, known as Valtoke, who died at the

Battle of Fýrisvellir The Battle of Fýrisvellir was fought in the 980s on the plain called Fýrisvellir, where modern Uppsala is situated, between King Eric the Victorious and an invading force. According to Norse sagas, this force was led by his nephew Styrbjörn ...

Description

The stone is high and wide. It is inscribed on both sides, and decorated with semicircles inside the text band and a "U" shape above the text on the front. It is dated to between 970 and 1020.First described by J. Meier in 1654, it was lying face-down in the churchyard; in 1838 examined it and discovered the inscription on the front. In the 1920s it was re-erected on a mound west of the south transept. It is believed to have originally stood north-east of the church, probably as part of a memorial assemblage comparable to the

Jelling stones The Jelling stones ( da, Jellingstenene) are massive carved runestones from the 10th century, found at the town of Jelling in Denmark. The older of the two Jelling stones was raised by King Gorm the Old in memory of his wife Thyra. The larger o ...

. The inscription, in Younger Fuþark runes high, is read in

boustrophedon Boustrophedon is a style of writing in which alternate lines of writing are reversed, with letters also written in reverse, mirror-style. This is in contrast to modern European languages, where lines always begin on the same side, usually the le ...

, initially from left to right on the front and continuing from the front lower right to the back lower left and from the back lower right to the middle text band, which is read from bottom to top and ends in a point. The inscription on the back includes alliteration that may be formulaic.

Inscription

Transliteration of runes

:Front: ąsur : sati : stin : þąnsi : aft : ual:tuka : trutin : , : sin :Back: stin : kuask : hirsi : stąnta : ląki : saR : ual:tuka : , : uarþa : nafni

Transcription into Old Norse

:Front: ''Assurr satti stēn þannsi æft Val-Tōka, drōttin sinn.'' :Back: ''Stēnn kvæðsk hērsi standa længi, sāR Val-Tōka varða næfni.''

Translation into English

:Front: Ǫzurr placed this stone in memory of Valtóki, his lord. :Back: The stone proclaims that it will long stand here; it will name Valtóki's cairn. Valtoke, or Wal-Tóki, was Toke Gormsson, a son of the Danish king

Gorm the Old Gorm the Old ( da, Gorm den Gamle; non, Gormr gamli; la, Gormus Senex), also called Gorm the Languid ( da, Gorm Løge, Gorm den Dvaske), was ruler of Denmark, reigning from to his death or a few years later.Lund, N. (2020), p. 147

. He died fighting against the Swedish king

Eric the Victorious Eric the Victorious (Old Norse: ''Eiríkr inn sigrsæli'', Modern Swedish: ''Erik Segersäll''; c. 945 – c. 995) was a Swedish monarch as of around 970. Although there were earlier Swedish kings, he is the first Swedish king in a consecutive reg ...

in the Battle of Fýrisvellir near

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

;

Danish Runic Inscription 295 Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

, one of the

Hällestad Runestones The Hällestad Runestones are three runestones located in the walls of Hällestad Church in Torna-Hällestad, about 20 kilometers east of Lund in Skåne, southern Sweden. Their Rundata identifiers are DR 295, 296, and 297. DR 295 is notable becaus ...

, also commemorates his death.

References

External links

* {{runestones 11th-century inscriptions Runestones in Denmark Himmerland