The Grindheim stone ( Norwegian: ''Grindheimsteinen'') is a

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 ...

from Grindheim Church in Etne municipality in

Hordaland Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Municipal ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

History

The Vang stone was erected during the transitional period from

Paganism Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...

to Christianity in Norway ca. 1000-1050, A.D. It is a memorial stone with a carved cross and runic inscription. The stone was first described in a letter from Nils Paaske, Bishop of the

Diocese of Bjørgvin The Diocese of Bjørgvin ( no, Bjørgvin bispedømme) is one of the 11 dioceses that make up the Church of Norway. It includes all of the churches located in the county of Vestland in Western Norway. The cathedral city is Bergen, Norway's second ...

Ole Worm Ole Worm (13 May 1588 – 31 August 1654), who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Greek, Latin ...

in 1626. Bishop Paaske also provided a drawing of the inscription. Ole Worm was a Danish

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

who wrote a number of treatises on rune stones. He was at this time preparing his great work
''Monumenta Danica.''
which was first published during 1643.

Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie (7 December 1778 – 10 October 1849) was a Norwegian attorney. He was a member of the National Assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814 and served as the Norwegian Constituent Assembly secretary. Background Born in Kristiansu ...

reported in 1837 that the stone was then within the

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

walls surrounding the church. The stone was examined by Oluf Rygh in 1866. In 1905 it was picked up from the wall and raised again to the north wall of the church.

Runic Inscription

The runes date back to the middle or the end of the 11th century. The inscription is: :þormoþr:r(a)isti: st(a)in:þana
:aftir:þormoþ:suiþanta:foþur:sin In

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

: :''Þormóðr reisti stein þenna eptir Þormóð svíðanda, fǫður sinn''. Translated to ''modern English'': "Tormod rose up this stone after Tormod Svidende, his father".

References

Other sources

*Sawyer, Birgit (2003) ''The Viking-Age Rune-Stones: Custom and Commemoration in Early Medieval Scandinavia'' (Oxford University Press) *Stocklund, Marie; et al., eds. (2006) ''Runes and Their Secrets: Studies in Runology'' (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press) {{ISBN, 978-87-635-0627-4 Grindheim stone 11th-century inscriptions Etne