Uppland Runic Inscription 1158 or U 1158 is the

Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base ( sv, Samnordisk runtextdatabas) is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way f ...

catalogue listing for a Viking Age

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

runestone that is located at Stora Salfors, which is one kilometre east of

Fjärdhundra Fjärdhundra is a locality situated in Enköping Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 951 inhabitants in 2010. The name was given to a railway station in 1906, taken from the region Fjärdhundraland, which means ''land of the four hundred 1 ...

, Uppsala County,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, and is in the historic province of Uppland. The stone is a memorial to a man named

Freygeirr Freygeirr (Old East Norse: ''FrøygæiRR'', Modern Swedish: ''Fröger'') was a Viking chieftain who probably led a leidang expedition.Jansson 1980:24 He is considered to have been active in the 1050s on the Baltic coast,Pritsak 1981:357 and he has ...

, and may have been the same Freygeirr who was a Viking chieftain active on the Baltic coast in the 1050s.

Description

The inscription on U 1158, which is on a granite stone that is 1.86 meters in height, consists of runic text in the younger futhark that is carved on three intertwined serpents. The top section of the runestone is missing. The inscription is classified as being carved in runestone style Pr3 or Pr4, both of which are also known as Urnes style. This runestone style is characterized by slim and stylized animals that are interwoven into tight patterns. The animal heads are typically seen in profile with slender almond-shaped eyes and upwardly curled appendages on the noses and the necks. The stone was noted in 1865 as being originally located in a circle of stones north of a crossroads, but was moved in 1884 to its current location at a farm at the request of a school teacher. The inscription is signed by a

runemaster A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones. Description More than 100 names of runemasters are known from Viking Age Sweden with most of them from 11th-century eastern Svealand.The article ''Runristare'' in ''Nationalencyklo ...

with the normalized name of Livsten. Livsten signed several other inscriptions, including U 766 and U 767 in Norrby, U 796 in Sparrsätra, U 1152 in Brunnby, U 1161 in Altuna, U 1164 in Stora Runhällen, and Vs 29 in Sala Landsförsamling. pp. 150-51. The runic text, which is incomplete due to the missing top section of the stone, states that the runestone was raised by some brothers, three of whom were named Guðsteinn, Eistr, and Áki, in memory of their father Freygeirr. According to scholar Omeljan Pritsak, this is the same Freygeirr who led a leidang expedition on the Baltic coast. Five other runestones refer to this Freygeirr, including

Gs 13 Gästrikland Runic Inscription 13 or Gs 13 is a runestone carved on red sandstone located in a church in Gävle, Gästrikland. It was carved in the 11th century by the runemaster Åsmund Kåresson. The place name ''Tafeistaland'' (modern Swedish: ...

in Söderby, DR 216 in Tirsted, U 518 in Västa Ledinge, U 611 in Tibble, and

U 698 U or u, is the twenty-first and sixth-to-last letter and fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''u'' (pro ...

in Veckholms. It has been noted that one of Freygeir's son was named ''Eistr'' meaning "man from Estonia" or "Estonian," p. 235. which Pritsak connects to Freygeir's activities on the other side of the Baltic Sea.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:: kuisþen : yg : estr : yg : uin... : yk : aki : litu : risa : stn : fryke : faþur se : lfsten : iuk : runi : þsa :Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
-

entry for U 1158.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Guðstæinn(?) ok Æistr ok ... ok Aki letu ræisa stæin �ftiʀFrøygæiʀ, faður sinn. Lifstæinn hiogg runaʀ þessa.''

Translation in English

:Guðsteinn(?) and Eistr and ... and Áki had the stone raised in memory of Freygeirr, their father. Lífsteinn cut these runes.

References