The Fölene Runestones are two

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

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 such as home ...

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic alphabet, runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th centur ...

s which are located near the church in Fölene, which is about west of

Herrljunga Herrljunga () is a locality and the seat of Herrljunga Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 3,822 inhabitants in 2010. Overview The town grew up around a railway junction. From 1906 it had the status of a ''municipalsamhälle' ...

Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County () is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1,616,000 amounts to 17% of S ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, which was in the historic province of

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Vä ...

. The stones are memorials to two men who were described as holding the title drengr.

Vg 153

Västergötland Runic Inscription 153 or Vg 153 is the

Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Database () is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of transliterated runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future resea ...

catalog number for an inscription on a granite stone that is 1.6 meters in height. The inscription, which is missing its upper section, consists of runic text in a band along the edge of the stone. It is classified tentatively, due to the missing section, as being carved in

runestone style :''The term "runestone style" in the singular may refer to the Urnes style.'' The style or design of runestones varied during the Viking Age. The early runestones were simple in design, but towards the end of the runestone era they became increas ...

RAK, which is the classification for inscriptions with text bands with straight ends that do not have any serpent or beast heads attached. The inscription was first noted with its damage in 1791 as being part of the foundation of the church wall. Before the historical significance of runestones was understood, they were often re-used as construction material for bridges, roads, and buildings such as churches. The stone was removed in 1937 and is located along with Vg 154 near the entrance to the church. The runic text of Vg 153 states that it was raised by a man named Bjôrn as a memorial to his son, whose name was on the missing upper portion of the stone. The son is described as being ''harþa goþan dræng'' or "a very good valiant man", using the term drengr. A drengr in Denmark was a term mainly associated with members of a warrior group. It has been suggested that drengr along with

thegn In later Anglo-Saxon England, a thegn or thane (Latin minister) was an aristocrat who ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and ealdormen. He had to be a substantial landowner. Thanage refers to the tenure by which lands were ...

was first used as a title associated with men from Denmark and Sweden in service to Danish kings, but, from its context in inscriptions, over time became more generalized and was used by groups such as merchants or the crew of a ship. A similar phrase was used in the inscription on Vg 154. Other runestones describing the deceased using the words ''harþa goþan dræng'' in some order include DR 1 in Haddeby, DR 68 in Århus, DR 77 in Hjermind, DR 127 in Hobro, DR 268 in Östra Vemmenhög, DR 276 in Örsjö, DR 288 and DR 289 in Bjäresjö, Sm 48 in Torp, Vg 61 in Härlingstorp, Vg 90 in Torestorp, Vg 112 in Ås, Vg 114 in Börjesgården, the now-lost Vg 126 in Larvs, Vg 130 in Skånum, Vg 157 in Storegården, Vg 162 in Bengtsgården, Vg 179 in Lillegården, Vg 181 in Frugården, Vg 184 in Smula (using a plural form), the now-lost Ög 60 in Järmstastenen, Ög 104 in Gillberga, and possibly on U 610 in Granhammar.

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:: bun : risþi : sin : þo... ... : sun : sin : haþa : kuþan : tirik :Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
- Rundata entry for Vg 153.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Biorn ræisti stæin þa nsi..., sun sinn, harða goðan dræng.''

Translation in English

:Bjôrn raised this stone ... his son, a very good valiant man.

Vg 154

Västergötland Runic Inscription 154 or ''Vg 154'' is the Rundata designation of the second granite runestone at the church at Fölene. Made of granite and is 1.6 meters in height, the inscription is classified as being carved in runestone style RAK. It was discovered lying face down and broken in two pieces in the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

wall during renovations to the church in 1946. The stone was repaired and placed near the entrance to the church. The runic text of Vg 154 states that it was raised as a memorial by a woman named Ásfríðr in memory of her husband Ásgeirr. Similar to Vg 153, Ásgeirr holds the title drengr and is described as being ''harða goðan dræng'' or "a very good valiant man."

Inscription

Transliteration of the runes into Latin characters

:osfriþr : risþi : stin : þonsi : eftiʀ : osgiʀ : hrþa : kuþan : trek : buta * sinProject Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk - Rundata entry for Vg 154.

Transcription into Old Norse

:''Asfriðr ræisti stæin þannsi æftiʀ Asgæiʀ, harða goðan dræng, bonda sinn.''

Translation in English

:Ásfríðr raised this stone in memory of Ásgeirr, her husbandman, a very good valiant man.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Folene Runestones 1791 archaeological discoveries 1946 archaeological discoveries Runestones in Västergötland