The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke stone covered in runes that was discovered in central Minnesota in 1898. Olof Öhman, a Swedish immigrant, reported that he unearthed it from a field in the largely rural township of Solem in Douglas County. It was later named after the nearest settlement, Kensington.
A rune is a letter in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write Germanic languages before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised purposes thereafter. In addition to representing a sound value, runes can be used to represent the concepts after which they are named (ideographs). Scholars refer to instances of the latter as Begriffsrunen. The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark or fuþark ; the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc or fuþorc.
The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet and a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, with only 16 characters, in use from about the 9th century, after a "transitional period" during the 7th and 8th centuries. The reduction, somewhat paradoxically, happened at the same time as phonetic changes that led to a greater number of different phonemes in the spoken language, when Proto-Norse evolved into Old Norse. Also, the writing custom avoided carving the same rune consecutively for the same sound, so the spoken distinction between long and short vowels was lost in writing. Thus, the language included distinct sounds and minimal pairs that were written the same.
The Elder Futhark, also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Period. Inscriptions are found on artifacts including jewelry, amulets, plateware, tools, and weapons, as well as runestones in Scandinavia, from the 2nd to the 10th centuries.
The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base 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 for future research. The database is freely available via the Internet with a client program, called Rundata, for Microsoft Windows. For other operating systems, text files are provided or a web browser can be used to interact with the web application Runor.
The Snoldelev Stone, listed as DR 248 in the Rundata catalog, is a 9th-century runestone that was originally located at Snoldelev, Ramsø, Denmark.
The Skarpåker Stone, designated by Rundata as Sö 154, is a Viking Age memorial runestone that originally was located in Skarpåker, Nyköping, Sörmland, Sweden. It dates to the early eleventh century.
The Järsberg Runestone is a runestone in the elder futhark near Kristinehamn in Värmland, Sweden.
The Varangian Runestones are runestones in Scandinavia that mention voyages to the East or the Eastern route, or to more specific eastern locations such as Garðaríki in Eastern Europe.
Heavener Runestone Park is a 55-acre (220,000 m2) park located in Le Flore County, Oklahoma near the city of Heavener, Oklahoma. Formerly a state park of Oklahoma, it was transferred to the City of Heavener in 2011, and is now operated by the Friends of Heavener Runestone, a non-profit organization. The Festival held at the park on two weekends a year serves as a fundraiser for operating and maintaining the park.
The Sønder Kirkeby Runestone, listed as runic inscription DR 220 in the Rundata catalog, is a Viking Age memorial runestone that was discovered in Sønder Kirkeby, which is located about 5 kilometers east of Nykøbing Falster, Denmark.
Uppland Runic Inscription 896 or U 896 is the Rundata catalog listing for a Viking Age memorial runestone originally located at Håga in the historic province of Uppland, Sweden, but is now at the Universitetsparken of Uppsala University.
The Källby Runestones are two Viking Age memorial runestones located in Källby, Västra Götaland County, Sweden, which was in the historic province of Västergötland.
The Bolsta Runestones are two Viking Age memorial runestones and two fragments of a third that are located in Bolsta, which is on the east edge of Uppsala, Uppsala County, Sweden, and in the historic province of Uppland. One runestone is signed by the runemaster with the normalized name of Åsmund Kåresson and the other by the runemaster named Öpir.
The Strängnäs stone, or runic inscription Sö Fv2011;307, is a runestone inscribed with runes written in Proto-Norse using the Elder Futhark alphabet. It was discovered in 1962, when a stove was demolished in a house at Klostergatan 4, in Strängnäs, Sweden. The stone is of Jotnian sandstone and measures 21 centimetres (8.3 in) in length, 13 centimetres (5.1 in) in width and 7.5 centimetres (3.0 in) in thickness.
A runic carving is defined as a runic inscription in stone or other material, according to the definitions of the Swedish National Heritage Board. The term refers to both prehistoric and medieval runic carvings in raised stones or on blocks, on rock slabs, early medieval tombstones and "Eskilstuna coffins" with runes, runic carvings in materials other than stone, e.g. in plaster on churches, as well as historical and recent runic carvings. Viking Age runic carvings are often memorial inscriptions, usually after dead relatives. The runic inscription has usually been arranged in ribbons, which are often shaped like elongated animal bodies with head, feet and tail. The carving surface is often adorned with crosses and animal ornaments. Sometimes the runic carvings have also been decorated with more complicated image representations. Older, Old Norse, runic-carved stones usually lack ornamentation and have the text arranged in horizontal or vertical rows. Early medieval tombstones and "Eskilstuna coffins" with runes are given the property value "in grave context". Early medieval tombstones and Eskilstuna coffins without runes are registered under the relic type gravvård.
Södermanland Runic Inscription 113 is the Rundata catalogue index for a 0.9 metres (35 in) high, 0.5 metres (20 in) wide granite runestone in Kolunda, Stenkvista Parish, Eskilstuna Municipality, Sweden, within the historic province of Södermanland. It was found in 1856 on a hill believed to have once had many other graves and monuments, and is believed to have originally stood atop a burial mound before falling over and being buried. It has since been moved, and now stands next to the runestone known as Sö 112 and a partial runestone discovered in 1997. Its inscription in the Younger Futhark alphabet when translated into English reads "They placed the stone here, the sons of Þorketill and Folka, in memory of father and mother. [They] made [it] valiantly."
