The Viking Age Rune Stones
Custom And Commemoration In Early Medieval Scandinavia (May 2003 Oxford University Press)

by Birgit Sawyer

ISBN13:978-0-19-926221-2

Reviewed by Rig Svenson 2007©

The author Prof Birgit Sawyer states in her preface of this work that she published in 1998, a preliminary report about her research on the runic inscriptions in late Viking-Age Scandinavia  that it remains her personal conviction that this material is a very important source which has hitherto been largely untapped by historians. Archaeology is the business of making sense of things that would otherwise go un-noticed and to this end I am inclined to strongly agree with the author! The promoters of this work makes claim that this is the first historical study of the entire corpus of late Viking runic inscription stones in Scandinavia. It seems that over 2300 runic inscription yields brought forward unexpected information on a wide range of topics, to include the conversion of Scandinavia to Christianity, the growth of royal power and, most important of all, the inheritance customs of the period. Of note are the many references to runestone sponsors, many of which happen to be notable women during the Viking Age! The inscription of the Norra Åsarp Rune Stone, in Vätergötland Sweden on the bookcover reads:

Guve raised this stone in memory of Olav his son, a very good dreng. He was killed in "Estland". Håvard (?) cut the stone

See: http://tinyurl.com/yqkod6

"Archaeology is partly the discovery of the treasures of the past, partly the meticulous work of the scientific analyst, partly the exercise of the creative imagination. But it is also the painstaking task of interpretation so that we come to understand what these things mean for the human story. And it is the conservation of the world's cultural heritage - against looting and careless destruction."

Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice (2 edn) 1996

Archaeology is the study of a people or culture based upon artefacts. Until quite recently archaeological dating methods were based upon comparative groups. Archaeological information has played an important part in historical considerations of the Viking Age and Medieval Scandinavia. Material culture and artefacts account for more than one-third of the data. Any competent work on the Viking Age must therefore consider the information found in archaeology. Since the information has been and is so critical for two fields there is a great deal of data borrowing by historians of archaeological data and theory. Birgit Sawyer is a Professor of History at the Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, in Trondheim Norway. The main purpose of this book, according to the author is to show that studied as a whole, the corpus of rune-stones is a most rewarding source for the social, economic, religious and political history of Scandinavia during the 10th and 11th centuries.

The author argues in Section 5 of her book under the heading of "Society and Status": "Since a rune-stone was a sign of social and economic status, we can assume that all sponsors were landowners, among whom different social strata can be distinguished." She further interjects that "while runestones placed close to such prestigious monuments as larger burial mounds or ship-settings show even more clearly that they were the work of families of exceptionally high rank". These Ship burial Stone ships was a Germanic burial custom, typical for Scandinavia with scattered examples in Northern Germany and along the coast of the Baltic States. Sawyer also argues that women were generally well represented as sponsors more so in Eastern part of Scandinavia rather than the west. Another fascinating area was the right of women (and the female line) to share inheritances with men (and the male line) which is associated with the Germanic parentalic inheritance  system as opposed to the gradual system.

 Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Rune-stones, their Distribution and Historical Background
   1.1. The rune stones and their distribution
   1.2. Previous work
   1.3. Why were rune-stones erected
   1.4. Historical Background
2. Presentation of the Corpus and its Subgroup; Bases of Analysis
   I. The Corpus
   2.1. Variables
   2.2. General Features
   2.3. Regional Groupings
   2.4. Chronology and dating problems                                                                       II The Relationship Subgroup and Categories of Relationship
   2.5. The nature of relationships between sponsors and deceased.
   2.6. Sponsorship patterns
   2.7. Complex relationships
   III. Bases of Analysis
   2.8. Inscriptions
   2.9. Relationships
3. Property and Inheritance
    I. The inscriptions as Declarations of Inheritance  
   3.1. The importance of individual details in interpreting runic inscriptions
   3.2. The sponsorship pattern as reflecting property rights   
   II The Sponsors as Holders of Joint or Inherited Property                                           3.3 Joint ownership
   3.4. Inheritance customs
   3.5. Unspecified relationships
   3.6. Conclusions
4. Inheritance customs and Laws                                                         
   4.1. Inheritance----and other devolutions of property
   4.2. The runic evidence
   4.3  Gradual and parentela principles
   4.4. The sponsorship patterns
   4.5. Why were different inheritance principles preferred?
   4.6. The laws
   4.4. The sponsorship patterns
   4.5. Why were different inheritance principles preferred?
   4.6. The laws
   4.4. The sponsorship patterns
   4.5. Why were different inheritance principles preferred?
   4.6. The laws
   4.7. Sponsorship patterns and the laws
   4.8. Differences between Uppland
   4.9. Conclusions
5. Society and status
   5.1. Sponsors and deceased
   5.2. Title-bearers
   5.3. Epithets
   5.4. Thegns and drengs
   5.5. Boni homines
   5.6. Women as landholders
   5.7. Travellers
   5.8. Conclusions
6. Conversion
   6.1. Transition: pagan and/or Christian
   6.2. Pagan features
   6.3. Christian features
   6.4. Conclusions
7. Conclusions and Future Research
   7.1. The rune-stone fashion
   7.2. Late Viking-Age society
   7.3. Future research
Excursus: The Tug-of-War over Thyre
Appendices
   1. Distribution of Rune-stones
   2. Categories of sponsors and Deceased
   3  Frequency of Relationships
   4. Inheritances
   5. Unspecified Relationships Implying Inheritance
   6. Tittles
   7. Epithets
   8. "Bönder"
   9  Travellers
   10.Bridge Builders

Conclusions:

Overall this work is deserved of a place in the historical/archaeological reference achieves  for those interested in the author's careful but logical speculations based on her findings about Viking Age social history. I caution however that this is an academic tome and the reader must be capable of digesting the many different approaches that the author has categorised together before gaining a full appreciation of the amount of  research involved with assembling such material in order of precedence. This is not an easy going book hoard but well worth the effort if you possess an analytical mindset with a passion for runestones or the love of newer researched based arguments and structured conclusions. This is a meticulous but important groundbreaking study in the field of 10th and 11th century runic inscriptions found throughout Scandinavia. The author examines a huge database exceeding some 2,000 runestone examples under a single group, tracing regional variations that highlights patterns of similarity with inferences on social, religious and political history. Thus identifying such runic inscriptions as an important source for late Viking-Age inheritance customs, status, duties, rights and the transference and ownership of land. This comprehensive although incomplete work also includes a catalogue of the inscriptions. It is my hope that Prof Sawyer extends this work in the near future.

Rating *****

5 stars