Editing Runestone (section)

==History==
[[Image:Snoldelevstenen.JPG|right|thumb|upright|The [[Snoldelev stone]], one of the oldest runestones in [[Denmark]]]]
The tradition of raising stones that had runic inscriptions first appeared in the 4th and 5th century, in Norway and Sweden, and these early runestones were usually placed next to graves,<ref name="national"/><ref name="Zilmer38"/> though their precise function as commemorative monuments has been questioned.<ref>Koesling, Jonas. 2021. “[https://scancan.net/index.php/scancan/article/download/201/401?inline=1 Memories Carved in Stones? Collective Memory Studies and Early Scandinavian Rune-Stones, or Remarks on the Banalities of ‘Burial-Stones’].” ''Scandinavian-Canadian Studies Journal / Études scandinaves au Canada'' 28: 38–77.</ref> The earliest Danish runestones appeared in the 8th and 9th centuries, and there are about 50 runestones from the [[Migration Period]] in Scandinavia.<ref name="forskning.no"/> Most runestones were erected during the period 950–1100 [[Common Era|CE]], and then they were mostly raised in [[Sweden]], and to a lesser degree in [[Denmark]] and [[Norway]].<ref name="national">"Runsten", {{Lang|sv|[[Nationalencyklopedin]]}} (1995), volume 16, pp. 91-92.</ref>

The tradition is mentioned in both ''[[Ynglinga saga]]'' and ''[[Hávamál]]'':
{{Quote|For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other warriors who had been distinguished for manhood a standing stone, a custom that remained long after [[Odin]]'s time.
|title=Ynglinga saga<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040101175348/http://www.northvegr.org/lore/heim/001_02.php ''Ynglinga saga''] in English translation, at Northvegr.</ref>|}}
{{poemquote|
A son is better,
though late he be born,
And his father to death have fared;
Memory-stones
seldom stand by the road
Save when kinsman honors his kin.
|title=Hávamál<ref name="bellowshovamol-a">[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe04.htm Bellows 1936:44]</ref>
}}
What may have increased the spread of runestones was an event in Denmark in the 960s. King [[Harald Bluetooth]] had just been baptised and in order to mark the arrival of a new order and a new age, he commanded the construction of [[Jelling stones#Runestone of Harald Bluetooth|a runestone]].<ref name="Harrison192">Harrison & Svensson 2007:192</ref> The inscription reads
{{quote|King Haraldr ordered this monument made in memory of [[Gorm the Old|Gormr]], his father, and in memory of [[Thyra|Þyrvé]], his mother; that Haraldr who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and [[Christianization of Scandinavia|made the Danes Christian]].<ref name="Harrison192"/><ref name="rundataDR 42">Entry DR 42 in [[Rundata]].</ref>}}
The runestone has three sides of which two are decorated with images. On one side, there is an animal that is the prototype of the runic animals that would be commonly engraved on runestones, and on another side there is Denmark's oldest depiction of [[Jesus]]. Shortly after this stone had been made, something happened in Scandinavia's runic tradition. Scores of chieftains and powerful [[Norse clans]] consciously tried to imitate King Harald, and from Denmark a runestone wave spread northwards through Sweden. In most districts, the fad died out after a generation, but, in the central Swedish provinces of [[Uppland]] and [[Södermanland]], the fashion lasted into the 12th century.<ref name="Harrison192"/>