Editing Runestone (section)

===As sources===
The only existing Scandinavian texts dating to the period before 1050<ref name="Pritsak307"/> (besides a few finds of inscriptions on coins) are found amongst the runic inscriptions, some of which were scratched onto pieces of wood or metal spearheads, but for the most part they have been found on actual stones.<ref>Sawyer, B. 2000:1</ref> In addition, the runestones usually remain in their original form<ref name="Pritsak307">Pritsak 1987:307</ref> and at their original locations,<ref name="Pritsak308">Pritsak 1987:308</ref> and so their importance as historical sources cannot be overstated.<ref name="Pritsak307"/>

The inscriptions seldom provide solid historical evidence of events and identifiable people but instead offer insight into the development of language and poetry, kinship, and habits of name-giving, settlement, depictions from [[Norse paganism]], place-names and communications, Viking as well as trading expeditions, and, not least, the spread of [[Christianity]].<ref>Sawyer, B. 2000:3</ref> Though the stones offer Scandinavian historians their main resource of information concerning early Scandinavian society, not much can be learned by studying the stones individually. The wealth of information that the stones provide can be found in the different movements and reasons for erecting the stones, in each region respectively. Approximately ten percent of the known runestones announce the travels and deaths of men abroad. These runic inscriptions coincide with certain [[Latin]] sources, such as the ''[[Annals of St. Bertin]]'' and the writings of [[Liutprand of Cremona|Liudprand of Cremona]], which contain valuable information on Scandinavians/[[Rus' (people)|Rus']] who visited Byzantium.<ref>Sawyer, P. 1997:139</ref>