Editing Runestone (section)

==Colour==
[[File:Öl Fv1911;274B, Resmo.jpg|thumb|upright|A runestone from the church of Resmo on [[Öland]] has been repainted. It is presently at the [[Swedish Museum of National Antiquities]] in [[Stockholm]].]]
Today, most runestones are painted with [[falu red]], since the colour red makes it easy to discern the ornamentation, and it is appropriate since red paint was also used on runes during the Viking Age.<ref name=harrison208/> In fact, one of the [[Old Norse]] words for "writing in runes" was ''fá'' and it originally meant "to paint" in [[Proto-Norse]] (''faihian'').<ref name="Jansson156"/> Moreover, in ''[[Hávamál]]'', [[Odin]] says: "So do I write / and colour the runes"<ref name=harrison208/><ref name="bellowshovamol">[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe04.htm Bellows 1936:67]</ref> and in ''[[Guðrúnarkviða II]]'', [[Gudrun]] says "In the cup were runes of every kind / Written and reddened, I could not read them".<ref name="Jansson153">Jansson 1987:153</ref><ref name="bellowsgudrun">[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe31.htm Bellows 1936:459]</ref>

There are several runestones where it is declared that they were originally painted. A runestone in Södermanland says "Here shall these stones stand, reddened with runes",<ref name=harrison208>Harrison & Svensson 2007:208</ref><ref name="rundataSö206">Entry Sö 206 in [[Rundata]].</ref> a second runestone in the same province says "Ásbjörn carved and Ulfr painted"<ref name=harrison208/><ref name="rundataSö347">Entry Sö 347 in [[Rundata]].</ref> and a third runestone in Södermanland says "Ásbjôrn cut the stone, painted as a marker, bound with runes".<ref name="Jansson156">Jansson 1987:156</ref><ref name="rundatasö213">Entry Sö 213 in [[Rundata]].</ref> Sometimes, the original colours have been preserved unusually well, and especially if the runestones were used as construction material in churches not very long after they had been made. One runestone in the church of Köping on [[Öland]] was discovered to be painted all over, and the colour of the words was alternating between [[black]] and [[red]].<ref name=harrison208/>

The most common paints were [[red ochre]], [[Lead tetroxide|red lead]], [[soot]], [[calcium carbonate]], and other [[clay earth pigment|earth colours]], which were bound with fat and water. It also appears that the Vikings imported [[white lead]], green [[malachite]] and blue [[azurite]] from [[Continental Europe#Scandinavia|Continental Europe]].<ref name=harrison208/> By using an [[electron microscope]], chemists have been able to analyse traces of colours on runestones, and in one case, they discovered bright red [[vermilion]], which was an imported luxury colour. However, the dominating colours were white and red lead.<ref name=harrison209>Harrison & Svensson 2007:209</ref> There are even accounts where runes were reddened with blood as in ''[[Grettis saga]]'', where the [[Völva]] Þuríðr cut runes on a tree root and coloured them with her own blood to kill Grettir, and in ''[[Egils saga]]'' where [[Egill Skallagrímsson]] cut [[ale runes]] on a [[drinking horn]] and painted them with his own blood to see if the drink was poisoned.<ref name="Jansson154">Jansson 1987:154</ref>