Background

The background image of these pages is a detail of our local runestone. Known as U 898, it dates from the late 11th century and is signed by Öpir, the most prolific runemaster of Viking age Uppland. Here's a rendering from the mid-18th century:

from Bautil, det är: alle Svea ok Götha rikens runstenar, Johan Göransson, Stockholm, 1750

The text goes something like:

Ali and Jofurfast had this made in memory of Jarl, their father, and of Gisl and Ingimundr. He, Jarl's son, was killed in the east. Öpir carved.

That's pretty typical: our brother left, and hasn't come back, and now we want to take his farm and/or marry his wife, but since there's no body, we'll put this stone here to publicly declare him deceased.

For those inclined to quibble: jo, technically U 898 is not a runestone. The runes are carved into a large boulder in situ, not on the face of a smaller stone erected for the purpose, making this is a runic inscription. Of course, if it was a runestone, it would probably be part of a wall for some little stone church somewhere now. Instead, it sits in the middle of a horse pasture not 500 m from our doorstep, right on the path Linnaeus used to take his students on as they toured the nature around Uppsala.

Incidentally, U 898 isn't even Jennifer's favorite runic inscription in that particular horse pasture. There's a smaller one, not nearly as well preserved and harder to find, which used to look like this:

ibid.