Ardre stones
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The stones from Ardre are an archaeological find on the Baltic island of Gotland , consisting of a picture stone , two box stones and a rune stone from the Viking Age (800-1050 AD) belong to the different stone styles in Sweden . They are exhibited in the State Historical Museum in Stockholm .
The picture stone
The picture stone dates from the 11th century and, at 2.1 m, is considerable, but not extremely large. In the topmost field Odin rides the horse of the gods Sleipnir to Valhalla , below you can see a ship and on the right some scenes that are difficult to recognize. The lower left part of the picture stone is occupied by scenes from the Wieland saga .
The box stones
The two slightly damaged box stones, skillfully decorated in the Urnes style , which belong to a grave box and date to the 11th or 12th century, are clearly Christian . One shows a tendril and snake ornament, the other shows St. Christopher with the Christ child on his back, walking over dragons and monsters that symbolize paganism . The still quite clearly preserved traces of paint made a reconstruction of the painting possible. The runic inscription reads: “Sons of Liknat (had them made) a beautiful memorial for Ailika, the good wife, mother. (The grace of God and the Mother of God) for them and those who made the monument (the greatest that people will see) ”.
The runestone Ardre III
It is one of the few specimens of its kind on Gotland. It also dates from the 11th or 12th century and is rather small at 72 cm. Runestones only came to Gotland with the Christianization (G 203 Hogrän, G 134 Sjonhem). Although the stones retained the traditional shapes of the picture stones, the decoration was based on the continental Urnes style . The Ardre stone is perhaps the youngest of these rune stones. A Gotland variant was created from the entwined animals of the Urnes style. And it is not certain whether it is a Christian stone, because neither the snake motif, on one side, the two monsters on the other, nor the text reveal Christian motifs.
The text reads: “Ottar and Gairvat and Aivat, set the stone for Liknat, their father. Radjalv and Gairnieut, created a beautiful memorial stone for a capable man. Likraiv carved the runes ”.
literature
- Erik Nylén , Jan Peder Lamm: Picture stones on Gotland. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1981, (2nd, expanded and completed German edition. Ibid 1991, ISBN 3-529-01823-6 ).
- Sigmund Oehrl: Wieland the blacksmith on the box stone of Alskog kyrka and the rune stone Ardre kyrka III . In: Contributions to the North Germanic cultural and literary history W. Heizmann, K. Böldl, H. Beck, (Eds.) Berlin, New York (Walter de Gruyter) 2009 ISBN 978-3-11-021869-5
- Sigmund Oehrl: On the interpretation of anthropomorphic and theriomorphic images on the late Viking rune stones in Sweden . Vienna Studies in Scandinavian Studies, Vol. 16. (Vienna 2006).