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Surviving runestones provide invaluable evidence for linguistics, history, genealogy, art history, social organization.
The Linguistic Evidence:
Runestones preserve Old Norse language in contemporary written form—showing grammar, vocabulary, spelling conventions, dialectal variations. The inscriptions are primary sources for understanding language’s development, regional differences, historical changes.
The Historical Information:
Names, dates, events, relationships mentioned in inscriptions provide historical data unavailable elsewhere—expanding knowledge of who lived when, who was related to whom, what activities occurred. The information is fragmentary but valuable, filling gaps in knowledge derived from later written sources.
The Preservation:
Many stones survive—Scandinavian countries have thousands of recorded runestones, continuing discoveries of new ones, ongoing programs photographing and documenting known examples. The survival rate is remarkable—testament to stone’s durability, inscriptions’ legibility after thousand years, value placed on preserving these monuments.
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