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Clickable map of the geographic distribution of the Italy Runestones in southern Sweden (modern administrative borders and cities are shown)

TheItaly runestones are three or fourVarangian runestones from 11th-centurySweden that tell of warriors who died inLangbarðaland ("Land of theLombards"), theOld Norse name for southItaly. On these rune stones it issouthern Italy that is referred to^[1] (Langobardia), but theRundata project renders it rather anachronistically asLombardy (see the translations of the individual stones, below).

The rune stones are engraved inOld Norse with theYounger Futhark, and two of them are found inUppland and one or two inSödermanland.

The memorials are probably raised in memory of members of theVarangian Guard, the elite guard of theByzantine Emperor, and they probably died while fighting in southern Italy against the localLombard principalities or the invadingNormans.^[1] Many of their brothers-in-arms are remembered on the 28Greece runestones most of which are found in the same part of Sweden.

The young men who applied for a position in the Varangian guard were not uncouth roughnecks, as in the traditional stereotype, but instead, it appears that they were usually fit and well-raised young warriors who were skilled in weapons.^[2] They were the kind of warriors who were welcome as the elite troops of the Byzantine Emperor, and whom the rulers ofKievan Rus' requested fromScandinavia when they were under threat.^[2]

Johan Peringskiöld (d. 1720) considered theFittja stone and theDjulefors stone to refer to theLombard migration from Sweden, whereas Celsius (1727) interpreted them in a strikingly different manner. He noted that the nameLongobardia was not applied to Italy until after the destruction of theKingdom of the Lombards in 774. He claimed that the kingdom had been taken over by Varangians from Byzantium in the 11th and 12th centuries, and noted that inBarbarossa's campaign in Italy there were many Scandinavian warriors. The stones would have commemorated Swedish warriors who died in Barbarossa's war.^[3] This view was also espoused by Brocman (1762) who considered Holmi to have died in the 12th century for either the Byzantine Emperor or ruler of theHoly Roman Empire.^[4]

Von Friesen (1913) noted that it is notLombardy in northern Italy that is intended butLangobardia in southern Italy, which was ruled by theByzantine Emperor during the 11th century. The Greeks had to fight severalbattles against the Normans in Southern Italy during the mid-11th century. It is likely that Holmi, who is mentioned on two stones, took part in these battles as a member of the Byzantine Emperor's elite unit, theVarangian Guard since they use a name based on the Greek name for the region.^[5]

Below follows a presentation of the Italy Runestones, organised according to location. Thetranscriptions from runic inscriptions into standardisedOld Norse are in Old East Norse (OEN), the Swedish and Danish dialect, to facilitate comparison with the inscriptions, while the English translation provided by Rundata give the names in the standard dialect, Old West Norse (OWN), the Icelandic and Norwegian dialect.

There is a long-standing practice to writetransliterations of the runes into Latin characters withboldface and transcribe the text into a normalized form of the language withitalic type. This practice exists because the two forms of rendering a runic text have to be kept distinct.^[6] By not only showing the original inscription, but also transliterating, transcribing and translating, scholars present the analysis in a way that allows the reader to follow their interpretation of the runes. Every step presents challenges, but mostYounger Futhark inscriptions are considered easy to interpret.^[7]

In transliterations,*,:,×,' and+ represent commonword dividers. Parentheses,( ), represent damaged runes that cannot be identified with certainty, and square brackets,[ ], represent sequences of runes that have been lost, but can be identified thanks to early descriptions by scholars. A short hyphen,-, indicates that there is a rune or other sign that cannot be identified. A series of three full stops... shows that runes are assumed to have existed in the position, but have disappeared. The two dividing signs| | divide a rune into two Latin letters, becauserunemasters often carved a single rune instead of two consecutive ones.^[8]

Angle brackets,< >, indicate that there is a sequence of runes that cannot be interpreted with certainty. Other special signs areþ andð, where the first one is thethorn letter which represents avoiceless dental fricative asth in Englishthing. The second letter iseth which stands for avoiced dental fricative asth in Englishthem. Theʀ sign represents theyr rune.^[8]

Every runic inscription is shown with its ID code that is used in scholarly literature to refer to the inscription, and it is only obligatory to give the first two parts of it. The first part is one or two letters that represent the area where the runic inscription appears, e.g. U for theUppland, Sö forSödermanland and DR forDenmark. The second part represents the order in which the inscription is presented in the official national publications (e.g.Sveriges runinskrifter). ThusU 133 means that the runestone was the 133rd runic inscription in Uppland that was documented inSveriges runinskrifter. If the inscription was documented later than the official publication, it is listed according to the publication where it was first described, e.g.Sö Fv1954;22, whereSö represents Södermanland,Fv stands for the annual publicationFornvännen, 1954 is the year of the issue ofFornvännen and 22 is the page in the publication.^[8]

There are two rune stones in Uppland that mention Italy. They were raised by the same lady in memory of her son.

Runestone U 133 (location) is instyle Pr3,^[9] part of the more generalUrnes style. The stone has been split into two parts that are walled into the southern exterior wall ofTäby church, near the ground. The larger fragment, which was originally the upper part of the runestone, is in the western wall of the old porch which is constructed at the church's southern side.^[10] The smaller fragment is upside-down in the southern wall of the porch. Both fragments are partly in the soil which means that it is necessary to remove some soil in order to read the entire inscriptions. The larger part was known as early asJohannes Bureus (1568–1652) and it was also studied byJohan Peringskiöld during the national search for historic monuments (1667–84) and byOlof Celsius in 1727. However, the smaller part was not noticed by scholars until 1857, when it was documented byRichard Dybeck, who initially believed that the parts did not belong together. He corrected this interpretation in hisSverikes runurkunder (1865) where he made a depiction of how they would have looked before they were split.^[11]

The fragments are in reddishgranite and larger part measures 1.02 m (3 ft 4 in) in height and 0.86 m (2 ft 10 in)–1 m (3 ft 3 in) in width, while the smaller one is 0.45 m (1 ft 6 in) tall and 1.23 m (4 ft 0 in) wide.^[11] It probably formed a twin monument together withU 141 on the estate of Fittja, before it was moved to the church to be used as building material in the mid-15th century.^[11]

Both this runestone and U 141 are identified by von Friesen andErik Brate as the production of therunemasterFot. They were commissioned by Guðlaug in memory of her son Holmi who had died inLangbarðaland.^[5] Peterson (2002) identifies Guðlaug with the one who commissionedSö 206 andSö 208,^[12] while Pritsak (1981) identifies her as Ónæmr's daughter who is mentioned onU 328. He further considers Holmi's father to be Özurr who is mentioned on U 328 andU 330.^[13]

Runestone U 141 (former location) formed a monument together with U 133, and it was raised by the same grieving mother in memory of her son.^[13][14] It was first documented byJohannes Messenius, in 1611. He appears to have learnt about the runestone fromJohannes Bureus as both of them misspelt the nameHolmi by letting them precede thel. Aschaneus (1575–1641) made a note that the runestone was to be seen at the estate of Fittja near Täby. It was also documented by Peringskiöld in hisMonumenta, and visited by Celsius in 1727. However, it later disappeared and bothRichard Dybeck and later Erik Brate searched for it in vain. However, in 1933, a fragment with the final three runes were discovered during the installation of heating equipment in the cellar of the estate. The granite fragment, which measures 0.45 m (1 ft 6 in) in height and 0.38 m (1 ft 3 in) in width, has been raised in the garden of Fittja.^[14]

There are two rune stones that mention Italy in Södermanland. However, one of them only saysLa-, having lost the series of runes that followed. However, the rune stone informs that the location was on the Eastern route, andLangbarðaland is the only knownOld Norse place name on the Eastern route that begins with these two runes.

Runestone Sö Fv1954;22 (original location) is in reddish grey and fine grained granite, and it was found in 11 pieces on a small hill about 300 m (980 ft) south-west of the village Lagnö, in 1949. At the location, the land slopes towards the former sailing route Eldsundet, where there once was amedieval assembly location. A house had once been in the same spot and it is likely that the runestone had been used as material in its stone foundation, or in a stove. The stone was moved to a conservation institute in Stockholm where it was mended but it was impossible to make a complete runestone out of it. In 1953, Jansson visited the location and he managed to retrieve some more fragments, adding up to a total of fifteen pieces. However, only twelve could be put together. The largest fragment is 1.40 m (4 ft 7 in) high, 0.65 m (2 ft 2 in) wide and 0.33 m (1 ft 1 in) thick, whereas the second largest one is 1.30 m (4 ft 3 in) high, 0.25 m (9.8 in) m wide and 0.33 m (1 ft 1 in) thick. The expressioni austrvegi ("on the eastern route") also appears on the runestonesSö 34 andSö 126 in the same province, where it figures in poems infornyrðislag. The last word in the inscription, which tells where the commemorated man died, is partly lost, but Jansson (1954) notes that it was probablyLangbarðaland as it begins withLa-.^[16] The fragments are presently stored inside theSwedish History Museum inStockholm.^[17]

Runestone Sö 65 is instyle Pr1 (Ringerike style)^[18] and it was documented at the farm Djul(e)fors during the national search for historic monuments (1667–84).^[19] It is nowadays in the south-eastern end of the park of Eriksberg palace (location). It measures c. 1.50 m (4 ft 11 in) in height. Brate & Wessén commented (1924–1936) that a third of the stone had been lost to its left and that it was 0.71 m (2 ft 4 in) wide at its base and 0.63 m (2 ft 1 in) wide at the top.^[20] The 2008 edition of theScandinavian Runic-text Database reports that a missing part was discovered in 1934,^[18] andSwedish National Heritage Board includes the rediscovered part in the stone's dimensions reporting its width to be 1.06 m (3 ft 6 in).^[21]

Sophus Bugge noted in hisRunverser that the expressionarði barði ("ploughed his stern") also appears in the IcelandicThird Grammatical Treatise byÓláfr Þórðarson, and as well in a verse by theOrkney jarlRögnvald Brusason. He also commented that the epitaph is in the meter thatSnorri Sturluson calledhinn skammi háttr. Furthermore, he added that since seafaring played an important role in the lives of allNorse peoples, it would only be natural if they had many poetic expressions likearði barði in common^[20] (cf.Sö 198).

• List of runestones

• An English Dictionary of Runic Inscriptions of the Younger Futhark, at the university of Nottingham

• 11th-century inscriptions
• Runestones in Uppland
• Runestones in Södermanland
• Runestones in memory of Viking warriors
• Varangian Guard
• Byzantine Empire-related inscriptions

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• All articles with incomplete citations
• Articles with incomplete citations from May 2025
• CS1 Swedish-language sources (sv)
• Articles with Swedish-language sources (sv)