Italy runestones
[2] They were the kind of warriors who were welcome as the elite troops of the Byzantine Emperor, and whom the rulers of Kievan Rus' requested from Scandinavia when they were under threat.
He claimed that the kingdom had been taken over by Varangians from Byzantium in the 11th and 12th centuries, and noted that in Barbarossa's campaign in Italy there were many Scandinavian warriors.
[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 the Holy Roman Empire.
There is a long-standing practice to write transliterations of the runes into Latin characters with boldface and transcribe the text into a normalized form of the language with italic type.
[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.
Other special signs are þ and ð, where the first one is the thorn letter which represents a voiceless dental fricative as th in English thing.
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.
The larger part was known as early as Johannes Bureus (1568–1652) and it was also studied by Johan Peringskiöld during the national search for historic monuments (1667–84) and by Olof Celsius in 1727.
[11] It probably formed a twin monument together with U 141 on the estate of Fittja, before it was moved to the church to be used as building material in the mid-15th century.
[13] + kuþlukGuðlaug* litlet...[ræisa...stæina...at...aHolm]a,× sunsun* sinsinn,* aukok* atat* siksik* sialfasialfa.* hanHann* todo* aalank*barþa*l--tiLangbarðal[an]di.
* hanHann* todo* aa* lank*barþa*la(n)tiLangbarðalandi.×] [kuþluk × lit * raisa * staina * at * hulma * sun * sin * han * to * a * lank*barþa*la(n)ti ×]Guðlaug {} let {} ræisa {} stæina {} at {} Holma, {} sun {} sinn.
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.
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.
The last word in the inscription, which tells where the commemorated man died, is partly lost, but Jansson (1954) notes that it was probably Langbarðaland as it begins with La-.
[17] ...i...: ristiræisti: ---...............in............sinsinn.: hanHann: iʀeʀ: entaþrændaðr: ii: austruikiaustrvegi: utut: oa: la-...La[ngbarðalandi](?
[21] Sophus Bugge noted in his Runverser that the expression arði barði ("ploughed his stern") also appears in the Icelandic Third Grammatical Treatise by Óláfr Þórðarson, and as well in a verse by the Orkney jarl Rögnvald Brusason.
Furthermore, he added that since seafaring played an important role in the lives of all Norse peoples, it would only be natural if they had many poetic expressions like arði barði in common[20] (cf.
[inkaInga: raistiræisti: stainstæin: þansiþannsi: atat: ulai](f)Olæif: sinsinn: [a...k]...: hanHann: austarlaaustarla: arþiarði: barþibarði: aukok: oa: lakbarþilantiLangbarðalandi: [anlaþisandaðis.+] [inka : raisti : stain : þansi : at : ulai](f) : sin : [a...k] : han : austarla : arþi : barþi : auk : o : lakbarþilanti : [anlaþis +]Inga {} ræisti {} stæin {} þannsi {} at {} Olæif {} sinn {} ... {} Hann {} austarla {} arði {} barði {} ok {} a {} Langbarðalandi {} andaðis.
