Valþjófsstaður door

[5] A date of no later than 1150 has been argued, based on the style of the knight's dress and equipment, particularly the helm (with nasal and back-piece) and the saddle type.

The lower half of the roundel depicts a mounted knight piercing a dragon with his sword while a bird flies overhead.

[13] The upper half of the roundel shows a mounted knight with a hunting bird, followed by a lion wearing a richly decorated collar.

Finally on the upper right, the body of an emaciated lion lies on a grave marked by a cross with what may be a church in the background.

A contemporary context might be to the Saxon king Henry the Lion, as signified by the ravens in the picture and the heraldic Plantagenet lilies of his wife, Mathilde.

He speculated that there may be some runes missing from the beginning, due to repair work that inserted a long piece of wood to fill a wide crack.

Stevens gives the following literal translation: [SEE YON (that)] RICH (mighty) KING HERE GRAVEN (buried) AS (who) WOOG (slew) DRAKE (dragon) THÆN (this).