Norway is sending a runestone to Ukraine: "A nice gesture to a people who have endured great hardship," says the foreign minister
When Torald died a thousand years ago, his place of death was inscribed on this runestone.
A part of the Alstad stone as it appears today. The small holes may be traces of arrowheads that were shot at the stone, says runologist.(Photo: Alexis Pantos / Museum of Cultural History / CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Alstad stone was erected sometime in the 11th century.
The stone is over two and a half metres tall. It contains several runic inscriptions made at different times.
The images on the stone depict multiple human and animal figures, including horses, dogs, and a large bird of prey at the top.
It also appears to show a hunting scene with a rider, researcher Kristel Zilmer tells sciencenorway.no.
"This is an incredibly beautiful monument," she says.
Annonse
Zilmer, a runologist at the University of Oslo's Museum of Cultural History, is involved in creating an exact reconstruction of this stone, which will be sent to Ukraine (link in Norwegian).
An older drawing shows the decorations, animal figures, and some of the runes.(Image: Museum of Cultural History)
The destination is mentioned on the stone
A professional rune carver will create as precise a copy as possible, but without the damage that comes with a runestone over a thousand years old.
Kristel Zilmer will create the most accurate drawings possible to help recreate the stone.
According to the plan, the replica will be placed at the ancient settlement of Vytachiv along the Dnieper River, just south of the capital, Kyiv.
This location is actually mentioned directly on the stone. The most recent inscription – on the broad side of the stone – can, according to the Museum of Cultural History, be interpreted as follows:
Engle raised this stone after Torald, his son, who met his death in Vitaholm, between Ustaholm and Gardar.
Vitaholm corresponds to today's Vytachiv. This was located in the Kievan Rus' - a large and powerful realm that lay in parts of today's Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. The Vikings called it Gardar, according to the Great Norwegian Encyclopedia.
Here is the inscription that tells us where the man Torald died, on the bottom rows on the front side of the stone.(Photo: Museum of Cultural History)
A request from Ukraine
This is how the stone was previously displayed at the Museum of Cultural History. It will be moved to the new Viking Age Museum when it is completed.(Photo: Alexis Pantos / Museum of Cultural History / CC BY-SA 4.0)
When Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide visited Ukraine in the autumn of 2024, they stopped in Vytachiv.
There, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, expressed the Ukrainians' wish to receive a copy of the Alstad stone. This was stated by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an email to sciencenorway.no.
The Museum of Cultural History has been tasked with organising and carrying out this project. It is expected to be completed by autumn, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"The stone will be a gift from the Norwegian people to the Ukrainian people – a small but important symbolic gift in addition to the extensive support we provide in the form of military aid, emergency assistance, and funds to keep Ukrainian society running," Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide writes in an email to sciencenorway.no.
"For me, it's a nice gesture to a people who have endured great hardship, offering them this stone as a symbol of our shared cultural heritage. A heritage that Ukrainians are now fighting with their lives to preserve. When Sybiha asked if we could donate a copy of the Alstad stone, I am glad that we were able to make it happen," writes Eide.
But what kind of stone is this? Other aspects of the inscription make it particularly unique.
Know where the stone comes from
The stone originally stood at the Alstad farm in Østre Toten, Eastern Norway. It was later moved to the Museum of Cultural History, where it is now in storage. The stone will be placed in the new Viking Age Museum when it opens in 2027.
Kristel Zilmer examines the Alstad stone in the storage facility of the Museum of Cultural History.(Photo: Mårten Teigen / Museum of Cultural History / University of Oslo)
Kristel Zilmer explains that the runes on the stone appear to be carved in two different phases. The first inscription, located on the narrow side of the stone, indicates that it was originally erected as a memorial.
"It was put up by Jorunn, who arranged for the stone to be brought from Ulvøya in memory of her husband. The stone may have been erected by an enterprising woman to honour both herself and her husband," says Zilmer.
What makes this particularly special is that the inscription explicitly states where the stone itself comes from – Ulvøya.
"That's something we don't often see," says Zilmer.
The type of runes suggests that the second inscription was added 50 to 70 years later. This later addition includes the memorial text for Torald, the son who died in what is now Ukraine.
The circumstances of his death remain unknown.
"We don't know the historical context here. But the inscription provides a very specific identification of the young man's place of death," says Zilmer.
Runestones were sometimes reused, which may have been the case here. The inscription states that the father erected the stone, yet it was already standing when the text was carved.
Retrieved a test stone
Since researchers know the stone's origin, the replica will be made from a stone sourced from the same location as the original Alstad stone: Ulvøya.
"It's amazing to have that information," Espen Uleberg tells sciencenorway.no.
He is head of digital documentation at the Museum of Cultural History. The Hardraade Viking Ship Association assisted the museum in finding a test stone on Ulvøya in early 2025, as reported by local newspaper Ringerikes Blad (link in Norwegian).
The rune carver responsible for making the replica wants to familiarise themselves with the stone type before beginning work, Uleberg tells sciencenorway.no.
The next step is to find the stone that will actually be used for the replica.
"We need to extract a piece that is of high enough quality. Since this material is embedded in solid bedrock, we'll need to retrieve a suitably large stone," he says.
The stone will be shaped and carved at a sculpture workshop in Denmark before being transported to Ukraine.
Here, the test stone is being extracted from Ulvøya. The Hardraade Viking Ship Association assisted the Museum of Cultural History with the work, says Espen Uleberg.(Photo: Mårten Teigen / Museum of Cultural History / Univresity of Oslo)
Creating a replica
Making an authentic copy of a runestone that is over a thousand years old is no simple task.
Kristel Zilmer explains that several choices must be made:
"In some places, the runes are no longer clearly visible, so we can't be entirely sure what was originally written. We must attempt to reproduce what we see today without adding incorrect elements that were not present on the original stone," she says.
One example is the name of Jorunn's husband – the woman mentioned in the inscription.
"We don't quite know what her husband's name was. There are a few different interpretations, but we can't be 100 per cent sure," she says.
Zilmer explains that traces of some runes remain, but their exact reading and meaning are unclear.
"We have to recreate the stone as it appears today, without making an active choice to reconstruct something we don't quite know what is," she says.
