Memories Carved in Stones? Collective Memory Studies and Early Scandinavian Rune-Stones, or Remarks on the Banalities of “Burial-Stones”

Abstract

The present article reconsiders the general assumption that pre-Viking-Age rune-stones were erected as commemorative monuments for the dead or were generally related to burial customs practiced during the Iron Age of Scandinavia. Based on a researched historical contextualization, the article finds that rune-stones have often been interpreted on premises that ultimately originate outside the internal evidence provided by the rune-stones in question. With the aid of collective memory as a theoretical-analytical framework, these earliest written memory media are then addressed in terms of a complex social phenomenon. Illustrated by selected examples of single inscriptions, the present article argues that the early rune-stones were on various levels crucial in creating and maintaining collective memories in Scandinavian Iron-Age communities and not necessarily related to the dead.