Runsten, Forshedastenen

It's well worth stopping for a while, stretching your legs and feeling the winds of history while contemplating the famous Forshedastenen stone and its runic inscription.

The runestone, which dates back to the Viking Age, is of gneiss and was erected in the 11th century.

The runestone has been known since the 17th century, and was first erected by a bridge. The Forshedastenen stone is one of the oldest written sources on Finnveden. The runestone is 1.95 metres high, 0.85 metres wide and 0.3 metres thick.

The inscription on the runestone translates as: “Rolf and Eskil erected this stone after Livsten, their father, who was killed in Skåne at Gårdstånga, and brought (him) to Finnveden.”

One interpretation of the inscription is that there was a battle at Gårdstånga in Canute the Great’s war against Anund Jakob and Olav the Holy. It is known that the war was fought in Skåne around 1025, but not where in Skåne Gårdstånga was located.