Qualla: Hogganvik Runestone

Hogganvik Runestone: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In September 2009, Arnfinn Henriksen was working in his garden in the village of Hogganvik, near Mandal in southern Norway, when he turned over a large, flat stone. On its hidden face, he found rows of carved symbols -- runes in the Elder Futhark alphabet, the oldest runic writing system, inscribed in a language that had been dead for more than a millennium. The stone had been lying face-down for perhaps 1,500 years, and that accidental burial had preserved the inscription in remarkable condition.

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Hogganvik Runestone: A Message from the Migration Period

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Hogganvik runestone is a stone slab weighing approximately 800 kilograms, with an inscribed surface area of about 1.5 square meters. Runologist James E. Knirk of the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo examined the find and issued a report in October 2009. The inscription is w...

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Hogganvik Runestone: Runes, Names, and Alphabet Magic

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The inscription is a memorial, carved to honor the dead. The middle lines name the person who carved the runes -- a rare detail that gives the stone a sense of individual authorship in an age when most objects are anonymous. Other sequences on the stone are harder to interpret. R...

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Hogganvik Runestone: An Iron Age Grave Beneath

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In May 2010, archaeologists excavated the site where the stone had been found. The evidence told a story: the inscribed face was more weathered than the underside, indicating that the stone had originally stood upright, exposed to wind and rain, before toppling face-down at some ...

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Hogganvik Runestone: Preserved by Neglect

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What makes the Hogganvik runestone exceptional is not just its age but its condition. Because the stone fell face-down -- perhaps within a few centuries of being carved -- the inscription was shielded from the erosive forces of weather. Rain, frost, and wind wore at the blank bac...

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