Qualla: Runestones of Hogby https://qualla.com/runestones-of-h-gby en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:05 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/6/6/s/runestones-of-h-gby-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Runestones of Hogby https://qualla.com/runestones-of-h-gby Runestones of Hogby: Introduction https://qualla.com/runestones-of-h-gby/ Photo credit Berig, CC BY 2.5. Good man Gulli had five sons. All of them died far from home. The runestone that records their fates stood hidden for centuries, built into the walls of a church that was demolished in 1874. When workers found it in the rubble, they uncovered one of the most eloquent Viking Age epitaphs ever carved in stone. The Hogby runestone, catalogued as Og 81, tells the story of a family scattered by the ambitions of the age, brothers who sought fortune and found death in Greece, in Denmark, and in places whose names have blurred with time.

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Image: Berig | CC BY 2.5

]]> Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/6/6/s/runestones-of-h-gby-wp/u66s-runestones-of-hogby-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Runestones of Hogby: Five Brothers, Five Fates https://qualla.com/runestones-of-h-gby/ Photo credit Berig, CC BY 2.5. The inscription on the Hogby runestone reads like a saga compressed into stone. A woman named Thorgerd raised this monument for her uncle Assur, who ended his days in Grikkium, the Old Norse name for the Byzantine Empire. But the reverse side of the stone expands the tragedy. It ...

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Image: Berig | CC BY 2.5

]]> Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/6/6/s/runestones-of-h-gby-wp/u66s-runestones-of-hogby-five-brothers-five-fates.mp3 0:06 2 full Runestones of Hogby: Varangians in the East https://qualla.com/runestones-of-h-gby/ Photo credit Berig, CC BY 2.5. Assur's fate places him among the Varangians, the Scandinavian warriors who served the Byzantine emperors as elite mercenaries and personal guards. The Rundata project dates the Hogby stones to the late 10th century, making Assur one of the earliest Varangians known to have died ...

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Image: Berig | CC BY 2.5

]]> Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/6/6/s/runestones-of-h-gby-wp/u66s-runestones-of-hogby-varangians-in-the-east.mp3 0:06 3 full Runestones of Hogby: Poetry in Stone https://qualla.com/runestones-of-h-gby/ Photo credit Berig, CC BY 2.5. What sets the Hogby runestone apart is its literary quality. The epitaph for Gulli's sons is composed in fornyrdislag, the oldest Norse poetic meter, the same form used in the great heroic poems of the Edda. Carving poetry into stone required skill and cost. Someone, perhaps Thor...

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Image: Berig | CC BY 2.5

]]> Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/6/6/s/runestones-of-h-gby-wp/u66s-runestones-of-hogby-poetry-in-stone.mp3 0:06 4 full Runestones of Hogby: The Other Stones https://qualla.com/runestones-of-h-gby/ Photo credit Berig, CC BY 2.5. When the Hogby church came down in 1874, workers found fragments of additional runestones in the rubble. Og 82, in the simpler RAK style, commemorates Oyvind, son of Tosti, who owned or commanded the settlement at Hogby. Og 83, tentatively dated to the same period, was raised by ...

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]]> Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/6/6/s/runestones-of-h-gby-wp/u66s-runestones-of-hogby-the-other-stones.mp3 0:06 5 full Runestones of Hogby: Voices Across a Millennium https://qualla.com/runestones-of-h-gby/ Photo credit Berig, CC BY 2.5. Today the Hogby runestone stands where it was meant to stand, in the village that bore witness to a family's dispersal and loss. The Latin transliterations of the Old East Norse inscription can be read by scholars. The English translations make the meaning clear. But something re...

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]]> Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/6/6/s/runestones-of-h-gby-wp/u66s-runestones-of-hogby-voices-across-a-millennium.mp3 0:06 6 full