Ake Johansson took the picture of this beautiful rune stone carved by a rune master named Farthegn (Farthain) in Viking Age Sweden. Carved some time between 1040 and 1150 A.D., Farthegn used the Urnes rune stone style, the most popular of all Viking ornamentation styles. It is characterized by one or more snakes, often shown biting each other. Urnes is a true Scandinavian style with few influences from abroad. In the picture below, photographer Bengt. A. Lundberg zooms in to show how Farthegn carved his name. You can see at the lower right hand corner how the first element of his name, Far-, had to carved upside down. The second element, -thegn, could then continue in a more customary vertical/sideways script. Previous Page......Next page