The next day we were taking Alice to see a pet show in the Sollentuna district of Stockholm. We changed bus at the wrong place, which meant we took a different bus to Sollentuna than we intended to.

This was quite a fortuitous accident, however, as from our seats on the bus we spotted another rune stone stood by the side of the road. Again, we hope to visit it in the summer.

The pet show was fun! Lots of animals for Alice to look at, and the people from Gunnes Gård (see links) had a stand too!

They were interested to find out I was from York, and asked about the recent flooding, and if the Coppergate site had sustained any damage.

I reassured them all was well in old Jorvik, and promised to pay them a visit in the summer. I told them about the development of the all new hi-tech Jorvik Centre, and they said they would have to pay it a visit. As a sign of good faith I bought a hat and a raven pin (see collection).

One thing struck me about the runes I had seen - they were just stood there, accessible to all. In most other countries, most certainly in England, they would have been daubed in graffitti, quite probably vandalised and possibly even stolen, but not in Sweden. Why? There is one possible explanation in the book "Fornlämningar och folkminnen" (see library).

Here Torun Zachrisson talks about the way rune stones and other monuments were once believed to be supernatural in origin, and how one was warned against damaging them, so perhaps that is why people still even now feel respect as well as awe for these ancient stones, with their centuries old messages from the Viking age.