• 2015-2024close
• Open Access close
• Closed Access close
• Restricted close
• Embargo close
• Publications close
• Research data close
• Article close
• SE close
• Danish close
• Publikationer från Uppsala Universi... close
• Digital Humanities and Cultural Her... close

To comprehend better the meaning of a runic monument as a complex phenomenon it is necessary to have knowledge of its original location in relation to the surrounding environment. Our knowledge of such initial locations varies. Some runestones still stand in the place where they were first erected. In other cases, the first placement is well documented even if the runestone has been moved or indeed lost; sometimes, however, the documentation indicates only a general placement. In several instances the original location is wholly unknown. There are eighty-two known runic monuments from the late Viking Age in an area called Tiohärad in southern Sweden. For twenty-nine of these only a secondary location, mostly in or near a church, is known. Some mention bridges and eleven are known to have been located near a passage of water (which presumably also indicates the presence of a road). At least sixteen more are found near a later road, and two of these mention a crossroad. Thirteen seem to have been found near farms or villages. In many cases, the monuments could have marked ancient boundaries. Of particular interest in these instances are the examples located at boundaries that not only border two farms, but also larger administrative areas. Of the fifty-two monuments with a known location, only eighteen have any connection to grave-fields.

Runic inscriptions on Scandinavian Migration Period gold bracteates have long been considered problematic. Although many of them are readable, only a few are interpretable. One of the major questions about bracteate texts is whether they are related to the images depicted on the pieces. During the past quarter century, these inscriptions have been interpreted chiefly on the basis of Karl Hauck’s identification of the major figure depicted on bracteates as Odin. However, there are other interpretations of the pictures that may also assist our understanding of the texts. This paper examines some of these alternative explanations of bracteate imagery, with particular reference to how the objects were used and by whom, the aim being to arrive at a better understanding of the inscriptions.

How can the Danish lawn be read and interpreted through the last century? The cases vary a lot, therefore the cases reach out towards a general discussion.The investigation aims at exploring the Danish lawn in an international perspective, and lawns in landscape architecture or lawns as symbols signify critical points of view to societal matters.The present contribution explores the lawn as a central component in selected cases from 1915 till today. The modern breakthrough in the 1920s in Danish landscape architecture revitalized the lawn. Further artistic contributions in the 1950s launched the lawn in a delicate poetic edition. Only a few years later in the 1960s, the lawn signified the inhuman, industrialized suburb. The color TV in the 1980s made the lawn synonymous with commercial football and technology. In 2019, the lawn is an everyday thing, and parallelly it exists as the antonym to the ecological flower meadow – the “true” urban nature.

This article discusses an embroided skull reliquary, kept in the Diocesan Museum of the Linköping Cathedral in Sweden. It is one of four still extant similar reliquaries from Vadstena Abbey. The reliquary has previously been examined by Agnes Branting & Andreas Lindblom (Medeltida vävnader och broderier i Sverige 1928) and later discussed by Axel L. Romdahl in Fornvännen (1929) and by Carl R. af Ugglas (1935). In 2001, Inger Estham described it in a publication on textile objects in the Linköping Cathedral and suggested that it was made for the feast of the translation of Bishop Nils Hermansson in 1515. A renewed analysis of the reliquary, which takes the embroidery techniques, the loss of ornaments and the iconography into consideration, supports the assumed provenance from Vadstena Abbey. The hitherto unnoticed decoration on the lid, shaped as a typical Birgittine nun’s crown, suggests that the relics belonged to someone in the Birgittine context. Based on this observation, together with an iconographical and stilistic analysis, this article argues for a rejection of the connection between the reliquary and the translation of the Bishop Nils Hermansson. It is further suggested that the dating of the reliquary must be adjusted to a time not later than the translation feast of Katarina of Vadstena in 1489, and that it might even have originally been made to encase her skull. Birgittinska broderier (BWS)

This paper discusses the use of the term hvalf as a monument descriptor in Swedish runic inscriptions with special focus on its first appearance, connotations and historical context. The main emphasis lies on the word itself and its relationship to early Christian grave monuments (also known as Eskilstunacists). Evidence for the use of hvalf suggests that the term was employed to denote grave monuments as early as the first part of the eleventh century. Parallels in ornamentation and design link some of the Swedish funerary monuments referred to as hvalf to a small set of stones carved with Ringerike-style ornamentation in England. It is argued that these groups of carved stones indicate reciprocal influence between Scandinavian and English burial and memorial traditions.