Fig. 287.—Stone axe with earlier runes; ⅔ real size.—Upland.
Fig. 288.—Earlier runic inscription discovered (1872) on a perpendicular bluff 20 feet high and about 200 feet from the shore, at Valsfjord, Fosen, North, Throndhjem. The runes are carved in a perpendicular line from the bottom up. Hardly anything is left of the letters. The Runes; 1
15 real size.
The deeds of warriors were recorded on runic staves:—
Örvar-Odd, when very old, desired to revisit the scenes of his childhood, where a Völva had foretold him that his death would be caused by the head of the horse Faxi, at his birthplace, Hrafnista. When he arrived there he walked around on the farm, and his foot struck the skull of a horse, and a viper came out of it and bit him in the leg.
“He suffered so much from this wound that they had to lead him down to the shore. When he got there he said: ‘Now you must go and hew a stone coffin for me, while some shall sit at my side and carve that song which I will compose about my deeds and life.’ Then he began making the song,[[152]] and they carved it on a tablet,[[153]] and the nearer the poem drew to its end, the more the life of Odd ebbed away” (Orvar Odd’s Saga; Fornaldar Sögur. p. 558).
Fig. 289.—Stone, with earlier runes, height over 6 feet.—Krogstad, Upland.
Fig. 290.—Earlier runes on granite block. About 10 feet high, 4 feet 11 inches at widest part, and 9 inches thick.—Tanum, Bohuslän, Sweden.