Rök Runestone
Encyclopedia
The Rök Runestone is one of the most famous runestones, featuring the longest known runic
inscription in stone. It can now be seen by the church in Rök
(between Mjölby and Ödeshög, close to the E4
and Lake Vättern
and Tåkern
), Östergötland
, Sweden
. It is considered the first piece of written Swedish literature
and thus it marks the beginning of the history of Swedish literature.
The name "Rök Stone" is something of a tautology
: the stone is named after the village, "Rök", but the village is probably named after the stone, "Rauk" or "Rök" meaning "skittle-shaped stack/stone" in Old Norse
.
The stone is unique in a number of ways. It contains a fragment of what is believed to be a lost piece of Norse mythology
. It also makes a historical reference to Ostrogoth
ic king (effectively emperor of the western Roman empire) Theodoric the Great
. It contains the longest extant pre-Christian runic inscription - around 760 characters, and it is a virtuoso display of the carver's mastery of runic expression.
The inscription is partially encrypted
in two ways; by displacement and by using special cipher runes
. The inscription is intentionally challenging to read, using kenning
s in the manner of Old Norse skald
ic poetry, and demonstrating the carver's command of different alphabets and writing styles (including code). The obscurity may perhaps even be part of a magic ritual.
of the runes:
This is a transcription
of the runes in early 9th century Old East Norse (Swedish and Danish) dialect of Old Norse
:
This is a transcription
of the runes in the classic 13th century Old West Norse (Norwegian and Icelandic) dialect of Old Norse
:
, and the part about Theoderic is written in the fornyrðislag meter. (See alliterative verse
for an explanation of these meters.)
, Gunnr
and the Norse god
Thor
, the people and mythological creatures mentioned are unknown to us. Some interpretations have been suggested:
The two war-booties are likely to be two precious weapons, such as a sword and a shield or a helmet. Several stories like these exist in old Germanic poems.
The Hreidgoths
mentioned are a poetic name for the Ostrogoth
s, appearing in other sources. To what sea the name Hreiðsea referred is unknown. Considering the location of the Ostrogoths at the time of Theoderic, it should be a name for the Mediterranean.
The part about Theodoric (who died in 526 A.D.) probably concerns the statue
of him sitting on his horse in Ravenna
, which was moved in 801 A.D. to Aachen
by Charlemagne
. This statue was very famous and portrayed Theodoric with his shield hanging across his left shoulder, and his lance extended in his right hand. The Mærings is a name for Theodoric's family. According to the old English Deor
poem from the 10th century, Theodoric ruled the "castle of the Mærings" (Ravenna) for thirty years. The words about Theodoric may be connected to the previous statement, so the stone is talking about the death of Theodoric: he died approximately nine generations before the stone was carved, and the church considered him a cruel and godless emperor, thus some may have said that he died for his guilt. The dead person may just as well be someone else though.
Gunnr whose "horse sees fodder on the battlefield" is presumably a Valkyrie
(previously known from Norse mythology), and her "horse" is a Wolf. This kind of poetic license is known as kenning
in the old Norse poetry tradition.
The story about the twenty kings says that the twenty were four groups of five brothers each, and in each of these four groups, all brothers shared the same names, and their fathers were four brothers (4 x 5 = 20). This piece of mythology seems to have been common knowledge at the time, but has been totally lost. The Sjólund is similar to the name given to Roslagen
by Snorri Sturluson
but it has often been interpreted as Sjælland (nowadays a part of Denmark
).
Starting with the Ingold-part, the text becomes increasingly hard to read. While the first part is written in the 16 common short-twig runes in the younger fuþark, Varin here switches over to using the older 24-type elder fuþark and cipher runes
. It has been assumed that this is intentional, and that the rows following this point concerns legends connected specifically to Varin and his tribe.
After the word It is Vélinn ... follows the word Nit. This word is yet uninterpreted, and its meaning is unclear.
In the last line, the carver invokes the god Thor and then he says that Sibbi "of the shrine" got a son at the age of ninety. Since Thor is evoked before telling about Sibbi's connection with the sanctuary and his potency at old age, it may be a recommendation that being a devout worshipper is beneficial.
Runic alphabet
The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...
inscription in stone. It can now be seen by the church in Rök
Rök
Rök is a parish located in Östergötland, Sweden. It is mostly known for being the location where the Rök Runestone is kept....
(between Mjölby and Ödeshög, close to the E4
European route E4
European route E 4 passes from north to south through Sweden from the border with Finland, total length . The Finnish part lies entirely within Tornio in northern Finland, and is actually only long...
and Lake Vättern
Vättern
Vättern is the second largest lake in Sweden, after Lake Vänern and the sixth largest lake in Europe. It is a long, finger-shaped body of fresh water in south central Sweden to the southeast of Vänern pointing at the tip of Scandinavia....
and Tåkern
Tåkern
Lake Tåkern is a lake in Östergötland County, Sweden. It is considered one of northern Europe's foremost bird lakes. It is 12 km long and 8 km wide, with an average depth only 0.8 metres . The lake lies around 20 km west of Mjölby, bordering in the west to Omberg. The whole lake, with the...
), Östergötland
Östergötland
Östergötland, English exonym: East Gothland, is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden in the south of Sweden. It borders Småland, Västergötland, Närke, Södermanland, and the Baltic Sea. In older English literature, one might also encounter the Latinized version, Ostrogothia...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. It is considered the first piece of written Swedish literature
Swedish literature
Swedish literature refers to literature written in the Swedish language or by writers from Sweden.The first literary text from Sweden is the Rök Runestone, carved during the Viking Age circa 800 AD. With the conversion of the land to Christianity around 1100 AD, Sweden entered the Middle Ages,...
and thus it marks the beginning of the history of Swedish literature.
About the stone
The stone was discovered built into the wall of the church in the 19th century and removed from the church wall a few decades later. The church was built in the 12th century, and it was common to use rune stones as building material for churches. The stone was probably carved in the early 9th century, judging from the main runic alphabet used ("short-twig" runes) and the form of the language. It is covered with runes on five sides, all except the base part that was to be put under ground. A few parts of the inscription are damaged, but most of it remains readable.The name "Rök Stone" is something of a tautology
Tautology (rhetoric)
Tautology is an unnecessary or unessential repetition of meaning, using different and dissimilar words that effectively say the same thing...
: the stone is named after the village, "Rök", but the village is probably named after the stone, "Rauk" or "Rök" meaning "skittle-shaped stack/stone" in Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
.
The stone is unique in a number of ways. It contains a fragment of what is believed to be a lost piece of Norse mythology
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
. It also makes a historical reference to Ostrogoth
Ostrogoth
The Ostrogoths were a branch of the Goths , a Germanic tribe who developed a vast empire north of the Black Sea in the 3rd century AD and, in the late 5th century, under Theodoric the Great, established a Kingdom in Italy....
ic king (effectively emperor of the western Roman empire) Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , regent of the Visigoths , and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire...
. It contains the longest extant pre-Christian runic inscription - around 760 characters, and it is a virtuoso display of the carver's mastery of runic expression.
The inscription is partially encrypted
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
in two ways; by displacement and by using special cipher runes
Cipher runes
Cipher runes, or cryptic runes, are the cryptographical replacement of the letters of the runic alphabet.-Preservation:The knowledge of cipher runes was best preserved in Iceland, and during the 17th and the 18th centuries, Icelandic scholars produced several treatises on the subject...
. The inscription is intentionally challenging to read, using kenning
Kenning
A kenning is a type of literary trope, specifically circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and later Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry...
s in the manner of Old Norse skald
Skald
The skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
ic poetry, and demonstrating the carver's command of different alphabets and writing styles (including code). The obscurity may perhaps even be part of a magic ritual.
Inscription
This is a transliterationTransliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
of the runes:
- aft uamuþ stonta runaR þaR n uarin faþi faþiR aft faikion sunu sakum| |mukmini þat huariaR ualraubaR uaRin tuaR þaR suaþ tualf sinum uaRin| |numnaR t ualraubu baþaR somon o umisum| |monum ' þat sakum onart huaR fur niu altum on urþi fiaru miR hraiþkutum auk tu miR on ub sakaR raiþ| |þiaurikR hin þurmuþi stiliR flutna strontu hraiþmaraR sitiR nu karuR o kuta sinum skialti ub fatlaþR skati marika þat sakum tualfta huar histR si kunaR itu| |uituoki on kunukaR tuaiR tikiR suaþ o likia ' þat sakum þritaunta huariR tuaiR tikiR kunukaR satin t siulunti fiakura uintur at fiakurum nabnum burnR fiakurum bruþrum ' ualkaR fim ra=þulfs| |suniR hraiþulfaR fim rukulfs| |suniR hoislaR fim haruþs suniR kunmuntaR fim (b)irnaR suniR * nuk m--- (m)-- alu --(k)(i) ainhuaR -þ... ...þ ... ftiR fra sagwm| |mogmeni (þ)ad hOaR igOldga OaRi gOldin d gOonaR hOsli sakum| |mukmini uaim si burin| |niþR troki uilin is þat knuo knati| |iatun uilin is þat (n)(i)(t) akum| |mukmini þur sibi uiauari ul niruþR
This is a transcription
Transcription (linguistics)
Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with...
of the runes in early 9th century Old East Norse (Swedish and Danish) dialect of Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
:
This is a transcription
Transcription (linguistics)
Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with...
of the runes in the classic 13th century Old West Norse (Norwegian and Icelandic) dialect of Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
:
Translation
The following is one translation of the text: most researchers agree on how the runes shall be deciphered, but the interpretation of the text and the meaning is still a subject of debate. The first part is written in ljóðaháttr meterMeter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
, and the part about Theoderic is written in the fornyrðislag meter. (See alliterative verse
Alliterative verse
In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal structuring device to unify lines of poetry, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of alliterative verse are those found in the oldest literature of many Germanic...
for an explanation of these meters.)
- In memory of Vémóðr/Vámóðr stand these runes.
- And Varinn coloured them, the father,
- in memory of his dead son.
- I say the folktale / to the young men, which the two war-booties were, which twelve times were taken as war-booty, both together from various men.
- I say this second, who nine generations ago lost his life with the Hreidgoths; and died with them for his guilt.
- Þjóðríkr the boldLegends about Theodoric the GreatThe Gothic King Theodoric the Great was remembered in Germanic legend as Dietrich von Bern . Dietrich figures in a number of surviving works, and it must be assumed that these draw on long-standing oral tradition...
, - chief of sea-warriors,
- ruled over the shores of the Hreiðsea.
- Now he sits armed
- on his Goth(ic horse),
- his shield strapped,
- the prince of the Mærings.
- I say this the twelfth, where the horse of GunnrGunnrGunnar or Gunner is a valkyrie in Norse mythology. Her name means "battle" and is cognate with the English word "gun". She rode a wolf and took part in selecting the dead warriors together with two other Valkyries in order to bring them to Valhalla....
sees fodder on the battlefield, where twenty kings lie.
- This I say as thirteenth, which twenty kings sat on Sjólund for four winters, of four names, born of four brothers: five Valkis, sons of Hráðulfr, five Hreiðulfrs, sons of Rugulfr, five Háisl, sons of Hôrðr, five Gunnmundrs/Kynmundrs, sons of Bjôrn.
- Now I say the tales in full. Someone ...
- I say the folktale / to the young men, which of the line of Ingold was repaid by a wife's sacrifice.
- I say the folktale / to the young men, to whom is born a relative, to a valiant man. It is Vélinn. He could crush a giant. It is Vélinn ... [Nit]
- I say the folktale / to the young men: ÞórrThorIn Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
. Sibbi of Vé, nonagenarian, begot (a son).
Theodoric Strophe
Interpretation
Apart from the mentioned TheodoricLegends about Theodoric the Great
The Gothic King Theodoric the Great was remembered in Germanic legend as Dietrich von Bern . Dietrich figures in a number of surviving works, and it must be assumed that these draw on long-standing oral tradition...
, Gunnr
Gunnr
Gunnar or Gunner is a valkyrie in Norse mythology. Her name means "battle" and is cognate with the English word "gun". She rode a wolf and took part in selecting the dead warriors together with two other Valkyries in order to bring them to Valhalla....
and the Norse god
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
Thor
Thor
In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
, the people and mythological creatures mentioned are unknown to us. Some interpretations have been suggested:
The two war-booties are likely to be two precious weapons, such as a sword and a shield or a helmet. Several stories like these exist in old Germanic poems.
The Hreidgoths
Reidgotaland
Reidgotaland, Hreidgotaland or Hreiðgotaland was a land in Scandinavian sagas as well as in the pre-Viking English Widsith, which usually referred to the land of the Goths...
mentioned are a poetic name for the Ostrogoth
Ostrogoth
The Ostrogoths were a branch of the Goths , a Germanic tribe who developed a vast empire north of the Black Sea in the 3rd century AD and, in the late 5th century, under Theodoric the Great, established a Kingdom in Italy....
s, appearing in other sources. To what sea the name Hreiðsea referred is unknown. Considering the location of the Ostrogoths at the time of Theoderic, it should be a name for the Mediterranean.
The part about Theodoric (who died in 526 A.D.) probably concerns the statue
Statue
A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...
of him sitting on his horse in Ravenna
Ravenna
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...
, which was moved in 801 A.D. to Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
by Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
. This statue was very famous and portrayed Theodoric with his shield hanging across his left shoulder, and his lance extended in his right hand. The Mærings is a name for Theodoric's family. According to the old English Deor
Deor
"Deor" is an Old English poem found in the late 10th century collection the Exeter Book. The poem consists of the lament of the scop Deor, who lends his name to the poem, which was given no formal title. Modern scholars do not actually believe Deor to be the author of this poem.In the poem, Deor's...
poem from the 10th century, Theodoric ruled the "castle of the Mærings" (Ravenna) for thirty years. The words about Theodoric may be connected to the previous statement, so the stone is talking about the death of Theodoric: he died approximately nine generations before the stone was carved, and the church considered him a cruel and godless emperor, thus some may have said that he died for his guilt. The dead person may just as well be someone else though.
Gunnr whose "horse sees fodder on the battlefield" is presumably a Valkyrie
Valkyrie
In Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who decides who dies in battle. Selecting among half of those who die in battle , the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin...
(previously known from Norse mythology), and her "horse" is a Wolf. This kind of poetic license is known as kenning
Kenning
A kenning is a type of literary trope, specifically circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and later Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry...
in the old Norse poetry tradition.
The story about the twenty kings says that the twenty were four groups of five brothers each, and in each of these four groups, all brothers shared the same names, and their fathers were four brothers (4 x 5 = 20). This piece of mythology seems to have been common knowledge at the time, but has been totally lost. The Sjólund is similar to the name given to Roslagen
Roslagen
Roslagen is the name of the coastal areas of Uppland province in Sweden, which also constitutes the northern part of the Stockholm archipelago....
by Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
but it has often been interpreted as Sjælland (nowadays a part of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
).
Starting with the Ingold-part, the text becomes increasingly hard to read. While the first part is written in the 16 common short-twig runes in the younger fuþark, Varin here switches over to using the older 24-type elder fuþark and cipher runes
Cipher runes
Cipher runes, or cryptic runes, are the cryptographical replacement of the letters of the runic alphabet.-Preservation:The knowledge of cipher runes was best preserved in Iceland, and during the 17th and the 18th centuries, Icelandic scholars produced several treatises on the subject...
. It has been assumed that this is intentional, and that the rows following this point concerns legends connected specifically to Varin and his tribe.
After the word It is Vélinn ... follows the word Nit. This word is yet uninterpreted, and its meaning is unclear.
In the last line, the carver invokes the god Thor and then he says that Sibbi "of the shrine" got a son at the age of ninety. Since Thor is evoked before telling about Sibbi's connection with the sanctuary and his potency at old age, it may be a recommendation that being a devout worshipper is beneficial.
Speculation
There have been numerous speculations written about the stone and its purpose. The most common include:- Varinn carved the stone only to honour his lost son and the inclusion of mythical passages was a tribute from fantasy (Elias Wessén's theory). There is strong evidence to support this view, not the least being the fact that ThorThorIn Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
is referenced; this use of a deity in this context is quite conceivably a prefiguration of what was to later become a common practice (anterior to Christianity), where graves were frequently inscribed with runic dedications such as þórr vigi, "may Thor protect you". - Varinn carved the stone to raise his tribe to vengeance over the death of his son. The dramatic battle mentioned may have been the cause of his son's death. (Otto von FriesenOtto von FriesenOtto von Friesen was a linguist, runologist and professor of the Swedish language at Uppsala University from 1906-1935. He was also a member of the Swedish Academy from 1929-1942, serving in Chair 9....
's theory) - Varinn carved the stone to preserve the tribal myths, as he had the function of a thulThyleA Thyle, was a position of the court associated with Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon royalty and chieftains in the Early Middle Ages with the duty of determining truth of public statements.. Most literary references are found in Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon literature like the Hávamál, where Odin...
, the ceremonial story-teller of his ættNorse clansThe Scandinavian clan or ætt was a social group based on common descent or on the formal acceptance into the group at a þing.-History:...
(clan), and this retelling task was to be passed on to his son. Perhaps he feared that the stories could be lost because of the death of his son, and therefore he tried to preserve them in a short form in the stone. - The stone was a sign to strengthen the position of the tribe leader (since the stone could not be missed by anybody passing the land). He tries to justifiy his position by showing a long line of powerful ancestors which he follows.
- The battle field where twenty kings lie, has been connected (at least by Herman Lindkvist) to the Battle of Brávellir which in Norse mythology took place not far from the location of the Rök stone about 50 years earlier.
- According to a theory put forward by Åke OhlmarksÅke OhlmarksÅke Joel Ohlmarks was a Swedish author, translator and scholar of religion.He worked as a Lecturer at the University of Greifswald from 1941 to 1945...
, Varinn was the local chieftain and as such also the one who performed sacrifices to the gods. Then arrived AnsgarAnsgarSaint Ansgar, Anskar or Oscar, was an Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. The see of Hamburg was designated a "Mission to bring Christianity to the North", and Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North".-Life:After his mother’s early death Ansgar was brought up in Corbie Abbey, and made rapid...
, the first to bring Christianity to Sweden, and the wife of Varin's son Vémóðr/Vámóðr was baptized by him. Therefore, Varinn was forced to sacrifice his own son to the gods as indicated in the verse: "I say the folktale / to the young men, which of the line of Ingold was repaid by a wife's sacrifice" (the word "husl" can be interpreted both "sacrifice" and "baptism"). Shortly: Vémóðr/Vámóðr paid with his life for his wife's betrayal to the gods and Varinn had to kill his own son. That might also be the reason that Varinn used the word "faigian" (who is soon to die) instead of "dauðan" (dead) in the first line.
Sources
- Bugge, Sophus: Der Runenstein von Rök in Östergötland, Schweden, Stockholm 1910
- von Friesen, OttoOtto von FriesenOtto von Friesen was a linguist, runologist and professor of the Swedish language at Uppsala University from 1906-1935. He was also a member of the Swedish Academy from 1929-1942, serving in Chair 9....
: Rökstenen, Uppsala 1920 - Grönvik, OttarOttar GrønvikOttar Nicolai Grønvik was a Norwegian philologist and runology scholar.He was a lecturer from 1959 and associate professor from 1965 to 1986, at the University of Oslo. His doctorate thesis which earned him the dr.philos. degre in 1981 was Runene på Tunesteinen...
: Runeinnskriften på Rökstenen in Maal og Minde 1983, Oslo 1983 - Gustavson, Helmer: Rökstenen (produced by RiksantikvarieämbetetRiksantikvarieämbetet-External links:*...
), Uddevalla 2000, ISBN 9171928227 - Jansson, Sven B F: Runinskrifter i Sverige, Stockholm 1963, 3rd edition in 1984
- Rydberg, Viktor: Om Hjältesagan å Rökstenen, Stockholm, 1892; translated as "The Heroic Saga on the Rökstone" by William P. Reaves, The Runestone Journal 1, Asatru Folk Assembly, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9797188-0-09.
- Schück, Henrik: Bidrag till tolkningen af Rökstenen in Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, Uppsala 1908
- Ståhle, Carl Ivar and Tigerstedt, E N: Sveriges litteratur. Del 1. Medeltidens och reformationstidens litteratur, Stockholm 1968
- Wessén, Elias: Runstenen vid Röks kyrka, Stockholm 1958