Hagby Runestones

The Hagby Runestones are four runestones that are raised on the courtyard of the farm Hagby in Uppland, Sweden. They are inscribed in Old Norse using the Younger Futhark and they date to the 11th century. Three of the runestones (U 153, U 154 and U 155) are raised in memory of Varangians who died somewhere in the East, probably in Kievan Rus'.

In 1929/30, they were discovered in the walls of the basement of the farm Litzby, which stood a few hundred metres from Hagby, but which burnt down in the 1880s. The runestones were burnt and fragmented but it was possible to piece 120 fragments together into the four runestones that are found on the courtyard of Hagby today.

There are additional runestones on the property of Hagby, and notably U 143, which is treated in the article Uppland Rune Inscriptions 101, 143 and 147, and U 148, which is treated in the article Jarlabanke Runestones.

U 152
This runestone is raised by a lady named Holmfríðr who had lost both her husband Björn and their son Sighvatr. The inscription is classified as being in runestone style Pr4, also known as the Urnes style. This runestone style is characterized by slim and stylized animals that are interwoven into tight patterns. The animals heads are typically seen in profile with slender almond-shaped eyes and upwardly curled appendages on the noses and the necks.

U 153
This runestone is raised by the same Sveinn and Ulfr as on the U 155, below, which is probably the other runestone mentioned in the inscription. They had them made in memory of their brothers Halfdan and Gunnarr who died somewhere in the East, as Varangians. It has been suggested that the words after east may be either "in Greece" or "in Garðar (Kiev)," but a fracture in the runestone prevents any actual reading of these runes. This inscription is classified as being in runestone style Pr3, which is also a Urnes style.

U 154
This runestone is also raised in memory of Varangians who died somewhere in the east, but these are different people from those in the previous runestone and in the following one. U 154 is classified as being carved in runestone style Pr3.

U 155
This runestone is raised by the same Sveinn and Ulfr as U 153, above. This stone adds the names of Örn and Ragnfríðr, the parents of the four brothers.

Other sources

 * Rundata
 * The article Hagby gård on the site of the local heritage society of Täby, retrieved June 27, 2007.