The Jelling Stone: Viking Rune Stone in Denmark

On many trips to Denmark I have taken the time to track down mysterious relics of the Viking Age.

One of those is a rune stone in Jelling, set up by Harold Bluetooth, commemorating his parents and the end of the Pagan Age in Denmark and of course the beginning of the Christian Age.

Translations vary, but the stone has this inscription, carved in runes, on it: King Harold had this stone carved in honor of Gorm, his father, and Thyra, his mother, the same Harold who conquered Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian.

Thus, as I stood in front of the stone itself, and traced the runes with my fingers, I could touch a monument created as one religion faded, that of the Old Norse, and another started, at least in Denmark. I stood and could see the words and the images that those Danes carved as they let slip their old religion, as they let it fade into the past. Today we know some things about Norse gods, we have stories about their pantheon, but we know relatively little about the day-to-day activities of the worshipers.

The Jelling stone has more than runes, though. It has the carving of Jesus in the center. But it is a Norse Jesus. By that I mean that the style is very northern and pre-medieval. The head is stylized and the beard too, pointing down in a triangle. Jesus stands with his arms out stretched to the side, as if he is on the cross. But there is not a cross. Wrapped around his arms and intertwining behind him is a large snake. The snake is coiled in a pattern familiar to lovers of Nordic art, reminiscent of Celtic patterns. Symbolically, Jesus is drawn in terms of the indigenous religion.

There are other drawings on the stone, and another, smaller rune stone stands there.

Mounds like this are dotted all over the rural landscape in Denmark. Although you cannot go inside the mound at Jelling, often the rock lined rooms and passages of smaller mounds are open to the public. The Jelling mounds are notable for their size. They must be 100 feet tall.

Any traveler to Denmark at all interested in the Vikings or archaeology has to visit the little town of Jelling.