Name: Runic Carved Stones of Skatelöv Church
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Sweden

Kronoberg

Alvesta

Runic Carved Stones of Skatelöv Church

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Sweden

Kronoberg

Alvesta

Runic Carved Stones of Skatelöv Church

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Location: Alvesta, Kronoberg, Sweden

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Lemmi alias Schlumpf

August 30, 2024

Ashlar 1 (49 cm x 59 cm) is decorated with geometric shapes. On the lower right half of the stone there are four vertical columns with 8 horizontal rows of incised squares with no differences in height. There are also triangles, a semicircle, a cross-shaped figure, the sides of which also form other patterns.

Ashlar 2 (51 cm x 57 cm) also has a cross figure, but with double diagonal lines cutting a double circle in the middle of the stone. Outside this figure there is a border of flat squares that appear dark and light because every second square is treated like on the chessboard pieces.

Ashlar 3 is interesting for its runic inscription that says:

“Bose cut the church. Bose cut the stone for Skatelövboeren Church." So here we have for the first time (?) the name of the mason who built the church. Perhaps it was also Bose who practiced his skills on the stones of Växjo, Ostra Torsás and Rydaholm?

Translated by Google •

Lemmi alias Schlumpf

August 30, 2024

Text from the information board:

"Bose carved the church. Bose carved the stone of the church of the villagers/residents of Skatelöv".

Rune-engraved rectangular carved stone from the

12th century. Rectangular building blocks with carved decoration are known from several churches in Värend, e.g. the cathedral in Växjö and the now demolished medieval church in Skatelöv. The stones have their historical background in the use of checkerboard-patterned rectangular stones in Jutland (continental European part of Denmark) and they are probably linked to the work of the so-called "byggnadshytta", i.e. the collective of artists and craftsmen who built the cathedral. In Skatelöv, the stonemason replaced the geometric pattern with plant ornamentation and animal figures.

The reason the runic inscription is so clear is that the stonemason first mistakenly scratched that he had carved the church. When he discovered the mistake, he carved the correct message that he had carved the rectangular stones of the church. The fact that he did not know the runic script is evident from the fact that he forgot to carve the rune p in the word "täljde" (carved) and therefore had to add it as a correction above the word talhi. The rune sequence skatma kirkiu means either the church of the residents in the parish of Skatelöv or the church of the residents of the village of Skatelöv. The male name Bose does not appear in any other Swedish runic inscriptions, but it does appear in some Danish ones. During the Middle Ages the name was found in the southern part of Sweden and Denmark. It is therefore possible that Bose was the name of a Jutland stonemason who created the rectangular stones decorated with carvings.

As he was probably associated with the cathedral in Växjö, the stones can be dated to the end of the 12th century.

Translated by Google •

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Elevation 150 m

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Monday 22 September

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Location: Alvesta, Kronoberg, Sweden

Runic Carved Stones of Skatelöv Church

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