En runsten som gravsten

This well done runestone and to that, gravestone
is the first stone I made on Adelsö. The year was 1998

Unlike my other runestones this one is raised on a beach cemetery over "beloved mother and father". It's probably the first runestone that were raised over a deceased in nearly 900 years.

Historical background:
Many of our old ´runestones are memorial stones over deceased relatives and friends. They were raised on "easy to see" locations nearby the farms or directly on the burial grounds where the forefathers are buried.

In change between viking- and medieval- age (beginning of the 12th century) the tradition of carving runestones lives on. But now much indicates that they raised there runestones on the graveyards instead, where the forefathers lie after the introduction of Christianity. If this is true, this means that the oldest gravestones in fact are runestones.