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Runic inscription:
Åsbjörn ... _ ... *Gunnelv had (the stone
erected) for Åsulv, his father.
Runecarver:
Young Ärnfast
Ornamentation
Runestone U 40 is an early runestone in
Ärnfast's career as a rune carver and he experiments with
the details of the motif. I believe his earliest carvings
are those shown below.
In addition to the details in the motifs,
there is also something in the runic inscription that is a
bit unique to Ärnfast. He often skips entire words that the
reader knows should be there anyway to save work and space.
You can read more about this under
U 14 >
The motif on this runestone U 40 is two dragons connected by
their necks instead of just one dragon's neck and tail as is
usual. It is a shame that the upper part of the runestone is
missing because I would like to see how Ärnfast solved the
body design on the limited surface.
I suspect the dragons share the same body.
How can I guess that's the case?
Well, later in Ärnfast's career, when he has
created an ornamentation that he is satisfied with, he
repeats it on several runestones such as
U 43,
U 47,
U 51 and
U 79.
U 51 Lovö kyrka
On these runestones it is clear that he has
no problem with letting the dragon's neck tuft transform
into a snake. What I see there is that Ärnfast is not locked
into depicting the natural 100% but allows himself great
artistic freedom.
This means that with this artistic freedom, he might as well
let the two heads on this runestone U 40 share the same
body. Right or wrong, we will see the day when the missing
fragments are found.
Visit the runestone
When I finally found the runestone, I was sad
because it simply looked like it had been dumped by the
ditch among dirt and tall grass. The runestone was far from
visitor-friendly and not worth seeing. How did it end up
there?
I was last there in 2015. I will update
the website if the situation has improved (or worsened).
Museum!
We really need a museum in Ekerö municipality.
Sigtuna has its museum, Hässelby has its own and many others
too. Ekerö municipality needs its own museum, not only for
all the runestone fragments but also for much more that
needs to be displayed and at the same time be protected.
This runestone needs to be taken care of in some way and if
we find any of the lost fragments hiding nearby, they should
be mounted on the runestone or stored at our future "Ekerö
museum".
Links
Upplands runinskrifter > Page
53
(Swedish only)
Runor > Riksantikvarieämbetet
(National Antiquities Board, mostly Swedish)
Google map >
Find the runestone
Google
map > Its original location
ALL
RUNESTONES
Ekerö
municipality
ADELSÖ >
has 5
known runestones
BIRKA >
has fragments from 9 known
runestones
MUNSÖ >
has 3 or
4 known runestones
EKERÖ >
has 11 known runestones
FÄRINGSÖ
>
has 27 known runestones
LOVÖ >
has 8 known runestones
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