Beowulf - Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia

Figure 25. Two partly overlapping examples of regional bound preferences among runestone
erectors in the Mälar Valley. Hansson’s (1994) second family of identically designed
rune stones and prayers using the expression ‘spirit and soul’ (Herschend 1994).
tres. This pattern reflects a rune-stone ideology which says that their raison d’être is
based upon their being read at a proper place and by as many as possible of those
who ought to read them. So, a rune-stone, mentioning a þegn and standing north of
the Gudenå, does not necessarily indicate that the þegn was based there nor that
such persons were especially frequent in the area. The actual þegn may have lived
and had his estate south of the river, but for ideological reasons he or his family, the
sponsors, preferred to side with the rural centre north of the river for promotional
reasons. The Mammen complex may thus have been inspired not only by the royal
status of the person buried in the famous grave (Iversen 1991), but also by a more
general need in the area to display unification and centrality.
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