This study deals with runic carvings as a monument. Through map studies I try to locate runic carvings near water and other remains from the viking age. Previous research has put their focus on the inscription and not as much on the monument itself. The monument stands there in the landscape and communicates with its own appearance. During the Viking Age, communication by waterways was important as the roads on land were not the best. The starting point for this study was a waterway from the Baltic Sea to Mälaren through Södermanland county in Sweden. This waterway consists of several lakes and smaller streams. This study is an attempt to investigate and discuss the possible role of runic carvings along Viking Age water communication routes.

Runstenarna i Sollentuna följer ungefär samma mönster som de i resten av Uppland vad gäller fördelning av vilka som reste stenarna och till vilkas minne. Därför är det självklart att förhållandena var också det samma vad gäller arvsmönster, där bakarv, delade arv och kvinnliga arvingar var ett vanligt inslag. Av de 83 runstenssponsorer som syns på ristningarna var 67 (80 %) män och 16 (20 %) kvinnor. Av de 44 runinskrifter där man kan tydligt se antalet sponsorer så hade 18 (40 %) en sponsor och 26 (60 %) flera. Av de 67 ihågkomna var 55 (82 %) män och 12 (18 %) kvinnor. De utlandsfärder som gjordes av Sollentunabor gick i österled, tydligen främst till Grekland och det tycks ha funnits minst en släkt som ordnade dessa expeditioner som bodde i området, kanske fler. Runstenarnas placering visar också att det redan på vikingatiden stod en kyrka i Spånga och en i Ed. De antyder också att när folk valde var de skulle resa sina runstenar, speciellt de större och mer påkostade verken, så brukade man välja de platser även tidigare generationer hyllat sina döda. Mot slutet av perioden förvandlades runstenen till slut till en variant av den kristna gravstenen. Förutom att hylla sina döda släktingar var runstenarna också ett sätt att stärka sin egen ställning i samhället, genom att visa upp vem man var släkt med och som ett sätt framhäva sin rätt att ärva egendomar och även titlar och makt. Brostenarna och de stenar som nämner utlandsfärder visar på några mäktiga och rika släkter inom området. Om man också ser brobyggandet som en form av avlat är de också ett tecken på kristendomens genombrott. / Uppland is the most runestone dense region in Scandinavia and Sollentuna is no exception to this.The goal of this paper is to analyse the inscriptions on the runestones found in Sollentuna härad andthrough them discuss society and familial relationships at the time. Comparisons of the material in Sollentuna to research done on runestones in other areas are done. As runestones are generally Christian monuments they also provide information on the spread of Christianity in the late Vikingage. Their positioning may also provide hints regarding the locations of the earliest churches in the area. They are also considered a tool to assert rights of inheritance and thus also provide informationon the rules of inheritance at the time they were made. Finally, a few of them mention expeditions abroad and provide some information regarding the destinations of these travels as well. Considering the large number of runestones in the area, it is likely that the erection of runestones was popular among most land owning people. Some runic inscriptions are much larger than the others and it is likely that their sponsors wished this to reflect their wealth, prestige and power.

The raising of the runestones occurred during a complex period related to Christianity´s establishment in Scandinavia. The breaking point between the old Nordic and Christian religion has often been treated as clear-cut. Defining a period or material culture into one or the other religion is too simple and becomes problematic when a previously established (worldview) religion has been alive and permeated throughout society. This paper aims to illustrate the complexity of this period by studying runestones in Södermanland with pagan symbols. The runestones will be examined together with their context.

The purpose of this thesis is to get more knolwledge on a detailed level about places with runestones in close connection with a stone ship in the province of Södermanland. The knowledge touches upon questions how these places were created but also questions about why they were created through the theoretical perspective of cognitive archeology. The thesis starts with dicussing a possibly new discovery of an original stone setting for the runestone from Sannerby, Årdala parish SÖ 319, that was moved from Sannerby in the 18´th century. The thesis will argue that this original stone setting is possibly, by the author, a discovered stone ship. Further twelve places have been investigated in the landscape with or/that have had a runstone in close connection to a stone ship. One main result in the investigation is that almost all these places are in connection with a grave field and two places are also by tradition named as a local ting. These last mentioned two places have also erected flat stones while the other stone ships are built with low rounded stones.  The thesis further shows how and why these places were built, on a cognitive map with symbols in three different themes. The theme of symbols of religion will show that people were much affected by the change of religion from pagan religion to Christianity, and this could express a conflict in the society. The second theme is symbols that express social hierarchy and statements of power, and it expresses high social and economic status with aristocratic farmers who could afford to travel abroad. And the possible importance of language on a high level in the material of the poetic type of runestone texts. The third and final theme is symbols that expresses the marking of a place, one's territory, and the theses suggest that some of these places were created to express the runestones sponsors right to their inheritance, even if the deceased died abroad. But because there was a conflict of religion in the society the close connection to a stone ship could possibly mean that the sponsors of the runestone maybe needed the authority of an older type of monument to prove their right to inheritance. Because not everyone in their local society would accept a Christian runestone as a legal act.

Runristningen på Malstastenen, där både förfäder och marker redovisas, har tolkats som ett uttryck för odal. Runstenar och hur de relaterar till odal är uppsatsens genomgående tema. Uppsatsens primära källmaterial är Malstastenen. Studien avgränsas till Rogsta socken, norra Hälsingland och järnåldern. För att belysa odalsystemets relationella bindningar, kommer ett för detta forskningsfält nytt teoretiskt och metodologiskt perspektiv att introduceras, entanglement. Analysen visar att odalsystemet genomgår en kris när Skandinavien kristnas. Kyrkan tar nu över själavården och motsätter sig det hedniska gravskicket hög. Här uppstår ett brott i odalssystemet. För att återkoppla den döde till odalsystemet restes istället runstenar som ett substitut till gravhögar. Uppsatsens tolkning av de senvikingatida runstenarna kan eventuellt förklara den stora ökning av kristna runstenar som då sker i Skandinavien. / The runic inscription on the Malsta runestone contains accounts of ancestors and lands and is interpreted as an expression of odal. Runestones and their connection to odal is the overall theme of this thesis. The primary source material is the Malsta runestone. The study is delimited to Rogsta Parish, northern Hälsingland and the iron age. To fully understand the relational connections within the odal system, a new theoretical and methodical approach will be introduced to the odal research field, entanglement. In the analysis a crisis in the odal system is detected, instigated by the Christianization of Scandinavia. As the church takes over the care of the dead and opposes the heathen burial mounds, a rift in the odal system appears. To reconnect the dead to the odal system, runestones are erected as a substitute for burial mounds. The thesis interpretation of the late Viking age runestones might also explain the sudden raise of Christian runestones during this period.