Arlanda Airport Runestone

There are interesting runestones to be found all over Sweden, but technically you don’t have to step outside of the airport to see one in person. Visitors can see a real 11th century runestone in Terminal 2 of Stockholm Arlanda Airport. 

The runestone was discovered in 1990, while construction was being done on the motorway to Arlanda. Its inscription can be roughly translated as: “Gurnar and Björn and Thorgrim set up this stone in memory of Thorsten, their brother. He died in the east with Ingvar. And made this bridge”

Bridge-building and road-laying were popular during the early Christianization of Sweden, as the church promised that doing these tasks would clear a person’s sins and guarantee them a spot in heaven. As a result, many runestones from this era mention the building of a road or bridge. Ingvar is a character who has been mentioned on dozens of runestones, mostly found in the Mälar region of Sweden. His expedition to the east seemingly came to a disastrous end, as none of the inscriptions that mention Ingvar describe a man who returned from the journey.