page_title: England runestones
section_title: U 539
hierarchical_section_title: England runestones / Uppland / U 539
caption_attribution_description: a runestone
context_page_description: The England runestones is a group of about 30 runestones in Sweden which refer to Viking Age voyages to England. They constitute one of the largest groups of runestones that mention voyages to other countries, and they are comparable in number only to the approximately 30 Greece Runestones and the 26 Ingvar Runestones, of which the latter refer to a Viking expedition to the Middle East. They were engraved in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark.
  The Anglo-Saxon rulers paid large sums, Danegelds, to Vikings, who mostly came from Denmark and Sweden who arrived to the English shores during the 990s and the first decades of the 11th century. Some runestones relate of these Danegelds, such as the Yttergärde runestone, U 344, which tells of Ulf of Borresta who received the danegeld three times, and the last one he received from Canute the Great. Canute sent home most of the Vikings who had helped him conquer England, but he kept a strong bodyguard, the Þingalið, and its members are also mentioned on several runestones.
  The vast majority of the runestones, 27, were raised in modern-day Sweden and 17 in the oldest Swedish provinces around lake Mälaren.
context_section_description: This runestone is located at the church of Husby-Sjuhundra. It is one of the older runestones as it is in the style RAK. It is raised in memory of Sveinn who intended to go to England but died en route in Jutland. Omeljan Pritsak comments that Sveinn probably died in the Limfjord, Jutland, as the fjord was usually the starting point for campaigns against England. Jansson dates Svein's death to 1015, when Canute the Great's great invasion fleet had been assembled in the Limfjord, a fleet that had many young warriors from Uppland. When the fleet departed for England, Sveinn was no longer aboard.
  The hope that God and God's mother would treat the man better than he deserved is an expression that appears on several runestones, and it is not understood as an expression of his having a bad character but it is a request that he should be favoured in the afterlife.
  Latin transliteration:
  A tiarfʀ × uki × urika × uk ' uiki × uk × iukiʀ × uk × kiʀialmʀ × þiʀ bryþr × aliʀ × litu × risa ×
  B stin þina × iftiʀ × suin × bruþur × sin × saʀ × uarþ × tuþr a × iut(l)ati × on skulti
  C fara × til × iklanþs × kuþ × ialbi × (o)ns × at uk salu × uk| ×| kus muþiʀ × betr × þan an karþi til
  Old Norse transcription:
  A Diarfʀ ok Orøkia ok Vigi ok Iogæiʀʀ ok Gæiʀhialmʀ, þæiʀ brøðr alliʀ letu ræisa
  B stæin þenna æftiʀ Svæin, broður sinn. Saʀ varð dauðr a Iutlandi. Hann skuldi
  C fara til Ænglands. Guð hialpi hans and ok salu ok Guðs moðiʀ bætr þan hann gærði til.
  English translation:
  A "Djarfr and Órœkja and Vígi and Jógeirr and Geirhjalmr, all of these brothers had"
  B "this stone raised in memory of Sveinn, their brother. He died in Jútland. He meant to"
  C "travel to England. May God and God's mother help his spirit and soul better than he deserved."
caption: Side C of U 539.
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