page_title: Greece runestones
section_title: Sö 85
hierarchical_section_title: Greece runestones / The runestones / Södermanland / Sö 85
caption_attribution_description: Runestone Sö 85 in the garden of the farm Västerby near Tumbo church, in Södermanland, Sweden. This is a picture of an archaeological site or a monument in Sweden, number Tumbo 42:1 in the RAÄ Fornsök database.
context_page_description: The Greece runestones are about 30 runestones containing information related to voyages made by Norsemen to the Byzantine Empire. They were made during the Viking Age until about 1100 and were engraved in the Old Norse language with Scandinavian runes. All the stones have been found in modern-day Sweden, the majority in Uppland and Södermanland. Most were inscribed in memory of members of the Varangian Guard who never returned home, but a few inscriptions mention men who returned with wealth, and a boulder in Ed was engraved on the orders of a former officer of the Guard.
  On these runestones the word Grikkland appears in three inscriptions, the word Grikkar appears in 25 inscriptions, two stones refer to men as grikkfari and one stone refers to Grikkhafnir. Among other runestones which refer to expeditions abroad, the only groups which are comparable in number are the so-called "England runestones" that mention expeditions to England and the 26 Ingvar runestones that refer to a Viking expedition to the Middle East.
  The stones vary in size from the small whetstone from Timans which measures 8.5 cm × 4.5 cm × 3.3 cm to the boulder in Ed which is 18 m in circumference.
context_section_description: Runestone Sö 85 (location) is a runestone in style KB that measures 1.23 m (4 ft 0 in) in height. The granite stone was discovered at a small brook, but in 1835 the runestone was destroyed. Some pieces were brought to Munkhammar and Mälhammar where they were used for the construction of fireplaces. Seven remaining pieces were brought to Västerby in 1855 in order to be protected by a fence, but when a scholarly enquiry took place in 1897, only four pieces remained. An association of local antiquarians arranged so that the four remaining parts could be reassembled at Västerby.
  Latin transliteration:
  : ansuar : auk : ern... ... [: faþur sin : han : enta]þis : ut i : krikum (r)uþr : —...unk——an——
  Old Norse transcription:
  Andsvarr ok Ærn... ... faður sinn. Hann ændaðis ut i Grikkium ... ...
  English translation:
  "Andsvarr and Ern-... ... their father. He met his end abroad in Greece. ... ..."
caption: Runestone Sö 85
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