The Raised Stones

Abstract

The spectacular raised stone north of the St Óláfr’s Church at Avaldsnes, the so called Jomfru Marias synål (Virgin Mary’s Sewing Needle), is the most prominent preserved prehistoric monument at the site. Before its height was reduced c. 1840 from approximately 8.3 metres to the present 7.2 metres, it was the tallest in Scandinavia – the others rarely surpass 5 metres. A similar stone, about 6.9 metres tall, is known to have stood on the southern side of the church until the early 19th century. A 12th–15th-century runic inscription on one of the two stones was described in 1639 but has not been identified since. The stones were mentioned by Snorri in Heimskringla, and have received copious scholarly attention from the 17th century onwards. In this chapter, the existing evidence is reassessed, and the original number of raised stones at Avaldsnes, their sizes, and the location of the runic inscription are discussed. With the aim of arriving at a probable date and original number of stones, the monument is compared to stone settings in the same region and elsewhere in Scandinavia. It is concluded that the runic inscription was likely incised on the southern stone, which was severely damaged in 1698 and finally was taken down in the early 19th century. Probably, the two existing stones were originally corners in a triangular stone setting – a monument of the 3rd–6th centuries AD. An assumed third stone would have stood in the southeast and would probably have been removed prior to the mid-17th century, possibly around 1300 when masonry buildings were erected there. The stones were raised in the period when a hall building was erected and prestigious graves were entombed in Flaghaug, one of the two Bronze Age mounds at Avaldsnes. All four monuments were situated along the eastern edge of the Avaldsnes settlement plateau, evidently to communicate the site’s past and present prominence to those who sailed the Norðvegr.