The Viking messages unearthed on Sweden’s rune stones

Runic inscriptions from the Viking Age still turn up in Sweden 1,000 years after they were written – revealing fascinating stories of love, loss and epic battles.
A few years ago, Magnus Källström, a Swedish rune expert, travelled to a farm a few hours south of Stockholm to look at a stone covered in ancient runic writing. A farmer had found the stone in a field and had planned to use it as a doorstep until he turned it over and saw rows of ancient, twig-like signs: runes, used by Vikings around 1,000 years ago.