Parish Find Location 
Ardre

Find Location 
Ardre church, in the floor.

Find Context Classification 
Church

Coordinate Find Location (lat) 
6365669

Coordinate Find Location (long) 
722219

Present Location Classification 
Historiska Museet

Coordinate Present Location (lat) 
6581391

Coordinate Present Location (long) 
675775

Material 
Sandstone

Height 
72

Width 
50

Thickness 
6

Lindqvist Type 
E (ca. 1000-1150)

Lindqvist Shape 
Dwarf stone

Runic Inscription or not 
Yes

Runic Inscription 

Context and Discovery 
This is one of eight picture stones found in the summer of 1900, beneath the floor in Ardre church during restoration work: Ardre kyrka I–VIII (GP 15–18, 20, 21, 23). For more about the find circumstances, see GP 17 Ardre kyrka V.

Judging by the runic inscriptions, this stone, GP 20 Ardre kyrka VII (G 112), and the stone GP 23 Ardre kyrka IV (G 111) belong to the same family. They seem to have been placed side by side in the church floor, to the north-east of the large older picture stone GP 21 Ardre kyrka VIII, and they may have stood beside each other in the churchyard. In the church floor, the face with the inscription was turned upwards. However, Pipping was uncertain as to the exact situation of the stone in the church floor (Pipping 1901; GR I, p. 204).
LKÅ
GP 15 Ardre kyrka I
GP 16 Ardre kyrka II
GP 17 Ardre kyrka V
GP 18 Ardre kyrka VI
GP 21 Ardre kyrka VIII
GP 23 Ardre kyrka IV

Measurements, Material and Condition 
Limestone slab, 4.5–6 cm thick. The stone’s overall height is 0.72 m; the largest width is 0.50 m. The width of the head is 0.33 m, that of the neck 0.26 m; the height between the tip and the lower edge of the vertical border at the neck on face A is 0.29 m. The height of the runes is c. 4 cm in the head and 5 cm in the horizontal ribbon. The stone has been broken into four pieces (GR I, p. 204; Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 22).

Curved broad faces, of which face B is worn down by footsteps to such an extent that nothing can be said about a possible levelling by hewing or grinding; in contrast, face A appears to have preserved its naturally smooth surface from the neck down, but the head probably has been levelled before the rich decoration was added there. The narrow sides are hewn flat, partly with chisel marks preserved, at right angles towards the broad sides. In one place, face A is separated from the narrow side by a chamfer (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 22).

The decoration had been outlined, sketched out with scratched lines, which in the borders were then carved into grooves, 2 mm wide and 1 mm deep, with rounded base. In the head of face A, these lines typically were carved about 2–3 cm deep, at which the background field was chiselled down to about the same depth and then smoothed. In the runic inscription, some of the dots are drilled (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 22).

Judging by a photo in ATA with a signature H. A-son (possibly Hulda Andersson, photo assistant at the Swedish National Heritage Board and the Historical Museum in the 1920s to 1930s), which seems to show how the two parts of the broken stone are glued together, the stone seems to have been repaired in 1934 (Run- och bildstenssamlingen ATA).
LKÅ

Description of Ornament and Images 
The stone has carvings on both sides, face A with a runic inscription only, and face B with a border ornament and a runic serpent tied by a palmette knot.

On face A, the runic inscription starts at the lower left and follows the edge around the head of the stone; it ends with a crossing horizontal ribbon below the neck of the stone. The runes in the ribbon are upside down and are read from the right to the left.

Face B has a border ornament and a horizontal ribbon below the neck, both containing a running dog motif. The border along the edge continues below the horizontal ribbon. Where the border ends, there is an additional horizontal ribbon, but this one is only sketchily carved, and the grooves have not been deepened by subsequent carving phases. Inside the border and the upper horizontal ribbon, the surface is sunken. It contains a relief-carved dragon in runestone style with the head on the right side. The dragon’s body is entwined by tendrils of its own body, and it is tied by a palmette knot. Face A is in a more worn condition than face B, while the surface of the latter is remarkably well preserved. Probably, the stone has been lying on the ground (or floor) for awhile with face A turned upwards, exposed to treading and weathering. Some of the runes are faint or nearly erased (GR I, p. 204).

In a photo by Harald Faith-Ell in 1933, it can be seen that there is a second horizontal ribbon across the stone surface, where the border ornament ends. This ribbon is only sketch ily carved, and its groove has not been deepened by further cutting. There are carved lines on the root as well, which might indicate that this is a reused picture stone (Run- och bildstenssamlingen ATA).
LKÅ

Interpretation of the Imagery 
The dragon or serpent bound by a union knot with a palmette is a common feature in runestone art. This theme can be interpreted in a Christian context as demon powers fettered by the tree of life, expressed according to a northern 11th-century taste where the Old Norse eschatology can easily be reconciled with Christian concepts (Karlsson 1983, pp. 66, 110; Hultgård 1994, p. 290; Thrainsson 1994; Zachrisson 1998, pp. 142f., 238; Oehrl 2019).

The running dog motif appears as border ornament on several other picture stones, eg., on the B-stones GP 24 Ardre Petsarve II, GP 276 När Rikvide, GP 265 Lärbro Norder-Ire I and GP 193 Hellvi St. Ire III. GP 24 Ardre Petsarve II, as well as GP 143 Halla Broa I and GP 142 Halla Broa VII, have two horizontal ribbons. It is feasible that the carver wished to pick up elements seen on an older picture stone in the same parish, although the shape of the slab is not the same.

The size and shape, in combination with the ornament and the runic inscription, indicate that this is an early Christian churchyard monument (see GP 23 Ardre kyrka IV; GR I, p. 50; Ljung 2016 I, pp. 165, 169).

Birgit Sawyer discussed the inscription in the context of inheritance, where she pays attention to how the stone together with GP 22 Ardre kyrka IV (G 111) illustrates reverse inheritance, i.e., through the children into another family (Sawyer 1991, p. 220f.).
LKÅ
GP 24 Ardre Petsarve II
GP 276 När Rikvide (I)
GP 265 Lärbro Norder-Ire IV
GP 193 Hellvi Ire III
GP 143 Halla Broa I
GP 142 Halla Broa VII
GP 23 Ardre kyrka IV
GP 22 Ardre kyrka III

Type and Dating 
Type E, dwarf-stone. Pr3, c. 1045–1075 AD, according to the style-chronological system by Anne-Sofie Gräslund (Gräslund 2006, p. 126). Snædal includes the stone in her Ardre group, sepulchral monuments in the form of picture stones with runic inscriptions along the edge and pictorial elements in the middle (Snædal 2002, p. 67). Snædal indicates that, based on runological criteria, the runic picture stones from Ardre can be dated to 1100 to 1130 (Snædal 2002, p. 99f.).
LKÅ

References 
Pipping 1900; 1901, Brate 1902; Noreen 1904, p. 482; Lindqvist 1941/42, Fig. 155, 156, 168, 224e, II, p. 22; Snædal 2002, pp. 67, 70, 100.

Title
GP 20 Ardre kyrka VII

Jan Peder Lamm ID 
15

Statens Historiska Museer ID 
11118:VII

Lindqvist Title 
Ardre, Kirche VII

Runverket ID 
G 112