Sønder Vissing Runestone
runestone in Jutland, Denmark
Sønder Vissing I or DR 55 is a runestone located in the church of Sønder Vissing in eastern Jutland, Denmark. Sønder Vissing is a small settlement located in Horsens municipality approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Silkeborg, 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of Skanderborg and 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of the Viking monuments of Jelling.
Description
Sønder Vissing I was discovered in 1836 as part of the stone fence around the church cemetery. and became the object of a study by P. G. Thorsen published as Den Søndervissingske Runesten in 1839. It dates from the second half of the 10th century and was raised by one of Harald Bluetooth's wives Tofa after her mother. Tofa was the daughter of Mstivoj, a king of the Obodrites, and the stone is one of few runestones raised after a woman.
Danmarks Runeindskrifter considers the identification of the inscription's "Harald the Good" with Viking king "Harald Bluetooth" likely although this form of the name is not known from other sources. The actual inscription is possibly influenced by Swedish practice since the second word uses the rune "ʀ" to represent either "e" or "æ", a practice also seen on the Hobro II runestone. The connection with the Jelling stones is supported by the inscription's inclusion of a frame.
Sønder Vissing II
A second runestone, Sønder Vissing II or DR 56, was discovered as part of the pavement of the entrance to the church cemetery, also in 1836.
“Sønder Vissing Runestone” enters the record as runestone in Jutland, Denmark. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sønder, Vissing and Runestone can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2176394. Authority coordinates are 56.023, 9.642. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1836 and 1839.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sønder Vissing Runestone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.