A Viking Age runestone for a woman in Uppsala University Park

Uppland Runic Inscription 489 (U 489) is a Viking Age memorial runestone located at the Universitetsparken (University Park) at Uppsala University in Sweden. Originally from Morby, Uppland, this stone serves as a memorial to a woman. While the husband of Gillaug, Ulfr, is not mentioned as a sponsor in the inscription, his absence from the text may be because he was dead at the time of the carving.

The runestone was shipped to the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867 alongside two other inscriptions before arriving at its current location. The carving features a cross within a serpent text band, a Christian message common in 11th-century stones. It is notably rare for a memorial runestone to be dedicated to a woman, especially one sponsored by a woman, a category that accounts for less than 1 per cent of all runestones.

Signed by the runemaster Öpir, who was active in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, the stone is carved in the Pr4 style, also known as late Urnes style. This style is characterized by slim and stylized animals interwoven into tight patterns. The animal heads are typically seen in profile with slender almond-shaped eyes and upwardly curled appendages on the noses and the necks.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons