Italy runestones and Langbarðaland

Guðlaug had the stones raised in memory of Holmi, her son. He died in Lombardy.

Guðlaug let ræisa stæina at Holma, sun sinn. Hann do a Langbarðalandi. 

-- Old Norse transcription of "U 141" runestone (see image)
 
Apparently his mother requested that two runestones be carved and erected in honor of her son who died while serving in the Byzantine "Varagian Guard."

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The Italy runestones with English translation
 
BirkaViking
 
The Italy runestones with English translation from the Scandinavian runic-text database.

The young men who applied for a position in the Varangian guard were not uncouth roughnecks, as in the traditional stereotype, but instead, it appears that they were usually fit and well-raised young warriors who were skilled in weapons. They were the kind of warriors who were welcome as the elite troops of the Byzantine Emperor, and who the rulers of Kievan Rus requested from Scandinavia when they were under threat.

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Italy runestones (Wikipedia)

The Italy Runestones are three or four Varangian Runestones from 11th-century Sweden that talk of warriors who died in Langbarðaland ("Land of the Lombards"), the Old Norse name for Italy. On these rune stones it is southern Italy that is referred to (Langobardia), but the Rundata project renders it rather anachronistically as Lombardy (see the translations of the individual stones, below).

The rune stones are engraved in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark, and two of them are found in Uppland and one or two in Södermanland.

Langbard duchies Spoleto and Benevento in blue

The memorials are probably raised in memory of members of the Varangian Guard, the elite guard of the Byzantine Emperor, and they probably died while fighting in southern Italy against the local Lombard principalities or the invading Normans. Many of their brothers-in-arms are remembered on the 28 Greece Runestones most of which are found in the same part of Sweden.

The young men who applied for a position in the Varangian guard were not uncouth roughnecks, as in the traditional stereotype, but instead, it appears that they were usually fit and well-raised young warriors who were skilled in weapons. They were the kind of warriors who were welcome as the elite troops of the Byzantine Emperor, and who the rulers of Kievan Rus' requested from Scandinavia when they were under threat. 


Interpretations

Johan Peringskiöld (d. 1720) considered the Fittja stone and the Djulefors stone to refer to the Lombard migration from Sweden, whereas Celsius (1727) interpreted them in a strikingly different manner. He noted that the name Longobardia was not applied to Italy until after the destruction of the Kingdom of the Lombards in 774. He claimed that the kingdom had been taken over by Varangians from Byzantium in the 11th and 12th centuries, and noted that in Barbarossa's campaign in Italy there were many Scandinavian warriors. The stones would have commemorated Swedish warriors who died in Barbarossa's war. This view was also espoused by Brocman (1762) who considered Holmi to have died in the 12th century for either the Byzantine Emperor or ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.

von Friesen (1913) noted that it is not Lombardy in northern Italy that is intended, but Langobardia in southern Italy, which was ruled by the Byzantine Emperor during the 11th century. The Greeks had to fight several battles against the Normans in southern Italy during the mid-11th century. It is likely that Holmi, who is mentioned on two stones, took part in these battles as a member of the Byzantine Emperor's elite unit, the Varangian Guard, since they use a name based on the Greek name for the region.

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It would be curious to know what contact may have occurred between the Vikings and the Langbard Kingdom, since the kingdom's demise and the start of what is considered the "Viking Age" were only a few years apart. It's also possible that, since these warriors probably died in Southern Italy, the location was in the southern Langobard duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. These two states continued on after Langbard was destroyed by Charlemagne. These Vikings likely had been Christianized by this time, as this was the on the verge of or past the point of the Viking Age. They had been brought into the Christian fold.

Inga raised this stone in memory of Óleifr, her son. He ploughed his stern to the east, and met his end in the land of the Lombards.

Inga ræisti stæin þannsi at Olæif sun sinn. Hann austarla arði barði ok a Langbarðalandi andaðis.

-- Old Norse transcription of "Sö 65" runestone (see image)

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