Kyrklig norm huggen i sten: runstenarnas trosbekännelse

There are no preserved ecclesiastical records of a legal nature from Scandinaviaduring the extended Viking Age (AD 725−1125). All we knowof what the Christian Church decreed is what we can infer from extentsources, and from this period the only original and indigenous texts arewritten on runic memorial stones. On these are found over a thousandChristian symbols (mostly crosses) and some pictorial representations,but also many hundreds of prayers. The beliefs revealed by the runicinscriptions have generally been considered to be of a rather primitivekind, i.e. manifestations of first-generation Christians. A closer studyof the prayers reveals this conclusion to be wrong. By comparing theircontents with that of the two main creeds, the Apostles’ and the Nicene,it becomes evident that almost all of the established tenets of faith wereknown to runestone-time Christians in Scandinavia. It is possible thatother statutes of the medieval church may be discerned through the sametype of study, one so to say in reverse, where reflected norms are detectedand their actual practice is understood