Popular belief holds the Norse as empty headed warriors, lacking the availability of complex forms of communication that is often attributed to other civilizations. Runestones pose a significant obstacle to this mindset, working much like billboards do today.  This runestone dating to the 11th century comes from Morby Sweden in Uppland, situated on the eastern coast of Sweden near the Baltic Sea. The cross on the stone accompanied by runes and a design of the Urnes style display the homogenizing effect of Norse and Christian European relations in the late Viking Age, as culture and religion began to blend between the two competing powers.¹  Runestones served a multitude of purposes from a media for public boasting to religious purposes. This particular inscription is a memorial and reads, “Gullög made this bridge for her daughter Gillög’s soul, who was wife of Ulf. Öpir cut the runes.”²  The fact that the stone is dedicated to a woman by a woman shows that the raising of runestones was not solely an androcentric practice.
Although there is much debate over the extent to which the Norse population could read runes, the placement of runestones along roads and main areas of traffic suggests some form of widespread literacy.³  The straight simplistic nature of runes makes them conducive to engraving with a knife, lending them to more common usage. Knives were a tool that would have been carried by nearly every Norse man, woman, and child at the time. Further, the easy to render aspect of runes allowed them to be carved into nearly any surface. The more formal use of runes on runestones allowed for public display of ideas, and lent the words of the stone creator a certain credibility. Runestones allowed the Norse to communicate efficiently to a broad audience.

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