Yggdrasil · Humankind

Ravnunge-Tue: Recognizing the Hand Behind the Runes

A Danish rune carver who signed two stones and, researchers argue, probably cut the great Jelling stone.

Myth and literature

The story

Direct evidence for the signed stones; Archaeological interpretation for the Jelling attribution. Two stones in Jutland carry the name of a man called Ravnunge-Tue, and they are set apart here on purpose.

On the stone at Læborg, Tue says he cut the runes in memory of Thyra, whom he calls his queen. The stone also carries two carved hammers. At Bække, a stone names Tue together with two others, Fundin and Gnyple, as the three who made Thyra’s mound. These are statements the carvers made about themselves.

In 2023 researchers at the National Museum of Denmark scanned a group of rune stones in three dimensions and compared the tool marks in the grooves, much as one might compare handwriting. They concluded that the same hand probably cut the large Jelling stone. Nothing on the Jelling stone names him. That link is a conclusion drawn from comparison.

Myth and literature · Context

What we know, and what we do not

What is recorded: two stones, at Læborg and Bække, name a carver called Tue with the by-name Ravnunge, and both speak of a Thyra. Four stones in all name a Thyra: the two at Jelling, Læborg and Bække. The Læborg stone has two hammers. The 2023 museum study compared tool marks on 3D scans and reported that the Jelling carving matches Tue’s Læborg work. The museum’s runologist, Lisbeth Imer, is quoted as saying there can be little doubt that Thyra is the same woman on these stones.

What is not recorded: any signature on the Jelling stone, the carver’s life, or who he served. Whether the Thyra at Læborg is Queen Thyra of Jelling is debated: Thyra was a common name, and “queen” in the Viking Age could also mean wife or mistress, as the Viking Ship Museum notes. The match between tool marks and a carver is an inference, strong in the researchers’ view but not a signed fact. The hammers show the carver used a Thor symbol, not what he believed.

Historical evidence

The evidence

The Læborg stone stands in Læborg church, about 6 km south of Bække, and probably once stood by the Ancient Road. The Viking Ship Museum page calls it the fourth known stone linked to Ravnunge-Tue, gives no date, and records two Thor’s hammers carved on it. It reads, in sense, that Tue had the runes cut in memory of his wife or queen Thyra.

The Bække stone was found in 1807 in the churchyard embankment, moved to the church in 1858 and to its present spot in 1923; its first site is unknown. VisitDenmark paraphrases its three bands as naming Tue, Fundin and Gnyple as the people who raised a burial mound for Thyra, and says that, if it honours the queen of Jelling, it dates to about 925.

The National Museum of Denmark’s 2023 study, reported in the journal Antiquity and by HeritageDaily, used 3D scans of seven stones from mid-western Jutland, including Bække 1 and 2, Læborg and the two Jelling stones. The closest match to the Jelling carving was Læborg, about 30 km away. Weathering stopped the team confirming his hand on the smaller Jelling stone.