Travels to Identity

Viking Rune Carvers of Today

Abstract

This text deals with the phenomenon of today's rune carvers in the Nordic area. By using symbols of antiquity in their craftsmanship, the rune carvers revive an act that is historically significant and bears aspects of identity in the past as well as today. Why do people carve and erect runes stones today? When and where is it done? What are the explicit or implicit purposes? The text tries to answer these questions by elucidating the role of a past society in todays world. It is obvious that the rune carving is mainly done in the Nordic area, but the ideas emanating from the Viking Age are also spread all over the world, as the rune stones are also erected in other countries, for example in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Canada. The identity project is mainly about creating an individual lifestyle. It is concluded that the past plays an important role in connecting people and supporting small-scale perspectives, crafts and sustainable development in harmony with the past. The act of carving and erecting rune stones today is a form of travel to identiry.