Andvett - Sweden

Meet Andvett, who can tell you about the last great Viking expedition.

"Andvett and Kar and Blase and Djarv raised this stone in memory of Gunnlev, their father.  He was killed travelling east with Ingvar, God help their soul.  I, Alrik, carved the runes.  He could steer a knarr well"

With these lines, Andvett and his brothers honoured the memory of their father Gunlev, who died in Ingvar the Far- Travelled's Viking raid east.   They had Alrik carve the runes and raised the stone in a place where many travellers would pass by.

The Ingvar expedition is one of the first more or less historically proven events in Sweden.  The small
population meant that most people were affected somehow,  directly or indirectly, by the failure of
perhaps as many as 1,000 sons, fathers and brothers to return from this expedition  This was probably a social and economic disaster and a dominant topic of conversation on the farms for many years.

The pictures and description of Andvett are an attempt to show what a man in Viking times would have looked like and how he would have lived.

See film and hear about Andvett and Varpsund  at   www.vikinguppsala.se