Qualla: Hørdum stone https://qualla.com/h-rdum-stone en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 16 Sep 2026 19:42:18 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/4/n/5/h-rdum-stone-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Hørdum stone https://qualla.com/h-rdum-stone Hørdum stone: Introduction https://qualla.com/h-rdum-stone/ Photo credit Liljevej16, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1954, workmen digging at Hørdum church in northwest Jutland levered up a step stone and turned it over. On the underside, face down in the earth for something like four and a half centuries, was a boat with two figures in it. One of them has a foot driven through the bottom of the hull. The other is holding a tool, raised, as if about to use it. Whoever laid that stone as a doorstep around the year 1500 had put the most dramatic scene in Norse mythology facing into the ground, and there it stayed until a spade turned it back over.

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Image: Liljevej16 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/4/n/5/h-rdum-stone-wp/u4n5-h-rdum-stone-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Hørdum stone: What the Stone Is https://qualla.com/h-rdum-stone/ Photo credit Schorle, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Hørdum stone is a picture stone rather than a runestone - a slab carved with an image and, as far as anyone can tell, never with an inscription. It is gneiss, roughly 125 centimetres tall, about 50 centimetres across at its widest, and around 40 centimetres thick. Solid, but ...

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Image: Schorle | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/4/n/5/h-rdum-stone-wp/u4n5-h-rdum-stone-what-the-stone-is.mp3 0:06 2 full Hørdum stone: The Fishing Trip https://qualla.com/h-rdum-stone/ Photo credit Liljevej16, CC BY-SA 3.0. The scene comes from Hymiskviða in the Poetic Edda, and it is the closest thing Norse myth has to a fish story. Thor goes out in a boat with the jötunn Hymir, baits his hook with the head of an ox, and drops the line for the largest thing in the sea: Jörmungandr, the serpent that...

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Image: Liljevej16 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/4/n/5/h-rdum-stone-wp/u4n5-h-rdum-stone-the-fishing-trip.mp3 0:06 3 full Hørdum stone: Certain, and Interpreted https://qualla.com/h-rdum-stone/ Photo credit Liljevej16, CC BY-SA 3.0. It is worth being precise about what the stone actually shows. A boat, two figures, a line going down, one figure with a foot through the hull, and the second figure holding a tool - those are carved, and visible. The serpent is not. It has been suggested that the head of Jörmung...

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Image: Liljevej16 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/4/n/5/h-rdum-stone-wp/u4n5-h-rdum-stone-certain-and-interpreted.mp3 0:06 4 full Hørdum stone: The Scene They Kept Carving https://qualla.com/h-rdum-stone/ Photo credit Liljevej16, CC BY-SA 3.0. Thor and the serpent appear to have been one of the most popular subjects in Norse art. Three other monuments have been linked to the same episode: the Ardre VIII image stone from Gotland, the Altuna runestone in Uppland, and the Gosforth Cross in Cumbria - the last of these a Ch...

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Image: Liljevej16 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/4/n/5/h-rdum-stone-wp/u4n5-h-rdum-stone-the-scene-they-kept-carving.mp3 0:06 5 full Hørdum stone: Where It Stands Now https://qualla.com/h-rdum-stone/ Photo credit Liljevej16, CC BY-SA 3.0. The stone is on display inside Hørdum church, in the porch, a few steps from where it was found. There is no visitor centre and no ticket. It is a village church in Thisted Municipality, out in Thy, with the North Sea coast a short drive west and not much traffic in between. Tha...

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Image: Liljevej16 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/4/n/5/h-rdum-stone-wp/u4n5-h-rdum-stone-where-it-stands-now.mp3 0:06 6 full