Runestone Carver of Gotland

✦ Your Soul Summary ✦

You carved runestones for the families of the dead — the memorial stones that stood at roads and bridges and on hillsides across the island — and you understood this work as both artisanal and sacred. Every stone required weeks: the initial sketch in charcoal, the careful cutting, the painting in ochre and black. The families came and watched sometimes, and you talked about the person who had died, gathering words for the inscription. You were the last person who thought carefully about them, and you knew it.