Meadows Runestones
The 12 runestones the Meadows holds, about 641 words of them, in the order the game numbers them. Read together rather than one at a time in the dark, they stop being flavour and start being an account.
Lore: Boars
This land is hard and wild but we who are brought here are harder still. Take comfort, traveller, in the gifts before you, the good wood and stone, the fruits and flowers of the forest.
Look also to the wild boar who roam these lands. They fear fire and the hand of man but they can be taught to obey it. Go quietly to them and let them eat of your stock. Roots of the ground are their pleasure.
Runestone 2
Where the grass grows underfoot
And the sky is blue overhead
There will always be a hearth and a home
Runestone 3
Long ages past, when the Allfather Oden united the worlds, he threw down the Vanir, the giants and those creatures older than any others. The greatest of them could not be killed but were instead Forsaken, exiled here to Valheim for eternity.
When they tread the earth, the lesser creatures jump like crumbs on a drumskin. You will know them when you see them.
Runestone 4
Give thanks to Frey for the rain and sun
For the shoots that break the earth's skin
And the fruits of the vine
Give thanks to Oden for the flesh and bone
The smoke from the cooking fire, the warm pelt
And the strength of your arm
Runestone 5
Hold, traveller, and bear witness to my warning. We are many who have come before you, carried here by Oden's will to do his work. The path ahead is hard and the dangers great. If you hold your life dear, keep to these meadows and make your dwelling away from the trees. Fear the Horned One and the creatures he will send against you.
Runestone 6
Heed these words of Ulf, a poor settler in a strange land. You will find here good stone and wood, all you need to build a house. You will need to craft a roof to keep out the rain. Then you will need walls to stop the roof from falling down. Finally, you must have a door or it will be much harder to go in and out.
These things Ulf has learned for himself. Now he writes them on this stone to help others. Pray to Oden for his soul.
Runestone 7
I was Astrid, a shieldmaiden of the forest. I know nothing of my life before I came here but my arm remembers the sword and my eyes see the course of the arrow. Now the raven guides me and I fight the great beasts in Oden's name.
Runestone 8
Blue-eyed shufflers in muck, the neck are small lizards native to Valheim. Surly and mean-spirited, they will attack on sight and must be destroyed like vermin. They stay near water because the creatures of the land loathe and abhor them.
Yet no creature is all bad. Their tails are delicious.
Runestone 9
Sisters and brothers of the shield-wall, lift up your hearts! You are the greatest warriors, chosen by the Allfather himself for your courage and valor. Now death has brought you to a land where you can remake yourselves in battle and toil, winning favor and honor from the Gods! Leave your memories to rot in Midgard along with your sins, the finest part of you is here!
Runestone 10
On this spot a tree fell on my head and I cursed the Gods. So I leave this stone in praise of them, that they might forgive my reckless words.
Runestone 11
Pause, traveler. You are well come to the last and most lawless of the Ten Worlds. In Valheim, the air is pure, the water deep and clear and the forests overflowing with bounty. Here is adventure, joy and glory for the taking!
Runestone 12
A full belly
A full sail
The weight of a spear to your hand
And a song on your lips
Let all the mountains crumble
And the seas boil to salt
One day in the sun is a life well-lived.
These 12 stones are what Valheim chose to write down about the Meadows, and reading them in one sitting is not something the game lets you do — they are scattered by the world generator, so your world shows them to you in whatever order you happen to walk. The text is Iron Gate's own, in your language, reproduced in full rather than summarised.
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Meadows lore
Where do you find runestones in the Meadows?
They are placed by the world generator, so there is no fixed spot — but every one of the 12 the Meadows holds is reproduced above, so you do not have to find them to read them.
Do runestones do anything besides tell a story?
No. Reading one records it in your compendium and nothing else — no buff, no unlock, no map marker. They exist to be read, which is why having them all on one page costs you nothing in the game.
How many runestones are there in the Meadows?
12 here, running to roughly 641 words of text. That is the whole of what the game says about this place in its own voice, gathered into one page rather than scattered across a map you would have to re-walk to read.
Are the runestones translated?
Yes — Iron Gate wrote them and ships them in 9 languages, and this page reproduces whichever one you are reading in rather than paraphrasing the English. A summary of a runestone would be strictly worse than the runestone, so nothing here is rewritten.
Do runestones have to be read in order?
No, and in play you will not find them in one. They are placed by the world generator, so the 12 in the Meadows arrive one at a time and usually at a bad moment. Read together they make a continuous account of the people who were here before you, which is the order this page puts them in.