24:49 · This cross is a symbol at the top of a runic stone cut about 200 years after the christening of Sweden. The runes were the first alphabetical writing system used by the Germanic peoples. Already about 300 A.D. the Goths' chiefs ordered the runes replaced by Wulfila's letters, but other Germanic peoples like the Angels and the Saxons used the runic writing system longer, and the Swedes longest of them all. In some places in the inner of Sweden (Dalecarlia) runes were still used for some writing at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
    There are about 1,500 runic stones in Sweden, erected from about 800 A.D. to about 1200 A.D., that is, during the Viking Age. Runic stones were memorials over friends or relatives, first erected at road crossings or the place of a death, later often erected close to churches. The text is usually hewn in a winding row, and a typical one might be: "Tjodrik erected stone over Torstein, brother his, dead fighting in eastern land."
    The stones were painted. White, red and black were the most common colours, but there were blue and brown stones too. The cuts in the stone making up the runes and other signs were filled with an orange-yellow paint.