Factoid of the day

Picked this one up from the previously noted college lecture: The rune stones often had their inscriptions colored red, and written in poetry.

many of the runestones were raised in memory of those died in various battles.

more at wikipedia

The most common paints were red ochre, red lead, soot, calcium carbonate, and other earth colors, which were bound with fat and water. It also appears that the Vikings imported white lead, green malachite and blue azurite from Continental Europe.[59] By using an electron microscope, chemists have been able to analyse traces of colors on runestones, and in one case, they discovered bright red vermilion, which was an imported luxury color. However, the dominating colors were white and red lead