With the exception of the extensive king's barrows near the church at Old Upsala in Sweden, which in size may be compared to the barrows of Gorm and Thyre, at Jelling, in Denmark, and thus may justly be reckoned among the most remarkable monuments of the North, which are formed of earth, the barrows of Sweden, as has already been mentioned, are strikingly low. Hence they include only in single instances any large structures of stone or wood. In this particular they differ from the barrows of Norway, which, if they consist of earth, are, taken as a whole, more extensive, both as regards their internal and external arrangements. They not unfrequently cover several wooden structures, in which many and valuable antiquities are placed. This is particularly the case with the Norwegian cairns. In general, however, the resemblance between the tombs of Norway and Sweden is very obvious. The same low round quadrangles, triangles, and ship-like barrows, surrounded with stones, as well as the standing stones, are found in these two neighbouring kingdoms. Among the monuments of antiquity were formerly reckoned a peculiar kind of large stones, which are so placed on the edges of rocks that they may be made to shake merely by the strength of the arm, without losing their equilibrium; hence they are usually called Rocking-stones, (Rokkestene.) Several such have been discovered at Bornholm, and in great abundance in Norway and some parts of Sweden. They were formerly considered to have been heathen altars or oracles. It is now, however, believed that they are merely rolled stones, which, from various natural causes, have been loosened from the rocks, and have acquired such a position that they can be shaken without falling down.
The barrows of Sweden and Norway have not only a peculiar external form, but as regards their contents they are essentially different from the Danish barrows. The latter usually contain antiquities of the stone and bronze period, which is never the case with those of Sweden and Norway, since they, almost without exception, contain antiquities of the
