Type: Stone with legend about church bells
Local name: Klokksteinen, Påssåhaugen

Locality
County: Trøndelag
Municipality: Levanger
Location: «Påssåhaugen», Øverlandet, Eide, Ytterøya

The stone is located on the vicarage land next to the road, about 300 meters west of Prestgården, 100 meters east of Øverlandet.

Description
This is a memorial stone placed on top of the remains of a burial cairn. It is about 1.90 meters tall and has a runic inscription, now heavily overgrown and difficult to decipher. The stone also has seven cup marks.

Cultural history and tradition
The name Klokkesteinen comes from a legend that says that the stone turns when the church bells are rung.

Earlier, the stone was called Påssåhaugen. Lorentz D. Klüwer writes in 1823 that the stone stands next to a huge mound with this name. The mound had already been excavated, but the stone had retained the name of the mound. Klüver writes: “Old legends say that a person by the name of Paassaa was killed and buried here”. The runes, from the runic alphabet Younger Futhark, indicate that the stone was erected as a burial monument in the Late Iron Age. The cup marks are difficult to date with certainty. The interpretation that they were used as sacrificial bowls can be excluded with a stone standing upright like this. Perhaps the cup marks in this case were caused by people hitting the stone for the sake of the sound?

Sources: Lorentz D. Klüwer: Norske Mindesmærker aftegnede paa en Reise igjennem en Del af det Nordenfjeldske [Norwegian Monuments]. Christiania 1823, p. 74; Aud Beverfjord: “Historien om en bautastein” [The story about a memorial stone], in Spor 2, 2000, pp. 18–19. (Also printed in Årbok for Levanger historielag, 2001, pp. 25–29.); Blad-grønt no 4/2001, p. 12.

Photo: Google Maps and Visit Innherred
Drawing: Kalle Sognnes, p. 19 i Aud Beverfjord’s article.