Replicas of King Harald Bluetooth’s and King Gorm’s rune stones at Jelling stand next to Varde Museum in western Jutland. The replicas were donated by the merchant Cornelius Stau who, together with his wife Elisabeth, founded Varde Museum in 1912. They lived in Copenhagen but were both originally from the Varde area.

The museum building was designed by the architect Thorvald Jørgensen, who had designed Christiansborg in Copenhagen. Cornelius Stau supervised the building works and the interior design of the house himself. He also laid the foundations of the extensive collection of paintings in Varde museum. After the death of his wife, Cornelius Stau made the decision in 1918 to donate exact replicas of the two rune stones in Jelling to the museum. His wish that the donation be unveiled on his wife’s birthday, December 16th, was granted, and the imposing replicas cast by Hans Christian Berg were placed in front of the museum’s main entrance. They were later moved to their present position north-east of the museum. The Danish runologist Erik Moltke was responsible for the choice of colours of the large rune stone in the 1970s.