Öpir
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Öpir or Öper (Old Norse: ØpiR/Œpir, meaning "shouter") was a runemaster who flourished during the late 11th century and early 12th century in Uppland, Sweden.[1] He was the most productive of all the old runemasters.[2]
Most early medieval Scandinavians were probably literate in runes, and most people probably carved messages on pieces of bone and wood. However, it was difficult to make runestones, and in order to master the craft you also needed to be a stonemason. During the 11th century, when most runestones were raised, there were a few people who were professional runemasters. They and their apprentices were contracted to make runestones and when the work was finished, they usually signed the stone with the name of the runemaster.[3]
Öpir had been an associate or an apprentice of the runemaster Visäte,[4] and Öpir himself was to become the most popular runemaster.[1] He has signed about 50 runestones, and an additional 50 runestones were probably made by him.[1][4] He was active mostly in southern and eastern Uppland, but there are stones made by him also in Gästrikland and Södermanland.[4]
It is a characteristic of his runestones that there is a single rune serpent in the shape of an 8.[5] Moreover, the style is characterized by elegance and control in the complex intervolutions of the rune serpents.[1]
His name Öpir was probably originally a nickname as it means "shouter", and used as his sobriquet.[1] On one of the runestones (U 485),[6] he gives his full name: OfæigR ØpiR.[1][6]
The Old Norse of Öpir was special as the h phoneme does not appear to have been part of his language, and not mastering where to use it, he is known to have added 
, the rune for the h phoneme, where it usually did not belong. Some instances of this misspelling are huaru (varu), hustr/huastr (austr or vestr), hut (ut) and Huikiar (the personal name Vigæir).[7] The loss of the initial h phoneme before vowels and its use in the beginning of words where it usually does not appear is a dialect trait still typical of Roslagen (eastern Uppland),[8] where Öpir was active.
However, recent research presents him as a consistent and careful speller with very few language errors,[2] and based on this reinterpretation of his language skills, the different ways he spelled his own name have led to a hypothesis that there were two runemasters named Öpir.[7]
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e f The article Öpir in Nationalencyklopedin(1996).
- ^ a b Runristaren Öpir begåvad konstnär, an announcement on the new dissertation by Marit Åhlén at Uppsala University., retrieved January 14, 2007.
- ^ Vilka kunde rista runor? at the Swedish National Heritage Board, retrieved January 13, 2007.
- ^ a b c The article Runristare at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities, retrieved January 13, 2007.
- ^ An article at the site of the Museum of Foteviken., retrieved January 13, 2007.
- ^ a b Rundata.
- ^ a b Herschend, Frands: UbiR, ybiR, ybir — är det U485 Ofeg Öpir. PDF, at the Department for archaeology at Uppsala University.
- ^ The article Uppland, subsection dialekter, in Nationalencyklopedin (1996).
