Kettil Runske was, according to
Olaus Magnus
Olaus Magnus (October 1490 – 1 August 1557) was a Swedish writer, cartographer, and Catholic ecclesiastic.
Biography
Olaus Magnus (a Latin translation of his birth name Olof Månsson) was born in Linköping in October 1490. Like his elder ...
' ''
Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus
''Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus'' was a monumental work by Olaus Magnus on the Nordic countries, printed in Rome 1555. It was a work which long remained for the rest of Europe the authority on Swedish matters. Its popularity increased ...
'' (1555), the man who brought
rune
Runes are the letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, a ...
s to humankind, by stealing three
rune staffs from
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...
from which he learnt the runes. An apprentice named Gilbert defied Kettil, who punished him by throwing a rune staff at him whereby he was imprisoned. Gilbert was for a long time imprisoned in a cave on
Visingsö
Visingsö is an island in the southern half of Lake Vättern in Sweden.
Visingsö lies north of the city Jönköping and west of Gränna from which two car ferries connect the island. The island is long and wide, with a total area of .
Accor ...
in Lake
Vättern
Vättern ( , ) is the second largest lake by surface area in Sweden, after Vänern, and the sixth largest lake in Europe. It is a long, finger-shaped body of fresh water in south central Sweden, to the southeast of Vänern, pointing at the tip of ...
.
Sources
*Olaus Magnus. 1555. ''Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus''
*Ebbe Schön. 2004. ''Asa-Tors hammare''. Fält & Hässler, Värnamo, {{ISBN, 91-89660-41-2.
Runske