Öpir
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Öpir or ''Öper'' (
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
: ''Øpiʀ''/''Œpir'', meaning "shouter") was a
runemaster A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones. Description More than 100 names of runemasters are known from Viking Age Sweden with most of them from 11th-century eastern Svealand.The article ''Runristare'' in ''Nationalencyklo ...
who flourished during the late 11th century and early 12th century in
Uppland Uppland () is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. On the small uninhab ...
,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
.The article ''Öpir'' in ''
Nationalencyklopedin ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia, initiated by a favourable loan from the Government of Sweden of 17 million Swedish kronor in 19 ...
'' (1996).
He was the most productive of all the old runemasters''Runristaren Öpir begåvad konstnär'', an announcement on the new dissertation by Marit Åhlén at Uppsala University.
retrieved January 14, 2007.
and his art is classified as being in the highly refined
Urnes style Viking art, also known commonly as Norse art, is a term widely accepted for the art of Scandinavian Norsemen and Viking settlements further afield—particularly in the British Isles and Iceland—during the Viking Age of the 8th-11th centurie ...
. p. 197.


Work

During the 11th century, when most runestones were raised, the small number of professional runemasters and their
apprentices Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
were contracted to make runestones. When the work was finished, the stone was usually signed with the name of the runemaster.Vilka kunde rista runor?
at the Swedish National Heritage Board, retrieved March 3, 2015.
Öpir had been an associate or an apprentice of the runemaster
Visäte Visäte (Old Norse: ''Víseti'', ''Véseti'') was a runemaster who was active during the last half of the eleventh century in southern Uppland, Sweden. Work Most early medieval Scandinavians were probably literate in runes, and most people probabl ...
.The article ''Runristare'' at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities
retrieved January 13, 2007.
He has signed about 50
runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...
s, and an additional 50 runestones were probably made by him. He was active mostly in southern and eastern Uppland, but there are stones made by him also in
Gästrikland Gästrikland () is a historical province or ''landskap'' on the eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Uppland, Västmanland, Dalarna, Hälsingland and the Gulf of Bothnia. Gästrikland is the southernmost of the Norrland provinces. Other form ...
and
Södermanland Södermanland ( or ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latin form ''Sudermannia'' or ''Sudermania'', is a historical province or ''landskap'' on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västmanla ...
. It is a characteristic of his runestones that there is a single rune serpent in the shape of an 8.An article
at the site of the
Foteviken Museum The Foteviken Museum ( sv, Fotevikens Museum) is an archaeological open-air museum on the Höllviken peninsula in southern Skåne, Sweden. It contains a reconstruction of a large Viking Age settlement and a "viking reservation", and visitors pa ...
, retrieved January 13, 2007.
Moreover, the style is characterized by elegance and control in the complex intervolutions of the rune serpents. His name Öpir was probably originally a nickname as it means "shouter," and used as his
sobriquet A sobriquet ( ), or soubriquet, is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another, that is descriptive. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym, as it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name, without the need of expla ...
. On one runestone, U 485 in Marma,Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
-
Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base ( sv, Samnordisk runtextdatabas) is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way f ...
.
he gives his full name: Ofæigʀ Øpiʀ.


Language and runes

The
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
of Öpir was special as the ''h''
phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
does not appear to have been part of his
language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
, and not mastering where to use it, he is known to have added , the
Younger Futhark The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet and a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, with only 16 characters, in use from about the 9th century, after a "transitional period" during the 7th and 8th centuries. The r ...
rune for the ''h''
phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
, 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''). The loss of the initial ''h'' phoneme before
vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s and its use in the beginning of words where it usually does not appear is a
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
trait still typical of
Roslagen Roslagen is the name of the coastal areas of Uppland province in Sweden, which also constitutes the northern part of the Stockholm archipelago. Historically, it was the name for all the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea, including the eastern par ...
(eastern Uppland), where Öpir was active. However, recent research presents him as a consistent and careful speller with very few language errors, 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.


Signed inscriptions

With the question regarding whether there was more than one runemaster named Öpir, one scholar accepted the following 46 signed inscriptions as being made by Öpir: Sö 308 in Vid Järnavägen, U 23 in Hilleshögs, U 36 in Svartsjö Djurgård, U 104 in Eds, U 118 in Älvsunda, the now-lost U 122 in Järva Krog, U 142 in Fällbro, the now-lost U 168 in Björkeby, U 179 in Riala, U 181 in Össeby-Garn, U 210 in Åsta, U 229 in Gällsta, the now-lost U 262 in Fresta, U 279 in Skälby, U 287 and U 288 in Vik, U 307 in Ekeby, the now-lost U 315 in Harg, U 462 in Prästgården, U 485 in Marma, U 489 in Morby, U 541 and U 544 in Husby-Lyhundra, the now-lost U 565 in Ekeby Skog, U 566 in Vällingsö, U 687 in Sjusta, U 880 in Skogstibble, U 893 in Högby, U 898 in Norby, U 922 and now-lost U 926 in
Uppsala Cathedral Uppsala Cathedral ( sv, Uppsala domkyrka) is a cathedral located between the University Hall of Uppsala University and the Fyris river in the centre of Uppsala, Sweden. A church of the Church of Sweden, the national church, in the Lutheran tra ...
, U 961 in Vaksala, U 970 in Bolsta, U 973 in Gränby, the now-lost U 984 in Ekeby, U 993 in Brunnby, U 1034 in Tensta, U 1063 in Källslätt, U 1072 in Bälinge, U 1100 in Sundbro, U 1106 in Äskelunda, U 1159 in Skensta, U 1177 in Hässelby, U Fv1948;168 in Alsike, U Fv1976;107 at Uppsala Cathedral, and the now-lost Gs 4 in Hedesunda.
Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base ( sv, Samnordisk runtextdatabas) is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way f ...
lists three additional inscriptions: U 896 in Håga and U 940 in Uppsala, both of which have text stating that Öpir "arranged the runes," and U 1022 in Storvreta. It has been suggested that these three inscriptions represent works from the beginning of Öpir's career. Another inscription that listed by Rundata, Sö 11 in Gryts, is indicated as being signed by a second person named Öpir.


Possible identification with Russian priest

A record of Упирь (''Upir′'') appears in a document dated 1047 AD. It is a colophon in a manuscript of
the Book of Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
written by a priest who transcribed the book from
Glagolitic The Glagolitic script (, , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessalonica. He and his brother Saint Methodius were sent by the Byzan ...
into
Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...
for the
Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...
ian Prince
Vladimir Yaroslavovich Vladimir Yaroslavich (russian: Владимир Ярославич, Old Norse ''Valdamarr Jarizleifsson''; 1020 – October 4, 1052) reigned as prince of Novgorod from 1036 until his death. He was the eldest son of Yaroslav I the Wise of Kiev b ...
. The priest writes that his name is "''Upir′ Likhyi'' " ( Упирь Лихый), which would mean something like "Wicked Vampire" or "Foul Vampire." This apparently strange name has been cited as an example of surviving
paganism Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...
and/or of the use of nicknames as personal names. However, in 1982, Swedish Slavicist Anders Sjöberg suggested that "Upir′ likhyi" was in fact an Old Russian transcription and/or translation of the name of Ofeigr Öpir.Pop Upir' Lichoj and the Swedish rune-carver Ofeigr Upir. Scando-Slavica, Volume 28, Issue 1 1982, pp. 109-124. Sjöberg argued that Öpir could possibly have lived in Novgorod before moving to Sweden, considering the connection between Eastern Scandinavia and Kievan Rus' at the time. This theory is still controversial, although at least one Swedish historian, Henrik Janson, has expressed support for it.


Gallery

Image:U 104, Ed.jpg, The cast copy of U 104, one of the Greece Runestones Image:U 142, Fällbro.JPG, Runestone U 142 is one of the
Jarlabanke Runestones The Jarlabanke Runestones ( sv, Jarlabankestenarna) is the name of about 20 runestones written in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark rune script in the 11th century, in Uppland, Sweden. They were ordered by what appears to have been a chiefta ...
and is signed by Öpir. Image:Uppland_rune_inscription_489.jpg, Runestone U 489 is signed by Öpir. Image:Uppland_Rune_Inscription_933.jpg, Runestone U 933 is attributed to Öpir. Image:Vaksalastenen.jpg, The
Vaksala Runestone The Vaksala Runestone, designated as U 961 under the Rundata catalog, is a Viking Age memorial runestone that is located close to Vaksala Church, near Uppsala, Sweden. Description The Vaksala Runestone is one of the approximately forty runestone ...
(U 961) is signed by Öpir. Image:U 1014, Ärentuna.JPG, Runestone U 1014 is attributed to Öpir.


Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Opir Runemasters Year of birth unknown 11th-century Swedish people 12th-century deaths 12th-century Swedish people