Öpir

Öpir or Öper (Old Norse: Øpiʀ/Œpir, meaning "shouter") was a runemaster who flourished during the late 11th century and early 12th century in Uppland, Sweden. He was the most productive of all the old runemasters and his art is classified as being in the highly refined Urnes style.

During the 11th century, when most runestones were raised, the small number of professional runemasters and their apprentices were contracted to make runestones. When the work was finished, the stone was usually signed with the name of the runemaster.

Öpir had been an associate or an apprentice of the runemaster Visäte. He has signed about 50 runestones, 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 and Södermanland.

It is a characteristic of his runestones that there is a single rune serpent in the shape of an 8. 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. On one runestone, U 485 in Marma, he gives his full name: Ofæigʀ Øpiʀ.

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 Younger Futhark 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). 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), where Öpir was active.

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