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- Öpir or Öper 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 defined as highly refined Urnes style. 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. Öpir had been an associate or an apprentice of the runemaster Visäte, and Öpir himself was to become the most popular runemaster. 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 of the runestones (U 485), he gives his full name: Ofæig Øpi. 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). 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. 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. A record of Упирь (Upir') appears in a document dated 1047 AD. It is a colophon in a manuscript of the Book of Psalms written by a priest who transcribed the book from Glagolitic into Cyrillic for the Novgorodian Prince Vladimir Yaroslavovich. 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 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. Sjöberg argued that Öpir could possibly have lived in Novgorod before moving to Sweden, considering the connection between Eastern Scandinavia and Russia at the time. This theory is still controversial, although at least one Swedish historian, Henrik Janson, has expressed support for it.
- Öpir var verksam som runristare under 1000-talets senare hälft, den mest aktiva perioden av stenresning i Mellansverige. Han är en av de runmästare som efterlämnat allra flest verk, omkring 60 stycken. Öpirs rika produktion har varit föremål för specialstudier och det har bland annat föreslagits att de stenar som bär hans namn i själva verket är produkter av en kringresande verkstad, ett företag med flera anställda ristare och mästaren själv bara signerat stenarna och i undantagsfall själv knackat med huggjärn och mejsel. Öpir kom från Roslagen och talade antagligen en dialekt som hade samma karaktärsdrag som den som talas av sentida rospiggar - han har nämligen utelämnat inledande h-ljud på ett par av sina stenar. Hans namn betyder ordagrant roparen, alltså gaphalsen, och är nog ursprungligen ett öknamn. Ett ganska typiskt Öpir-verk är Vaksalastenen.
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- Öpir or Öper 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 defined as highly refined Urnes style. 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.
- Öpir var verksam som runristare under 1000-talets senare hälft, den mest aktiva perioden av stenresning i Mellansverige. Han är en av de runmästare som efterlämnat allra flest verk, omkring 60 stycken.
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