U945 Upplands runinskrifter Danmarks kyrka

Fot (

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 ...

: ''Fotr'') 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 ''Nationalencykl ...

who flourished in mid-11th century Sweden.

Career

Most early medieval Scandinavians were probably literate in

runes Runes are the 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, and for specialised ...

, and most people probably carved messages on pieces of bone and wood.
Vilka kunde rista runor?
'' on the

Swedish National Heritage Board The Swedish National Heritage Board ( sv, Riksantikvarieämbetet; RAÄ) is a Swedish government agency responsible for World Heritage Sites and other national heritage monuments and historical environments. It is governed by the Ministry of Cu ...

website, retrieved January 13 2007. However, it was difficult to make

runestones 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 d ...

, and in order to master it one also needed to be a

stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. It is one of the oldest activities and professions in human history. Many of the long-lasting, ancient shelters, temples, ...

. During the 11th century, when most runestones were raised, there were a few professional runemasters. Fot was active as a runemaster in southern

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 un ...

during the late

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period The ...

. His work is representative of the

runestone style :''The term "runestone style" in the singular may refer to the Urnes style.'' The style or design of runestones varied during the Viking Age. The early runestones were simple in design, but towards the end of the runestone era they became increa ...

known as the

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 ...

. This runestone style is characterized by slim and stylized animals that are interwoven into tight patterns. The animal heads are typically seen in profile with slender almond-shaped eyes and upwardly curled appendages on the noses and the necks. Fot is prominent among the known runemasters as the leading representative of the classic Uppland or Urnes runestone style, and has been called the most artistic of the runemasters of that time. A salient trait is the care with which he chose the stones, how he treated the surface of them, the harmonious ornamentation and the evenly chiseled and firmly designed runes. He is also noted for the consistency of his use of the

punctuation mark Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. A ...

× between the words in his

runic inscription A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of El ...

s. Only a few runestones were signed by Fot.

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 the following inscriptions in Uppland as having Fot's signature: U 167 in Östra Ryds, U 177 in Stav, U 268 in Harby, U 464 in Edeby, U 605 in Stäket, U 638 in Mansängen, U 678 in

Skokloster Skokloster Castle ( sv, Skoklosters slott) is a Swedish Baroque castle built between 1654 and 1676 by Carl Gustaf Wrangel, located on a peninsula of Lake Mälaren between Stockholm and Uppsala. It became a state museum in the 1970s and displays ...

, and U 945 in Danmark. An additional 40 runestones can be attributed to him based upon stylistic analysis. The runestone U 678 at the church of Skokloster belongs to his most famous works. One runestone from

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, Västman ...

, the now-lost Sö 341 in Stavsta, was apparently signed by a different runemaster with the same name.Drawing of now missin
Sö341
/ref>

Torgöt Fotsarve

Runestone U 308 in Ekeby was apparently carved by a son of Fot named Þorgautr, often normalized as Torgöt Fotsarve, and the influence of Fot's style is apparent in the son's work as this inscription has been classified as being carved in runestone style Pr4 or Urnes style.{{Cite journal , last=Thompson , first=Clairborne W. , title=Öpir's Teacher , journal=

Fornvännen ''Fornvännen'' ("The Friend of the Distant Past"), ''Journal of Swedish Antiquarian Research'' is a Swedish academic journal in the fields of archaeology and Medieval art. It is published quarterly by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, Histo ...

, volume=67 , pages=17 , publisher=

, year=1972 , url=http://fornvannen.se/pdf/1970talet/1972_016.pdf , issn=1404-9430 , access-date=2010-01-12 The runic inscription on this stone states that ''Þorgautr risti runaʀ þessaʀ, Fots arfi'', or "Þorgautr, Fótr's heir, carved these runes."Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
-

entry for U 308. Other inscriptions signed by Torgöt Fotsarve include U 746 in Hårby and U 958 in Villinge. An additional 18 inscriptions are listed by Rundata as being attributed to him based on stylistic analysis.

Gallery

Image:U678.jpg, Runestone U 678 is one of his most famous works. Image:U 329, Snåttsta.JPG, This stone is one of the

Snottsta and Vreta stones The Snottsta and Vreta stones are individual runestones known as U 329, U 330, U 331 and U 332. They are found on the homesteads of Snottsta (also spelled Snåttsta) and Vreta, and they tell in Old Norse with the younger futhark about the family s ...

. Image:U 127, Danderyd.jpg, This stone 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 chieft ...

. Image:U 164, Vallentuna.jpg, This stone is one of the Jarlabanke Runestones. Image:U 165, Vallentuna.jpg, This stone is one of the Jarlabanke Runestones. Image:U 212 (side A), Vallentuna.JPG, This stone is one of the Jarlabanke Runestones. Image:U 261, Fresta.jpg, This stone is one of the Jarlabanke Runestones.

Notes

References

*The article ''Fot'' in ''

Nationalencyklopedin ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish language, Swedish-language encyclopedia, initiated by a favourable loan from the Government of Sweden of 17 million Swed ...

'' (1991). Runemasters Swedish artists 11th-century Swedish people