Visäte was a runemaster

Runemaster

A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones.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 it one also needed to be a...

 who was active during the last half of the eleventh century in southern Uppland

Uppland

Uppland is a historical province or landskap 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...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

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Work

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 it one also needed to be a stonemason. During the 11th century, when most runestones were raised, there were a few professional runemasters. The runemaster Visäte is known for his inscriptions which are classified as being carved in runestone styles Pr3 and Pr4, which is also known as the Urnes style

Urnes style

The Urnes style was the last phase of Scandinavian animal art during the second half of the 11th century and in the early 12th century. The preceding phases of Scandinavia's Viking Age animal ornamentation are usually categorized as Oseberg style, Borre style, Jelling style, Mammen style and...

. Inscriptions in runestone style Pr3 and Pr4 are 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.

Uppland's longest runic inscription, runestone U 337

Granby Runestone

The Granby Runestone , designated as U 337 under the Rundata catalog, is the longest Viking Age runic inscription located in Uppland, Sweden.-Description:...

 in Granby, has Visäte's signature. Seven other surviving runestones that are signed by Visäte include U 74 in Husby, U 208 in Råcksta, U 236 in Lindö, U 454 in Kumla, U 669 in Kålsta, U 862 in Säva, and U Fv1946;258

Uppland Runic Inscription Fv1946;258

This runic inscription, designated as U Fv1946;258 in the Rundata catalog, is on a Viking Age memorial to two fathers that is located in Fällbro, which is about 5 kilometers northwest of Täby, Stockholm County, Sweden, which is in the historic province of Uppland.-Description:This inscription was...

 in Fällbro. Rundata

Rundata

The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base 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 for future research...

lists over twenty additional runestones that have been attributed to him based on stylistic analysis.