Balle (runemaster)
Balle (Old Norse: BalliR) or Red-Balle (Old Norse: Rauð-BalliR) was a runemaster who was active in the areas of western Uppland, Västmanland, and northern Södermanland of Sweden during the second half of the 11th century.
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. Balle was active in the later 11th century and his work is representative of the Urnes runestone style. Balle signed about twenty-four surviving runestones in south-western Uppland and northern Södermanland. He often signed his name in the form of Old Norse poetry as exemplified on runestone U 729 in Ågersta. There are also an additional twenty runestones that have been attributed to him for stylistic reasons. Balle was noted for the consistency of his use of a dot as a punctuation mark between the words of his runic inscriptions, and often used dotted e-, g-, and y-runes.
