ÿÿ00ÿ ÿ00ÿ01ÿ03ÿ01Oepir Risti?ÿ00 ÿÿ02 ÿ01ÿ01ÿ03 ÿ01Does a name really matter? Is there a point in carefully picking a name for your production, or is a name just something that has to be added, something that you could have lived without? When we in May 1993 decided to start a disk magazine, we knew what what we wanted to do; we were not interested in making just another magazine in the pile, what we wanted to do was something extra, a magazine that widened the horizons of both ourselves and its readers and not just lessened the number of free kilobytes on someone's hard drive. After all, a disk magazine is what you make it to, and even though many said that a disk magazine after all was but a computer related gathering of texts and that there was no room for anything else, we decided that what we were about to create would not hold up to the expectations set by the critical scener; there is life inside the circle referred to the scene as well as there is life outside it, and we found no reason to select. ÿRunsten.iff We did not know what to call our creation, the only thing we knew was that we would not call it something just because of the fact that a productions has to have a name. No, we believed that a name reflects the minds of those behind it, and that a name mirrors both our own intentions and our goals. As we did not come up with something right away, we let the question dwell in our minds and referred to our coming magazine as "it". What we searched was a name that showed that there is no future without a past and that the only way to get to know life is to live it. When Puh read a book on old Swedish runes, he got to know of a mysterious man called Oepir. This man lived some thousand years ago, i.e. during what we today call the Viking Age, and he earned his living by carving rune stones. There were no disk magazines back then, you know, and as there were virtually no other magazines either, verbal tradition played an important role in everyman's life. People are said to have carved texts in tree materials and written words on parchments and textiles, but those things disperse with time, and there are almost no texts left from those days. One exception is the rune stones of Sweden; back at the Viking Age, honour and pride was utterly important, and one wanted to honour those who deserved to be honoured. In order to do this, one raised carved stones that told of brave men and mercyless deeds in foreign countries as well as of skillful farmers and prospering villages. The "language" used was runes, i.e. what later on developed to be the letters we use today, but as the runes differ totally from the written language of today, historians have had a hell translating the rune stones. Many of the stones are still to be understood, and their stories are not to be read until we have managed to decrypt them. A great deal of the stones, however, have been interpreted, and here is one... ÿÿ02Gulle, a good farmer, got five sons. (one of them), the great fighter Asmund fell (died) at Fyris. Passed away did Assur in the east. During single combat Halvdan was slain. Kare didn't die outside (at home) and Bo, too, is dead. ÿ ÿ01Oepir lived around 1000 AD, and during his life, he carved more than 100 stones, most of which were death stones (stone remains where tree festers) and some of which were like the one above, "true short story runes". Oepir introduced the use of Art in the shape of strange figures and shades on his stones, and we believe he was famous already back then. We know NOTHING more about Oepir himself than that he was called Oepir; the only thing that remains is his work. His age, his whereabouts, his life, his thoughts, we will never get to know about those things. As if to tease the scientists of today, he signed all the stones he carved with his personal signature, Oepir Risti, "Oepir Carved", i.e. "Carved by Oepir". There are some 100 rune stones by Oepir left today, some 1000 years later. Did he when he carved his stones know that he would for ever be remembered a great artist, as someone who brought peace of mind in times of war, did he feel that what he did was important? We just don't know, precisely as Oepir himself did not know that his signature would become the name of a disk magazine a millennium later. The only thing we do know is that we intend to carry on Oepir's work of quality, of advancement and of Art. The media has perhaps changed, as has the rest of the world, but we will carry the banner of Oepir high. Life is maybe short, but some qualities never go out of style. ÿ01