Kettil Runske was, according to Olaus Magnus

Olaus Magnus

Olaus Magnus was a Swedish ecclesiastic and writer, who did pioneering work for the interest of Nordic people. He was reported as born in October 1490 in Östergötland, and died on August 1, 1557. Magnus, Latin for the Swedish Stor “great”, is a Latin family name taken personally, and not a...

' Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (1555), the man who brought runes to humankind, by stealing three rune staffs from Odin

Odin

Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....

 from which he learnt the runes. An apprentice named Gilbert defied Kettil, who punished him by throwing a rune staff at him whereby he was imprisoned. Gilbert was for a long time imprisoned in a cave on Visingsö

Visingsö

Visingsö is an island in the southern half of the lake Vättern in Sweden.Visingsö lies 30 km north of the city Jönköping and 6 km west of Gränna from which two car ferries connects the island...

 in Lake Vättern

Vättern

Vättern is the second largest lake in Sweden, after Lake Vänern and the sixth largest lake in Europe. It is a long, finger-shaped body of fresh water in south central Sweden to the southeast of Vänern pointing at the tip of Scandinavia....

.

Sources

• Olaus Magnus. 1555. Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus
• Ebbe Schön. 2004. Asa-Tors hammare. Fält & Hässler, Värnamo, ISBN 91-89660-41-2.