Rebecca Bridge

AC 2018

What is the meaning of Viking art?

In this essay I will be looking at Viking art, its

styles, the mediums that the art was used on, and what

meaning it had. The resources available were general

books on the Vikings, and specific websites. Viking art

did not specifically have a meaning; the aim of this

essay is to examine what meanings can be discerned.

Viking’s art base style uses animal forms and

sinuous shapes, and generally is not specifically

representational (Viking Art and Artefacts lecture, 22nd March,

Simon Roffey). The styles are usually divided into

groups, which are usually named after the

find spots for the better surviving examples.

These groups are Oseberg/Broa, Borre,

Jellinge, Mammen, Ringerike, and Urnes. The

Oseberg and Broa styles used animals with

sinuous bodies, small heads and tendrils, and

the animals are often very difficult to

identify. The Borre style often used

‘gripping’ animals

(http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/wood.shtml) with ribbon

bodies. The animals usually had four legs and knot work

bodies. It occasionally used plant motifs. The Jellinge

Figure 1 http://noreg.canalblog.com/archives/2005

style used animals with elongated bodies, often

symmetrical and intertwining. The Mammen style, the

animals are more ‘natural’

(http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/wood.shtml), but with

more complex details, and the bodies of the animals often

used dots and lines infill. This style uses a lot more

plant elements than previous styles (P.139 Lang 1978).

Ringerike style has more curvaceous animals, but without

the lines or dots of the previous style. The eyes are

oval shaped, whereas before all eyes had been circular.

The last style, Urnes, animals are very stylised and

often have a greyhound shapes, and often seem to be

fighting. The style is often assymetrical. Some patterns

were in use for long spans of time, the ‘gripping beast’

was a “hallmark of Scandinavian art for over 150 years.”

(http://viking.hgo.se/Files/VikHeri/Viking_Age/art.html).

For the most part, the Viking art style used animals, and

tended towards shapes being either symmetrical or

asymmetrical. There were regional differences. A sword

hilt from Hellvi has a “stamped pattern-ornament, a technique

evidently known only on Gotland.” (p.125 Arbman, 1961). The

Borre style occurs in English sculpture, but only in the

west, and the Jellinge style rarely occurs in England,

but the Mammen style is common on the Isle of Man. (p.142

Lang 1978).

Some of the most prominent uses for art were

jewellery and weapons, which we have excellent examples

of because most of what we have surviving of Viking art

is on metalwork, with some of wood. There are carvings in

expensive or rare materials, such as amber, jet, bone and

walrus ivory

(http://viking.hgo.se/Files/VikHeri/Viking_Age/art.html),

however, wood and iron were the most important mediums.

Jewellery would have been made from gold, silver, bronze

and glass

(http://www.tvnznetguidewebchallenge.co.nz/room27/Craftsm

en.html). Art was an important element of jewellery and

weapons, because “wearing fine jewellery was an outward sign of a

person’s wealth.” (P.3, Guy 1998) so the more elaborate and

intricate the designs showed the wearer had plentiful

money. Most Viking clothing required extra items to hold

it together, such as pins, brooches and buckles, all of

which would have been decorated in some way. This was

another way of showing wealth, through the amount of

items or their complexity. Swords and sword hilts needed

to be impressive as well. They were extremely important

as “a Viking’s position in society could be told as much by the quality of his

weapons as by the cut of his clothes.” (p.4 Guy 1998). The more

intricate and impressive the sword was with decorative

inlays, the more valuable it was. Generally speaking,

Viking helmets and armour were not as intricately

decorated, if at all. Jewellery was important in another

aspect, to show ones religion and faith, such as wearing

Thor’s hammer, and later crucifixes, because “religion was an

integral part of society and life in all respects.” P.222 Sawyer 1997).

This was a less important aspect of art, but it was still

part of it’s uses.

The finest surviving examples we have of Viking art

are on jewellery and weapons from graves, with fine later

examples from silver hoards

(http://viking.hgo.se/Files/VikHeri/Viking_Age/art.html).

Wood was the Vikings main material, and almost everything

wooden was decorated in some fashion, even if it was only

lightly on the surface. There are surviving examples of

woodcarving, some excellent examples being the Oseberg

animal-head post, and the decoration of Urnes stave

church. The skill required to make such intricate designs

must have be immense. The elaborate woodcarvings that do

survive often show “heroic exploits of warriors or scenes from

mythology” (p.15 Guy 1998). Woodcarvings would often be

painted in addition to the carvings. The paint would have

been an important effect, as it would have emphasised the

designs.

Viking art is generally applied art,

which means that items that are used in day

to day life are decorated. The Vikings

would decorate everything, from brooches,

to plaques for smoothing clothes (Figure

2). But art was used to decorate more

expensive items as well. Those with more

money could “afford to have their ships, wagons and

bedsteads carved with elaborate ornament.”

Figure 2 http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/sanday/sanday/index.html

(http://viking.hgo.se/Files/VikHeri/Viking_Age/art.html),

such as in the grave of a woman buried at Oseberg.

The wood craftsman who made the art had a huge array

of tools, such as axes, adzes, saws, chisels and augers.

Most people would have had enough wood working skill to

carry out simple repairs, some people would have been

more skilled craftsmen, and then there would have been

specialists, such as boat builders. The stone craftsmen

would sometimes make templates from other sculptures to

reuse again. The metal craftsmen used crucibles and

moulds made of clay. Metal craftsmen would often add

their own elaborately decorated hilts

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/weapons_03.

shtml). There were specialist craftsmen for every

different type of material, such as silversmiths and

tinsmiths, or pine or ash specialists. The Viking

craftsmen used specific types of materials for specific

items, such as for chests or ships. They knew which

materials were most effective for specific applications,

and so always used those which worked best. Bigger

settlements made money from the items they produced, and

craftsmen would have sold their items in front of their

houses or taken to markets

(http://www.tvnznetguidewebchallenge.co.nz/room27/Craftsm

en.html).

Art had an important use when it came to conveying

messages. One of the most used methods was when

decorating ships and sleds. The images carved into the

posts, prows, figureheads and sternposts were intended to

strike terror into the hearts of the Viking’s enemies

(http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shades/vikings/vikart.htm

) or to protect themselves from evil (p.22, Guy

1998).They would carve images of monsters or fierce

warriors, or sometimes images of deities, such as Thor,

to protect them in battle. An early Icelandic legal code

required approaching ships to take down the craved figure

heads so as not to frighten away the guardian spirits

(p.126 Arbman 1961).

The other way to convey messages was through the

well known rock carvings.

Some stones were carved as memorials, usually describing

heroic deeds performed by warriors, and would have been

in public places. Some stones commemorated

living people, usually the sponsors who were

responsible for the stones being created

(p.146 Sawyer 2003). The stones used both

runes and pictograms, and some had religious

significance, telling stories from Nordic

mythology. Christianity came to the Vikings in

the eleventh and twelfth centuries (P.58 Grate

1965), at which time crosses using the art style of the

time, the Urnes style, were erected. On rune stones,

crosses also became central motifs.

Viking art was carved into many different types

of material. Everyday types of material were used,

such as wood; some were more uncommon materials, like

ivory. A lot of people had the skill to do basic carving,

but specialists for specific materials existed who had

immense skill in carving intricate images. Although

Viking art did not have any specific meanings as such, it

still had important uses. Viking art defined wealth and

status. The more wealth a person had meant that person

could afford much more elaborate artwork on their

jewellery, weapons and ships. Art was used to put fear

into enemies, through frightening carvings on ships and

on helmets. The art used in stone carving conveyed

messages as well as commemorating heroes, telling

stories, and being monuments to or about deities. Art had

an important fundamental meaning however, “Viking-Age man […]

understood that the deepest reasons and purposes of life could only be

encompassed in myth and art.” (p.209 Sawyer 1997).

Today, art has a new, important meaning, of being

able to give us a good idea of what life was like at the

time, as well as being extremely useful for dating.

Bahn, P. G. 1996. Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology.

Cambridge: The Press Syndicate of the University of

Cambridge.

Figure 1 http://danielmitsui.com/hieronymus/index.blog?

Bibliography

Books

Arbman, H.1961. The Vikings. London: Thames & Hudson.

Grate, P. 1965. Treasures of Swedish Art. Allhem

Publishers Malmö

Guy, J. 1998. Viking Life. Kent: ticktock Publishing.

Lang , J.1978. Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age Sculpture and Its

Context. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

Sawyer, B. 1997. The Viking-Age Rune-Stones. New York:

Oxford University Press Inc.

The Internet Movie Database, http://imdb.com/, (March 25th 2006)

Websites

Viking Answer Lady Webpage - Woodworking in the

Viking Age,

http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/wood.shtml

Viking art,

http://viking.hgo.se/Files/VikHeri/Viking_Age/art.ht

ml

http://www.tvnznetguidewebchallenge.co.nz/room27/

Craftsmen.html

BBC - History - Viking Weapons and Warfare,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/weapons

_03.shtml

Vikings & their Gods - Viking Art & Architecture,

http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shades/vikings/vikart

.htm

Lectures

Viking Art and Artefacts lecture, 22nd March, Simon Roffey

Figures

Figure 1, La Norvège,

http://noreg.canalblog.com/archives/2005/09/p10-0.html

Figure 2

PRES http://www.clans.org.uk/hist_6.html

Pictures of styles

http://66.102.9.104/search?

q=cache:VMsJatmPjOYJ:www.spirit-of-the-past.com/

vikingornamentation.html+Oseberg+style&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

&gl=uk

oseberg style picture

http://www.spirit-of-the-past.com/vikingornamentation.htm

l