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8/2/2019 Anderson - 2010 - The Backrest Beasts of Óðinn from Lejre
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on an earlier tower by the 1'1 Lord Fraserprior to his ennobling by Charles I. The
expansion and embellishment of this finetower into a courtyard residence with
outer courts and gardens was diligentlycharted. Addyman's own contributionreviewed a number of recent surveys and
excavations at Scottish towers which
reveal hitherto-unsuspected variety.To take two significant examples, theamoun t of medieval fabric within the19lh-century Brodick Castle is much
greater than was suspected, and the
confection of Craigevar has proven tohave been not a de 1101'0 construction. butthe rebuilding of a more prosaic tower
house. The potential cross-fertilisation
of ideas derived from this conferencehas been most rewarding, and it is
encouraging to note that the organisershope to repeat thei r success.
J ohn Ma lcolm , Historic Scotland
NEWS& VIEWS
Odin (OO inn) from Lejre
The rOllnd of excavations undertaken atLejre. Denmark, d uring 2008- 09 has led
to the discovery of yet more buildings,including one 60m in length (making it
the largest yet known from Southern
Scandinavia during the first millennium).The discoveries will provoke renewed
interest in this Iron-Age and Viking-Agesettlement complex. For the moment.
interest has focused on one of the smallfinds unearthed in 2009: an amulet. madeof silver with niello in lay, that appears
to represent the god Od in (Old Norse
06inn) en throned on his high scat,backed by a pair of beasts and nanked bya pair of ravens. A report on that object
by Tom Christcnsen has appeared in the2009 issue of ROMU. the annual journalof Roskilde M useum (pp 7- 25). It
includes over two dozen images showing
the object and some items that help 10
contextualize it. For the convenienceof pcrsons withou t easy access to the
journal (or a knowledge of Danish), anEnglish summary, drafted by Carl
Edlund Andersen and myself andaccompanied by a selection of images,
is posted at my personal website: http://www.english.wisc.eduljdniles Reportsand studies relat ing to the excavations
undertaken at Lejre up to the year 2006
are published in Niles 2007.
John D. [email protected]
,(
,• .\ •f" \
I •· I It· \·
, .J·
Amulet/rom Lejre, Roskilde AII/sel/",!Die iHal/ing
The BlIckrest Beasts of 06inn from LcjrcThe question of the identity of theoccupant of the Lejre high chair has beenmooted on the world wide web. Among
the features that help support anidentification of that figure as 06inn arethe highly naturalistic birds perched on
the armrests. These could well beunderstood as 60inn's ravens. Huginnand M lIninn. In this context. it has alsobeen speculated that the two beast headson the back rest of the Lejre high chair
could represent wolves. As is well knownfrom the poem Grinmismti/ (verse 19) in
the Poetic Edda. 06inn is the master oftwo wolves named Geri and Freki. Snorri
Sturluson likewise included andexpanded on this information in theGy/ftlgillllillg section of the Prose Edda,and the names or both wolves alsoappear in skald ic poetry as lerms (heifi)with the generic sense "wolr' (Jcsch 2002,255).
Amlllet from Lejre, rear l'i£'II',
RIme KmulelZoomorgraphic
With this in mind, it may be worth
recalling other possible Viking Age
8/2/2019 Anderson - 2010 - The Backrest Beasts of Óðinn from Lejre
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/anderson-2010-the-backrest-beasts-of-odinn-from-lejre 2/2
definitely 60inn's wolves pairs of
wo lves o r wolf·like beasts. For cxa mple.
Christenscn has observed that the
annrcsts of thc silver chair figurine from
Hedeby could be lions or perhaps wolves(2009, 10) ; the laller animal. at leasl.
might have been familiar loca lly to
Scandinavians. Th e Boksta runc·sto nc(U855 in Uppland. Swedcn) includes a
depiction o f a spea r-wielding man o n
ho rseback in the compan y of two dog- o r
wolf·likc beasts and two birds. This was
interprcted bXSiJf:n ( 1983. 90) as
representing 66inn in the company of hi s
wolves Geri and Frek i. as well as hi sravens Huginn and Muninn . Of co urse.
as is so o ften thc case wi th suchpre-Christian Scandina vian artefacts,
int erpretation is neither clear-cut no r
without co ntroversy. For example.
Vierk interpreted the Hedeby chair <IS
not 60inn's high -seat but a throne
functioning as a pla tform from which aI'o/ra (female witch) pract ices seior
(magic<l1 ar ts).
As fo r the Lejre figurine. it is by no
means certain that the anima ls
represented were intended to be wolves.
The beasts wear co llars (o r neck-rings).
suggesting domesticated animals. though
perhaps Viking Age Scandinavians might
have expected 60inn to equip hi s wolves
wi th co llars o r rings. It might ha ve been
no more than a desi re fo r symmetry of
form tha t d ictated the placement of twobea st heads o n either side of the back rest
of thc Lejre figurine's chair. Nevertheless.
the possibility tha t the Lejre chair
figurine might feature not only two
ravens but additionally two wolves would
provide further significant reasons to
identify its occupant as 60inn .
Cllrl Edlund And erson
ca r .a nderson@unisa bana.edu.co
RderenecsChristensen. T 2009 'Odin fra Lejre·.
ROMU, 7- 25.Jesch. J 2002 The S catutilUlI'iallsfrollllhe
Vendet Period 10 Ihe Telllh Celllllry:
An Elhnographic Perspeclil'e. Studies in
Historical A rchaeoethnology 5,Woodbridge: Boydell.
Niles. J 2007 8eo\l"lI/falld /..ejre. ed. withM. Osborn and featuring con tribu tions
by T. Christensen, Tempe: Arizona
8
Center fo r Medieval & Renaissa nceStudics.
Silcn , L 1983 'Nfigra renektioner
angfiende bilderna pfi Balingsta-stenen i
Upp land', Forlll 'iilmell 78. 88 91.Vierck. H 2002 'Zwei Amulettbilder als
Zeugnissc des ausgehenden Heidentums
in Haithabu', in BericJlle iiber die
AIIsgrabllllgen ill Hailhabll 34: Da s
archiiologische Fundmaterial VI \.
NcumUnster: Wacholtz. 9-67.
The S taffordshire Hoa rd; a response to
the repo rt by Mark Hall in thc Socie ty's
Newsletter, 43:
few recentarcha
eo logicaldiscove ries have given ri se to so manyrumo urs as the Staffordshire An glo
Saxon hoard but o ne ill-informed item
even found its way into yo ur recentewsletter. Allhough several parish
boundaries in the area do follow the
Roman Watling Street. which was then
still in use, the 'out-stepping parishbo undary on wh ich the fie ld si ts'. a
location suggested 10 have been of
possible ritual significance. is that of theWest Midlands county, actually drawn
up only in 1974. This actually ran
through the area of the 19 lh--centuryextra-parochial and later parish.
coincidentally passing close to the
find-spot. Enough sa id!
Della I-lookc. University of Birmingham
Hornb)' Cas tle Fieldwork: 20 10 Season .
Hornby Castle near Bedale North
Yorkshire was co nstructed in the late 13lh
century o n the si te o f an earlier structure
dating back at least into the carly 12 lh
century. It was substantially expandcd
into the co urt yard castle seen today by
Sir Jo hn Conyers KG in the mid 15 lh
century beforc being further altered by
William Lord Conyers at thc turn of the
151h/ 16th centuries with the constr uction
o f the famous Ho rn by Po rtal(now inthe Burrell Collection G lasgow). It
sub sequent ly became the country hOll se
ofthc Earls of Holderness in the late
17lb century. and then the Osborne Dukes
of Leeds in the late 18th century, whensignificant refurbishment work took
place, before being gutted and partially
dcmolished in 1930 to pay the deb ts o f
the then owner the l l' hDu ke of Leed s.
T he Architectu ra l and Archaeologica lSociety of Durham and No rthumberland
