Art and Cosmology in Viking Age Norway

In: Leszek Gardeła & Kamil Kajkowski (ed.): The head motif in past societies in a comparative perspective: 74-87. Muzeum Zachodniokaszubskie w Bytowie, Bytów, 2013

Prehistoric images constitute a special source material. Rather than being random products, they were produced to convey a message. This observation applies especially to the oral culture of the Viking Age. Having said that, Viking Age pictures rarely occur as independent monuments, but mostly in the shape of Animal Art. Animal Art has certain mnemonic qualities that have been widely overlooked. Yet, like many other contemporary cultural expressions, Animal Art is governed by a metaphorical principle. Therefore, we ought to consider the possibility that Animal Art worked as a material anchor within Viking Age culture.

Scandia Journal of Medieval Norse Studies, 2024

Man has always produced symbols, from prehistoric times to the times of space conquest. The world's most important religions have also always expressed strong artistic and cultural identities through symbols. The ancient scandinavians were no different. One might wonder tough: to what extent did Viking symbols – and their constant presence in movies, media, medieval festivals and even tattoos – really have the same meaning which is attributed to them in these media? This is the central issue that German archaeologist Alexandra Pesch investigates throughout her 130-page book.

2019

This thesis is a study of animal shape-shifting in Old Norse culture, considering, among other things, the related concepts of hamr, hugr, and the fylgjur (and variations on these concepts) as well as how shape-shifters appear to be associated with the wild, exile, immorality, and violence. Whether human, deities, or some other type of species, the shape-shifter can be categorized as an ambiguous and fluid figure who breaks down many typical societal borderlines including those relating to gender, biology, animal/ human, and sexual orientation. As a whole, this research project seeks to better understand the background, nature, and identity of these figures, in part by approaching the subject psychoanalytically, more specifically within the framework established by the Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, as part of his theory of archetypes. This project includes, among other things, a critical examination of the extant archaeological and Icelandic literary sources (as well as other works such as Historia Norwegiæ and Gesta Danorum) relating to shape-shifting as a means of analyzing the concept of Old Norse animal shape-shifting, and earlier understandings of human/ animal relationships as a whole, noting how this motif seems to have been perceived by Scandinavian society over time. In short, the thesis aims to understand the “inner mechanics” of shape-shifting and why these figures later came to be demonized, exiled, and persecuted in Scandinavian society.

2014

There are a number of people I would like to thank for their assistance in writing this thesis. Firstly, I should thank my supervisors, Margaret Clunies Ross and Daniel Anlezark. I am particularly indebted to Margaret for all of her very useful help and advice. The staff of the Medieval and Early Modern Centre (MEMC) at the University of Sydney deserve a mention, especially Liam Semler, Juanita Ruys and Hannah Burrows. I am also grateful to MEMC for funding my recent trip to present at the Leeds International Medieval Congress in July 2013. I would like to acknowledge Lilla Kopár and express my gratitude to her as she gave me access to the completed manuscript of her book before it was published. My partner, Katherine Theodoulou Thomson, has been very supportive of at all times and relocated from New Zealand to live with me. My father, Antony Braithwaite, and mother, Rebecca Westoby, and two brothers have been very encouraging and helpful. Thanks are also due to Kate Westoby and Mark Crew, who gave me gratis accommodation when I first came to Sydney and have treated me exceptionally well since then.

Anglia, 2015

The book is divided into six chapters and concluding remarks plus bibliography and index. By analyzing the crucifixion image on the Gosforth Cross (Cumbria, 10th cent.) in her introduction, Lilla Kopár vividly demonstrates the "cultural exchange and integration that took place in the Anglo-Scandinavian communities" and its manifestation in stone carvings (xxi). While the focus of this book is on "the intercultural dialogue in the art of stone sculpture" (xxvii), the aim of the study is to extend the "line of scholarship by a new perspective"; accordingly Kopár examines a particular group of carvings as "cultural documents of an intellectual, rather than historical or social process" (23). According to her, "these sculptures bear witness to the process of religious and cultural adaptation and assimilation that was initiated by the settlement of the Scandinavians" (xxiv). In her introduction she deals with methodological concerns such as the relationship between image and text, which is often not a one-to-one relationship but a constant interplay of two or more 'texts'; this is true even more in the Anglo-Scandinavian context, where the dialogue is between two different cultural traditions brought together in the Scandinavian settlement areas of northern England. One of Kopár's objectives is to discuss and evaluate the carvings with mythological and heroic iconography of Scandinavian origin as evidence of a religious and cultural integration process. She also compares the carvings with written sources. The relevant carvings are distributed in the northern and northwestern parts of the Danelaw, to which monuments of the culturally, socially and politically related Isle of Man serve as comparative material. More importantly, the time frame for the carvings in question is the period between the late 9th and the mid-11th century, as the period of the Scandinavian invasion and subsequent settlement. Besides presenting the monuments in question as one

This article examines a small group of artefacts of the Viking Age that may have been perceived as animated objects. These specific weapons and pieces of jewellery appear in narratives in the Old Norse sources as named, as having a will of their own, as possessing personhood. In archaeological contexts the same types of artefact are handled categorically differently than the rest of the material culture. Further, the possible links between these perspectives and the role of animated objects in early medieval Christianity of the Carolingian Empire are examined through studies of the reopening of Reihengräber and the phenomenon of furta sacra. By linking studies of the social biographies of objects with studies of animism, the article aims to identify aspects of Viking Age ontology and its similarities to Carolingian Christianity.

This article, the inaugural winner of the journal's Gurli Aagaard Woods Undergraduate Publication Award, combines the analysis of ancient literature with an archaeological approach in an effort to further interpret the presence and significance of trees in medieval Scandinavian culture. The analysis of textual references to trees such as Yggdrasill and Barnstokkr found in the Norse works Völuspá, Grímnismál, Gylfaginning, and Völsunga Saga, are combined with academic articles, juxtaposed with the examination of archaeological sites at Fröso, Herresta, Bjarsgård, Österfärnebo, and Karmøy, and integrated with modern Scandinavian attitudes to explore an interest in tree-human relationships, literature, and archaeology in medieval Scandinavia. RÉSUMÉ : Cet article, premier lauréat du prix de la revue Gurli Aagaard Woods de publication pour étudiant de premier cycle, combine l'analyse d'une littérature ancienne avec une approche archéologique, dans un effort pour interpréter davantage la présence et l'importance des arbres dans la culture scandinave médiévale. Les analyses des références textuelles à des arbres tels que Yggdrasill et Barnstokkr trouvées dans les travaux Norse Völuspá, Grímnismál, Gylfaginning et la saga Völsunga, sont combinées à des articles académiques, juxtaposées à l'examen de sites archéologiques à Frösö, Herresta, Bjarsgård, Österfärnebo et Karmøy, et intégrées à des attitudes scandinaves modernes afin d'explorer un intérêt envers les relations arbre-humain, la littérature et l'archéologie en Scandinavie médiévale.

RHAC: Journal of Art History and Culture , 2021

This article analyzes the painting Nordisk offerscene fra den Odinske periode (Nordic sacrificial scene from the period of Odin), created by the Danish painter Johan Ludvig Gebhard Lund (1777-1867) in 1831 and which presents a theme regarding Old Norse religion and the Vikings. We have made use of Ernest Gombrich's schemata theory and the studies of reception by Margaret Clunies Ross. Our main perspective is that Lund's work was related to both Danish nationalist romanticism and to a perspective of history and art in which the ancient religious forms and idealized representations of the Vikings played a major role in shaping social and cultural identities of his time. Keywords: J. L. Lund, Norse myths in art, Vikings in romantic art, History of art, Nineteenth Century Art. Acknowledgements: I am grateful to Anna Schram Vejlby (Fuglsang Kunstmuseum) for reading the original text and sending her valuable suggestions; Lise Præstgaard Andersen (University of Southern Denmark), Rikke Lyngsø Christensen (Royal Danish Library), Thomas Lederballe (Statens Museum for Kunst), Camilla Cadell (Det Kongelige Akademi), Per Larsson (Kulturen Museum), Benedikte Brincker (University of Copenhagen), Rune Finseth (Statens Museum for Kunst); Karen Bek-Pedersen (University of Aarhus), William Robert Rix (University of Copenhagen), Nora Hansson (University of Uppsala) and Martin Brandt Djupdræt (Den Gamle By) for sending information and bibliographies; Vitor Menini, Victor Hugo Sampaio and Pablo Gomes de Miranda for revising the text.

Myth, Materiality and Lived Religion: In Merovingian and Viking Scandinavia, 2019

Bear and Human Facets of a Multi-Layered Relationship from Past to Recent Times, with Emphasis on Northern Europe. TANE 3, 2023

The paper constitutes a survey of bear depictions in the 1 st millennium AD from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark as well as Scandinavian-influenced parts of England, including certain, almost certain, and possible images of bears. Chronologically, the relevant material ranges from the Roman Iron Age to the Late Viking Age, most of it dating to the Merovingian/Vendel Period and the Early Viking Age. The images occur in quite different contexts, on different objects and bearing different possible meanings (military and heroic contexts, commemoration and sepulchral contexts, female jewellery, figurines and more). Some recent finds are also considered. The main conclusion is that there are many more depictions to be considered, and that the bear is not as rare in Late Iron Age and Viking art as many scholars have so far supposed.