Studio: international art (10.1897)

Early Scandinavian Wood-Carvings

ing to this period found in the Nydam Moss, sway over the popular mind, and we shall see that

Schleswig (see Carl Engelhardt's Denmark in the "Christian-Pagan Overlap," as Dr. Colley March

Early Iron Age, p. 29). These boats are clinker- has aptly termed it, is conspicuous in the art of the

built and the planks have projecting pieces with period between 1000 and, perhaps, 1250, not only

holes bored through them for fastening the planks in Scandinavia, but also in such intensely Norse

to the ribs by means of cords ; but these project- parts of Great Britain as Cumberland, Westmore-

ing pieces are part and parcel of the plank itself, land, North Lancashire, and the Isle of Man.
and have been formed by taking a much thicker As the starting point of Christian art in the

timber than the planks and carving away the North we cannot do better than take the celebrated

surface everywhere except where the projections Rune-inscribed monument at Jellinge, on the east

occur, a most wasteful and laborious process. coast of Jutland, which records the erection by the

The scoops for baling water out of the Nydam orders of King Harald (Blue Tooth) of the burial

boats are as entirely cut out of the solid as the mound* of his father, Gorm, and his mother,

dug-out canoe of the savage. The rowlocks are Thyra. This king, Harald Gormsson, is described

not merely carved into shape but are also orna- in the inscription as " that Harald who conquered

merited with incised patterns. the whole of Denmark and Norway, and had the

The celebrated Viking ship discovered beneath Danish people christianised" (see J. Kornerup's

a burial mound at Gokstad, Sandefjord, Norway, Kongehfiene i Jellinge). Fortun-

and now in the grounds of the Royal University at ately the Jellinge stone is decorated

Christiania, belongs to the Later Iron Age, and with sculptured figure subjects and

presents us with very much more elaborate speci- ornament, and has a well ascer-

mens of ornamental wood carving (see N. Nico- tained date, a.d. 940-986.
laysen's Viking Ship Discovered at Gokstad), On one face is a representation of

the most remarkable of which are two tent sup- Christ crucified, surrounded'by the

ports terminating in dragons' heads. We may see peculiar interlaced rings and looped

how such ships were built, and the tools used by bands which characterise the art of
their constructors on the Bayeux Tapestry (see

VetllSta Monttmenta, vol. vi. pi. 8). In the tenth * Some fragments of wood-carving and

century two classes of workmen were engaged on a beautifully ornamented metal cup were

»k„ „„ t r c 1 4. / j x amongst the antiquities discovered inside

the construction of war vessels, carpenters (stafn- b , H

\ ' ■ ■ . . the mound

smitnr) and workers in thin boards (filungr).

The former prepared and framed the skeleton and

the latter whittled the boards and put them

together, and only got half the weekly wages paid

to the carpenters. The tools included iron axes,

saws, knives, and planes.

Having endeavoured to show how the trade of
shipbuilding* may possibly have led up to the art
of wood-carving for decorative purposes during the
Pagan period in Scandinavia, we will now proceed
to examine some of the works of the Christian age,
the best of which are of ecclesiastical origin.

It must be remembered that Christianity was not
introduced into Norway until nearly as late as the
year 1000 a.d., and that for a century or two
afterwards the old Pagan beliefs still held a strong

* Carriage making, house construction, and other branches
of carpentry may also have helped to bring out those quali-
ties which go to make an expert wood-carver. The high
perfection attained by the carriage builders of the Later Iron
Age in Denmark is proved by the beautifully ornamented
waggons found in the Deibjerg bog, Rinkjp'bing, West Jut-
land, of which there is a reproduction in the South Kensington
Museum (see P. B. du Chaillu's The Viking Age, vol. ii. fig. 2.-carved wooden chair from tyldai.ens
frontispiece). church. left side

*3