Studio: international art (12.1898)

Early Scandinavian Wood-Carvings

passage, intended to afford shelter for the congrega- by little round arches above and below the cross
tion during bad weather before and after service. pieces. The aisles and the verandah outside it
The upper half of the outer wall of the passage is have penthouse roofs sloping outwards at different
open to the air and the lower half boarded. An levels, that of the verandah being nearest to the
arcade of timber columns surrounds the nave and ground. The enclosing walls of the main body of
separates it from the aisles. These columns are the church within the verandah or corridor are
continued upwards and form the supports for the constructed of slabs of timber placed vertically in
highest part of the roof which covers the nave. the same fashion as at Greensted Church, in Essex.
The vertical timbers are so lofty that they require There are three doorways, one on the south side of
to be tied together at about half their height by the chancel, another on the south side of the nave,
horizontal and cross pieces placed thus |X[, making and the third in the middle of the west wall of the
a kind of lattice girder round the nave. The nave. The doorways of the nave lead out of the
structure is still further strengthened and beautified aisles which surround it into the verandah, and in

front of each there is a gabled porch.
The doorways are therefore not visible
from the outside of the church, being

S3^iPC-- — ^^v*"| concealed by the verandah. One of the

i

v s~<r4 <!|v) f0 SiafflM most remarkable features of the Norse

wooden churches is the entire absence of
windows, the only openings in the walls
being the doorways and air-holes next the
roof. When the doors are shut the in-
terior is in complete darkness.

We have thought it necessary to give
this somewhat tedious description of the
interior arrangements of a typical wooden
church in Norway so as to show what
scope there is for carved decoration, and to
enable the reader to realise exactly where
the doorways are placed ; for, when these
have been removed to museums, there is
nothing to indicate how they fitted on to
the structures to which they belonged.

The only portions of the interiors of the
wooden churches in Norway where deco-
rative carving is used are the capitals of
the columns of the nave arcades, the X
struts already mentioned above, the arcades
and the triangular pieces of timber in the
clerestory just below the springing line of
the roof. The most complete series of
carved capitals is in Urnas Church, on the
Sogne Fjord, about 100 miles north-east
of Bergen. The capitals are of the Nor-
man cushion shape, and on each of the
four semicircular sides are carved foliage,
birds, beasts, centaurs, and other fabulous
creatures bearing a remarkable resem-
blance to the subjects on the medallions
round the arch mouldings of the Norman
doorway at St. Margaret's, Walmgate, York
The triangular pieces of timber in the
clerestory of Urnas Church are orna-

FIG. 3-CARVED DOORWAY FROM AAL CHURCH, HALLINGDAL mented ^ dragongi

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