#viking animal head brooch

[artifacts-archive]

Ring brooch

Viking, 800-1100 CE

Bronze penannular brooch with remnants of iron rivets. The brooch has punched decoration and animal head-shaped ends.

[cappymightwrite]

An Unexpected Norse Detail in Winterfell

I was scrolling through tumblr yesterday, as you do, and suddenly paused on a gifset of the Lannister party in Winterfell during the early episodes of season 1. What caught my eye was this:

Behind the long table in Winterfell's great hall is some kind of large wooden screen/divider featuring some very interesting carvings. These carvings are near identical to those found on the Urnes Stave Church in western Norway, which dates from the 12th century:

I don't think we ever see this wooden screen in Winterfell again, but it's an interesting inclusion nonetheless, back when the show stuck more closely to the source material.

In The Vikings (Penguin, revised edition, 2016) Else Roesdahl talks a bit about this particular style of ornamentation:

The Urnes style is the last phase of the long development of Scandinavian animal ornament. This seems to have developed shortly before the middle of the eleventh century and was popular for nearly a century, that is into the early Middle Ages. After a final phase where it gave rise to details and influences in Romanesque art, now predominant in Scandinavia, it had died out completely before the year 1200. Many other forms of Viking Age followed the same course. The vigour and vitality of the Ringerike style gave way to this sophisticated, elegant, indeed almost decadent, style. It is named after the exquisite wood carvings that were re-used in Urnes Church in western Norway: a portal and a door, two wall planks, a corner post and two gable ends, one complete [...] The large, four-legged animal is still one of the main motifs, but it has become as slim as a greyhound. Snake-like animals with one foreleg, snakes and thin tendrils sometimes ending in a snake's head are also featured. The designs characteristic of this style form open, asymetric patterns, creating an impression of an undulating interweaving of animals and snakes. The large loops are often figures-of-eight and the shapes grow and diminish evenly; there are no abrupt transitions. The style is also used with virtuosity on brooches and on large numbers of rune stones in central Sweden, where the undulating ornament follows the shape of the stone and the long bodies of the snakes are used as rune bands [...] Several examples of the style have been found in England, and in Ireland it became as popular as the Ringerike style.

What's so intriguing about the original carving though is that it is depicting pagan symbolism... but on a Christian church. As mentioned above, the Ringerike style predate Urnes and was "roughly contemporary with the intial spread within Scandinavia of Christianity, and was the first to contain Christian iconography, although pagan symbolism was still present," notes Philip Parker (The Northmen's Fury, Vintage, 2014). By around 1050, it gave way to the Urnes style, named for the stave church shown above.

But what do these carvings mean? In Tree of Salvation: Yggdrasil and the Cross in the North (Oxford University Press, 2013), G. Ronald Murphy offers this explanation:

The door is simply surrounded with whorls of writhing snakes and vines. The tangle is so perfectly executed in a welter of animal elongation and plant reduction to vines, that it is difficult to identify where a head begins or where a tail finally ends, if at all, or to trace what seems like a joint to a neck or a leg or a vine. The main point seems to be the inter-twined-ness itself of all living things, animal or vegetable, in one huge tangle [...] Now as one looks at the left side of the doorway there is one animal standing on four legs [see above!] that is simply startling in the clarity of its depiction. It has been called a lion and explained as the Lion of Judah (Christ) fighting with evil. I think that such an interpretation makes the mistake of using an inappropriately biblical explanation when the artist, by his very Viking-like pictorial style as well as his tangle of animal and plants, tells you he is here using a Germanic one. If you look at the animal you can see that he is eating at the vine or branch which in turn is a serpent biting at him in the neck. Look at the animal's head and you can see two small horns protruding—that animal is a young male deer, a hart. Now it becomes clear it is not the Old Testament that is giving the context here for the meaning of the portal: this is an allusion to the Elder Edda and its description of Yggsdrasill as the suffering tree with many serpents forever biting on its twigs and branches, as those twigs and branches are also being devoured by a hart. The traditiona of the single deer may also come from a previous stanza in the Grímnismál where the hart is named: Eikþyrnir [Oak-thorn] is the hart's name, who stands on Father of Hosts' hall and grazes Læraðr's [kenning for Yggdrasill] branches; and from his horns liquid drips into Hvergelmir [seething cauldron], from thence all waters have their flowing (Poetic Edda 55 and 270n)

According to Murphy, "to enter the door of the Urnes stave church is to enter Yggdrasill." So, to bring this back to the world of asoiaf, it´s an interesting piece of set design to include this screen or divider in Winterfell, a place closely connected with the "old gods" of the north and that has its own world tree, in a sense: the weirwood tree, or heart tree, of the godswood. Moreover, beneath one of Yggdrasill's three large roots is the spring Hvergelmir (mentioned above, meaning 'seething cauldron'), beneath another is Mímisbrunnr ('Mímir's well) and beneath the third is Urðarbrunnr ('Well of Urðr'), this is interesting to note in parallel to the hots springs and ice-lidded pool in Winterfell's godswood, close to its heart tree.

In the Prose Edda, one of our foremost sources on Norse mythology, Yggsdrasill is also connected with Ragnarök, the doom of the gods. In chapter 54, it is told that Óðinn will ride to the well Mímisbrunnr and consult Mímir on behalf of himself and his people. After this, "the ash Yggdrasill will shake and nothing will be unafraid in heaven or on earth," and then the Æsir and Einherjar will don their war gear and advance to the field of Vígríðr. In asoiaf, the north has its own legend very reminiscent of Ragnarök, called the Long Night and I've written about their similiarities before and keep meaning to return to that.

Anyway, I just think it's pretty cool they included that detail of the Urnes style screen in Winterfell — I'm always putting Norse details into my fics wherever I can, most recently the Oseberg tapestry.

[ithinkwehitametaphor]

Viking, Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2013, Part 1

Dress pin, 10th century, Heddeby / Haithabu, Germany.

Silver hoard, 10th century, Gnezdovo, Russia. Contains Arabic coins, Scandinavian Jellinge style jewelry, beads of glass, rock, amber etc.

Oval brooches / Tortoise brooches with animal decorations, Russia.

Axe head and bronze strap fittings, 9th century, Scandinavian, found in Jaroslavl, Russia.

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Oval Brooches and jewelry sets of different styles.

Tortoise brooches, glass beads and pendants of bronze.

Matching copper-alloy brooches in the Finnish style. Mid - late 10th century, Kjuloholm, Finland.

Gotlandic jewelry with matching animal head brooches and bead necklaces. 10th century, Ire Gotland, Sweden. Found in the grave of a approx. 7-year old girl.

Matching set of Scandinavian style oval brooches. 10th century, Kiev, Ukraine. Rings are of Eastern origin. Coins are Byzantine.

Sets of matching oval brooches in the Scandinavian style.

[captainsieni]

Viking Penannular Brooch 108814

[gjallarhorn-heathencraft]

The Jellinge Style(c.900-975AD) Was almost contemporary to the Borre Style and developed further into the Mammen Style.

Characterised by S-shaped animals with a ribbon-shaped body without perforations or indentations.

The body of the animal is often filled with a row of beading, double contoured and has an insubstantial spiral-like hip.

The animal heads are in profile with a circular eye, and open jaw, the upper one embellished by a curlicue(lip-lappet).

The bodies of the animals are regularly interlaced without frequent or close intertwining, leaving an open background.

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One of the most know finging with that Style, is the Silver cup from the JELLING burial. In that horn, the design comes from two different brooches.

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#jelling #art #style #medievalstyle #medievalart #finding #craft #carving #crafter #inspiration #inspiredby #era #vikingage #paganart #animal #middleage #fromthepast #heritage #elders #museum #lifestyle #knowledgeable #query #brooches #replica #ourpast #viking

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[a-safe-and-quiet-place]

Huginn and Muninn

Whether Odin is presiding over a grand banquet or galloping into the fearsome battle of Ragnarök, where he must meet his doom, he is always attended by Huginn and Muninn. These powerful ravens are much more than servants to Odin. Day after day, battle after battle, they prove themselves as trusted allies and inseparable friends.

What Are Huginn and Muninn?

Huginn and Muninn are a pair of ravens who, according to Norse mythology, are enlisted in Odin’s service. The birds depart every morning at dawn to fly around the Norse world, Midgard. At dinner, they return to their perches on Odin’s shoulders and tell him what they have seen.

Characteristics

Physical Description

Physically speaking, Huginn and Muninn don’t have much to set them apart from your garden variety raven. They are large, ominous looking birds with inky black feathers and big, sharp beaks. Their powerful wings can lift them high into the sky, while their beady eyes allow them to make out the landscape below in vivid detail.

Special Abilities

Although Huginn and Muninn might look like common ravens, they have been endowed by Odin with wonderful powers. First, the birds are able to fly the entire world of Midgard in a single day. Second, they have the ability to understand, and even speak in, the language of men. Third, they have extremely shrewd minds and wonderful powers of observation. The ravens are no mere spies for Odin; they are important advisers and confidants too.

Huginn and Muninn can also accompany Odin into battle, where they inform him of his enemy’s movements and help him guide and heal his horse.

Relationship with Odin

Some scholars interpret Huginn and Muninn as projections of Odin himself, rather than common ravens whom he has blessed with special powers. In Norse culture, it was common for shamans to enter a trance-like state, during which they sent their consciousness to probe the world and bring back information. Odin’s ravens’ names (Huginn meaning “thought” and Muninn meaning “desire or mind”) support the idea that they are projections of his consciousness. It’s no great stretch of the imagination to believe that Odin, the leader of the gods, could project his “thought” and his “mind” in the same way that a shaman could and that the ravens are simply symbols of his omnipotence.

Other scholars believe that Huginn and Muninn are Odin’s fylgjur. In Norse culture, spirit animals, called fylgjur, are commonly seen in the company of great men and women. These animals are manifestations of the person’s character. Someone with a fox as a fylgja is sly and cunning, while someone with an ox as a flygja is strong but tame. Ravens embody wisdom and guidance in Norse culture, so a god with two ravens as his flygjur would be a wise guide—just like Odin.

Fylgjur are often tied into a person’s fate as well; they tend to show up just before a climactic moment in the person’s life, and they are often omens of death. Huginn and Muninn frequently appear in depictions of Ragnarök, the great, apocalyptic battle where Odin is doomed to die. The ravens warn him of the event and remain on his shoulders during the battle.

Finally, some scholars believe that Huginn and Muninn are Odin’s hamingja, a physical embodiment of his luck. In Norse culture, the spirit is made up of many, separable parts that can be sent on different errands. The hamingja is one of those parts, and because it is not one of the most essential parts of the spirit, it is often deployed on small missions.

History

Archaeological Record

Ravens litter the archaeological digs that have given us much of our knowledge about Norse culture. Across nine centuries and four countries, these birds have reigned supreme as Norse symbols, flying around Odin’s head or perched on his shoulders.

The ravens appear in golden amulets, helmet plates, and shoulder brooches, dated back to the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries. They grace the Oserberg Tapestry, which was found aboard a ninth-century Viking funeral ship, and they perch on Thorwald’s Cross, a rune stone from the eleventh century. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and even England have all yielded evidence that local people called upon Huginn and Muninn for power and guidance.

Literature

Huginn and Muninn appear in some of the earliest, definitive texts on Norse Culture. Their black shapes can be found soaring through the Poetic Edda, a 13th century compilation based on traditional folklore, as well as The Prose Edda, the Heimskringla, and the Third Grammatical Treatise, where they are seen cozying up to Odin on his shoulder.

Explanation of the Myth

It’s no coincidence that Huginn and Muninn, a pair of almighty ravens, were hatched from Norse culture. Not only are ravens powerful and common symbols in Norse folklore, they played an important role in the everyday life of Norse people, too.

Perhaps the first link between Norse people and ravens was their eating habits. Early Norse people were hunters and gatherers, while ravens were carrion feeders. A clever raven might trail a hunter for a day, and when he made a kill, invite himself to the feast. Likewise, a hungry hunter might notice a raven circling in the sky and follow it to a ready meal. In this way, a primitive bond may have formed between Norse people and ravens.

As time went by and Norse civilization advanced, people began embarking on the famous sea voyages that would win Norse culture a glorious place in history—and they took their allies, the ravens, with them. Just as ravens once guided the Norse people to food, they were now relied upon to guide their boats to land. The mighty birds were carried in cages on Viking ships. At regular intervals, they were taken from their cages and tossed into the sea breeze to scout out the boat’s surroundings. If the bird found land, it would head that way instead of returning to the ship. If it didn’t find land, it would return to the ship.

Because they played such an important role in the everyday lives of Norse people, ravens began to be revered by the people. After guiding hundreds of Norse people to food and safety, it’s little wonder that these great black birds found their way onto Odin’s shoulders!

—

I am currently giving continuation to my project where i edit all mythological creatures that i can find day by day, all edits are mady with:

pixlr.com/x/

photomosh.com

:: btw it really sucks that tumblr doesn’t let people upload gifs with less than 3mb

[vikingcloths]

Viking Clothing

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With open air tasks like ship building and raiding, head wear must have been common in winters. But their taste for bright colors lasted through the seasons.

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[captainsieni]

Viking Animal Head Brooch 23998

[captainsieni]

Viking Animal Head Brooch 450217

[captainsieni]

Viking Animal Head Brooch 450802

Gabriel Hildebrand SHM