Crossbreeding Beasts:

Christian and Non-Christian Imagery

inOval Brooches
Sren M. Sindbk
Oval Brooches
Oval brooches were a customary female dress item in Viking-Age Scandinavia.
They were impressive dress accessories worn in pairs to fasten the two shoulder straps of the traditional strap-dress worn by Scandinavian women.1 As a
highly characteristic type of artefact, they have come to be seen as an icon of
the archaeology of the Viking Age. They have been recognized as such since
Jens Jacob A. Worsaae, whilst travelling in the British Isles in 1846, commented
upon the occurrence of the peculiar bowl-formed brooches, of a sort of brass,
which are very frequently discovered in the Scandinavian north, and particularly in the Norwegian and Swedish graves of the times of the Vikings.2
The visual appearance of these ornaments is instantly recognizable. Mostly
cast in copper alloy and often gilded, they were richly decorated personal ornaments and clearly objects of great symbolic significance. Their occurrence in
well-furnished female graves marks them out as symbols of gender identity
and social status, while their abundance over 3600 finds survive makes
1

Anne Hedeager Krag, Dragtudviklingen fra 8.10. rh. e. Kr. i Sydskandinavien: med
udgangspunkt i sklformede spnder, Lag, 5 (1994), 771.
2
Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae, An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England,
Scotland, and Ireland (London: John Murray, 1852), p.255.
Sren M. Sindbk (soren.sindbaek@york.ac.uk) is Lecturer in Medieval Archaeology in the
Department of Archaeology at the University of York.
Conversion and Identity in the Viking Age, ed. by Ildar Garipzanov, with the assistance of Rosalind
Bont, MISCS 5 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), pp. 167193
BREPOLS

PUBLISHERS

10.1484/M.MISCS-EB.1.102037

168 Sren M. Sindbk

it clear that this symbolism was a pervasive cultural trait.3 By the standards of
early Viking-Age jewellery, in which silver or gold was rarely found, the value
of these items must have been considerable. As a form of durable, moveable
wealth, produced in specialist workshops and often procured through longdistance exchange, these oval brooches formed a key element in the increasing
usage of valuable materials in forms that would have been useful as a means of
extending and consolidating social networks. Such valuables seem in particular
to have taken the form of objects that would have been held by women, perhaps
provided by families as an early form of dowry, and they presumably contributed towards solidifying an individuals personal status.4
One reason for the instantly recognizable appearance of the oval brooches
is the technology that was used for their production. The brooches were not
fashioned individually, but were instead cast using a technique in which models
were pressed into clay to produce numerous moulds for identical brooches. The
models might be existing brooches or else lead copies cast in moulds that were
shaped over such brooches and sometimes reworked.5 Oval brooches were thus
mass produced, or to use a more recent expression, they were re-blogged
repeatedly copied and pasted, albeit sometimes with modified content. In the
words of Jan Petersen, the brooches were copied so to speak infinitely, in such
a way that there may be better or poorer examples, but the type always remains
substantially the same.6 As Petersen continues, this is something new, which
begins with the Viking Age.7
3

Ingmar Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor: en studie av vikingatida standardsmycken med

utgngspunkt frn Bjrk-fynden, Aun, 7 (Uppsala: Institutionen fr arkeologi, 1985), p.12.
4
Sren M. Sindbk, Silver Economies and Social Ties: Long-Distance Interaction, LongTerm Investments and Why the Viking Age Happened, in Silver Economies, Monetisation
and Society in Scandinavia, ad 8001100, ed. by James Graham-Campbell, Sren M. Sindbk,
and Gareth Williams (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2011), pp.4166.
5
Helge Brinch Madsen, Metal-Casting, Techniques, Production and Workshops, in Ribe
Excavations 19701976, ed. by Mogens Bencard, Aino Kann Rasmussen, and Helge Brinch
Madsen, 6 vols (Esbjerg : Sydjysk Universitets Forlag, 1984), ii, 15189; Bjarne Lnborg,
Fremstillingen af vikingetidens sklformede fibler, Kuml: rbog for Jysk Arkologisk Selskab,
1991/92 (1992), 15164; Claus Feveile, Stbning af ovale sklspnder i Ribe: type- og
teknikvariation, in Metalhndvrk og hndvrkspladser fra yngre germansk jernalder, vikingetid og
tidlig middelalder: Rapport fra et seminar p Hollufgrd den 22. oktober 2001, ed. by Mogens Bo
Henriksen, Skrifter fra Odense Bys Museer, 9 (Odense: Odense Bys Museer, 2002), pp.1726.
6
Jan Petersen, Vikingetidens smykker (Stavanger: Dreyers grafiske Anstalt, 1928), p.25
(my translation).
7
Jan Petersen, Vikingetidens smykker, p. 25.

Crossbreeding Beasts

169

The introduction of the new technology required to mass-produce the

brooches is generally related to the emergence of urban centres in which specialized production such as the casting of copper alloy was practised on an
unprecedented scale. This form of production demanded a high level of skill
as well as steady access to imported raw materials, both of which could most
readily be maintained in towns.8 Waste materials created through this type of
production have been excavated in Ribe, Birka, hus, Hedeby, and Kaupang.9
Occasionally production is attested outside urban contexts, as at Barva in the
Mlaren valley.10 The contrast with more individually crafted ornaments from
the pre-Viking period is highlighted by the materials discovered in the wellknown migration period workshops at Helg, which reflect the production of
objects of remarkably high technical quality and individual design.11 This contrast may be exaggerated by the exclusive character of the workshops in Helg:
a standardized and repetitive production is attested elsewhere before the Viking
Age in the production of common ornaments such as beaked brooches.12
8

Bertil Almgren, Bronsnycklar och djurornamentik vid vergngen frn vendeltid til vikingatid
(Uppsala: Appelberg, 1955), pp.8183; Herbert Jankuhn, Das Bronzegieerhandwerk in
Haithabu, in La formation et le dveloppement des mtiers au moyen ge (vexive sicles), ed.
by Lszl Gerevich and gnes Salamon (Budapest: Akadmiai Kiad, 1977), pp. 2740;
Hans Drescher, Metallhandwerk des 8.11. Jahrhunderts in Haithabu auf Grund der
Werkstattabflle, in Das Handwerk in vor- und frhgeschichtlicher Zeit, ed. by Herbert Jahnkuhn
and others, 2 vols (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht,198183), ii: Kolloquium der
Kommission Altertumskunde Mittel- und Nordeuropa 19771980 (1983), pp.17492; Signe
Horn Fuglesang, The Personal Touch: On the Identification of Workshops, in Proceedings
of the Tenth Viking Congress, Larkollen, Norway, 1985, ed. by James E. Knirk, Universitetets
Oldsaksamlings Skrifter, n.s., 9 (Oslo: Universitetets oldsaksamling, 1987), pp.21930 (p.219).
9
Sren M. Sindbk, Urban Crafts and Oval Brooches: Style, Innovation and Social
Networks in Viking Age Towns, in Viking Settlements and Viking Society: Papers from the
Proceedings of the Sixteenth Viking Congress, ed. by Svavar Sigmundsson (Reykjavk: Hi slenzka fornleifaflag, 2012), pp.40923.
10
Jan Dunr and Ann Vinberg, Barva: 2000 r vid Mlarens sdra strand, UV mitt rapport 2006, 20: Arkeologiska frunderskningar och underskningar (Hgersten: Riksantik
variembetet, Avdelningen fr arkeologiska underskningar, 2006). Available online: <http://
www.arkeologiuv.se/cms/arkeologiuv/publikationer/rapporter/uv_mitt_2010/uv_mitt_rapport_2006.html> [accessed 13 October 2012].
11
Kristina Lamm and others, Excavations at Helg, 18 vols (Stockholm: Kungliga Vitterhets,
Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 19612011), iv: Workshop Part i (1972).
12
Birgitta Hrdh, Produktion och spridning: nbbfibulor i Skne, in Uppkra: centrum
och sammanhang, ed. by Birgitta Hrdh, Uppkrastudier, 3: Acta archaeologica Lundensia,
Series altera in 8, no.34 (Lund: Almqvist & Wiksell, 2001), pp.187204; Birgitta Hrdh,

170 Sren M. Sindbk

In some aspects of technology, however, the oval brooches of the Viking

Age do mark a new departure. A new casting technique, including a new way of
forming models, permitted shapes to be moulded more freely in the round. 13
The growing availability of freshly alloyed brass as a raw material similarly contributed to improved casting.14 Technological change opened new opportunities for cultural innovation.
The images used to decorate oval brooches are some of the best examples of
early Viking-Age art and are among the earliest dated examples of characteristic Viking-Age styles and images. The character of the images and design, and
the pervasiveness of particular elements, suggests that the ornaments conveyed
meaningful symbolic statements. These statements were made at a time of notable cultural change in Scandinavia, a period when a number of new cultural
impulses were received and explored, including early Christian influence.
In the following, I consider a selection of early oval brooches as visual
statements from Scandinavia during this time of transformation. I shall first
discuss examples of late eighth- and early ninth-century brooches in which
Christian symbols were integrated with traditional images. I will then proceed
to demonstrate how later brooch designs from the mid-ninth century onwards
avoided Christian images. By following the development and distribution of
this imagery, it seems that we can trace a cultural argument. While artwork on
brooches during the late eighth and early ninth centuries was notably open to
cultural inspirations from Western Europe, including elements derived from
the Christian religion, after the mid-ninth century the focus instead converged
upon an emblematic, non-Christian iconography. These observations suggest
that elements of Christianity must have formed an aspect of certain religious
identities in Scandinavia at the beginning of the Viking Age, but that in the
Beak-Shaped Brooches and Merovingian Period Metal Handicraft, in Zwischen Fjorden und
Steppe: Festschrift fr Johan Callmer zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. by Claudia Theune and others,
Internationale Archologie: Studia honoraria, 31 (Rahden: Verlag Marie Leidorf, 2010),
pp.20110.
13
Ken Ravn Hedegaard, Yngre jernalders stempelornamentik: teknik og forml, in Metal
hndvrk og hndvrkspladser fra yngre germansk jernalder, vikingetid og tidlig middelalder: rapport fra et seminar p Hollufgrd den 22. oktober 2001, ed. by Mogens Bo Henriksen, Skrifter fra
Odense Bys Museer, 9 (Odense: Odense Bys Museer, 2002), pp.4148.
14
Andreas Oldeberg, Metallteknik under Vikingatid och medeltid (Stockholm: Seelig,
1966), p.57; Lnborg, Fremstillingen af vikingetidens sklformede fibler, p.89; Peter Kresten,
Eva Hjrthner-Holdar, and Hans Harryson, Metallurgi i Uppkra: smltor och halvfabrikat,
in Uppkra: centrum i analys och rapport, ed. by Lars Larsson, Uppkrastudier, 4: Acta archaeologica Lundensia, Series in 8, no.36 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 2001), pp.14966.

Crossbreeding Beasts

171

context of the Carolingian mission and military expansion in the ninth century, such Christian imagery was instead turned increasingly into a new cultural boundary marker for the northern neighbours of the Frankish empire.

Images on Oval Brooches

From the late eighth to the mid-ninth century, Scandinavian art and iconography was comprehensively redesigned. In traditional archaeological typologies,
the new styles and motifs that appeared have come to define the beginning
of the Viking Age. But this overlap in technological and stylistic change did
not come about by chance. Ingmar Jansson rightly notes that mass-produced
ornaments [] which were carried by almost every woman in Scandinavia,
may have had a greater influence on stylistic developments than some firstclass wood-carvings at a princely court somewhere in Scandinavia.15 Brooches
were a potential mass medium through which new styles could be broadcast.
A substantial part of the innovation marked by the emergence of Viking-Age
art styles may thus have emerged in the copper-alloy ornaments produced in
early urban centres.
The urban focus of ninth-century metalworking, and thus of the stylistic and
technological change seen in brooches, implies that the networks that funnelled
these innovations issued from some of the same sites that conveyed a very different form of cultural change in early Viking-Age Scandinavia: the transmission of
Christianity. Towns or emporia are some of the earliest sites in which Christian
influences are documented in Scandinavia.16 Written sources relating to the
Christian mission in Scandinavia in the early Viking period repeatedly highlight
the same urban sites that material evidence shows to have been abundantly used
for crafts such as copper-alloy metalworking.17 Studies into the interaction testified by metalwork may thus contribute to the broader framework for our interpretation of the reception of early Christianity, in terms of outlining the structure and dynamics of the social networks that carried such influences.
15

Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, p.189 (my translation).

Anne-Sofie Grslund, Ideologi och mentalitet: om religionsskiftet i Skandinavien frn en
arkeologisk horisont, Opia, 29 (Uppsala: Institutionen fr arkeologi och antik historia, Uppsala
universitet, 2001), p.129.
17
Sren Sindbk, The Small World of the Vikings: Networks in Early Medieval
Communication and Exchange, Norwegian Archaeological Review, 40 (2007), 5974; on this
topic see also Torun Zachrisson, The Archaeology of Rimbert: The Churches of Hergeir and
Gautbert and Borg in Birka, in Viking Settlements and Viking Society, pp.46993.
16

172 Sren M. Sindbk

Apart from providing evidence

of social networks in a general sense,
metal ornaments may also relate
more directly to the process of conversion through the images used to
decorate them. The question of to
what extent symbolic statements can
be identified in these images is an old
chestnut in Scandinavian archaeology. Some authors are reluctant to
consider the images on Viking-Age
ornaments as religious statements,
for example Jan Petersen, to whom
images on brooches and other ornaments are simply arbitrary models
that must have stirred the imagination of the Norwegian bronzesmiths. 18 Others, such as Haakon
Shetelig, have taken the view that
the Nordic decorative art of the
Migration period and the Viking
Age often carried a deeper meanFigure 14. Oval brooch from Nrre Randlev,
ing in the eyes of contemporaries
Denmark, Hybjerg, Moesgaard Museum.
than purely artistic value.19 Various
Early eighth century. Photo by author,
reproduced with permission
authors have pursued such meaning
of Moesgaard Museum.
in terms of cultural idioms or discursive symbols, and even fixed representations or kennings, as known from contemporary skaldic art.20
Both sides of this argument remain intense in current debates over Viking
art. Part of the reason for the stalemate is that discussions have often proceeded
18

Petersen, Vikingetidens smykker, p.16 (my translation).

Haakon Shetelig, Religionshistoriske drag fra vikingetidens stilhistorie, Viking, 14
(1950), 4962 (p.49; my translation).
20
Michael Nei, The Ornamental Echo of Oinns Cult, in Cultural Interaction
Between East and West: Archaeology, Artefacts and Human Contacts in Northern Europe, ed.
by Ulf Fransson and others, Stockholm Studies in Archaeology, 44 (Stockholm: Stockholms
Universitet, 2007), pp.8289 (p.88); Michael Nei, Fixeringsbilder inom en vikingatida praktspnneserie, Aarbger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 2006 (2009), 91132 (pp.9395).
19

Crossbreeding Beasts

173

in isolation from the technological and cultural context, which might inform
interpretation of the images. Oval brooches are a case in point: early studies
variously paid attention to the technology of these objects, to their style, to
their distribution, and so forth, yet little concern was shown for the question as
to how these different dimensions were interconnected. Moreover, discussions
have rarely explored how the archaeological contexts of finds might inform
interpretations other than by providing a means of dating. More recent work
has moved on to consider the material culture, context, practice, and function
of images.21 The present paper follows this lead in proposing that a broader, or
thick contextual reading of brooches may allow a more comprehensive understanding of the symbolic content of their images than can be obtained by considering their iconography in isolation.
Despite the spacious and accommodating canvas of the brooches, and despite
the varied inspirations cultivated elsewhere in Viking decorative ornament,
their decoration appears to reflect a limited and recurrent range of images. This
consistent choice suggests that the motifs are not arbitrary decorations, but
rather images that for some reason were found to be particularly appropriate to
the medium in question. The majority of brooches show images that elaborate
on traditional animal designs, a continuing idiom from the migration period
onwards. A small group of brooches, however, contain pictorial elements that
have an origin in Christian iconography, and, as shall be argued here, that were
probably used to express a deliberate Christian symbolism.

Christian and Non-Christian Images

Brooches of oval outline and with a slightly domed profile were common in
Scandinavia from the seventh century onwards, co-existing with several other
types. Early oval brooches were small compared to their Viking-Age descendants, being rarely more than 7cm long and often considerably smaller than that.
Some examples are left blank, but others were decorated with chip-carved
or incised ornaments forming the image of a crouched beast: a compact animal
with prominent eyes, front and hind legs, a central spine, and often what appear
to be ribs radiating from the spine (fig.14).22 Elements of this image came
21

See, amongst others, Michaela Helmbrecht, Der frhe nordische Greiftierstil: Studien
zu einer stilistischen, rumlichen und chronologischen Gliederung, Offa, 61/62 (2007),
239307; Nei, Fixeringsbilder.
22
Mogens rsnes, Form og stil i sydskandinaviens yngre germanske jernalder (Kbenhavn:
Nationalmuseet, 1966), pp.14857.

174 Sren M. Sindbk

to be maintained and further elaborated in various ways in early Viking-Age

brooches. In the late eighth century however, a number of innovative designs
came to be seen in what are often referred to as transitional types of brooches
(in Swedish, vergngstyper), which depart both from earlier models and from
typical Viking-Age styles. Among these, we find a small number of brooches in
which Christian images are incorporated into the design.23
Svennevig
An impressive early example of a Scandinavian brooch design featuring inspirations from Christian art can be found in a pair of brooches (one only partially
preserved) from Svennevig, Hommedal, located near to Grimstad in AustAgder, southern Norway (fig.15).24
These notably well-crafted brooches were discovered in a burial mound
together with a number of further objects: these included a pair of copper-alloy
arm rings, two amber beads, a ring of jet,25 and parts made from iron that may
have belonged to a sword, a spear, or a weaving batten. An unusual find from the
same grave was a fragment of a gilt rectangular copper-alloy plate with traces
of an iron needle clearly an insular mount that had been reworked as the
middle or third brooch of the traditional Scandinavian set. The finds presumably belonged to a womans grave, although little was recorded concerning the
find circumstances, and the whole assemblage was acquired by Universitetets
Oldsakssamling in Oslo at some time before 1877.
The outline of the fully preserved oval brooch is narrow and its length, at
8.3cm, is smaller than typical Viking-Age oval brooches. The pin fixings are
23

Almgren, Bronsnycklar och djurornamentik, pp.8184; rsnes, Form og stil, pp.15157;

Martin Rundkvist, Domed Oblong Brooches of Vendel Period Scandinavia: rsnes Types N &
O and Similar Brooches, including Transitional Types Surviving into the Early Viking Period,
in Frn romartida skalpeller till senvikingatida urnesspnnen: nya materialstudier frn Uppkra,
ed. by Birgitta Hrdh, Uppkrastudier, 11: Acta archaeologica Lundensia, Series in 8, no.61
(Lund: Almqvist & Wiksell, 2010), pp.12799 (pp.15860).
24
Universitetsmuseet Oslo, accession no. C1970; Oluf Rygh, Norske Oldsager (Oslo
[Christiana]: Cammermeyer, 1885), no. 641; Egil Bakka, Eit gravfunn fr Fosse i Meland,
Hordaland og det arkeologiske periodeskiljet mellom merovingartid og vikingtid, Finska
Fornminnesfreningens tidskrift, 75 (1973), 917, figs9 and 11.
25
Unn Plather, Analyses of Jet-Like Objects, in Things from the Town: Artefacts and
Inhabitants in Viking-Age Kaupang, ed. by Dagfinn Skre, Kaupang Excavation Project
Publication Series, 3 (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2011), pp.12941 (p.138).

Crossbreeding Beasts

175

Figure 15. Brooch from Svennevig, Aust-Agder, southern Norway, Universitetet i Oslo,
Kulturhistorisk museum. Late eighth century. Photo by author.

placed within the dome of the brooch, rather than at the ends as in earlier types.
The pin, however, was fastened to a single peg rather than joined between two,
as was to become the standard a few decades later. 26 These traits allow for a
comparison with transitional-type brooches from the second half of the eighth
century.27 This date is also consistent with the other finds in the assemblage.
The brooches from Svennevig are expertly cast according to the best canon
of copper-alloy working in Scandinavia in this period. The back of the brooch
bears an imprint of textile from a small piece of cloth, which was presumably
dipped in wax and used to shape the brooch back. This method, which made
it possible to cast very thin shells, is almost ubiquitous in oval brooches of the
Viking Age, but is only rarely met in transitional-type brooches like these. 28
There is no thick rim along the edges of the brooches, however, and this absence
would have been highly unusual even as early as in the 790s in workshops
in Ribe, for example.29 A thick rim reduced wear on the dress, and was soon
adopted almost universally in Scandinavia when larger brooches came into
26
Almgren, Bronsnycklar och djurornamentik, pp.8187; Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor,
pp.11417.
27
Martin Rundkvist, Domed Oblong Brooches, pp.13741.
28
Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, p.118.
29
Feveile, Stbning af ovale sklspnder i Ribe, p.21.

176 Sren M. Sindbk

use. The brooches from Svennevig, then, were presumably produced before the
introduction of this innovation, at some point in the 770s or 780s.30
The design and technology mark out these brooches as products of expert
craftsmanship, in many respects similar to that which is attested in contemporary urban workshops. Some aspects of the technology, such as the use of textiles to shape the back of the brooches, had been introduced only recently, and
their usage was still very sporadic and presumably limited to just a few sites.
However, the original design for which thus far no close parallel has been
found suggests that these brooches were not the products of serial production in a town, but perhaps rather the work of a master craftsman for a specific patron. The inclusion of the pair in a burial assemblage together with a
reworked insular ornament, amber beads and British jet all rare items in
Norway at this time suggests that the society in which these brooches were
used was a cosmopolitan and culturally open milieu.
The decoration on the two brooches pays homage to the traditional
crouched beast image: two bosses mark the eyes of the beast, while four similar
bosses mark the joints of the front and hind legs. Further details of the legs and
of the face of the animal can be made out in the intricate interlace design, while
the spine and ribs, which would commonly have been represented, are absent.
In their place, the surface is covered in a complex pattern of rosettes, arranged
between the bosses, and by two prominent wheel crosses. The crosses and the
interlace designs both bear an unmistakable similarity to Celtic art and may
well have been copied directly from Irish metal ornaments or from a book manuscript. The immediate visual appearance of these geometric designs departs
markedly from the organic curves of Scandinavian animal ornamentation in
the late eight century, and would presumably have struck an early Viking-Age
Scandinavian as an alien and novel feature. Even more striking is the prominent
use of crosses. While this element was evidently copied from a foreign model,
it was hardly selected unintentionally. The community in which these brooches
were produced and used was almost certainly aware of Christianity: a plain lack
of knowledge of the religion of important North Sea neighbours would be difficult to reconcile with the archaeological evidence for cross-cultural interac30

This date places the find somewhat later than was suggested by Bjrn Myhre, The
Beginning of the Viking Age: Some Current Archaeological Problems, in Viking Revaluations:
Viking Society Centenary Symposium 1415 May 1992, ed. by Anthony Faulkes and Richard
Perkins (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1993), pp.182204 (pp.18788). I
have discussed what I see as the problems in Myhres revised chronology elsewhere; see Sindbk,
Urban Crafts and Oval Brooches, pp.41012.

Crossbreeding Beasts

177

tions, as exemplified in the imported objects of this grave. It is likely, therefore,

that the Christian symbolism implied by the crosses was openly acknowledged,
even highlighted, in this set of personal ornaments.
How this symbolism was understood and interpreted is a different matter.
It is worth noting that the use of crosses was apparently considered to be compatible with the image of the crouched beast, which is also prominent on these
brooches. It is difficult to rationalize the latter as being a Christian image in
any strict sense. The occurrence of the objects in a furnished burial in a mound
also departs from Christian practice, although this point is not in itself decisive: richly furnished burials were accepted in Western Europe throughout
the Merovingian period. 31 In so far as the images indicate an awareness and
reception of Christian ideas then, the observations on their context suggest
that such ideas were received within a syncretistic environment. We may thus
assume, with some reason, that the woman buried in the richly furnished grave
in Svennevig was aware of the connotations of the crosses used as decoration
on her brooches, and that she found these connotations to be in accordance
with her view of the world and with what was considered appropriate and honourable in her society. She accepted aspects of Christian symbolism and may
even have considered herself to be a Christian. Yet her ostentatious dress and
furnished burial would certainly not have been considered appropriate and
honourable for the burial of a Christian woman by a contemporary Christian
of the Roman church for example StBoniface, who complained in 742 to
Pope Zacharias about women in Rome wearing pagan amulets and bracelets
on their arms and legs.32 The Christian roots of the symbolism in the Svennevig
brooches had, quite literally, been carried into a foreign country.

Birka Bj 655
A form of symbolism similar to that which can be surmised for the brooches
from Svennevig and quite possibly with a similar source of inspiration
may apply to another brooch design, of which three finds are known. One
is a stray find from Vang, Lenvik, in Troms, northern Norway.33 Another is
31

Grslund, Ideologi och mentalitet, p.48.

The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany: Being the Lives of SS. Willibrord, Boniface, Leoba
and Lebuin, together with the Hodoepericon of StWillibald and a Selection from the Correspondence
of StBoniface, ed. and trans. by Charles H. Talbot (London: Sheed and Ward, 1954).
33
Universitetsmuseet Troms, accession no. 9552; Rundkvist, Domed Oblong Brooches, p.146.
32

178 Sren M. Sindbk

Figure 16. Brooches from Birka grave Bj 655, Birka, Sweden, Stockholm, Statens
Historiska Museum. Late eighth century. From Ingmar Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor:
en studie av vikingatida standardsmycken med utgngspunkt frn Bjrk-fynden, Aun, 7
(Uppsala: Institutionen fr arkeologi, 1985), fig.5.

an apparently unfinished fragment found in a workshop in Staraya Ladoga,

Russia.34 The third and most complete find, however, comprises two brooches
from Birka grave Bj 655 (fig. 16). The technical characteristics of these
brooches suggest that they may have been produced slightly later than the pair
discovered at Svennevig: while the pin fixings are of a similar construction, the
brooches from Birka grave Bj 655 are larger, at 9.6cm in length, and their rim
is slightly reinforced.35 The decoration is fashioned entirely by chip carving and
does not incorporate any raised detail of the type that characterizes brooches
manufactured in early workshops in Ribe and Birka from the late eighth century onwards.36 The inhumation grave in which the brooches were found also
34

Anatoliy N. Kirpichnikov, A Viking Period Workshop in Staraya Ladoga, Excavated

1997, Fornvnnen, 99 (2004), 18396 (p.190).
35
Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, pp.1920.
36
Bjrn Ambrosiani, Gjutformar i Birka: en sensation, in Birka Vikingastaden, ed. by
Bjrn Ambrosiani and Bo G. Erikson, 5vols (Stockholm:Sveriges Radios Frlag,199296),
ii: Sensationella fynd i Stolpes schakt: unika g jutformar frn vikingatidens verkstder (1992),
pp.3441; Bjrn Ambrosiani, 1993: lngt men inta nda fram, in Birka Vikingastaden, ed. by
Bjrn Ambrosiani and Bo G. Erikson, 5vols (Stockholm:Sveriges Radios Frlag,199296),
iv: Smycken och djurben bland 40.000 fynd: vattensllet avsljar livet fr 1.200 r sedan

Crossbreeding Beasts

179

held a strike-a-light, a silver finger ring, a knife and forty-seven beads.37 The set
of beads comprises a number of segmented metal-foil beads, first introduced
in Scandinavia in the decades around 800. The brooches from Bj 655 would
therefore seem to have been produced at some time not long before the year
800, by a craftsman who used a more conservative technique than that which
seems to have characterized production in contemporary urban workshops.
The decoration on the brooches from grave Bj 655 features a prominent
central cross that divides the entire surface of each brooch into four quadrants.
The apex of the cross is ringed by a circle, and the arms terminate in semi-circular palmetto ornaments. The design has a general affinity with a wider group
of brooch designs in which the decorated surface is divided into four ovals
or medallions, yet the rendering of the cross on the Bj 655 brooches deviates
markedly from this group.38 Some scholars have drawn attention to the similarity between this design and crosses seen in insular art.39 A very similar ringcross with palmette-shaped terminals can be seen, for example, on the Roolwer
stone at Maughold, on the Isle of Man.40
The decoration within each of the four quadrants between the cross arms
shows designs that appear to be a variant of Scandinavian style III/E. Each
quadrant has a different image, and the images across the two brooches are not
identical. These images are difficult to decipher, and Jansson draws the cautious conclusion that at least some show dissolved four-footed animals, with a
number of wing-like tendrils.41 If we consider the better preserved of the two
brooches (fig.16, no.2), this identification would seem to hold true of the two
creatures on the right-hand side, where four feet with sprawling claws can be
discerned in each quadrant on the side facing the rim. The image on the bottom
(1994), pp.733 (p.21); Bjrn Ambrosiani, De tv sista grvningsren 199495, in Birka
Vikingastaden, ed. by Bjrn Ambrosiani and Bo G. Erikson, 5vols (Stockholm:Sveriges Radios
Frlag,199296), v: Vikingastaden lever upp igen i TV:s modell av 800-talets Birka (1996),
pp.643 (p.29).
37
Holger Arbman, Birka: Die Grber, 2vols (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1943), i,
pl.58.
38
Rundkvist, Domed Oblong Brooches, p.144.
39
Holger Arbman, Schweden und das karolingische Reich (Stockholm: Thule, 1937), p.124;
William Holmqvist, Was There a Christian Mission to Sweden Before Ansgar?, Early Medieval
Studies, 8 (1975), 3355 (pp.4243); Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, p.20.
40
David Wilson, The Vikings in the Isle of Man (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2008),
p.72 and fig.34.
41
Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, p.20 (my translation).

180 Sren M. Sindbk

left-hand side, however, shows two prominent round eyes and a nose. Within
the conventions of Scandinavian art, this image is consistent with representations of a human face or mask.42 The image above this face seems to have only
two feet, and can be seen as a bird rather than as a quadruped. Of these four
images, it would thus appear that two can be rendered as quadrupeds, a human
and a bird, with wing-like tendrils. In the context of the large cross-shaped
central ornament, it may be suggested that these images reflect the traditional
representation of the four evangelists as four winged creatures: a lion (StMark),
an ox or calf (StLuke), an eagle (StJohn), and a man or angel (StMatthew).43
Renderings of these four images within a cross frame were common in religious
objects in Western Europe in the early medieval period,44 and were almost certainly explored in Scandinavian art later in the tenth century.45
The composition of the images on this particular Bj 655 brooch could conceivably have been copied and adapted directly from a foreign object such as a
book cover. If so, the intended meaning of the images could have been lost or
reinterpreted a possibility that cannot be entirely ignored, given the fact that
the images on the two brooches are not identical. As with the brooches from
Svennevig, however, the Christian symbolism of the large cross could hardly
have been completely missed in late eighth-century Scandinavia, especially in
a nodal site of cross-cultural communication such as Birka. It is more likely,
therefore, that the symbolism of the images was to some extent understood in
line with what we would consider to be their original meaning. The context of
the find supplies further substantiation for this interpretation: the part of the
cemetery in Birka in which grave Bj 655 was found, an area known as Norr om
Borg, features a dense concentration of modestly furnished inhumation graves
42

Michala Helmbrecht, Wirkmchtige Kommunikationsmedien: Menschenbilder der

Vendel- und Wikingerzeit und ihre Kontexte, Acta archaeologica Lundensia, Series prima in 4,
no.30 (Lund: Lunds universitet, 2011), pp.21529.
43
The symbolism is based on Revelations 4.67: [] and round about the throne, were
four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast
like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
44
See, e.g. the Book of Kells (Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS A. I. (58)), fol.27v;
cf.Bernard Meehan, The Book of Kells: An Illustrated Introduction to the Manuscript in Trinity
College Dublin (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994), p.8.
45
Jrn Staecker, Decoding Viking Art: The Christian Iconography of the Bamberg Shrine,
in On the Road: Studies in Honour of Lars Larsson, ed. by Birgitta Hrdh, Kristina Jennbert,
and Deborah Olausson, Acta archaeologica Lundensia in 4, no.26 (Stockholm: Almqvist &
Wiksell, 2007), pp.30106.

Crossbreeding Beasts

181

that are invariably orientated east-west. Anne-Sofie Grslund argues that this
particular area might therefore have been a cemetery for an early Christian
community in Birka.46
The existence of such a community is asserted in the Life of Anskar, and
its testimony has recently been corroborated in observations presented by
Bjrn Ambrosiani. Examining the casting-moulds found in workshops in early
Viking-Age Birka, Ambrosiani has shown that the workshops, which produced
oval brooches in the ninth century, also produced a small series of cross ornaments and moreover, that moulds for another rare type of oval brooch type
with cross ornaments the variant P27B were found in the same phases
of this workshop. In addition, Ambrosiani notes that the production of these
ornaments, dated to the second quarter of the ninth century, coincides in time
with the Carolingian mission described in the Life of Anskar.47
The Bj 655 brooches would thus have been used in a community in which
some people were certainly capable of understanding Christian symbolism,
where Christian ritual was observed in a group of burials, and where, according
to the Life of Anskar, missionary priests were available to perform Christian
ceremonies. Moreover, the woman who wore this particular set of brooches was
buried in a place where common brooch types were produced next door. She
could hardly have been indifferent to the design of these ornaments or ignorant
of the meaning of the images represented on the set of brooches that she wore,
but must instead have acknowledged and endorsed aspects of their Christian
symbolism.
While the Bj 655 brooches may present us with a deliberate Christian iconography however, their counterpart from Vang, Troms, which has a similar
general design, shows only rudimentary figures that are hardly recognizable
as specific beings. Instead it features four bosses invoking the crouched beast
design. This suggests again that the traditional animal design was not considered to be opposed to the cross. Rather, in as far as a Christian symbolism was
received, it was viewed as a continuation of established identities as much as a
new departure.

46
Anne-Sofie Grslund, Birka iv: The Burial Customs: A Study of the Graves on Bjrk
(Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1980), pp.74 and 8384.
47
Bjrn Ambrosiani, Birka under Ansgars tid (Stockholm: Paniba, 2005).

182 Sren M. Sindbk

P11
A third type of early Viking-Age brooch that is characterized by a similar convergence of symbolism is Petersens type P11 (fig.17). Unlike the unique designs
discussed above, this type is represented by at least sixteen recorded examples
and is considered to be one of the earliest examples of urban serial production.48
The P11 brooches are narrow and small (910cm long) compared to the
so-called Berdal-type brooches (Petersens types P1417), which were the most
common forms in the early Viking Age. In some cases, the pin fixings are of
the single-peg type, while others are of the two-peg type typical in Viking-Age
brooches. The occurrence of both forms suggests that this group of brooches
is slightly younger than the pieces discussed above. The rim is slightly thickened, but without the prominent beaded rim seen in typical Berdal brooches.
These traits would seem to point to a date at the beginning of the Viking
period, around ad800. Mould fragments for the production of P11 brooches
are known from Ribe, found in layers dating to the period c.80020.49 Based
on the occurrence of identifiable fragments in the stratigraphy, the type would
seem to make its appearance about a decade after the first introduction of the
Berdal-type brooches and to disappear again before the heyday of the latter in
the second quarter of the ninth century. While this impression may be coincidental, considering the limited scale of the excavations, it is at least consistent
with the typological interpretation of the brooches.
The design of P11 shows an elongated central field with a tiny ornament in
the centre. Along the edges are eight panels of rather crudely modelled interlace
ornaments probably simple knots and tendrils, although it is possible to construe them as simplified animals. These panels are separated by slightly raised,
blank areas, three on each side and one at each end. The two most prominent of
these in the middle are clearly cross-shaped, while the other six are simple arches
or rhombs. The elements of this design resemble the spine and limbs of the
crouched beast; but they are hardly recognizable as such unless seen as a further
development of the Berdal-type brooches, or even more clearly, the so-called R9
brooch, a prototype of the Berdal group known from moulds in Ribe.50
48

Petersen, Vikingetidens smykker, p.14; Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, pp.2526.

Feveile Stbning af ovale sklspnder i Ribe, p. 24; cf. also Claus Feveile and Stig
Jensen, ASR 9 Posthuset in Ribe Studier : et ldste Ribe: udgravninger p nordsiden af Ribe
19842000, ed. by Claus Feveile, Jysk Arkologisk Selskabs skrifter, 51, 2 vols (Hjbjerg: Jysk
Arkologisk Selskab, 2006), i.2, 11991.
50
Feveile, Stbning af ovale sklspnder i Ribe, p.21.
49

Crossbreeding Beasts

183

Petersen found that the cross

figures on P11 brooches pointed to
an affinity with the earlier brooches
from Svennevig.51 Others have speculated on insular models for the
interlace designs, although Jansson
disagrees.52 The case for an insular
connection is strengthened by the
fact that one pair of these brooches
was found in Kilmainham, Dublin
a rare example of an early VikingAge ornament in Ireland. The style
of the Kilmainham brooches departs
slightly from other examples, with
less of a three-dimensional effect
but finer detail in the geometric
linear ornamentation. 53 However,
the possible Christian symbolism
of the crosses on the sides of these
brooches has not escaped notice.54
In a pair of brooches from Enner,
Tamdrup parish near Aarhus in
Denmark, these cross figures are
Figure 17. Brooch of type P11, Nysom,
supplemented by another four vigRavnkilde, Denmark, Hybjerg, Moesgaard
orous cruciform figures that are
Museum. C. 80050. Photo by author,
reproduced with permission of
placed on both sides of the central
Moesgaard Museum.
crosses.55 The likelihood that such
symbolism was intentional is further
heightened by the fact that one P11 brooch was found in Birka grave Bj 602 in
the supposedly Christian cemetery Norr om Borg, discussed above.56 It formed
51

Petersen, Vikingetidens smykker, p.14.

Peter Paulsen, Studien zur Wikinger-Kultur (Neumunster: Wachholtz, 1933), p.28;
Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, p.26.
53
Hkon Shetelig, Religionshistoriske drag, p.55 and pl.9.
54
Hkon Shetelig, Religionshistoriske drag, p.56.
55
Johannes Brndsted, Danish Inhumation Graves of the Viking Age, Acta Archaeologica,
7 (1936), 81228 (p.117).
56
Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, p.26.
52

184 Sren M. Sindbk

a pair together with a very different brooch, a transitional type with a clear
crouched beast design, suggesting once again that there seems to have been no
antagonism between the cross and the beast. A similar situation applies to the
brooches from Enner, which were found in an inhumation grave together with
a single P13 brooch a simplified variant of the Berdal-design and a small
openwork brooch featuring animal ornamentation. One pair of P11 brooches
from Mindresunde, Stryn, in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway, was found in a richly
furnished inhumation grave, with personal ornaments including an Irish ring
pin and a set of glass beads that featured two mosaic beads with clear cross
motives.57 A fourth grave with similar brooches, from the North Frisian island
of Amrum, was found with other personal ornaments and a pottery vessel (used
for food-offerings?) in a cremation grave under a mound circumstances that
do not suggest a Christian burial context.58
The P11 brooches share patterns observed in other early oval brooches with
cross motifs: they often occur in contexts with other indicators of Christian
influence and their decoration shows a subdued use of animal art, yet they are
also distinguished by a flexible association with traditional motifs and with traditional burial rites. Ribe, where casting moulds for these brooches are found,
was another site referred to in the Life of Anskar as a target of the ninth-century
Carolingian mission; and the recent discovery of a cemetery containing what
appears to be ninth-century Christian burials located next to the later cathedral seems to confirm the existence of an early Viking-Age Christian community in the town.59 As in Birka, workshops in Ribe also seem to have produced
cross ornaments. Claus Feveile has recently drawn attention to a previously
little-known group of early Viking-Age cross-shaped brooches (Raahede-type
brooches) that have a marked concentration in southwest Jutland, that is, in the
hinterland of Ribe. One example of such a brooch-type found in Ribe proper
can be dated by context to the mid-ninth century. The design of these brooches
reflects Carolingian models but also displays quite distinctive traits, and they
are unknown outside southern Scandinavia. Feveile therefore suggests that they
were locally manufactured ornaments with Christian symbolism.60
57

Universitetsmuseet Bergen, acc. no. B4505 a.

Almgren, Bronsnycklar och djurornamentik, pp.1516.
59
Morten Svs, Tidligkristne begravelser ved Ribe Domkirke, Arkologi i Slesvig, 13
(2010), 14764.
60
Claus Feveile, Korsfibler af Rhedetypen: en upagtet fibeltype fra ldre vikingetid,
Kuml: rbog for Jysk Arkologisk Selskab, 2011 (2011), 14360.
58

Crossbreeding Beasts

185

The occurrence of apparently Christian burials and the production of crossshaped brooches in Ribe reinforce the argument that the crosses featured on
the P11 oval brooches that were produced here could have been intended to
convey a Christian symbolism. However, this symbolism does not necessarily
need to denote a full adoption of Christianity on the part of those who wore
such brooches, as suggested by find-contexts such as the well-stocked cremation grave from Amrum. On the contrary, the contextual associations of P11
brooches instead suggest that there was a wide scope for the way in which their
featured symbols were interpreted.
The three examples discussed above highlight the occurrence of crosses and
other Christian symbols in early Viking-Age art in Scandinavia. It must be
noted, however, that brooches with such images are rare. The few examples discussed here coexist with many dozens that render traditional crouched beasts
or other animal art. Moreover, the occurrence of Christian symbols appears to
decline in the middle of the ninth century. At this time, brooch-makers instead
seized upon a virtual icon, which did not include any of the openly Christian
allusions seen up to this point.

Recasting an Icon: The Images of P37

As already noted, the ninth century saw an increase in the use of highly standardized and serially produced brooch designs, some of which appear to have
been associated with specific production centres.61 Towards the middle of the
century however, this was to change, with several lines of development converging together to create a pan-Scandinavian design Petersens type P37
of which more than 600 copies are recorded (fig.18).
It was followed in the tenth century by the even more ubiquitous type P51,
which features a design very similar to that of P37 on an openwork top shell
covering a thin blank inner shell. This twin-shell construction created a magnificent play of light and shade and almost completely supplanted single-shell
designs for about a century. Around 1000 examples of P51-type brooches are
known from locations as widespread as Iceland and Western Siberia.62
The P37 design evolved from brooch types known to have been produced in
Birka from the late eighth century onwards, featuring four roundels or medallions inhabited by gripping beasts (Petersens type P27 and the so-called Birka
61
62

See in particular the discussion in Sindbk Urban Crafts and Oval Brooches.
Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, p.81.

186 Sren M. Sindbk

Figure 18. Brooch of type P37, Borbjerg parish, Denmark, Holstebro, Holstebro Museum. Mid-ninth
century. Photo courtesy of Jannie Wrtz Slk, reproduced with permission of Holstebro Museum.

type, which is not featured in Petersens typology).63 On P37-style brooches,

this arrangement of the roundels is changed into two diamond-shaped fields
that touch at the centre of the brooch. This arrangement is similar to that seen
in an earlier group of brooches found mainly in western Norway (Petersens type
P25) and in a group of contemporary rectangular brooches.64 The introduction
of the P37 design is less well-dated than earlier brooch-types, for which moulds
have been found in well-stratified workshop assemblages. Mould fragments for
P37 brooches are known from hus in Scania and Barva in the Mlaren valley,
but they were not found in closely datable contexts.65 It may be significant that
P37 brooches are not attested among the mould fragments from Ribe, where
63

Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, p.42.

Petersen, Vikingetidens smykker, pp. 2226; Thorkild Ramskou, Stil F: En skitse,
Aarbger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie (1963), 10018 (p.103); Grethe Arwidsson,
Vendelstile Email und Glas im 7.8. Jahrhundert (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1942), fig.90.
65
Johan Callmer, North-European Trading Centres and the Early Medieval Craftsman:
Craftsmen at hus, North-Eastern Scania, Sweden ca. ad750850+, in Central Places in the
Migration and Merovingian Periods: Papers from the 52nd Sachensymposium, Lund, August
2001, ed. by Birgitta Hrdh and Lars Larsson, Uppkrastudier, 6: Acta archaeologica Lundensia,
Series in 8, no.39 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 2002), pp.13358 (p.138); Dunr and
Vinberg, Barva: 2000 r vid Mlarens sdra strand, p.134.
64

Crossbreeding Beasts

187

the datable sequence stops around the mid-ninth century; but considering that
production in Ribe up to this point appears to have focused on types that were
markedly different from those produced in the workshops excavated in Birka, it
is not certain that P37 brooches were ever produced in Ribe, even if they were
introduced elsewhere at a time when Ribes workshops were still in operation.66
Based on the evidence from graves, the widespread adoption of the P37
brooch-type presumably happened in the middle decades of the ninth century.67 This coincides with a period that saw the culmination of the Carolingian
mission to Scandinavia. However, the images that decorate P37 brooches in
fact appear to actively avoid Christian motifs, instead showing a heightened
focus upon pagan themes. In as far as a religious identity is reflected in the
design, it is not an identity that signals the reception of the Christian message.
The most prominent element of the P37 design is the lattice-like framework
that covers the surface. In most brooches, the twines of this lattice are covered
in incised ornaments, which make it clear that they are to be understood as a
network of ropes. Some particularly elaborate brooches even use twisted silver wire set through openwork bosses in order to highlight this allusion.68 At
the crossing points for these ropes, many brooches had applied bosses through
which the ropes would have passed. A network of rope-ornamentation very
similar to that seen in P37 brooches can be seen on rectangular brooches
from around 800.69 Rope ornaments are also a standard feature of Berdal-type
brooches, where they are placed along the spine of the beast. A reflection of
this latter arrangement can also be seen on P11 brooches (see above).
The rope motif is thus a consistent and long-lived feature from some of
the earliest brooch designs onwards. Michael Nei refers to similar designs
in other forms of ornament as a possible allusion to inns capture of the
Fenris wolf.70 Ropes may also have a more general association with ritual: in
the description given in Egils saga Skallagrmssonar of the Gula ing, hallowed
bands (vbnd) are said to be set between hazel poles and used to demarcate
the seat of the judges at the assembly site.71 An archaeological find that suggests
the use of vbnd as an aspect of legal or religious ritual is represented by the
66

Feveile, Stbning af ovale sklspnder i Ribe, p.25, n.2.

Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, p.182.
68
See for example the brooch from Birka grave Bj 550; cf.Jansson, Ovala spnnbucklor, p.31.
69
Ramskou, Stil F: En skitse, fig.3.
70
Nei, The Ornamental Echo, p.87.
71
For discussion and references, see Stefan Brink, Law and Society: Polities and Legal
Customs in Viking Scandinavia, in The Viking World, ed. by Stefan Brink and Neil Price
(London: Routledge, 2008), pp.2331 (p.26).
67

188 Sren M. Sindbk

enigmatic Oseberg animal head posts. These elaborately carved objects were
found together in pairs with ropes held between the jaws of the animals.72 It has
not been possible to point to a practical function for these objects; but being
adorned by superb decoration and being apparently designed to carry ropes,
they would conceivably lend themselves well to the demarcation of a symbolically significant space. It is possible that the ropes passing between the ornamental bosses in the brooches may be allusions to a similar theme.
The spaces between the ropes are mostly occupied by gripping beasts, a
much discussed aspect of Scandinavian art in the early Viking Age. Gripping
beasts are strikingly different from the interlacing animals of style III/E with
which they are partly contemporary. They are squat, short-legged little animals
with a clearly defined anatomy, faces shown en face, and paws that grasp at their
own limbs, at the frames of the design, or at other gripping beasts. The earliest
dated examples are found on brooch moulds from Ribe from the late eighth
century. The symbolic connotation of gripping beasts is widely debated. To
Peter Paulsen, writing in Germany in 1933, they were Carolingian lions and
testimony to the civilizing power of the Frankish mission over the Wikingerkultur.73 Heiko Steuer suggested in a more prosaic vein that they were domestic
cats, reflecting a fascination with a newly introduced domesticate, although he
noted that cats might also be seen as a symbol of Freya.74 Recent authors have
mostly seen the motif as a response to encounters with new styles of Carolingian
art work. Like Paulsen, Egon Warmers derives the motif from Carolingian lion
images, although admittedly rather freely remodelled.75 Nei suggests that the

72
Hkon Shetelig, Oseberg fundet, 5 vols(Oslo [Kristiania]: Universitets oldsaksamling,
19172006), iii: Vestfoldskolen (1920).
73
Paulsen, Studien zur Wikinger-Kultur, p.22.
74
Heiko Steuer, Zur Herleitung des nordischen Greiftierstils, in Studien zum
Altgermanischen: Festschrift fr Heinrich Beck, ed. by Heiko Uecker (Berlin: deGruyter, 1994),
pp.64876.
75
Egon Wamers, Zwischen Salzburg und Oseberg : Zu Ursprung und Ikonographie
des nordischen Greiftierstils, in Vlker an Nord- und Ostsee und die Franken: Akten des 48.
Sachsensymposiums in Mannheim vom 7. bis 11. September 1997, ed. by Uta von Freeden,
Ursula Koch, and Alfried Wieczorek, Kolloquien zur Vor- und Frhgeschichte, 3, Mannheimer
Geschichtsbltter, 2 (Bonn: Habelt, 1999), pp.195228. Wamers interpretation is endorsed by,
among others, Martin Rundkvist, Recension: Vlker an Nord- und Ostsee und die Franken:
Akten des 48. Sachsensymposiums, Fornvnnen, 96.2 (2001), 13537 (p.137); and Iben
Skibsted Klse, Hvordan blev de til: Vikingetidens stilgrupper fra Broa til Urnes, Hikuin, 29
(2002), 75104 (p.84).

Crossbreeding Beasts

189

gripping beast represents inns fylgia (accompanying animal helper),76 while

Maria Dome Lundborg warns against drawing simple analogies between animal art and deities.77
It is important to note that the introduction of the true gripping beast
is accompanied by a substantial technological change the introduction of
an improved casting technique that permitted a change from incised or chipcarved decoration to modelling in the round. Late eighth-century Scandinavian
art includes examples of compact animals with gripping limbs, seen especially
in the artefacts grouped together by Thorkild Ramskou as Style F.78 The only
points that clearly distinguish these images from the true gripping beast are
the style of execution (chip carving) and the fact that the heads are rendered
in profile. Style F animals occur on the sides of the crouched-beast of some
transitional-type brooches, very much in the same role as gripping beasts. The
gripping beast may thus claim a Scandinavian ancestry as much a Carolingian
one, and it was solidly entrenched as a traditional image by the time it started
to appear on P37 brooches.
A third image does not occur universally in P37 brooches, yet is met sufficiently often to be considered a regular part of the design. This image has
been described as a human head with flowing hair, 79 or more cautiously, as a
face seen en face with a strange head dress, which may be regarded as flowing
hair.80 Where it occurs, this image is usually found in the middle of the side
fields of the brooches. Petersens comments on this motif are characteristic of
his approach. He suggests that these heads have been taken from the equal arm
brooches, where the extensions at the ends and along the sides turn into animal
masks, due to the trend at the time of making animal art out of whatever.81 The
transfer of this motif to the oval brooches may, in Petersens view, be explained
as a simple misinterpretation of brooches [] where two birds heads have
76

Michael Nei, The Ornamental Echo, p.87.

Maria Dome Lundborg, Bound Animal Bodies: Ornamentation and Skaldic Poetry
in the Process of Christianization, in Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspectives: Origins,
Changes and Interaction, ed. by Anders Andrn, Kristina Jennbert, and Catharina Raudvere,
Vgar till Midgrd, 8 (Lund: Nordic Academic, 2006), pp.3944.
78
Ramskou, Stil F: En skitse, p.100.
79
Greg Speed and Penelope Walton Rogers, A Burial of a Viking Woman at Adwick-leStreet, South Yorkshire, Medieval Archaeology, 48 (2004), 5190 (p.65).
80
Petersen, Vikingetidens smykker, p.37 (my translation).
81
Petersen, Vikingetidens smykker, p.37 (my translation).
77

190 Sren M. Sindbk

so often grown together in an unintelligible manner. [] one badly trained,

sloppy craftsman was enough.82 This passive view of images as reflecting causal
inspirations or misunderstandings is not consistent with the high degree of
convention and continuity that characterizes the design and images. A more
thorough scrutiny of the character and occurrence of the motif suggests that it
was more than just a casual slip.
Helmbrecht sees the faces in a wider tradition of broad, triangular heads
with thick braids. 83 She accepts the identification of the images on P37
brooches with those on equal arm brooches, but in spite of the human-looking
face, she places these images cautiously in the category of beings with human
and animal traits. I find this caution well placed. Human faces with braids or
hair are a regular motif in Viking art, as seen, for instance, in the well-known
Valkyrie figures.84 Yet when we compare different renderings of the broad,
triangular heads with thick braids, the nose, mouth, and the widely spaced eyes
are more consistent with animals than with human heads, while the braids are
often closer to the morphology of a bulls horns than they are to hair-braids.
Prototypes for the distinctive braids are sometimes seen in the face of the
crouched beast that decorates early and transitional oval brooches.85 It may be
assumed that the faces with braids are in fact a rendering of the same image
the great crouched beast.
The triangular face with braids is not seen in the Berdal-type brooches or
related types, but it appears in most designs with roundels, beginning with P27
brooches and the Birka type (i.e., the types known from moulds in Birkas earliest workshops from the late eighth century onwards). Unlike the Berdal-type
brooches, these types apparently lack remnants of the crouched beast motif. It
is tempting to suggest that the head is a substitution of this very element, the
one item missing from the traditional design in these brooches.

82

Petersen, Vikingetidens smykker, p.38 (my translation).

Helmbrecht, Wirkmchtige Kommunikationsmedien, p.209 (my translation).
84
See e.g. Lars Jrgensen, Manor and Market at Lake Tiss in the Sixth to Eleventh
Centuries: A Survey of the Danish Productive Sites, in Markets in Early Medieval Europe:
Trading and Productive sites, 650850, ed. by Tim Pestell and Katharina Ulmschneider
(Macclesfield: Windgather, 2003), pp.175207 (p.197).
85
See e.g. Lars Jrgensen, Bkkegrd and Glasergrd: Two Cemeteries from the Late Iron
Age on Bornholm, Arkologiske Studier, 8 (Kbenhavn: Akademisk Forlag, 1990), pl.16, no.2;
Olof Rygh, Norske oldsager ordnede og forklarede (Oslo [Christiania]: Cammermeyer, 1885),
fig.645.
83

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191

Despite the novel visual appearance of the P37 type compared to earlier
designs, it thus seems possible to argue that the individual elements of the design
were in fact the same as those that had been cultivated in Scandinavian brooches
since the eighth century: a set of ropes, a flock of gripping beasts, and a large,
powerful animal. Both individually and in combination, these images refer to a
long tradition that appears to focus upon non-Christian themes. In so far as we
can speculate that any connection existed between the development of broochdesigns in the second quarter of the ninth century and the Christian mission in
Scandinavia in the same period, it cannot be identified through the acceptance
of new types of images or symbols, but rather in the disappearance of the occasional inclusion of crosses and other Christian motifs seen in earlier ornaments.

Images and Identity

The visual identity expressed in the tradition of oval brooch designs may have
resulted from a number of contributing factors. At a practical level, the selection of specific designs reflects the identity of production an evolving tradition in urban networks in which specific designs came to be preferred among
artisans to the point where alternative designs were avoided in favour of a
standard. A similar selection process may relate to the identity of the object
type: as an iconic female ornament type, it is likely that oval brooch design
responded to increasingly engrained expectations with regards to their visual
appearance, and perhaps also to increasingly codified meanings. Furthermore,
the preference of a particular design would depend on the identity of the person wearing the ornaments, to whom the brooches may well have symbolized a
specific personal status.
The discussion above has aimed to show that the images are also likely
to have mediated a religious or cultural identity (with the two being closely
related, as implied by the Old Norse term sir). The significance of particular
motifs is suggested by their continued occurrence in different designs over long
periods of time. Other aspects of the designs apparently suggest shifting attitudes: early brooch types occasionally adopt aspects of Christian iconography,
but these disappear in later examples.
This development resonates with other lines of enquiry, which similarly
point towards the conclusion that elements of Christianity formed an aspect of
certain religious identities in Scandinavia at the beginning of the Viking Age.
The fact that traditional images and Christian symbols were freely combined
suggests that no absolute boundary was perceived to exist between Christian

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and non-Christian identities at this stage. This situation makes a notable contrast with later developments during the Viking Age, when attitudes appear to
have become less receptive towards Christianity. Jrn Staecker has demonstrated
that the use of Thors hammer amulets gained prevalence during the mid-ninth
century,86 and the use of rune stones as memorials also experienced a rush in
this period.87 A more subtle but pervasive affirmation of cultural affiliation may
be marked by the increasing use of Norwegian steatite pots for cooking vessels
at this time, while the use of glass vessels a type of object originating in, and
presumably associated with, the western Christian kingdoms appears to have
diminished.88 Together with the very moderate dispersal of objects associated
with Christianity,89 these observations suggest that the Carolingian mission in
the ninth century did not propagate a new religion to a monolithically pagan
north, but rather interrupted a process of cultural reception that had been ongoing for some time when the Carolingian missionaries arrived.
As far as the design of oval brooches is concerned, the contribution of the
mission, if anything, appears to amount to an increasing avoidance of Christian
imagery. From being a medium in which novel images were often seen and in
which we encounter references to Christian elements, these brooches changed
to depicting only highly standardized designs that incorporated a number of
traditional motifs, arguably expressing pagan themes. The widespread adoption
of P37 brooches may be seen as a component in the construction of an assertive Scandinavian identity at the time of the Carolingian mission. The mission,
and the political confrontation which went with it, turned Christianity into a
cultural boundary for the northern neighbours of the Frankish empire. In this
situation, oval brooches were arguably one among several forms of material culture that adopted a role as a new boundary marker.
Scandinavians in the early Viking Age were not averse to accepting such
aspects of Christianity as transpired through their social networks. Nor were
they unwilling to make symbolic statements of their acceptance in emblematic
86

Jrn Staecker, Rex regum et dominus dominorum die wikingerzeitlichen Kreuz- und
Kruzifixanhnger als Ausdruck der Mission in Altdnemark und Schweden, Lund Studies in
Medieval Archaeology (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1999).
87
Marie Stoklund, Chronology and Typology of the Danish Runic Inscriptions, in Runes
and Their Secrets: Studies in Runology, ed. by Marie Stoklund and others (Kbenhavn: Museum
Tusculanums Forlag, 2006), pp.35583.
88
Sren Sindbk, Ruter og rutinisering: Vikingetidens fjernhandel i Nordeuropa (Kben
havn: Multivers, 2005), p.158.
89
Anne-Sofie Grslund, Ideologi och mentalitet, pp.5860.

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dress accessories such as oval brooches. A number of the cultural symbols that
are seen today as hallmarks of Scandinavian identity in the Viking Age Thors
hammer amulets, rune stones, or oval brooches with gripping-beast images
only gained prominence in the ninth century in the context of symbolic and
real confrontations with the Carolingian empire. The stark and arguably deliberate difference between these symbols, and the conspicuously Christian culture endorsed by the Carolingians, has masked the fact that an earlier age did
not cultivate a similar distinction.