CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

THE DEVELOPMENT OF VIKING ART

David M. Wilson

V

iking-Age ornament was chiefly rooted in a continuous tradition common to much
of north-western Europe which emerged in the fourth century ad. From that
period until the end of the Viking Age and beyond Scandinavian artists were obsessed by
a convoluted animal ornament which had its roots in Roman art and embellished objects
of everyday use, particularly jewellery and weapons. But from the end of the seventh
century onwards such foreign influences and many others were quickly – and often
almost unrecognisably – subsumed into a self-confident native art.
Salin ( 1904 ) first systematised the European Germanic animal ornament, dividing it
into three styles (I, II and III). The two latter were subdivided by Arwidsson ( 1942 a
and b) into three further styles: style C, which flourished in the seventh century but
continued into the eighth century, when it was largely replaced – particularly in
southern Scandinavia – by style D. These two styles provided inspiration for the chief
animal ornament (style E) of the early Viking Age. Styles D and E, although well in tune
with northern and western Europe animal ornament, were developed within Scandinavia
with little influence from abroad.
Style E, which appeared at the end of the eighth century and survived until nearly
the end of the ninth century, is best represented by twenty-two gilt-bronze bridle-
mounts from a grave at Broa, parish of Halla, Gotland, which were the property of a
man wealthy enough to ride a well-caparisoned horse (Figure 24. 1 ). The glittering
surface of the bridle would have made a brave show, but (as with so much of Viking art)
has to be examined in detail in order first to discern and then to understand the
ornament. Thus the circle a little to the left of centre is the animal’s eye, (Figure 24. 1 a),
exaggerated to fill almost the whole of the head. The ear is produced as a frond to the
left, while the snout forms two small tendrils and an irregular extension above the knot
to the right of the eye. The head having been identified, the rest of the animal is easily
traced.
Three distinct animal motifs appear in style E. The first consists of a double-
contoured creature with a subtriangular body, stylised, beak-like head and fork-like feet.
Limbs and lappets form boldly curved open loops. Second, a more coherent animal with
rounded head, a long lappet and small claws. One of the hips or the neck is often treated
as a heart-shaped opening interlaced with a limb or a lappet. Third, in rather more