DK Eyewitness Books - Viking

47

A farmer in Tissø,

Denmark, found this

massive gold neck-ring

while plowing a field

$50ʜ%$1':,7+75((6

This gold arm-band from

Råbylille, Denmark, is

stamped with some very

fine decoration.

Tr e e
Cross

Gold ring from

Denmark inscribed

with runes (pp. 58–59)

7+5((*2/'5,1*6

Finger-rings were made like

miniature arm-bands. Both men

and women wore them. But Swedish

women were the only ones to wear

earrings, which they dangled from

chains looped over the ear.

Two gold finger-

rings from Viking-

age Ireland

Continued on next page

1(&./$&(6$1'5,1*6

The Arab traveler Ibn Fadhlan (pp. 19, 55, 67) met

Viking women in Russia around 920. He wrote t hat

“round the neck they have ornaments of gold or

silver.” These would have included neck-rings,

which are stiff and inflexible, and necklaces, which

can twist and bend. This gold neck-ring is the largest

and most splendid ever found. It is solid gold and

weighs over 4 lb (1.8 kg). It could only have been

worn by a broad-chested man, because it is more

than 1 ft (30 cm) wide! Many Viking neck-rings were

made by melting down silver Arab coins. Glass made

the brightest beads. Bead-makers started with

imported glass or broken drinking glasses. They

heated these up and fused them together to

make beads with bright patterns and

swirling mixtures of colors.

Danish necklace

made of glass beads

Four double-twisted gold

rods braided toget her

Silver neck-ring from

Halton Moor, England,

made of braided silver wires