The Viking World (Routledge Worlds)

(Ben Green) #1

men who died on an expedition in the east c. 1041 (Larsson 1986 : 99 discusses these
stones in the context of the written sources). Although there are a number of problems
in relation to this date, it is at least plausible to place all the stones which mention this
expedition to within a decade of that date (Gräslund 1990 – 1 ). Attempts to date stones
which record expeditions to England ( Jansson 1966 ), which took place between c. 1000
and 1020 , are of little use, as the people who are commemorated returned alive to
Sweden and may have died a generation or more later.
The true variety of the Urnes style is best seen in metalwork. Some is of high
competence, as is the silver bowl from Lilla Valla, Rute, Gotland, deposited in a coin
hoard c. 1050 (Wilson 1995 , figs. 185 – 6 ). A large number of filigree-ornamented silver
disc-brooches of this period, many found in Gotland hoards, are loosely dated by coins to
the eleventh century (e.g. Stenberger 1947 : figs 190 : 1 , 205 : 1 , 223 : 4 ). Some are of gold –
from Johannishus, Hjortsberga, Blekinge in Sweden, and Frederiksborg (Stenberger
1947 : fig. 73 ) and Hornelund, in Denmark (Roesdahl and Wilson 1992 : 201 ). Danish
wealth at this period is emphasised by the fact that while nearly all the objects found in
Sweden are of silver, many found in Denmark are of gold. The gold Orø cross and its
chain, with Urnes-style animal-head terminals, from Issefjord, Sjælland ( Jensen et al.
1992 : 261 ), which weighs 309. 6 g, emphasises this fact, while similar crosses and chains
with their delicately moulded terminals from Sweden are all made of silver.
At a humbler level the bronze-smith was producing masterworks in the Urnes
style. Bronze buckles and strap-distributors, brooches and mounts for boxes and other
objects were manufactured in increasing numbers. In Lund metalworking remains
(chiefly moulds) excavated on the site of PK-banken (Bergman and Billberg 1976 : 206
ff.) represent an early twelfth-century workshop which produced a type of openwork
brooch (in the form of a sinuous Urnes animal) of a type more popular in Denmark and
Norway than in Sweden. Finds in Denmark suggest the presence of a similar workshop
for related brooches in the Ålborg region (Bertelsen 1991 ). It is probable that similar
workshops existed in England. Particularly noticeable is the increasing tally of cast
bronze stirrup-mounts decorated in the Urnes style (Williams 1997 : figs 177 – 93 ),
which reflect the higher-quality material typified by the Pitney brooch (Wilson and
Klindt-Jensen, p 1. 73 e).
There is little difficulty in dating the Urnes style. Its central period of production
must span the period from c. 1040 to c. 1110 : a dating most firmly based on coin hoards,
particularly that from Lilla Valla (deposited c. 1050 ). In general terms it can be related
to the historically based dating of the runestones. These cannot – with the exception of
the artistically rather dreary Ingvar stones – be dated with any great degree of certainty,
although there is a likelihood that the stones with inscriptions that refer to the English
expeditions of Sven and Knut the Great may be dated to the second quarter of the
eleventh century. In considering the dating of this style it should be emphasised that
the runestones display only a limited proportion of the ornamental elements of the wider
style. The end date of 1110 is only an indicator; the style clearly extends into the twelfth
century – but how far is unclear.
Dendrochronology at the moment provides only a single date – from a short plank
found at Hørning church, Jylland (Krogh and Voss 1961 : pl. 1 ). A probable dendro-
chronological date for this fragment places it between c. 1060 and c. 1070 (Bonde et al.
1990 : 234 ), which fits well with dates arrived at by traditional methods expressed here
and elsewhere. The evidence for the fact that the Urnes style goes on into the twelfth


–– David M. Wilson––
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