of these innovations must be dated to the Carolingian period. The fact that Scandinavians
came into direct contact with the Carolingian agrarian economy and estate organisation
as territorial lords in Carolingia in the ninth century makes it very likely that the
Scandinavians did pick up some of their ideas and became aware of their superiority.
Estate organisation in Scandinavia certainly antedates the ninth century and the Viking
period change is rather a qualitative one (Callmer 2001 ). One very important innovation
is the water mill, which in Europe rapidly spread from the south-west to the east,
beginning in the eighth or ninth century. The earliest water mill so far known was
excavated at Omgård in west Jutland and dates to the tenth century but that does not
mean that the mills had not already reached south-western Scandinavia in the ninth
century (Nielsen 1986 ). Elaborate forms of field rotation and enclosures may also have
been innovations from the Continent as well as the equalisation of dependent farms.
For a long time it has been recognised that Carolingian ornamental art influenced
Scandinavia profoundly. One of the major problems is to make out what is Continental
influence and what is Insular. This is to a certain extent a pseudo-question since artists
and artisans circulated between the Continent and the British Isles. The Continental
connection of style D (sensu Arwidsson 1942 ), the dominating style of the first half of the
eighth century, remains unclear. The development of style E in the second half of that
century is however closely connected with the development of the Tassilo chalice style.
The regional, south-west Scandinavian style F is even more closely connected with this
Continental ornamentation and may be understood as a close but qualitatively often
questionable rendering of the Tassilo chalice style. The so-called gripping-beast style
has often been discussed in connection with Continental influences. Recently some
scholars have argued for a purely Scandinavian innovation (e.g. Neiss 2004 ). This seems
less convincing and the problem seems to be partly of chronological character. Gripping
animals, with the exception of ornamentation on some oval brooches produced in south-
western Scandinavia from c. ad 790 , are hardly datable before ad 800. The vast majority
are later. Further, the best parallels to the Scandinavian gripping beasts are still the
small animals on the Lindau book cover (late eighth century). When considering these
questions we must realise the possible ways of influence from artisan to artisan including
a process of recurrent confirmation by the customer or employer.
In the late ninth century Carolingian plant ornamentation is used on trefoil brooches
produced in Scandinavia for women. This clear influence is obviously of a secondary
character. As a result of intensive raiding of the central part of the Carolingian realm in
the 860 s, complete Carolingian sword belts set with mounts with plant ornamentation
were brought as loot to southern Scandinavia (see Schilling 2003 ), where they some-
times ended up on production sites as raw metal. Trefoil mounts from these sword
belts were sometimes converted into brooches and soon copied by south Scandinavian
producers. Initially only plant ornamentation was used on these brooches, but very soon
various animal ornaments appeared on the flaps (Skibsted-Klæsøe 1998 ). The same story
is told by some less numerous but generally similar strap-end-shaped brooches.
Unfortunately we have very little primary archaeological evidence for the earliest
initiatives for the Christianisation of the north. Secondary material, especially Christian
symbols used in ornamental art, are numerous from the late eighth century on. When
primary evidence turns up it will certainly be closely connected with the Christian
culture of the central Carolingian area.
–– chapter 33: Scandinavia and the Continent––