Final Report Summary - PICTURE-RUNESTONES (New Aspects of the European Influences on the Imagery on the Scandinavian Picture-Runestones Executed in Late Viking Age Art)
New aspects of the European influences on the imagery of the Scandinavian picture rune stones executed in Late Viking Age art (ca. 950 AD – 1135 AD)
The two years of my Marie Curie Research Fellowship project (1st of September 2012 – 31st of August 2014), at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University, Sweden and in collaboration with Professor Frands Herschend, have progressed beyond expectations. The access to work at Uppsala University, positioned as one of the 100 best universities in the world, has given my research in European influences on the imagery of the Scandinavian picture rune stones (Mammen, Ringerike and Urnes styles) a unique boost, as well as I have at the same time shared my new results both in Sweden and abroad and will continue to do so in the future in speech as well as in a book and more articles.
At Uppsala University I have had the pleasure of joining a vital interdisciplinary collaboration of e.g. runologists, historians and art historians, of having access to huge libraries and databases, of attending seminars, conferences, meetings, symposiums and colloquiums and of being close to many of the original objects, because Uppland is the county with the highest density of picture rune stones. The tradition spread from south (Jelling) to north (Frösö, Jämtland) with Västergötland in the middle and went out of fashion during this propagation. Danish monuments are oldest, Norwegian and Swedish younger. Västergötland is one of the counties to which I have paid specific respect concerning overview and detailed observations, see e.g. Lund Archaeological Review to be released autumn 2014.
Right from the beginning, the project enjoyed national as well as international attention with positive feed backs at e.g. my lectures and seminars at Uppsala University and abroad at e.g. the conference Literacy, Memory and the Conversion of the Isles at University College Dublin in conjunction with Department of ASNC/Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge, England in November 2012 and at the annual SASS meetings (SASS = Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study) in the United States arranged by University of California Berkeley in 2013, Yale University in 2014 and Ohio State University forthcoming in 2015. Positive feed backs were also the case concerning my lectures The Dragon-Killing Episode as told on the Ramsund Carving and New Observations on the Cross Motif on late Viking Age Art Picture Runestones in Södermanland, both at Harvard University 2014. In my application some years ago a part of the focus was suggested on quantitative descriptions on the images of the picture rune stones. But soon it became clear from many scientific discussions that qualitative studies by means of my classification system distinguishing between: design/s, motif/s and pictorial structure had top scientific priority for understanding European influences on the imagery of Scandinavian picture rune stones.
Art is extremely important because it always mirrors its time. That is why we ourselves can easily understand, which messages art of today communicates, because we are in the right context. However for us to try to interpret images of other times - as e.g. of Late Viking Age - we must be very careful, because we and that art do not share the same frame of references, which highly increases the risk of misinterpretations and of reading one’s own thoughts into the art of another time. To avoid so, my method of a three-stage analysis judging the design/s, motif/s and pictorial structure of any relevant image and then combining these results, has now made it possible to follow, visualize and understand e.g. the propagation of the dominant motif, the Christian cross in different types and elaborations from Jelling to Frösön. The method is of course closely interrelated with the archaeological and historical context of each investigated image.
Through the consequent use of this analysis, overview and understanding of the development of these images and e.g. their religious messages have progressed. In Late Viking Age art the cross of Christ was depicted as a crucifix (Latin: cruci fixus, meaning here Christ fixed to the cross) or a bare cross in different types and elaborations. However they both express exactly the same: the pious hope for Christian resurrection and eternal life.
The three-sided picture rune stone in Jelling (id.no. DR 42), executed in Mammen style, showing more motifs, rendered according to the Christian pictorial structure and dated to about 965 AD, caused the start of the picture rune stone area. The stone proclaims triumphantly in text and image at its finale, the high-status side C: the Christianization of the Danes (Denmark’s baptismal certificate). The old cherished legend about Christ crucified in the tree of life is rendered in one sophisticated image. The legend had for a long time put its mark on art and was well known to the Vikings, e.g. from one of the earliest Christian poems in Old English literature The Dream of the Rood, partly quoted on the Ruthwell Cross, then Northumbria. From DR 42 C this legend explaining why the Christian tree of life and the cross of Christ are one became depicted as the tree of life cross or the tree of life ring cross as high-status icons on many of the stones. Influences on the Jelling stone concerning design, motifs, pictorial structure as well as workmanship are traced to especially crosses and cross slabs at Isle of Man. These are executed in respectively Borre, Jelling, Mammen and partly Ringerike style, whereas the Scandinavian picture rune stones in Mammen, Ringerike and Urnes style. The closest and most important known parallel to DR 42 C is to my knowledge the crucifixion scene on Michael no.101 B (Kermode, P.M.C.: Manx Crosses, London 1907).
The Ringerike style was the predominant style at the time of King Canute the Great of England, Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden (here probably one of overlordship rather than a ruler). The triumphant progress of renderings of the tree of life cross and the tree of life ring cross is clear especially in Västergötland, e.g. on some of the so called Þegn stones as Hjälstad (id.no.Vg 8). In Norway a most sophisticated example of the tree of life ring cross is depicted on the Vang stone, Oppland (id.no.N 84). And the influence from the images on crosses and cross slabs on Isle of Man is still present: four pre-cursers of the famous Sigurd the Dragon Killer images in Christian context in Norway and Sweden are on Isle of Man. During the Urnes style, influences from the Insular West were still strong, but no longer from the Isle of Man but first of all from Irish metalwork. In the final phase of the Urnes style, it has an old Scandinavian branch as well as a strongly influenced Irish branch, where influences from Irish art heavily put its mark on the design.
Pictures communicate abstract intellectual religious thoughts faster and better than anything else, because a long story can be contained in a single illustration. And nothing attracts man's attention better than pictures, because sight is man's dominant sense. The widely traveled Vikings, familiar with Christianity and Christian symbolism, were through their art, e.g. the picture rune stones, able to communicate highly abstract theological relations as for instance between the tree of life and the cross of Christ. They adored the legend about the Golgotha legend of why the Christian tree of life and the cross of Christ are one and the same. This relationship was understood by the Vikings, which has now been proven by the fact, that it was conveyed in a fully understandable way on the large Jelling stone DR 42 C and throughout Late Viking Age art and into the Romanesque art.
The findings of the project contributes to the cultural economy of Europe through museums, publishing and high-quality tourism.
The two years of my Marie Curie Research Fellowship project (1st of September 2012 – 31st of August 2014), at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University, Sweden and in collaboration with Professor Frands Herschend, have progressed beyond expectations. The access to work at Uppsala University, positioned as one of the 100 best universities in the world, has given my research in European influences on the imagery of the Scandinavian picture rune stones (Mammen, Ringerike and Urnes styles) a unique boost, as well as I have at the same time shared my new results both in Sweden and abroad and will continue to do so in the future in speech as well as in a book and more articles.
At Uppsala University I have had the pleasure of joining a vital interdisciplinary collaboration of e.g. runologists, historians and art historians, of having access to huge libraries and databases, of attending seminars, conferences, meetings, symposiums and colloquiums and of being close to many of the original objects, because Uppland is the county with the highest density of picture rune stones. The tradition spread from south (Jelling) to north (Frösö, Jämtland) with Västergötland in the middle and went out of fashion during this propagation. Danish monuments are oldest, Norwegian and Swedish younger. Västergötland is one of the counties to which I have paid specific respect concerning overview and detailed observations, see e.g. Lund Archaeological Review to be released autumn 2014.
Right from the beginning, the project enjoyed national as well as international attention with positive feed backs at e.g. my lectures and seminars at Uppsala University and abroad at e.g. the conference Literacy, Memory and the Conversion of the Isles at University College Dublin in conjunction with Department of ASNC/Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge, England in November 2012 and at the annual SASS meetings (SASS = Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study) in the United States arranged by University of California Berkeley in 2013, Yale University in 2014 and Ohio State University forthcoming in 2015. Positive feed backs were also the case concerning my lectures The Dragon-Killing Episode as told on the Ramsund Carving and New Observations on the Cross Motif on late Viking Age Art Picture Runestones in Södermanland, both at Harvard University 2014. In my application some years ago a part of the focus was suggested on quantitative descriptions on the images of the picture rune stones. But soon it became clear from many scientific discussions that qualitative studies by means of my classification system distinguishing between: design/s, motif/s and pictorial structure had top scientific priority for understanding European influences on the imagery of Scandinavian picture rune stones.
Art is extremely important because it always mirrors its time. That is why we ourselves can easily understand, which messages art of today communicates, because we are in the right context. However for us to try to interpret images of other times - as e.g. of Late Viking Age - we must be very careful, because we and that art do not share the same frame of references, which highly increases the risk of misinterpretations and of reading one’s own thoughts into the art of another time. To avoid so, my method of a three-stage analysis judging the design/s, motif/s and pictorial structure of any relevant image and then combining these results, has now made it possible to follow, visualize and understand e.g. the propagation of the dominant motif, the Christian cross in different types and elaborations from Jelling to Frösön. The method is of course closely interrelated with the archaeological and historical context of each investigated image.
Through the consequent use of this analysis, overview and understanding of the development of these images and e.g. their religious messages have progressed. In Late Viking Age art the cross of Christ was depicted as a crucifix (Latin: cruci fixus, meaning here Christ fixed to the cross) or a bare cross in different types and elaborations. However they both express exactly the same: the pious hope for Christian resurrection and eternal life.
The three-sided picture rune stone in Jelling (id.no. DR 42), executed in Mammen style, showing more motifs, rendered according to the Christian pictorial structure and dated to about 965 AD, caused the start of the picture rune stone area. The stone proclaims triumphantly in text and image at its finale, the high-status side C: the Christianization of the Danes (Denmark’s baptismal certificate). The old cherished legend about Christ crucified in the tree of life is rendered in one sophisticated image. The legend had for a long time put its mark on art and was well known to the Vikings, e.g. from one of the earliest Christian poems in Old English literature The Dream of the Rood, partly quoted on the Ruthwell Cross, then Northumbria. From DR 42 C this legend explaining why the Christian tree of life and the cross of Christ are one became depicted as the tree of life cross or the tree of life ring cross as high-status icons on many of the stones. Influences on the Jelling stone concerning design, motifs, pictorial structure as well as workmanship are traced to especially crosses and cross slabs at Isle of Man. These are executed in respectively Borre, Jelling, Mammen and partly Ringerike style, whereas the Scandinavian picture rune stones in Mammen, Ringerike and Urnes style. The closest and most important known parallel to DR 42 C is to my knowledge the crucifixion scene on Michael no.101 B (Kermode, P.M.C.: Manx Crosses, London 1907).
The Ringerike style was the predominant style at the time of King Canute the Great of England, Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden (here probably one of overlordship rather than a ruler). The triumphant progress of renderings of the tree of life cross and the tree of life ring cross is clear especially in Västergötland, e.g. on some of the so called Þegn stones as Hjälstad (id.no.Vg 8). In Norway a most sophisticated example of the tree of life ring cross is depicted on the Vang stone, Oppland (id.no.N 84). And the influence from the images on crosses and cross slabs on Isle of Man is still present: four pre-cursers of the famous Sigurd the Dragon Killer images in Christian context in Norway and Sweden are on Isle of Man. During the Urnes style, influences from the Insular West were still strong, but no longer from the Isle of Man but first of all from Irish metalwork. In the final phase of the Urnes style, it has an old Scandinavian branch as well as a strongly influenced Irish branch, where influences from Irish art heavily put its mark on the design.
Pictures communicate abstract intellectual religious thoughts faster and better than anything else, because a long story can be contained in a single illustration. And nothing attracts man's attention better than pictures, because sight is man's dominant sense. The widely traveled Vikings, familiar with Christianity and Christian symbolism, were through their art, e.g. the picture rune stones, able to communicate highly abstract theological relations as for instance between the tree of life and the cross of Christ. They adored the legend about the Golgotha legend of why the Christian tree of life and the cross of Christ are one and the same. This relationship was understood by the Vikings, which has now been proven by the fact, that it was conveyed in a fully understandable way on the large Jelling stone DR 42 C and throughout Late Viking Age art and into the Romanesque art.
The findings of the project contributes to the cultural economy of Europe through museums, publishing and high-quality tourism.