Copenhagen
Nationalmuseet:
Stolen Treasures,
Expert Ironsmithing,
an
Axe-wielding Saint
Ny
Vestergade 10, Copenhagen, Denmark
A viking saint, a rare
piece of loot,
and an elaborately iron-studded door weren't the only treasures worth
looking at in the National Museum.
I
was impressed with the
National museet's
collection of viking-age runestones, side-lit so you can see the runes
incised into the stone, and with big clear plexiglas signs explaining
the runes
and filling in information such as sources and dates.
The
handsome
building was a royal palace in the 18th century.
Cunning
Smithery In
Beowulf when
Grendel raids Heorot, planning to dine on Beowulf and his Geats,
"The door sprang open,/with forged-bands
fastened, when his hands touched it" (lines 721-22). I
have long wondered what the forged bands on that door might have
looked like.
The
hall soon thunders with the commotion of Beowulf and Grendel in a
to-the-death wrestling match. The poet explains that although Heorot is
getting knocked about, it won't fall because "the beautiful building
... was fastened/within and without, with iron bands,/ by cunning
smiths" (lines 772-75).
The cunningly
forged iron pieces on this 13th-century church door (left) depict a
dragonslayer below the upper hinge
strap. He's thought to be either St. George or St. Michael (and he
could be
the Scandinavian hero Sigemund, mentioned in Beowulf.)
 "Ranveig Owns this Shrine"
This 8th- or 9th-century box for holding saints' relics was made in
Ireland. It is wooden with silver-plated copper plates and set with
semi-precious stones. The declaration of ownership by a woman named Ranveig is scratched in
runes on the bottom of the box. The Museum says it was "undoubtedly
stolen from an Irish church." It was then "acquired" from a church in
Norway when Denmark still controlled that country.
This
is only one bit of evidence, but could it be that one answer to that
often-asked question, "What drove Scandinavian men to go a-viking?" is
"To bring back something nice for the missus."
Below,
this hacksilver
from Bornholm is an example of how vikings cut up
silver objects so they could be weighed and used as currency. Coins
minted in different countries were also used.
 Tools
Practical and decorative crafts have been
important in
Scandinavia for thousands of years. Scandinavians
still show strong appreciation for goods that are well-crafted and of
pleasing
design. Some of the best carpentry and woodworking tools still come
from Scandinavia.
This case of tools represents
carpentry, building and blacksmithing trades -- all of them in high
demand in viking-age Scandinavia.
Holy Olaf! As
suggested by the axe he is wielding in this 13th-century wood
sculpture, King Olaf Haraldsson got carried away in his efforts to
promote Christianity in Norway. He had wrested the kingdom away from
the Danes (under Cnut the Great, who had gone to England), and made
himself King of Norway in 1016.
His excessive zeal
in converting his subjects caused a revolt, and Olaf had to
flee to Sweden. When he returned to Norway he was killed at the Battle
of Stiklestad in 1030 CE.
His brutality in promoting
the faith did not prevent his being canonized as a saint. The Museum
says that "During the Middle Ages Saint Olaf the Holy was the most
venerated amongst the national saints of the North." This masterpiece
came to Denmark from Tylldalen Church, Hedmark, Norway.
Memorial
Rune StonesIt was in the viking 'job-description' that
there'd be a good chance of meeting death far from home. Many of the
runestones that dot the countryside in Denmark and Sweden commemorate
men who died while pirating or trading overseas. The
viking-age memorial runestone below was reshaped, destroying some of
the runes
and the drawing of a ship above them, then reused in a medieval
church.
The Museum provides transliterations,
translations
and other information on runes and runestones, on transparent plexiglas
panels near each stone. This one
has five rows of runes. The row at the top, arranged sideways along a
common
horizontal line, are called same-stave
runes. The rows are to be read from the bottom row up.
According to the Museum, they read (from bottom up):
 ...sur sati stin|thinsi haft
asku|bruthur sin ian|uarth tuthr a ku| thur ulk (r)unar
You can
pick out a few
words familiar to English speakers: stin for stone, bruthur for
brother, and thur
for Thor.
The Nationalmuseet has a lot
more of these stones, well displayed and clearly documented.
The
Danish Prehistory section of the Nationalmuseet
was closed for reorganization. It will reopen in May, 2008. (Oh darn!
I'll
have to go back to Copenhagen!)
If
you'd rather search in
England, Sweden or Norway, click on one of these
links:
London,
Maldon and Sutton Hoo:
Goteborg, Gamla Uppsala, Vallentuna, Stockholm:Oslo, Bygdoy and Bergen:Norway-Beowulf-resources
Copyright: The quotations from Beowulf are from Mike Walton's The Book of Beowulf (Cayuga, Ontario: Copyright 2007), pages 48 and 49. You may
use the materials on this site for an essay or for private Beowulf
study, but not commercially. Do credit
your source!
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