Hannah Murray Hannah Murray Honors 3120.01 Honors 3120.01 March 12, 2014 March 12, 2014
Motes of dust move randomly through the colored shafts of air, and the grotesque sulls
and tongues of !ooden gargoyles carved from darer memories line the lintel a"ove the door. # !al to!ard the altar
!here Christ$s sad face is cro!ned "y an ancient vine !hose loose thorns
are "lunt and rusted remains of medieval nails. %he dar "ody of !ood s&lits along the grain, and a thin !hite "lood flo!s. #t forms icicles that dri&
in the dim light of morning sun.
%here are many others neeling !ith me, "ut they have no !eight.
'ld (orse and )atin hymns are sung in silence, and their lo!ered eyes "urn !ith faith.
%he lilies are gone,
and no! the altar is covered "y !ildflo!ers. %he first tourists of the day arrive
on a small "us. # !al to!ard them, "ut they cannot see the dra!n cross"o!
in my hands, or the &aired !olves !aling "y my side.
**+cer&t from -rayer and /ision in the Stave Church at ldal,- "y %ed enttinen
Stave Churches, or stavkirker , are !ooden churches "uilt "y /iing tri"es !hen
they !ere first converted to Christianity in the eleventh century. hen Scandinavian tri"es "egan to "uild large shi&s and to go a*viing5 around the ninth century, their targets !ere often monasteries and churches, as they !ere usually !ealthy and &oorly defended. %hese raids gave the /iings an early e&osure to Christianity, and small /iing grou&s that settled in #reland, +ngland, and 6rance intermarried !ith the local &o&ulation and !ere some of the first /iing converts.
#n 787, under Charlemagne5s initiative, the 9nglo*Saon St. illi"rord esta"lished a "isho&ric in remen :in modern north!est ;ermany<, "ut these early
missionary attem&ts into Scandinavia !ere largely unsuccessful. Conversion occurred "y and large as a &olitical strategy, and it !as often a caveat of &eace treaties !ith
surrounding Christian ingdoms. 'nce a /iing chief acce&ted Christianity, his tri"e did as !ell = at least in name. %he %reaty of edmore in 878 required >anish leader
;uthrum to leave southern +ngland under the control of 9lfred of esse and to acce&t Christianity. 9 /iing e&edition to +ngland in ??1 led "y 'laf # %ryggvason resulted in 'laf5s "a&tism and, u&on his return to (or!ay, his claim to "e ing. 'laf "egan the first successful attem&ts to Christiani@e (or!ay, "eginning !ith coastal regions !here
Christianity !as already no!n. 'laf ## Haraldsson continued his efforts, and around 101A !as recogni@ed as ing throughout (or!ay and com&leted the Christiani@ation of the region.
%his does not mean, ho!ever, that the /iings did a!ay !ith their (orse
mythology and traditions. ather, much lie the conversion of ome, eisting stories and images !ere incor&orated into Christian &ractice, and this is evident in the architecture and decoration of the churches they "uilt. Stave churches "lend Christian imagery and omanesque influences !ith the ornate decoration and sym"olism traditional to the /iing &eo&le.
%he oldest surviving church is at Brnes in Sogn, (or!ay, and contains elements dating to 100. %he first attem&ts at !ooden churches !ere &osts stuc directly in the ground, !hich often rotted. %he churches that survive today are the results of the second or third attem&ts. y the fourteenth century, "et!een eight hundred and t!elve hundred
stave churches may have eisted in northern +uro&e. %!enty*eight survive in (or!ay, many still in ecellent condition. Bnfortunately, a Satanist movement in the 1??05s led "y heavy metal musicians !anting to reinstate (orse gods "urned many of the churches, destroying t!enty*t!o. Historical societies and &rivate donors contri"uted to the construction of historically accurate re&licas.
Staverefers to the u&right "eams used to construct the churches in a &ost*and*
lintel style, in contrast to hori@ontal log construction &o&ular in +astern +uro&e. %rees !ere stri&&ed of "ranches and left to gro! for several years, resulting in a hard, sa&*filled outer layer that !as resistant to rot. 'nce the staves !ere cut, they !ere treated !ith tar and the foundation !as laid on a "ed of stones fitted !ithout mortar, allo!ing drainage. racing and high sills Doined the main staves at the four corners of the church to each other, and each vertical &lan !as held to the net one !ith tongue*and*groove Doining.
%he stave church style is a result of "oth estern +uro&ean and /iing influences. %he "asic structure is reminiscent of the "asilica, containing a nave, chancel, and a&se, and inner columns !ith omanesque ca&itals and round arches. %he ceiling resem"les the ;othic style, "ased on a system of struts and "uttressing for !eight distri"ution and
"racing against !ind &ressure. ut unlie the stone churches that !ere so customary in +uro&e and ome, the /iings "uilt their churches of !ood. Multi*tiered, stee& roofs made of !ooden shingles rise u& to!ard the sy, many dis&laying "oth crosses and dragons heads :that so commonly adorned /iing long"oats< on the ti&s of ga"les. 9lso unique to the stavkirker is the rich ornamentation of the carvings "oth inside and out,
Surrounding the heavily decorated entrance, or &ortal, to the church is a !ea&ons &orch !here /iing men left their defenses.
Columns su&&ort the interior of the church, in "et!een !hich are round arches that em&loy techniques found in shi& maing. ather than forming the arch from a solid &iece of !ood, the car&enters fished together :Doined at an angle< t!o Enees,F or
naturally curved !ood !here the roots turn u& to Doin the trun of the tree. %his technique gives the structure elasticity in heavy !ind gusts.
aintings in the stavkirker more closely resem"le +uro&ean ;othic art, as the
/iings had no &ainting tradition of their o!n from !hich to dra!. aintings mainly consist of vaulting over the nave, altar frontals, and ci"oria, or fied !ooden cano&ies over altars. Bnlie the Christian iconogra&hy de&icted in every as&ect of contem&orary 6rench and +nglish ;othic churches, all narrative &ainting in a stave church occurs in the immediate vicinity of the altarG the rest of the church5s decoration is &urely ornamental.
%he &aintings themselves contain similar su"Dects to = and the form of = later y@antine iconogra&hy, !hile em&loying the "righter colors and fluidity of 6rench ;othic &ainting. %he vaulting of %or&o dis&lays an enthroned Christ in the &osition of antocrator, surrounded "y the evangelical sym"ols of the four gos&els. %he thic lines and "right colors call to mind a stained*glass !indo!, as does the lac of dimensionality. %he decorated "arrel vaulting of the l church features a crucified Christ again in "right colors, and !ith a more fluid form than the antocrator. %he artist seems to em&loy the Celtic horror vacui technique, filling in s&ace !ith floral &atterns and geometric sha&es.
9ltar frontals often featured a series of miniatures de&icting various scenes from Christ5s life. (es church5s Madonna and Child em&loys ;othic frame!or to highlight the almost
Ia&anese style in !hich the &air are &ortrayed = the flat noses and slanted eyes, and es&ecially the gras&ing and smiling of the fat Christ child, are far from the delicate arisian miniatures of the same time. Some of the miniatures tae on as&ects of (orse mythology. %he altar frontal at ldal &ortrays the entrance to Hell not as gates or a &it in the ground, "ut as the mouth of a giant, fire*s&outing "east, liely a dragon.
9longside the Christian imagery of the church, elements of (orse mythology and tradition are &reserved, seemingly as a second language conveying to the /iings the message of salvation in a manner familiar to them. /iing architects had a model for this synthesis in the form of the Heliand , an e&ic Saon &oem telling the story of Christ in a
/iing setting. %he chief holy &lace in (orse mythology is the evergreen ash Jggdrasil, !here oden sacrificed himself "y hanging. 9lso no!n as the %ree of Bniversal )ife, Jggdrasil is said to &rotect the last "oy and girl, )if and )ifthrasir, at the end of time.
Helianddra!s com&arisons "et!een this tree and Christ5s cross, calling the cross Ea tree
on a mountain.F ;. onald Mur&hy, in his essay EJggdrasil and the Stave Church,F suggests that the stave church is a ty&e of Christian Jggdrasil, the &ine staves and tiered roofs evoing a large, evergreen tree, and the a&&earance of "oth crosses and dragons on the ga"les &ointing to the &romise of salvation and the nearness of death :the great dragon (idhogg gna!s at the roots of Jggdrasil and devours the cor&ses of those guilty of the
!orst crimes<.
%he heavily decorated &ortal, !ith its intert!ining vines and com"ative animals, may "e seen as the "ranches of Jggdrasil and the "easts that fight in the "attle of
doomsday, or agnaro. +ntrance into the church, then, is the only !ay to esca&e the violence of the !orld, Dust as Jggdrasil is the salvation of )if and )ifthrasir. 'nce inside
the church, the crucifi and de&ictions of Christ5s life near the altar are reassuring, though these too carry hints of (orse mythology. #n the l stavkirke, the image of Christ
carrying his cross to Calvary de&icts a green tree !ith the "ranches sa!n off rather than the ty&ical image of the cross. %he altar frontal from ldal de&icts Christ5s harro!ing of Hell as the releasing of souls from the mouth of a great ser&ent.
#n acce&ting Christianity and in "uilding churches, the /iings did not give u& their culture stee&ed in mythology. ather, they made the message of Christ and salvation a &art of their story. %he stavkirker , in their structure and decoration unlie any other
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