Gemini will return to this theme. What Are Stave Churches, Where Are They Located - Matador Network Stave churches were once the main focus of Norwegian historical art research, because nationalism was important, says Ands. The Moorhead Stave Church - Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County This motif is found on one of the Urnes pillars. The lion as a symbol of the ruler can also symbolize Christ, who is struggling against the evil forces., Through studying the liturgy, the portals original religious context, she shows how the door is the precise place where man should acknowledge Christ. But these. They were killed in an unusual manner, by a blow between the eyes, and their skulls displayed outside for years. In fact, only a few of the approximately 120 preserved stave church portals have biblical iconography. Nor were scattered animal bones. Between 1952 and 1962, Brian Hope-Taylor directed an excavation of the site. The forest reclaimed the pastures, the fields and the settlements. [42] That must therefore have been the main entrance of the hof. [24], In the 1990s, Danish archaeologists excavated a chieftain's residence on the outskirts of Tiss in West Zealand County. By continuing to browse this repository, you give consent for essential cookies to be used. [13][14], However, new archeological discoveries in the late 20th century revealed several buildings in various parts of Scandinavia that do appear to have functioned purely as cult sites. . On the altar was to lie a great armband, made of silver. The old portal from 1070 is familiar to many from pictures in tourist brochures and popular culture. But times have changed. Many stave churches were believed to have been built on old pagan worship sites, and some scholars have argued that the layout of such churches may have mimicked older Norse pagan temple designs. [65] The southern building of the pair Hope-Taylor was convinced was a temple. [48][50] In the eleventh century the building and its yard had been covered with a thick layer of gravel and a church erected 100m away. This blood, which was called sacrificial blood [hlaut], was the blood of live animals offered to the gods. In the first chapter, in in heinu lg, of book four of Landnmabk (Hauksbk) it is stated that Iceland was divided into four courtdistricts all containing three hofs each. [67] There were three non-structural postholes from which the posts had been removed before the building was burned and demolished. The original church has been dated to the 1130s. The richly ornamented stave churches became an important part of Norwegian self-image. [3] In 1779, the church forbade any services at the stave church in order to let the church rot away through disuse and disrepair, hopefully together with the local superstitions that surrounded the church. Stave churches are concentrated om North-West Europe. Type A churches have four heavy sill beams set on a low stone foundation. The same manuscript also shows two men pulling their beards, a motif that may indicate self-control, an important element in attaining salvation.. [5], In spite of protests from the parishioners, the Diocese had the church demolished, but the destruction could not take place before the death of Pehr Tham, who actively protected the church and died in 1820. [40] Since it was possible to excavate the entire site and since it had not been disturbed, this excavation afforded the first opportunity for a purely archeological study of a heathen hof in its entirety. It shows a standing animal with a mane, entwined and being attacked by serpents of various kinds. [36] The skulls were found among roof and wall debris, all but one grouped in two places at the south end of the hall: inside the southeast annex and between the southwestern annex and the wall of the main building; it seems plausible that they were on display when the building was in use and that where they were found was storage, whether normal winter storage or concealment after conversion to Christianity caused the abandonment of the building in the mid-eleventh century. [59], Another building, round and smaller in size, marked again by holes for its posts was also found during these excavations about 100 m northeast of the first, slightly more distant from current shore. Powered by EPrints 3, Faculty of Social Sciences and Health > Archaeology, Department of, Norse paganism, Cultic site, Cult structure, Pre-christian temple, Stave Church, Stavkirke, Church architecture, Copyright of this thesis is held by the author. 43 126 Related Topics Assassin's Creed Action-adventure game Open world Stealth game Gaming 126 comments Best Add a Comment tyler9715 2 yr. ago That's not a church. 1951) However, as Olsen demonstrated, the remains are too sparse to support this interpretation, which is in any case based on Carl Schuchhardt's reconstruction of the Wendish temple at Arkona, a later and non-Germanic site. Post-doctoral fellow Margrete Syrstad Ands at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)s Department of Art and Media Studies heads the project. [53], Under the medieval stone church at Mre in Nord-Trndelag, archeological investigation in the 1960s revealed remnants of a hof, the only one found under a Norwegian church. PDF Norwegian Stave Churches and their Pagan Antecedents - JSTOR ". However, one of Ramunder's dogs discovered her and carried her back home. 1030-1350). Stave churches were constructed employing architectural styles influenced by the Roman church, often driven by liturgical necessity. The portal has often been regarded as pagan iconography, but this is completely wrong. IP: 85.25.243.146 . It's known that the Vikings worshipped many gods. All you need to know about the majestic stave churches Remains of fireplaces was found in the building thought to be used in heathen ceremonies. The oldest dated logs in Urnes church had already begun to grow in 765. Urnes stave church is located in Luster municipality in Sogn og Fjordane county in a magnificent natural setting. The old portal from 1070 is familiar to many from pictures in tourist brochures and popular culture. They were mostly bones of oxen, with an extremely high proportion of skulls,[62] and evidently had mostly been slaughtered as young calves, when their meat would be tender, rather than either shortly after birth when male calves would be surplus to dairy farming or after reaching full growth and being usable as draft animals. [49], At Borg in Norrkping Municipality, stergtland, a small building was excavated that had two rooms on either side of a central hallway. +1 Production to each coastal resource tile in this city. Toggle Hofs in the written record subsection. The dragon represents evil within continental European iconography and is therefore completely absent in Scandinavian art before Christianity, where wingless serpents predominate. Many places in Scandinavia, but especially in West Norse regions,[4] are named hof or hov, either alone or in combination. In his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People), Bede describes the conversion of King Edwin of Northumbria. Among the factors that brought it to . Adam's presumed source, Sweyn Estridsen, was in service as a young man (from 1026 to 1038) with King Anund Jakob of Sweden, and therefore had the opportunity to personally see the hof at Uppsala. The bone finds thus indicate the building did indeed serve as a hof. Some buildings have been constructed or adapted as hofs by modern heathens. When Norway regained its independence and identity in the 19th century, following the four hundred year night rule under Denmark, Norwegians sought their national cultural heritage. [41], The building had three entrances, two in the south and one in the north. . 284-85. 6, p. 141. These churches were also a symbol of the fusion of Christian and pagan traditions in the region. This motif is found on one of the Urnes pillars. This may go some way to explain why some were so quick to adopt the concept of a Christian god. However, he did see no other source for the main stylistic characteristics of the stave-church "the striving for height, the raised central roof and the surrounding gallery at ground level" than indigenous Norwegian buildings, since the main influence on early Norwegian Christianity was Anglo-Saxon England, where stave churches were not built. Moreover, Schuchhardt's excavation was rushed and his own data do not certainly support the square plan that he later claimed to have found at two other Baltic sites. There was a stone foundation interpreted as a hrgr at the far end of the hallway from the entrance. There is also a spring at which the pagans are accustomed to make their sacrifices, and into it to plunge a live man. Urnes stave church is located in Luster municipality in Sogn og Fjordane county in a magnificent natural setting. This has made that work inaccessible to foreign researchers, who as a result have not been able to get involved in topics that are important in the north. These churches, called stave churches because of the stavs at the heart of their post and lintel structure, were the highlight and symbol of the new religion that had swept through Scandinavia and became a symbol of the unification between the three lands. It is also the oldest of the stave churches still preserved, and it is the most decorated. The Urnes Projectis a research project consisting of eleven researchers from Europe and the United States. Historian Roar Hauglid describes this phe- nomenon as "the struggle between the Dragon and the Cross, a struggle in which two worlds, two ways of life, clash."2 The relationship between pagan and Christian traditions in medieval Norway is readily apparent in the design and decoration of its stave churches. Why are dragons and monsters carved into Norway's stave churches The site dates to about 400 CE, during the Nordic Iron Age, and had been covered with earth to conceal it. [citation needed], Gro Steinsland, a historian of Norse paganism, is of the opinion that in effect it was economic resources as much as local tradition that led to the development of dedicated hofs: in the richest areas, actual temples developed, while in poor areas, the spaces that people had were what they used for blt. Olsen, pp. The image of Thor stood in the center, with other gods on both sides. One Anglo-Saxon church, however, arguably is a stave-church: that at Greensted in Essex. . MPR Photo/Dan Gunderson About a dozen years ago Guy Paulson was thinking about retiring from his. On this there was to be a fire which would never go outthey called it sacred fire. 12, 13, pp. When Norway regained its independence and identity in the 19th century, following the four hundred year night rule under Denmark, Norwegians sought their national cultural heritage. These have sometimes been compared to stave churches, especially those with a central raised section,[77] and many of the stave churches have been elongated or made cruciform from an originally square plan. Dendrochronology is the dating of wood through studies of the trees growth rings. Since 1991, the Icelandic Archeological Institute (Fornleifastofnun slands - FSI) has re-investigated it; since 2002, in an international investigation under the Landscape of Settlements program. This was a royal residence of the Anglo-Saxon kings of Northumbria, but Hope-Taylor emphasized that as implied by its Celtic name, its history began far back in the post-Romano-British past; the "Great Enclosure" on the eastern edge of the site, in his opinion, had most likely been created in the 4th or 5th century C.E., possibly earlier, and only one of the burials on the site could reasonably be claimed to be Anglo-Saxon rather than indigenous Celtic, and that mainly on grounds of the individual's unusual height. Hope-Taylor's buildings D1 and D2; pp. Is there any evidence to suggest any of these stave churches were repurposed pagan temples, or that any of the structure or contents were similarly repurposed? The development of dendrochronology in the last several decades has provided new information about Norway's first churches. It was apparent from the postholes that the roof had been supported by a few very strong columns and that the building had been tall, possibly two-story. Urnes stave church is one of Norways oldest stave churches. The gods were placed around the platform in the choir-like structure within the temple. [37], Olsen also regarded as highly significant that only 9 meters from the south door of the building was an oval pit containing ash, charcoal, fragments of animal bone, and sooty stones. One legend relates that a hunter spotted what he believed to be a mossy rock in the forest. In his view the archeological evidence was "preponderantly Celtic. reprinted with corrections for English Heritage, Yeavering Saxon Royal Palace: The temple and associated buildings, "Research in medieval, Norwegian wooden churches, relevance of available sources", "Iceland's Asatru pagans reach new height with first temple", "New pagan temple in Iceland marks the revival of European paganism", "Odinshof, First Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly", "Kendis-designer bner 12 meter hjt tempel til re for Odin og Thor", "Thorshof, Second Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly", "Baldrshof, Third Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly", "Njordshof, Fourth Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly", Gudarnas grd: Tre fallosfiguriner frn Lunda i Strngns socken, Sdermanland, Digital archive of Hofstair re-excavation, Vikingarnas landskap: Uppkra - vikingacentrat i Skne, Past Perfect: the virtual archaeology of Durham and Northumberland, North Atlantic Biocultural Organisation Hofstair investigation, Anthropomorphic wooden cult figurines of Central and Northern Europe, Fire temple or Agiary or Atashkadeh or Atashgah or Dar-e Mehr, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heathen_hof&oldid=1161722912, Articles with German-language sources (de), Articles with Norwegian-language sources (no), Articles with unsourced statements from December 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0. The church you can visit today is the last of four churches constructed at Urneset, just across the Lustrafjord from the . These royal centers, called central places by archeologists,[26] perhaps also constituted a parallel to the royal palaces of the Merovingian, Carolingian, and Holy Roman Emperors, such as Charlemagne's palace complex at Aachen. Urnes stave church is one of Norways oldest stave churches. Lee M. Hollander, 1964, repr. The research group forThe Urnes Projectconsists of: Dr. Thomas EA Dale (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Dr. Kirk Ambrose (University of Colorado, Boulder), Dr. Elizabeth den Hartog (Leiden University), Dr. Griffin Murray (University College Cork, Ireland), Dr. Stefanie Westphal (Herzog August Library, Wolfenbttel), Dr. Nathalie le Luel (Universit catholique de lOuest, Angers), Dr. ystein Ekroll (Nidaros Cathedral Restoration Workshop, Trondheim), Ingrid Lunnan Nrseth (NTNU, Trondheim), Leif Anker (Directorate for Cultural Heritage, Oslo), Linn Willetts Borgen (UiO), Kjartan Hauglid (The Royal Palace, Oslo), Dr. Manuela Beer (Schntgen Museum, Cologne). 41 and 44, general plans of Area D, are missing in the pdf. Their distinctive design and construction represent some of the finest creations of the Norwegian Middle Ages. Stave churches were constructed employing architectural styles influenced by the Roman church, often driven by liturgical necessity. asked the king to give him arms and a stallionfor hitherto it had not been lawful for the Chief Priest to carry arms or to ride anything but a mare. Date and time: Thu, 06 Jul 2023 02:46:33 GMT This has made that work inaccessible to foreign researchers, who as a result have not been able to get involved in topics that are important in the north. Similar complexes of buildings are known from other places in southern Scandinavia, for example Jrrestad in Scania,[27] Lisbjerg in Jutland, and Toftegrd on Zealand. The portal comes from the third church, but archaeological finds have shown that two earlier churches stood in the same spot. Gemini will return to this theme. The term hof is taken from Old Norse . Description A building unique to Norway. Recalling Heroes in this city costs 15% less Faith. But the Past Perfect site maintained by Durham and Northumberland County Councils refers to D1, the northern one of the pair of buildings, as the kitchen, In the caption to Fig. 75 caption, p. 159. The long goodbye to Scandinavian Paganism and the Christianization of This study investigates the origins of the stave churches of Norway and their relationship to Norse pre-Christian cult-houses. [57], In 2011, remains of a site of heathen worship were found at Ranheim on the outskirts of Trondheim, consisting of a stone circle approximately 15m in diameter and 1m in height delineating an altar, a ceremonial way marked by standing stones, and a building about 5.3 x 4.5m in size, consisting of 12 large pillars resting on stone bases and enclosing 4 pillars. The animal is a stylized lion, a central motif in the heraldry of the late Viking age. Throughout the years, the amassed wealth of offerings came to be very high, and people said "we should be able to raise the church on pillars of gold". . There are in fact several sites in the historical period at which heathen rites apparently took place in the open, including Hove in Trndelag, Norway, where offerings were apparently brought to images of the gods on a row of ten posts, but no trace of buildings was found. What do the animals in stave church ornamentation signify? Stave Churches | Encyclopedia.com Presented by Sren Diinhoff, the archologist in charge of the project. But Wotan they chisel armed, as our people are wont to represent Mars. Nationalism as a theme has become more problematic, and at the same time weve started questioning how Norwegian these buildings really are. The dragon represents evil within continental European iconography and is therefore completely absent in Scandinavian art before Christianity, where wingless serpents predominate. [25] These finds indicate with a high degree of likelihood that the hall was used for ceremonial feasts. [31] Various associated buildings have also been excavated. And are the decorations pagan or Christian? Each of the existing stave church styles can be traced to European predecessors and has contemporaneous non-Norwegian examples. Viking Religion: From the Norse Gods to Christianity - Life in Norway Please contact the developer of this form processor to improve this message. The church was converted to a cruciform church in . The unusual medieval stave churches of Norway and Sweden were constructed using a later version of the upright stave technique seen at Yeavering and Uppkra, often have runic graffiti and very old-fashioned decorative carving, and the oldest, at Urnes, has preserved in one wall two ancient door panels featuring the motif of the gripping beast that were evidently felt to be too pagan to continue to be prominently displayed. The Old Norse beliefs There isn't a great deal of evidence of Old Norse paganism as very little was written down. Stave churches were built in large numbers in Norway from the 11th century to the 14th. The lion as a symbol of the ruler can also symbolize Christ, who is struggling against the evil forces, says Syrstad Ands. We hope that are our audience wants to support us so that we can further develop our podcast, hire more writers, build more content, and remove the advertising on our platforms. Among other finds, they uncovered the remains of a large longhouse or hall that was in use between the 6th and 11th centuries C.E. Her study shows how the dragon not only appears in the Urnes church around 1130, but also on the portal in Hopperstad stave church in the same region, which shows a striking resemblance to the fighting dragons in manuscripts from the Canterbury school between 1070 and 1120. Thor with his scepter apparently resembles Jove . It was rounded on the inside, like a vault, and there were windows and wall-hangings everywhere. desecrated and destroyed the altars that he had himself dedicated. Hope-Taylor, pp. The only heathen temple site yet found in England is at Yeavering, Northumberland,[62] which seems to correspond to Bede's Ad Gefrin. In the layer immediately underlying the church, dated to approximately 900 C.E.,[51] he found post-holes that he interpreted as the remains of the great hof described by Adam of Bremen. Historical Context [44], The hof is near the center of the settlement and there are at least four burial mounds to the west and north of it, probably dating to the early Bronze Age or the early Iron Age. Then the churches received a lot of Romanesque features like basilica shapes, circular arcs, and decor like Christian motifs. [6] The clergymen of the Diocese of Skara appealed to the Parliament of Sweden for a crackdown on the sacrifices, and they wanted an end to the superstition that surrounded the "abomnable pagan shrine". Learn More{{/message}}, {{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}It appears your submission was successful. Side-by-side drawings by Holger Schmidt of eight interpretations of the Uppsala temple, all but one resembling stave churches in style, are Olsen's Fig. The temple godi was responsible for the upkeep of the temple and ensuring it was maintained properly, as well as for holding sacrificial feasts in it.[16]. At the inner end there was a structure similar to the choir in churches nowadays and there was a raised platform in the middle of the floor like an altar, where a ring weighing twenty ounces and fashioned without a join was placed, and all oaths had to be sworn on this ring. stave church: [noun] a church of medieval Nordic origin that is made of wooden staves and has gables, a cupola, and often a series of pitched roofs. A heathen hof or Germanic pagan temple was a temple building of Germanic religion; a few have also been built for use in modern heathenry. Their holy places are woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to that hidden presence which is seen only by the eye of reverence.[8]. [citation needed]. It is architecturally, culturally and historically unique because of its extremely detailed wood carving work and the extensive interior ornamentation. Norway's Stunning Stave Churches in Pictures - Life in Norway It hangs over the gable of the building and sends its glitter far off to those who approach, because the shrine stands on level ground with mountains all about it like a theater.[21]. He ascribed the hof legends attached to them to romantic nationalism and pointed out that many were called medieval chapels (bnhs) at the beginning of the 19th century and had transformed into ruined hofs by the end of that century.[39]. The previous church portal from 1070 was reused. Stave church | Britannica Urnes stave church stands squarely between the ancient Viking-age art, with its animal ornamentation and biting, coiling snakes, and the Romanesque art from the continent. His likeness, too, they fashion with an immense phallus. In Torsten Capelle, Christian Fischer, Karen M. Boe eds. . [72][73][74] However, although excavations have found the remains of earlier palisade churches under many medieval Scandinavian churches, including two predecessors under the Urnes church, only under the church at Mre have traces of a heathen hof been found. Part of a grinding stone found at its location is interpreted again as a religious offering for a sacred place. These structures were built using construction methods and architectural patterns present in vernacular and aristocratic building styles. History Built between 1996 and 2001, the Moorhead Stave Church (or Hopperstad Stave Church Replica) in Moorhead, Minnesota, stands as a testament to Norwegian culture and heritage in the Midwest. Data drawn from archaeological excavations, comparative historical architecture, stylistic evidence, and historical documentation across the North Sea region and Europe is interrogated to determine the influences on Norwegian stave church architecture. "The Saga of the People of Kjalarnes," tr. The server responded with {{status_text}} (code {{status_code}}). This is interpreted as an offering for a place of worship. 97-8, 100; Appendix I, E.S. How many churches burn Varg? - The ABC of Faith In 1955, the Skaga foundation was formed and in the midsummer of 1960 a reconstructed church was inaugurated on the same spot. The destruction was the result of the controversies surrounding the use of a nearby well for pagan sacrifices, a custom which likely predated the Christianization of the area. [54][55], At Hov in Vingrom near Lake Mjsa in southern Norway, excavations of a 15-meter longhouse have revealed gullgubber and "strike-a-lights," suggesting cultic use. Stave Churches Are All Wood, Dragons, and Beauty TOMPSEN, LYLE (2020) A Comparison of Stave Churches and Pre-Christian Cult-Houses, Their Origins and Influences. Then . The square ruins were given special attention because of the idea that the hof at Gamla Uppsala had been square. (ca. by Eric Grundhauser March 28, 2016 In This Story Place Fantoft Stave Church. Thats wrong, according to a new stave church study. The older name of the site may show that even in pagan times, the location had been in use for worship.