Viking Arts And Crafts Facts: Learn All About Their Amazing Art!

During the 9th all the way to the 11th century, the Vikings were warriors, bandits, brokers, voyagers, and colonizers.

They frequently sailed from Scandinavia to take control of the regions of Europe and beyond. The pagan Old Norse faith, which can be traced all the way back to around 500 BCE in what is now the country of Denmark, was the Vikings' authentic religion.

As Christian faith gained traction in Scandinavia, early in the eighth century CE, its adherents steadily declined in number. This old-aged tradition, on the other hand, was preserved in Viking culture.

A Viking, also known as a Norseman or Northman, was a part of the Scandinavian seagoing soldiers who looted and colonized large areas of Europe from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, and whose troublesome impact profoundly influenced European history.

The attacks of these ancient Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish raiders were most likely incited by a combination of factors varying from population increase at their hometown to the comparative powerlessness or lack of weapons of victims and other countries. The Vikings had a significant impact on Scandinavian, British Isles, French, Estonian, and Kievan Rus' early medieval heritage.

Vikings founded Norse resettlement and institutions in the British Isles, Ireland, and the Faroe Islands, using their character trait longships as specialist mariners and voyagers.

The Vikings were composed of wealthy landowner chieftains as well as clan leaders, their courtiers, freemen, and any enthusiastic young group members looking for adventure and loot abroad. These Scandinavians were individual farmers in their hometown, but warriors and plunderers at sea.

Even during the Viking period, the Scandinavian countries appear to have had an almost limitless supply of workforce. In addition, capable military commanders who could organize communities of warriors into victorious groups and troops were never in short supply.

These groups would sail the seas in their constructed longships, carrying out hit-and-run attacks on towns and cities that were situated on Europe's coastlines. Scandinavian intrusions of Ireland are documented as beginning in 795, when Rechru, an unidentified island, was devastated.

Violence continued incessantly, and while the native people frequently held their own, Scandinavian monarchies emerged in Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford. The term Viking was given to the Scandinavians for their raiding and pillaging.

Viking art style has always been regarded as unique. Be it jewelry, paintings, clothes, or artifacts, Viking art has been seen to be quite distinct from the contemporary art forms used in other parts of the world.

As we understand Vikings, let's take a look at some of their famous artworks and the crafts they used to use. There are a few cool facts you’ll get to learn as well. Afterward, also check out Viking food facts and Viking culture facts.

Origins & Early Developments

The Ringerike style is named after the Ringerike area north of Oslo which is in Norway.

Here, the native dark red rock formations were extensively used for sculpting stones with Ringerike style layouts. The Ringerike style is a famous Scandinavian animals design that emerged from the previous Mammen style in the late 10th and early 11th centuries.

The Borre Style

Borre style was prevalent in Scandinavia from the late ninth to late tenth centuries according to dendrochronological data provided by locations with the characteristic motif of Borre style artifacts.

A more distinguishing feature of the Borre style is its basic asymmetry and double-contoured ring chain composed of interconnected circles that are kept separate by transverse bars and a lozenge metal layering.

The Borre style was another design that has animal inspiration.

The Jelling Style

The Jelling style is a period of Scandinavian animals craftsmanship that flourished throughout the 10th century. The Jelling style is distinguished as highly stylized.

Most frequently, an animal's own body parts were used and were shaped like a band made with metal. The Jelling style was initially applied to a collection of objects and materials in Jelling, Denmark, such as Harald Bluetooth's great runestone, but it has since been incorporated into the Mammen style as well.

Vikings made excellent wood and metalwork. They made intricate designs on silver or wood to make brooches and other jewelry. Their silver metalwork was used as jewelry and other objects for decoration by the rich and powerful in Scandinavia. Their ornaments were made mostly of silver or bronze metals.

Silver and other metals were also used to make an axe head for Vikings. The axe head would often be decorated with carvings that looked amazing.

The Oseberg style represents the first phase of what has been referred to as Viking art.

The Oseberg style is named after the Oseberg ship burial site, which enclosed a well-preserved and elaborately decorated longship observed in a large ship burial mound at the Oseberg farm near Tonsberg in Vestfold, Norway, along with a multitude of other lavishly decorated carved wood materials and objects.

The gripping beast is a recurring motif in the Oseberg style. The gripping beasts' motif is what accurately distinguishes early Viking art from previous styles.

Animal motifs, which were commonly used to decorate objects, were basically a progression of artistic traditions from previous time periods. The ribbon-animal and the gripping beast were particularly common.

The gripping beast was a mythic beast with distinct body parts. It was fastened to the design features and creatures that surrounded it. The gripping beast was small in stature, with rounded-shaped eyes and thorny vines for limbs.

A distinguishing feature of the Ringerike style was the way the hips and eyes were made. The animals had pear-shaped eyes with the narrow end pointing towards the nose or snout.

The animals had spiral hips and a triangular head was another distinct feature. Rows of pelleting were visible within contour lines on the animals, as well as notable shell-spiral hips at the joints.

The Metropolitan Museum in New York has a rich collection of Viking art history. The collection includes brooches, jewelry, and other decorated ornaments.

The Mammen Style

Mammen style gets its name from the objects in this category including an axe that was found in a rich and powerful male burial chamber.

The iron axe was abundantly decorated on both flanks with intricately carved silver designs and was most likely a celebratory parade instrument belonging to a man of royal social position. His burial garments carried elaborate embellishments and were styled with silk as well as fur.

The Mammen axe has a large animal with a pelleted body, brow, spherical eye, and upturned head and beak with a lappet on one head.

The bird's hip is marked by a huge shell spiral, from which its shallowly enlarged feathers spring up. The extreme right interlaces with the bird's throat, while the left-wing interlaces with its body and tail.

Viking art, also recognized as Norse art, is a term generally used to describe the craftsmanship of Scandinavian Norsemen and Viking settlers much farther afield, especially in the British Empire and Iceland.

Viking art style has always been regarded as unique. Be it jewelry, paintings, clothes, or artifacts, Viking art has been seen to be quite distinct from the contemporary art forms used in other parts of the world.

According to art experts like David Wilson and Graham Campbell, no other art style was as popular during that era as was Viking art. The impressions of Viking art can be seen across England, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Ireland, and various other Scandinavian countries.

The Ringerike Style

The Ringerike style is named after a group of runestones with animal and plant motifs found in the Ringerike district of Oslo, north of Oslo. Lions, birds, banded animals, and spirals are the most common motifs.

The Oseberg ship is a well-preserved Viking boat found in a sizable burial site just next to Tnsberg in Vestfold district, Norway. This ship is widely regarded as one of the finest Viking-era artifacts to have survived the weather and passing of time.

The oldest Viking Oseberg ship, discovered entombed on a farm in Oseberg, Norway, contained sleighs, wall hangings, and decorated silken cloths, as well as bone fragments of two unknown female Vikings.  The Oseberg ship is on exhibit at Oslo's Viking Ship Museum.

The Borre style, which was also widely known on the main island, overlaps with the Oseberg style. Borre's creative conventions, unlike the Oseberg style, dispersed to the British Isles (England and London) and the Baltic countries as the Norsemen traveled both east and west.

On the artifacts that were found in these regions, transactions among domestic and abroad creative traditions can be seen.

The Urnes Style

The Urnes style was the final stretch of Scandinavian wildlife art in the second half of the 11th and first half of the 12th centuries.

The Urnes style is titled after the northern doorway of Norway's Urnes Stave Church. Urnes Stave Church is a 12th-century wood church located in Ornes, Norway, all along Lustrafjorden in the municipal council of Luster in the province of Vestland.

The Vikings In Ireland

In 795 AD, Vikings infiltrated Ireland for the first time, and the inevitable happened.

Vikings from countries in Scandinavia began ransacking Ireland around 800 AD and kept going for two centuries before being vanquished at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 by Brian Boru.

The first documented Viking incursion in Ireland took place in 795 AD when the church on Dublin's Lambeg Isle was pillaged and set on fire. There were almost no true communities in Ireland at the time, only dispersed groups near convents that functioned as 'safe rooms' for valuable items, meals, and livestock.

As a result, those places became perfect targets for Viking raids.

During the ninth century, as the Vikings proceeded their raids on Ireland, they formed colonies throughout the country, many of which still exist. One of the oldest Viking colonies at the mouth of the Liffey withstood time to become modern-day Dublin.

The act of traveling to other territories and ransacking their riches and wealth was just what the Viking civilization was really about. The Vikings were fantastic specialists at building long-distance boats, which they used to commute, invade, and assemble as much as they could from other citizens.

By trying to compare 1,000 Irish genome sequences to over 6,000 genomes from Britain and mainland Europe, scientists determined genetic groupings in the west of Ireland for the very first time, prompting them to start investigating whether incursions from the Vikings and Normans to the east may well have impacted genetic makeup in that region of the country.

Some of the most prevalent Irish family names have Viking beginnings as well. Doyle, MacAuliffe, meaning the Son of Olaf, and MacManus, meaning the Son of Manus, are all descended from Scandinavian soldiers who decided to settle in Ireland and wedded native Irish women.

The Vikings are known for establishing the very first trade networks connecting England, Scandinavia, and Scotland. Utilizing Dublin as their home headquarters in Ireland, they bartered with the rest of Europe on a scale that the local Irish had never experienced earlier. This managed to bring many European influences into Ireland, many of which persist to this day.

During the ninth century, as the Vikings proceeded their attacks on Ireland, they founded settlements throughout the country, most of which still exist today. The Vikings transformed Waterford, Cork, Dublin, Wexford, and Limerick into trading centers, which subsequently evolved into the towns and cities we know of today.

Excluding the Gotlandic picture stones that were popular in Sweden during the Viking time-span, stone cutting did not appear to be practiced anywhere else in Scandinavia until about the mid-10th century and the construction of the monarch's landmarks at Jelling in Denmark.

Following that, and most likely as a result of the rise of Christianity, the use of stone carvings for lasting statues and monuments became more common.

The skaldic passage is a sophisticated type of verbal poem constituted during the Viking Age and handed down until actually written hundreds of years later, and is a non-visual means of communication for Viking art.

Numerous verses mention adorned types of ornament that have been preserved in stone and wood. Bragi Boddason, a ninth-century skald composer, mentions four seemingly unrelated sequences decorated on a shield.

One of these images represented the god Thor's fishing expedition, which is also mentioned in 10th-century poetry by lfr Uggason explaining the works of art in a newly built auditorium in Iceland.

Aside from the non-continuous artifacts record-keeping of stone and wood, the recreated history of Viking craftsmanship to date is based primarily on the research of decorative metalwork adornment from a wide range of sources. Metals have been preserved in a variety of archaeological contexts for research consideration.

Both men and women wore pieces of jewelry, albeit of various types. Married couples used perfectly matched sets of big brooches to attach their overdresses just next to the shoulder. Due to their domed structure, modern historians refer to them as 'tortoise brooches'. Women's brooches came in a variety of styles and sizes, but many featured openwork.

Women frequently hung metal chains or beaded chains between the brooches or hung jewelry from the brooches' bottoms. Men could wear bands on their fingers, forearms, and necks, and used penannular brooches, sometimes with lavishly lengthy pins, to keep their capes closed.

Their weapons were frequently elaborately decorated, especially on objects such as blade hilts.

The Vikings mainly wore silver and bronze pieces of jewelry, which were sometimes embellished, but a few sizable and luxurious pieces or sets in pure gold have been discovered. They most likely originally belonged to the royal family or prominent people.

Due to the widespread practice of making burial sites guided by grave goods, ornamented metalsmithing of daily essentials are commonly retrieved from Viking era gravesites. The bodies of the dead were clothed in their finest clothes and accessories and people were entombed alongside weapons, equipment, and household items.

Less prevalent, but not less important, are findings of precious metal represented in the form of bounty heaps, many of which appear to have been hidden for safe-keeping by holders who were later unable to retrieve their components, though some may have been stored them as part of a religious offering.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Viking arts and crafts facts then why not take a look at Viking clothing facts, or Viking brooches facts?