Pictish Art

Much of existing Pictish art is carved on standing stones and falls into three "classes."

The oldest art falls into Class I (dated to the 6th through 9th centuries) and consists of primitive stone slabs (irregular shapes, un-smoothed surface) with simple geometric figures and some naturalistic figures (animals). Some shown here (see illustration) have no clear interpretation, and may have been used as boundary markers or to identify certain clans.

The designs were incised first with a simple rough punch and hammer, and then the line was widened and deepened with a chisel. The incised lines are smooth, so were likely rubbed with stone to eliminate roughness.

Second row, far-right in the illustration is what's called the "Pictish beast," but its identification is the source of much debate. Whatever it was, it had some significance since it accounts for 40% of all animal figures in Pictish stone carving. It has been described as a kelpie, a seahorse, a dolphin, or some monster; some have even suggested it represents the Loch Ness monster.

Class II stones are roughly rectangular and have symbols that are visibly linked with Christianity. They are often referred to as cross slabs because they depict crosses on one or both sides. They include Celtic geometric knot work as well. They date to the 8th and 9th centuries, so they started to appear prior to the disappearance of Class I carvings. Carving in Class II went beyond simple incising and brought the images out in relief.

Class III graduated to sculpture, in that the rectangular slab was not a canvas on which to carve a design: it was stone from which an actual shape was to be freed. Class III also abandons the pre-Christian symbols and lines, becoming similar to what was being produced by their Gaelic neighbors

The Picts also did some impressive metalwork, which I'll talk about next time.

Theodoric Lives On!

Long after the death of Theodoric in 526, legends rose of the Germanic warrior who led his people to conquer various armies. (Theodoric even shows up on the Rök Stone.) As time passed, however, he wasn't called Theodoric of Ravenna: he was called Dietrich von Bern (of Verona). The name "Dietrich" means "Ruler of the People," which is the same definition as "Theodoric." The legends come from the late Holy Roman Empire and are largely written in Middle High German.

As is typical with the oral tradition of tale-telling, the details got muddled. Theodoric was born shortly after Attila the Hun died and a century after the Gothic King Ermanaric; he later invaded Italy and became its "king" by defeating Odoacer (the previous invader), with his capital in Ravenna. Dietrich, on the other hand, was the king of Italy already, ruling from Verona, but was forced into exile by his evil uncle, Ermenrich, and winds up at the court of Etzel (Attila) and the Huns. The switch from Ravenna to Verona suggests that the legends arose from the Lombards, whose capital was Verona (Ravenna was still part of the Byzantine culture).

Dietrich also differed from Theodoric in that he sometimes was depicted as breathing fire. This suggests a hint of the demonic. There may be an origin of this in some of the ideas about Theodoric. A 12th-century German chronicler, Otto of Freising, wrote that Theodoric rode to Hell (while alive) on an "infernal" horse. (See the illustration, thought to represent that ride of Theodoric, who is here labeled regem stultum, "stupid king," on the church portal of San Zeno Maggiore in Verona.) Some traditions called Theodoric a son of the devil. Because Theodoric was a practicing Arian, the prevailing Roman Christianity had reasons to "demonize" him.

An early (c.820) German heroic lay, Hildebrandslied, includes the story of the main character's flight alongside Dietrich to escape Odoacer, one of the few people that handed Theodoric defeats (until Theodoric negotiated a treaty and then slew Odoacer during the celebratory feast). Later legends become less and less historical, with Theodoric/Dietrich slaying a dragon, or fighting dwarves and giants.

The Church of San Zeno Maggiore, whence comes the above illustration, has a few more interesting historical tidbits I'd like to share. At first I thought it might be linked to Zeno, the Byzantine Emperor who put Theodoric in charge of the military and set him against Odoacer, but it turns out that it's a lot more interesting than that. See you tomorrow.

From Scandinavia to Constantinople

The Varangian Guard were personal bodyguards for Byzantine emperors from the 10th to 14th centuries. The guards were primarily hired from Northern Europe. Hiring mercenaries from far away was a common practice in many countries (Italy, for example) to avoid soldiers having any local loyalties that might motivate them to help someone overthrow the government.

Vikings traveled everywhere, not only on northern seas, but also the Black Sea, the Marmara, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean. An ethnic group called the Rus, believed to be Norse who settled around the Black and Baltic Seas and merged with Slavic locals, created a culture now called the Kievan Rus. They were the first recruits for the Varangian Guard, after their Christianization.

Over time, Constantinople sent emissaries north seeking to hire more. In 1195, Alexios Angelos sent requests for 1000 warriors each from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden to help him overthrow the emperor, who was his brother, and make himself Emperor Alexios III.

Many Norse, mostly Swedes, made the trip south on their own, seeking employment in the lucrative business of guarding the Byzantine emperor in Miklagarðr, ("Great City"). The number of them—and the consequences of their absence—was sufficient to create new laws. Sweden forbade receiving an inheritance if you lived in Greece. Norway decreed that departing for Greece forfeited your place in line regarding inheritance. Clearly they were happy if citizens brought money back, but were against seeing wealth leave their country for southern climes.

The Christianization of Kievan Rus that brought them to the attention of Byzantium and made them the source of the first Varangians has been touched on before, as has been the person who brought it about, but he did more than that. Next time we look more closely at Vladimir I of Kyiv.

The Greece Runestones

Several of the Norse Runestones are part of a subset called Greece Runestones. These refer to Grikkland (Greece) or Grikkjar (Greeks), and two refer to grikkfari (traveler to Greece). To Scandinavians, Grikkland was any part of the Byzantine Empire. Some stones were raised to commemorate Scandinavians who died in Greece as part of the Varangian Guards, some to recognize men who returned with wealth from their time down south.

There is variety in size of runestones, and the Greece examples are no different. One is a carved whetstone (3.3 x 1.8 x 1.3), mentioning two men who traveled to Greece, Jerusalem, Iceland, and Serkland (the name referring to land of Muslims). (This was originally thought to be a forgery; the claim was that a worker found it while digging a shaft for a telephone wire. It was considered authentic partially because of a few misspellings of place names: mistakes a forger would not make when every available document one might use as reference spelled those locations accurately.)

One is a boulder 59 feet in circumference, known as U 112, side A of which is shown here. It reads:

Ragnvaldr had the runes carved in memory of Fastvé, his mother, Ónæmr's daughter, (who) died in Eið. May God help her spirit.

Side B reads:

Ragnvaldr had the runes carved; (he) was in Greece, was commander of the retinue.

 U 112 is an example of how the runestones are valuable to modern scholars and historians as far more than an example of art. The name Ragnvaldr indicates that was likely a member of a noble family. The reference to his mother and her father are useful in connecting Ragnvaldr to his family. Ónæmr is mentioned on two other runestones, through which we know that Ragnvaldr had two aunts and a cousin who received Danegeld three times. Ragnvaldr was part of a wealthy family. Also, "commander of the retinue" makes him captain of the Varangian Guard, and well-paid in his own right.

The link between Scandinavia and the Byzantine Empire lasted a long time, especially because of the Varangian Guard, and even motivated Norway and Sweden to create laws specifically about those who went south, especially regarding inheritance. I'll talk about this north-south connection, the Varangian Guard, and keeping family wealth in the country next time.

The Jarlabanke Runestones

Of the thousands of runestones created up until the 12th century, 20 fall into a special category because they were all raised by or on behalf of the same man. These are the Jarlabankestenarna (Swedish "Jarlabanke stones") in Upland, Sweden.

Jarlabanke Ingefastsson was likely a hersir, a chieftain or military commander, of a hundred, which was an administrative division of a hundred men (and their families). He would have been responsible for organizing military support in times of war. (Hundreds were used extensively in Europe, and even in the United States: Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania used hundreds in the 17th century.)

Jarlabanke likely was very well-off financially thanks to the Danegeld, the practice of being paid off by England to stop attacking it. Another source of revenue would have been from men of his hundred being paid as mercenaries in the Varangian Guard and fighting in Kievan Rus.

He used them to commemorate fallen family members and comrades, and public works. The inscription for the one pictured reads:

Jarlabanki had these stones raised in memory of himself while alive, and made this bridge for his spirit, and (he) alone owned all of Tábýr. May God help his spirit.

Tábýr is modern Täby. There is a bit of controversy based on an Old Norse verb over whether he actually "owned" or was simply a chieftain appointed by the King of Sweden.

The bridge mentioned is actually a causeway. There are three other stones raised to give him credit for constructing roads and bridges. 

There are two Jarlabanke Runestones that mention men who traveled abroad. One of them is broken and now shows only the fragment Hann ændaðis I Grikkium, "He ended [died] in Greece." This is considered part of a subset of stones referred to as Greece Runestones, which will be our next (and final) look into the practice of raising runestones.

Runestones

When King Harald Bluetooth chose to be baptized in the 960s, he decided to commemorate the radical change he was instigating for the Danes turning Christian by having a runestone erected. This kicked off a trend for Scandinavian nobles to have their own runestones created to memorialize themselves or others. There are about 3000 in existence now.

Harald's was not the first, however: runestones as old as the 4th century exist, and they are scattered wherever the Norse traveled and settled. The Isle of Man has several, and there is even one as far away as the Black Sea. (Curiously, this never caught on in Iceland.)

The majority of total stones (percentages differ in different locales) are Christian, and crosses appear on many, as well as one of the oldest depictions in Scandinavia of Jesus on Harald's. The conversion to Christianity altered some practices: instead of burials taking place in the family plot, folk would be buried in the church graveyard and a runestone commemorating them erected with the deceased ancestors.

Runestones carried a lot of text to get their message across. The one pictured here is called Rök, which in Old Norse means "monolith." You cannot tell from this picture, but it is a five-ton stone, eight feet tall and with five sides covered in more runes than any other. It dates from around 800.

The usual formula was to mention the person for whom it was raised, their chief accomplishments, how they died, a prayer for them, and sometimes the connection between them and the person who raised the stone. Because the Varangian Guard were mercenaries all over, especially in the Mediterranean, many runestones were raised in memory of someone who never returned home, and "he died in Greece" (generic term for anywhere in or near the Byzantine Empire) is found on many stones.

One of the largest collections of runestones devoted to a single man is found in Runriket, Rune Kingdom, in Vallentuna, Sweden. Tomorrow I will tell you about the Jarlabanke Runestones.

Kingdom of the Isles

North and west and south of Scotland are numerous islands, the Shetlands and Orkneys, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man, respectively. From the 9th to 13th centuries, they were collectively known as the Kingdom of the Isles.

Their widely spread locations made them vulnerable to invasion and take-overs. Ireland looked at the Hebrides and Man with desire, and Norway was interested in the Orkneys. Magnus Barefoot of Norway managed to conquer the Kingdom for a time in the 11th century, until the previously ruling family reclaimed the rulership.

We might know very little about this part of the world, but the Isle of Iona had a prominent monastery, whence came many prominent religious figures like Adomnán and others whose activities are recorded starting in the 6th century, although Viking invasions starting in the mid 9th century disrupted life and record-keeping.

The Norse referred to the islands as Suðreyjar ("Southern Isles"). The Laxdaela Saga (one of the Icelandic sagas) refers to people coming to Iceland from Sodor, meaning the southern isles. "Sodor" remains in the name of the Church of England diocese for some of the isles.

The natives of the Isles were Gaels, and Gaelic remained the spoken language even under Norse occupation, although Gaelic place-names all but disappeared in favor of Norse names. Norse occupation on the Isle of Man left 26 runestones, when all of Norway has only 33!

Possession of the Hebrides and the Isle of Man came to a head in the war between Magnus VI of Norway and Alexander III of Scotland. Their conflict ended with the Treaty of Perth in 1263, which recognized Scotland's ownership of the Isles.

Next, let's go into a little more detail on runestones.