Viking Saga Panels: a Matter of Life and Death

The narrative art of the Norse prefigured Art Nouveau and comic-books…

Viking art influenced and was, in turn, influenced by Celtic and early Christian art. The Vikings were expert carvers of wood and stone as well as highly skilled in metal crafts. Wood was the most widespread medium for their narrative arts, but only rare examples survived the ravages of time, wood boring beetles, fire and rot.

Wooden panels found in the Twelfth Century Hylestad Stave Church, of Setesdal in Norway, show events from the Saga of Sigurd, later to be reinterpreted as Siegfried in Richard Wagner’s operatic epic The Ring (1857), and of course a major influence on J R R Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings (1854–55). These narrative panels were probably modelled after older versions used to adorn pre-Christian feasting halls since the Seventh Century.

There are many variations of Sigurd’s saga. In in some versions, he sets out on a quest to find a legendary treasure so he can fund an army to help a deposed chieftain reclaim his lands from an evil interloper. With the help of his two accomplices, Sigurd intends to take the hoard from a mighty dragon. He fights and slays the dragon and to inherit its strength and magic, intends to eat its heart. Whilst roasting it over a fire, he instinctively sucks a spatter of raw dragon blood from his thumb and is suddenly gifted with telepathy.