This particular brooch, which dates from the pre-viking world, can tells us about how the Norse lived before they started their fearsome journeys to foreign shores, as well as styles and techniques of ornamentation from the time.
        Dated as being from the early 8th Century, which is just before the first reported Viking raids, this Brooch was discovered in Sweden sometime in the early 1900s.¹ The brooch itself is made of bronze that has mercury and gold gilding and a garnet.² The metals are important to note because, since this brooch dates from before recorded evidence of raids, it might be more indicative of what materials were available for making jewelry and ornamentation before they started getting materials from other places either through raids. The presence of these materials is indicative that gold and precious stones, as well as the skills to craft them, must have been present in the pre-viking Scandinavia. Whether these materials were obtained through trading or early, undocumented raids is hard to tell, but the lure of more objects, or more easily-afforded objects like this could have been one of the draws of raiding.
        The design on the brooch is known as Vendel.³ Animals are seen in profile, but lost among the complex and intricate designs. The animals are hard to see, and the focus seems to be on the twisting line work rather than the specific profile of animals. This early design bears marked resemblance to later viking designs, such as Jelling and Urnes, especially in the delicacy and twisting, abstract animals and nature motifs. The style of the brooch, in comparison to later viking styles, is useful for studying the development of the styles, as well as tracking changes and influence on viking design over time. Additionally, brooches, “as highly visible, typologically distinct dress accessories worn by women in everyday dress . . . have much to reveal about the construction and expression of Scandinavian colonial identities.”⁴ This gold and intricacy suggest that this brooch probably belonged to a woman from a higher class in Sweden, perhaps a family that traded more frequently or a family that had begun to participate in the turn to methods other than trading to obtain gold – such as raiding. This use of display objects could also be early signs of social stratification based on wealth and access to precious materials, as those with more resources have the excess available to display their wealth through brooches and other ornamentation.

Comment on this page