The first depictions of the crucifixion in the North by P. Paulsen

After the North Germanic peoples had lost their expansive power due to their distant expeditions, wars, and settlements abroad by the middle of the 10th century AD, an invisible power began to take hold firmly in their homeland and spread everywhere: Christianity. Its influence was felt from three directions. In the West (with ecclesiastical centers in Ireland and artistic centers like Winchester and Canterbury in Southwest England), lively relations existed. From the South, supported by political and ecclesiastical organizations, it penetrated through Jutland into the North. And in the East, Rurik's descendants had already created conditions for the spread of Christianity through their rule over the vast Slavic plains until Vladimir of Kiev opened the gates for the Greek Orthodox Church of Byzantium and allowed the unleashed stream to penetrate deeply into the lands between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.

Now, a period of conflicts, change, and altered perceptions began in the North, a time of mixed faith that left strong traces in grave finds and visual arts. Opposed to the main motif of the North, the animal, arose the main motif of ecclesiastical art from the mentioned directions: the plant, the tendril. Alongside various symbols, the motif of the crucified soon appeared in different discoveries and monuments.

Fig. 1

From Birka (Uppland, Sweden), a grave from the mid-10th century contains a carrying cross among other ornaments (fig. 1). The entire execution in filigree and granulation is highly stylized. In the long pointed chin, a beard is probably depicted. The specially applied dots at the wrist joints and the body are considered to represent tendrils, according to the design found on a similar cross, namely that of Gätebo in Öland. On this imitation of a Byzantine enkolpion, the crucified figure hangs amidst stylized acanthus tendrils (fig. 2). A beard and mustache are depicted, and the aureole resembles that on the Jelling Stone! Connections between the arm and body are marked by the characteristic Norse art spirals. Near the body, we see the Norse chain motif.

Fig. 2

Whether it represents a tendril or a stylized bulging fold of the garment is hard to discern. The robe, with its hem forming an arc and tapering to points at the ends, is depicted similarly in Irish work and also in Gotland. However, the entire remarkable representation becomes clear with the explanation of the figure on one side of the large Jelling Stone (fig. 3). On the large runestone and figure stone at Jellinge in Jutland, a figure with outspread arms appears. It is clad in a richly pleated king's mantle that does not extend all the way to the knees. A radiant halo shines behind the head, the wheel with four spokes. Double cords are formed from a round sling at the mid-body, which ends in a trefoil with leaf-like points and also encircles the outspread arms. At the feet on the left and right lie trefoil tendrils. The entire composition is framed by twisted tendrils, forming trefoil tendrils again at the three edges. Thus, we see the sacred numbers "3" and "9" represented by these trefoil tendrils. The trefoil tendril is often interpreted as the symbol of the Trinity for Thor, Odin, and Freya. In the latter days of Germanic beliefs, it was considered Odin's symbol. The Odin myth gave the entire image its distinctive form. In the Havamal from the Edda, it is said:

Hung was I     on the windswept tree;

Nine full nights I hung,

Pierced by a spear,     a pledge to the god,

To Odin, myself to myself,

On that tree which none     can know the source

From whence its root has run.

The crucifixion was not familiar in the North, nor did they understand the crucified himself. Therefore, they sought a connection with corresponding concepts from Germanic religion. Thus, Christ hovers like a Norse warrior in a king's mantle, entwined by tendrils, at the peaks of the world tree, whose roots lie deep in the primordial fate. Just as Odin sacrifices himself for knowledge and wisdom, so Christ sacrifices himself for the sins of humankind. From this representation of the crucifixion emerges the era of mixed faith, depicting the intertwining beliefs of that time.

Fig. 3

Peter Paulsen in Hamer August 1942