Fugl eller fisk? En liten fugleformet spenne fra merovingertid (original) (raw)
2008, Viking
Fish or fowl: A bird brooch from the Merovingian period In 2007 a copper alloy brooch was found at the Bygdøy kongsgård in Oslo. The brooch was small and shaped like a combination of a bird and a fish viewed from above. It belongs to a sub group of a series of South Scandinavian bird brooches from the Merovingian period which is sometimes called "fish brooches». This sub group is dated to the very beginning of the Merovingian period, c. 550/75-650 AD, while the main body of (more typical) bird brooches belongs to the second phase, i.e. middle part of the Merovingian period, c. 650-725 AD. The Bygdøy find is the first bird brooch that contains both fish and bird characteristics to appear in a Norwegian context, and its origin can probab!y be traced to Scania in Sweden. Although both the bird and the fish motif can be traced back through the preceding periods in Scandinavia, the former is much more common than the latter, and the frequent use of the bird symbol in these centuries is usually seen in connection with the foundation of a shamanistic cult of the god Woden/Odin. Odin is described as "the eagle headed» in written sources because he sometimes transforms himself in to an eagle. He also has two ravens as "helpers» that are able to bring him news from "the other worlds». In this con text the image of the bird may symbolize the voyage to the other world that Odin or the shaman can achieve through a transformation in which he or she takes on the shape of a bird and transgresses the boundary between the !iving and the dead. However, also the fish motif can be understood in this con text, because the fish like the snake in a shamanistic cosmology is a symbol of the voyage to the "underworld». Moreover, both the fish and the snake are mentioned among the different animals that Odin is known to change himself into. Yet, the snake is a much more common symbol than the fish in the Scandinavian Merovingian period and the image of the snake appears among others on bird brooches in the form of interlaced snake like ribbons. It can therefore be argued that the snake gradually replaces the fish and is constituted as an Odin-related symbol in the Merovingian period, and that the combination or merging of the different Odin-related animals, i.e. birds, fishes and snakes, in one and the same shape symbolizes the powerful abilities of transformation that this god possesses.
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