The Viking Aesthetic mainly focuses on the art that Vikings bore on their boats, weapons, and general possessions like furniture, buildings, and graves. There is a main theme of organic forms, being inspired by nature and animals as well as their own runic languages.

Vikings being those from Scandinavia from the late 8th to 11th centuries who raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of mostly Northern Europe were mainly responsible for this aesthetic. Being from this part of the world at this specific time, influences can be drawn from Celtic, Germanic, and Romanesque art to develop this style. Due to the fact that the Vikings would apply this art to their everyday belongings, they usually utilized durable materials such as metal, stone, bone, ivory, as well as textiles.

This aesthetic can be broken into 6 different styles: Oseberg, Borre, Jellinge, Mammen, Ringerike, and Urnes.

Oseberg (780-850 AD) taking its name from a ship, a longship that was highly decorated and discovered near a farm in Norway, is the initial style that is considered to be Viking art. The ship itself, along with many wooden objects inside, were highly decorated in an animal interlace style featuring “Gripping Beasts” and “Ribbon-Animals.”

Detail from the Oseberg longship (1)

Borre (840-970 AD) named after harness mounts recovered in the village of Borre, Norway, expands upon the Oseberg style and emphasizes geometric interlace patterns and zoomorphic motifs in a more circular fashion. This style is characteristically composed of tight, closed forms of these patterns.

Borre Style Composition (2)

To contrast, the Jellinge style (900 – 1000 AD) which bridges the Borre and later Mammen styles, is characterized by ribbon and band-shaped animal motifs and was often more open compared to the Borre style.

Grom’s Cup from Jelling, Denmark (3)

The Mammen style (late 10th century), derived from a silver axe head, is very similar to the Jellinge and Borre Styles but has more of an emphasis on a centerpiece as opposed to a pattern throughout.

Silver axe head from Mammen, Denmark (4)

The Ringerike style (early  11th century ) is well depicted in a reddish sandstone and is a larger representation of the same kind of work but is differentiated from the Mammen style due to its axial symmetry which deemphasizes the focus.

The Vang Stone from Oppland (5)

Lastly, the Urnes style (11th to 12 century ) is characterized by similar skinny and stylized animals interwoven into patterns. The animal heads are usually depicted as having slender eyes and the appendages are usually upwardly curled towards the noses and the necks.

Detail from a carved wooden door (6)

Additionally, this aesthetic includes some usage of runes, the alphabet the Vikings commonly used. They would use runes to emphasize the importance of something, carving them into stones to commemorate ancestors and mark graves, and were sometimes used for protection from the supernatural.

Runic Inscription in Sweden (7)

Sources:

(1) https://norsespirit.com/blogs/norse_viking_blog/viking-art-styles-a-historical-guide

(2)Jonas Lau Markussen, 2016, https://jonaslaumarkussen.com/borrestyle/

(3) http://viking.archeurope.com/art/viking-art-styles/jellinge/

(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_art#/media/File:Mammen-axt.gif

(5) https://scandinavianhistory.org/2024/09/09/rune-stones-of-scandinavia/

(6) http://viking.archeurope.com/art/viking-art-styles/urnes/

(7) A Rune Diary, Scott Mohnkern, 2009

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_art

4 Comments. Leave new

  • Tyler L'hotta
    January 28, 2025 8:12 pm

    I personally find the Viking aesthetic to be very compelling, I enjoyed learning about the complex and organic shapes and where they were used. I had never before connected that many of the patterns consisted of animals or beasts. It would be interesting to know what the most common animals were and what significance they may have had!

    • Garrett Jimenez
      January 28, 2025 9:42 pm

      When researching what types of animals were commonly used, unfortunately not much came up, with most of the content being the same regurgitated information. From what I could gather, the animals used were prominent around them and some came from folklore such as Fenrir the wolf. But common animals were wolves, bears, horses, goats, and boars.

  • I really liked the wide variety of imagery that you used on lots of different mediums to show the applications of the Viking aesthetic. One suggestion I have would be to include more examples of Viking clothing, as that is one of the big things I think of when I think of Vikings.

    • Garrett Jimenez
      January 28, 2025 9:48 pm

      I agree then when you think of Vikings you think about what they were wearing. However, after doing some research I believe pop culture and cinema have skewed our perception of their clothing and isn’t very accurate. They usually wore basic tunics made out of wool and were very covered up being from the North. They sometimes wear brooches and other jewelry that has the same sort of engravings as shown above.

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