Gold Bracteates

November 11, 2020

Article

| Germanic

The Anatomy of Germanic Art

Introduction
Early Animal Style
Style I
- Gold Bracteates
Style II/B
- Gold Foil Figures
- Helmet Plates
Style II/C
Style II/D
- Further Figurative Motifs

The Anatomy of Viking Art

The Anatomy of Gold Bracteates

c. 450 – 550

Motifs

A-bracteates: a male human head (C).
B-bracteates: one or more human figures juxtaposed with one or more animals (A, B).
C-bracteates: a rider in the shape of a large male human head on top of an animal (E).
D-bracteates: S-shaped ribbon-animal (D)

Gold Bracteates

Gold bracteates are round gold pendants usually worn as part of a necklace with several pieces, either separated by pearls or knots or hung from loops or short chains.

Manufacture

The bracteates were stamped by dies with negative relief, as opposed to the later gold foil figures, which were made using punches. The gold used to produce the bracteates came from the Roman Empire in the form of coins, primarily solidi, which were of high value.

Function

The function of the bracteates was multifaceted. They were simultaneously valuable jewellery, status-giving symbols of the elite, Nordic identity markers in relation to the outside world, expensive gifts obligating the recipient to reciprocate, suitable objects for sacrifice and protective amulets. The bracteates’ depiction overwhelmingly focuses on a human figure transgressing the boundaries between human and animal form and often transcending the norms of gender roles. This produces a powerful amuletic image of liminality with transformative power which is distributed to its bearers. Runic formula words like ‘alu’, ‘laþu’, and ‘laukaR’ (all words carrying an inherent meaning of magical invocation) are often featured as part of the composition, emphasising the amuletic function of the bracteates.

Inspiration

Roman coins and medallions with imperial portraits directly inspire the bracteates. Some bracteates even have letter inscriptions where the Roman original can be clearly recognised. The Scandinavians who created the images on the bracteates understood essential features of Roman iconography. The qualified adaptation of the pictorial world of the Roman coins into their Nordic equivalent is crafted deliberately and selectively, and the Scandinavians have transformed the motifs and imbued them with distinct meaning in the process. Notably, the Roman emperors’ short hair is quickly replaced by artful long-haired hairstyles on the bracteates. Long hair was not prevalent in earlier nor later Scandinavian male depictions and might have been a ruling symbol in the Nordic regions inspired by the hairstyle of contemporary long-haired Merovingian princes.

Dating

It is possible to date the bracteates fairly accurately in relation to their Roman coin models and Scandinavian style. The fact that the bracteates’ motifs are directly derived from Roman coins and finds of several hoards containing Scandinavian bracteates, as well as Roman coins, creates good conditions for dating. The gold bracteates furthermore appear simultaneously with Style I and disappear again with the transition of Style I into Style II/B, and their stylistic features fit squarely into the framework of Style I.

Distribution

The gold bracteates are clearly a product of the aristocratic elite of Scandinavia. They gather in areas with a centre function, like Gudme and Ribe. The bracteates are probably found mainly in the places where they are produced. Bracteates must have been produced both in England and on the continent. However, bracteates from the English finds are either imported or imitations of the Nordic ones.

Traditional Classifications

A-bracteates — Human Head

A-bracteates feature a human head, occasionally accompanied by a bird or other animals. The motif of the A-bracteates is modelled on the profile effigies of the Roman emperor in civilian clothes depicted on Roman coins. Features such as the imperial cloak, the emperor’s lifted hand, the round imperial brooch, and especially the imperial diadem are recognisable in the Scandinavian version. Despite their Roman model, it is, however, not the Roman emperor who’s depicted on the A-bracteates. It is, instead, traditionally interpreted as a figure with Odinic features. However, no particular attributes indicate that the figure is, in fact, Odin or should be understood as such.

B-bracteates — Human Figure

B-bracteates feature one or more human figures, often accompanied by birds and other animals. The composition of the B-bracteates varies, but two noteworthy depictions are one with three human figures and one with an animal biting the hand of a human figure. The Trideity-bracteates (‘Drei-Götter-Brakteaten’) featuring three human figures have been interpreted as depicting the Nordic myth of the Death of Balder. Balder supposedly stands in the centre with the deadly arrow in his chest, surrounded by Odin and Loki. The weapons used to throw at Balder, who was thought invincible, are scattered around him. However, this is not the only possible interpretation, or even the most likely, as there are no clear indications that this is, in fact, the scene from the mythology. None of the figures have unmistakable attributes, and the scene is generally too ambiguous to connect it to any specific mythological scene. The composition is probably created by combining Roman motifs of ‘Victoria crowning the emperor’ and ‘Mars Ultor’, depicting Mars with a downward-facing spear and dressed in a coat of arms and a skirt similar to the emperor’s. The other notable type of B-bracteate motif depicts a human figure with their hand in the mouth of an animal with sharp teeth. This has been interpreted to supposedly depict another Nordic myth, in which the god Týr sacrifices his right hand in the mouth of the Wolf Fenrir to bind the beast, thus preventing or postponing Ragnarök. But again, this is probably reading too much into the imagery. The bracteates collectively feature various human-animal interactions with one or more wolf-like beasts and birds. So, the interpretation should probably be much more nuanced considering the whole spectrum of bracteate imagery. Looking at the motifs of the later helmet plates reveals that human-beast interactions might have a more complex meaning connected to the realm of elite warriors with imagery of berserkers and Odin figures.

C-bracteates — Rider

C-bracteates feature a rider in the shape of a disproportionately sizeable human head on top of a four-legged animal. The human head is equivalent to the ones depicted on the A-bracteates. Typically, a bird is set in front of the face, and other animals also occur. In line with the similar motif on the A-bracteates, this has traditionally been interpreted as Odin, either on his horse Sleipnir or in the act of healing Balder’s wounded horse as described in the Merseburg II Formula. However, there are no obvious indications that this is meant to be understood as Odin. It is not even clear if the animal is a horse, as it is, for example, sometimes depicted with what looks like horns.

D-bracteates — Animal

D-bracteates feature a stylised S-shaped ribbon animal intertwined by its S-shaped front and hind leg. Humanoid figures and details occur.

Understanding the Imagery

To understand the meaning of Scandinavian art in the Germanic Iron Age and the bracteates’ imagery, it’s essential to recognise the fundamental cultural difference in image production between Scandinavia and Rome, superbly exemplified by the Scandinavian appropriation of the Roman medallions in the gold bracteates. The Roman medallions present images of idealised bodies, symbolising the emperor’s totalitarian and inviolable power. In contrast, the bodies in the Scandinavian imagery of the bracteates and the animal ornament are often fragmented, open-ended, hollow or permeable, and fundamentally unstable in their perpetual cyclical changeability. The images of bodies in bracteates transcend the normative grammar of the material body, producing an image of a powerful moment where the body’s boundaries are transgressed through interaction with animals and birds in alternative body collectives or where the body’s senses are expanded in new forms of experience. They are intentionally ambiguous by visually juxtaposing mutually exclusive phenomena. Through paradoxical imagery, they manifest immaterial notions of an extended nature or parallel reality. They capture, or rather create, precisely that potent moment when the boundaries of this world expand or explode. Thus, with the Scandinavian bracteates, Roman images of imperial power are appropriated and transformed into Scandinavian images of amuletic power. Five visual strategies for the bracteates’ image production are especially characteristic:

Shapeshifting

The integrity of the bodies presented is often ambiguous or dissolving, resulting in images of limbs reaching through bodies, hatching repeating across bodies, and difficulty identifying which body parts belong to whom. Split representation also occurs when a bird mirrors a man’s face, creating a third face seen in front. This bodily ambivalence and the human-animal body collectives create a visual state of shape-shifting.

Liminality

The visual openness and disintegration of bodies also create images reminiscent of the practices of body fragmentation represented in the burial customs. It’s not unusual to see body parts switched with animal limbs or limbs of other individuals, creating bodies transcending the individual. The body was clearly perceived as modular, and the threshold of death was a pregnant moment for reconfiguration, seemingly often also visualised in the bracteates.

Gender Ambiguity

Ritual transgression of social gender boundaries in the otherwise distinctly heteronormative society was highly powerful. Genitals and other markers of multiple genders in the same figure are used to evoke a hyper-gender. However, the use of biological gender markers is also used to evoke an expansion of the senses or to underline the connection between the mouth and genitals.

Kinetic Imagery

The bracteate’s visual elements move in and out of each other in perpetual motion, and the imagery works to destabilise rather than clarify. Therefore, it must be understood as an animated presence instead of a representation. The bracteates produce movement and transformation in their images, a transformative power which is distributed to their bearers and surroundings.

Oral Power

The images of the bracteates point to oral intake and excretion as distributing power. Mouths and tongues connect bodies and limbs, materialise the spirit and thematise the pronunciation of words as a flowing stream. In mythology, the art of poetry is often equated to a flowing liquid. In the bracteates’ imagery, the thumb and hand are frequently also brought to the mouth in a gesture reminiscent of drinking from a cup.

Examples

Examples on Gelmir.com →

A list of examples with photos, info and links to sources.

Dateable

c. 425-474 (coins)

Litterature

Sorte Muld, 2008.

Axboe, Morten, 2007. Brakteatstudier.

Gold Bracteates

November 11, 2020

The Anatomy of Germanic Art

The Anatomy of Gold Bracteates

Motifs

Gold Bracteates

Manufacture

Function

Inspiration

Dating

Distribution

Traditional Classifications

A-bracteates — Human Head

B-bracteates — Human Figure

C-bracteates — Rider

D-bracteates — Animal

Understanding the Imagery

Shapeshifting

Liminality

Gender Ambiguity

Kinetic Imagery

Oral Power

Examples

Dateable

Undateable

Litterature

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