Profile 4

June 16, 2021

Article

| Runestones

In the same series:

The Runestone Styles

The Styles

The Stones

Pr 4

c. 1070 – 1100

Characterisation of the style

As defined by Anne-Sofie Gräslund

Overall impression

Elegant and graceful through the elongated sweeping bow lines. Straight lines almost never occur. Pr 4 introduces the feeling of classical Urnes style.

Head

Strongly elongated, often softly bent and with a pronounced step down in the line from head to neck.

Eye

Elongated, almond-shaped, very large in proportion to the head, almost filling up the head and following its outline. Parallelism between the line of the head and that of the eye was obviously desirable. However, in a few cases, the Pr 4 head lacks an eye.

Ear

Very low set and markedly bent backwards, sometimes in the shape of a slightly bent, pointed flap. Neck crests occur frequently, often long and thin in big loops, sometimes transformed into figure-of-eight shapes.

Mouth

Normally closed. The lower lip is short and straight, ending in a slight roll downwards, corresponding to the lip lappet. The nose tip is straight or only slightly rolled up, lip lappet only downwards.

Feet

Set at the end of long, angulated legs with a distinct hock, normally rather tight with two straight toes and a rounded spur. The angle between leg and foot has the form of a hook.

Tail

The roll is not symmetrical but consists of a large thick circle and a thin tail, sometimes split up with a downward tendril elongated into an elegant loop. The tail often has a hock typical for the Urnes style. The rune animal ends either in a rolled up tail or in a foot.

Additional snakes

Frequent in large, loose loops, often figure-of-eight shaped.

Layout

Generally, one rune animal along the edge with over-crossing. Angles or knees occur in the lower part of the carving where head piece and tail piece meet. Figure-of-eight-shaped layout is common, sometimes with an extra loop added to the side at the bottom.

Union Knot

Occur.

Cross