Jonas Lau Markussen

The Porsgrunn Brooch

Reconstruction illustration of the bronze Urnes style openwork brooch from Porsgrunn, Norway.

 

The brooch displays the Great Beast motif: a larger animal intertwined by a lesser serpent, which is an extremely common motif in the Urnes style.

 

Similar brooches with the exact same composition have been found elsewhere.

 

Though the overall design of the brooch is well preserved, details in this illustration have been reconstructed. The foot of the great beast is based on similar motifs decorating numerous Swedish runestones as well as other Urnes brooches of similar designs, and the head of the serpent is in large based on the brooch from Tröllaskógur, Iceland.

 

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Porsgrunn, Telemark, Norway
Universitetets Oldsaksamling (The University’s Collection of National Antiquities)
C28696

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