Thursday, December 16, 2010

Rock carving fragments/Viking comic

A couple of new fragments, which I would call 'Viking comics', as they show moving men and animals in action ...

Although I'm not quite sure if this first motif really is a Viking one ... With no doubth it shows reindeers, and this kind of carving is more likely to be of Sami origin - there are similar Sami pictures in the book 'People of Eight Seasons' by Ernst Manker, which I once borrowed at the Stockholm City Library. (More about the Sami people in this earlier posting.)


When visiting Sweden in spring, I went to the Historical Museum in Stockholm with my drawing pad and jotted down everything which caught my eye in this pictural respect.

At the museum shop there were some fabric prints too, and I think these sheep might be influenced by those prints ...


As far as I know, this last one is really a genuine rock carving found in the county of Bohuslän (Sweden), at Tegneby, Tanum:


The embroidery technique itself is not very spectacular - I just used the common basic ones in order to keep it as simple as possible and let the graphics of these ancient, unknown artists talk for themselves.

(My friend Elizabeth/Landanna wrote in her blog today that she'll be posting about 'helleristningar' (rock carvings) tomorrow or during the weekend - so why don't you pop over and have a look - I will for sure!)

(German summary: Drei ganz simple Fragmente, aus dem Bilderschatz der skandinavischen Geschichte - die dargestellten Tiere und Menschen, alle in Bewegung, lassen mich fast an ein Comic strip denken ...)

4 comments:

Elizabeth said...

They look so sweet especially the sheep. Viking comic what a great name. The colors you used are very appealing, so warm and open.

Thanks for mentioning my post which will be published on friday.

Manya Maratou said...

I do really really like these, there is so much movement in them. are they going to be a book?

julochka said...

your helleristninger are just LOVELY! i've painted some of those little deer on stones, but i've not embroidered any.

so inspiring! thank you!
xox,
/julie

Anneli/Bockfilz said...

Thank you for commenting, girls!

@ Manya: No, I haven't thought of a book yet - but it might be an idea to follow up ... Until now I've just glued all of the fragments into a big photo album, which I happened to have at home.