386. AN IMAL 1/ EA/J, from the Oseberg Ship-Burial. c. 825 A.U.

Wood, height c. 5" (12. 7 em). University Museum of National Antiquities, Oslo

fusion ol' its repertory of forms . During the Dark Ages, howe\er, th ese f(mns migra ted not only in th e geographic sense
but also technicall y a nd artisticall y, into wood , ston e. and
even manuscript illumina tion .
\Voodcn spedmens, as we mi ght expect, h ave not sur\ivcd in large numbers; most of them com e from Scandinavia. where th e a nimal style fl ouri shed longer than an ywhere
else. The sple ndid a nim al head in fi gure 386, or the early
ninth century, is th e terminal or a post that was round , alon g
wi th mu c h other eq uipment , in a buried Viking ship at Oseherg in sou th e rn orway. Like th e motifs on th e Sutton Hoo
purse cme r, it shows a pecu li a rly composite qualit y: th e basic shape or the h ead is surprisingl y realisti c, as arc certain
details ( teeth, gum s, nostrils ), hut the surface has been
spun over with interl aci n g and geom e tric patte rns that betray their de rivation from me talwork . Snarlin g monsters
sul:h as this used to rise from th e prows or Viking sh ips, e ndowin g the m \\'ith the c ha rac ter or m ythical sea dra gons.

llibc rno-Saxon St yle

The earlies t C hristian \\'Orks of art th a t were mad e north of
the Alps also reflected the pagan Germanic r ersion of' the
a nimal style. In order to understand how th ey ca me to be
produced. ho\\e\er, \\'L' must first acqu aint ourseh-es with
the important roll' played bv th e Irish (I Jihe rnians ). who,
duriug th e Dark ,\ ~.;es, ass um ed th e s piritu al and cu ltural
leadl'rshrp of \\estern Europe. The period G00- 800 .u> descncs. iniaL! , to lw ca lled the Colden Age of Irela nd . Unlike
thcrr En~.;li-;h neighbors. the Irish lr ad neve r been part or th e
Homan Empire ; thus the missionaries who carried the Cos pel to them lrom En gla nd ill thl' firth cen tury li.nmd a Celti c
sou<ty entmlv barbarian bv Homan standards. Tlw Iri sh
r<'ac!JJy actt'ptcd Clrri-.uanitv. \\hich brought thl'lll into coil tal t \\ rth \lcdit<'narwan uv ihzation . hut they drd not be-

H I \HI \ \II./ J/1-.\ If

\1{ I

com e Rome-oriented . Rath er, th ey adapted what they had

received in a spirit of vigoro us local independence.
The in stitutional fram ework of th e Roman C hurch, bein g
esse ntially urban , was ill-s uited to th e rural c harac ter of
Irish life. Irish C hristians preferred to follow th e example of
the dese rt saints of Egypt and th e Near East who had left the
tempta tions of th e city to seck spiritual perfection in th e solitud e of th e wilderness. Groups of such hermits, sharing a
common ideal of ascetic discipline, had founded the earliest
monas te ries. By the fifth century, monas teries had spread as
far north as western Britain , but only in Ireland did monasticism take over th e leadership of th e C hurc h from th e bishops. Irish monasteries. unlike their Egyptian prototypes,
soon became scats of learnin g and the arts ; th ey also developed a missionary fervor that sent Iri sh monks to preach to
th e h eath en and to found monasteries in northern Britai n as
well as on th e Eu ropea n mainland , from Poitiers to Vienna.
These I rishm c n not only speeded th e conversion to C hristianit y of Scot land, north ern France, the Net he rl a nds, and
Germ a n y, they also established th e monastery as a c ultural
center throu ghout the Europea n co untryside. Although
th eir Contine ntal foundations we re ta ke n over bef()re lon g
by the monks of the Benedictine mdcr, who were advancing
north from Italy during th e seventh and eighth centuries,
Irish influe nce was to he !Cit within medieval civili za tion lor
se\eral hundred years to come.
MANUSC IUPTS. In order to s pread the Gospel, the Iii s h
monast e ri es had to produce copies or th e Bible and other
C hri stia n books in large numbe rs. Their writin g workshops
( scriptoria ) also became centers of artis ti c e nd eavor, lc>r a
manusc ript co ntainin g th e Word of Cod was looked upon as
a sacred object whose visual bea ut y should rell ect the importance ol' its co nt e nts. lnsh monks must h ave known Ear-