Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1967, Page 20

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ÁRBÚK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
decoration stands out clearly and has hardly suffered any damage, but the other
side is more or less rotten because it has been in direct contact with the turf cover-
ing of the house.
Figs. 3—4 clearly show the decoration of the plank. In it there are certainly no
zoomorphic elements. Below there is a pattern of interlaced bands (only partly
preserved), terminating at the top with two long curved leaves, turnig their
spiralled ends towards each other and leaving between them a heart-shaped un-
decorated field. Above this there is a strange figure consisting of a curved stem
with two horizontal branches on one side. This figure is strikingly reminiscent of
a rune or owner’s mark, but the present author interprets it as an indigenous part
of the decorative design. The whole design as here described is drawn on, or rather
cut into, the surface of the wood with simple but very resolute lines with a v-section.
As already stated the design is placed on the lower end of the panel, and from it
an elevated stem extends upwards along the middle of the panel, ending at the
top in a way which, owing to damage, is not quite clear now. It should be noted
that the edges of the elevated stem as well as those of the plank itself are pro-
vided with decorative mouldings performed with a scraper.
The ornamentation of the plank allows us to group it with the monuments of
the Ringerike style. Hence the plank should be dated, on stylistic grounds, not far
from the middle of the llth century. There is clearly a close relationship between
the Hólar plank and the planks from the farm Möðrufell in the same district, relics
which are previously very well known to scholars. One might indeed be tempted to
suggest that our Hólar plank was carved by the same hand as the Möðrufell ones
and even that it originally was a part of the same building as they. This latter
suggestion, however, could hardly be maintained, as, in spite of all similarities, there
is an unmistakable difference in the performance of the decoration. The Hólar design
is carved with much stronger lines than the decoration on the Möðrufell planks,
and the mouldings on the edges are of a different kind from those noticed on the
latter. This would of course not exclude the possibility that both works could be
ascribed to the same master, but it is just as likely that we here have two different
craftsmen working in the same style at approximately the same time in the same
district. However this may be, the Hólar plank adds something new and is a valuable
contribution to our very limited evidence of decorative woodcarving on a large
scale in the llth century.
The discoverer of the Hólar plank, Mr. Hörður Ágústsson, is convinced that the
plank was (as well as the Möðrufell planks) a part of the panelling of an early
church rather than a secular building. This is a point of great interest and will be
discussed later by Mr. Ágústsson in another context. The present author declares
himself in favour of the theory.