1902 Norman Architecture 229 



attention to the arch separating the choir from the nave. 

 These arches are also semicircular throughout the whole of 

 the Norman period. The earliest chancel arches were 

 generally plain; and, if the zigzag ornament was used 

 before 1150 or 1160, it was of a flat character, free from 

 hollows and without " undercutting," and divided from the 

 plain surface by mere notches. In the earlier Norman 

 work mouldings on the arch and elsewhere are generally 

 square in section, or with the sharp edge sloped or bevelled 

 off, or chamfered. Later on roll -mouldings were cut on 

 the edges — i.e., the sharp edges were rounded instead of 

 being chamfered. Still later on, the number of such rolls 

 was increased, but without affecting the general squareness 

 of section of the groups of mouldings as a whole, there- 

 fore without altering the general effect of light and shade 

 from a distance. Enriched mouldings or ornaments include 

 the chevron or zigzag, the square or round billet, the sunk 

 star, the hatch, the cable, the lozenge, the chain, the nail- 

 head, &c. The commonest of these was the zigzag. In 

 very early Norman work it was simply incised or in low 

 relief. An abundance of zigzag simple or complex is nearly 

 always a sign of late Norman work, and in late Norman 

 work of the reign of Henry II. or perhaps of King Stephen. 

 The Knights Templars' Church at Garway, Herefordshire, 

 has a handsome chancel arch of this late period.^ 



In conclusion, let me ask what suggested the zigzag? 

 Some have hinted that the zigzag is a modified form of the 

 undulated moulding; but I rather feel inclined to think that 

 the zigzag was suggested by the zigzag flashes of the light- 

 ning. As the semicircular arch represents the sky above, 

 the star mouldings the shiny orbs, so the zigzags represent 

 the lightning^ or light itself. 



^ A special article on this interesting church (illustrated) will appear later. — Ed. 



^ A tolerably convincing proof that the ancients associated the snake with sun 

 or fire is seen in a bronze brooch found a few years ago on excavating the site 

 of a Roman camp on the Saalberg, not far from Frankfort-on-the-Main : it is 

 now in the Kursaal Museum at Homburg. 



