1906] 



The cruciform brooches of Norway. 



29 



y^Sh: 



m 



the whole development of this type, and to us it is of special im- 

 portance, because it will help us in some degree to distinguish between 

 the forms characteristic of the different districts. The transformation 

 first took place in Norway and Sweden, and probably earlier and 

 more generally in the Eastern parts of the Peninsula than in the 

 Western ones; in England it was partly due to influences from 

 Western Norway. 



From a great number of transition forms it is seen that this 

 change began as a practical 

 improvement of the brooch. 

 At the stage where we left 

 the common development of the 

 type, the two knobs were pla- 

 ced upon the ends of the axis 

 of the spring-coil with a little 

 groove in their inner side to 

 keep the edge of the plate. 

 The edges of the plate are 

 sharpened for this purpose, and 

 consequently the middle part 

 of it is a little eie våte d from 

 the edges, a detail which is 

 also often marked by the orna- 

 mentation of the plate (fig. 

 35). ] ) But this arrangement 

 is not without difiiculties, the 

 axis coming now too close to 

 the underside of the plate to 

 give sufficient ro om between 

 them for passing the string 

 which forms the spring-coil. 

 The difficulty is removed in 

 different ways; in Denmark 

 by bending the plate a little 



and thus making the underside of the plate sufficient concave to 

 give place for the spring-coil, even when the edges are touching 

 the knobs; this arrangement is also the most common one in Eng- 

 land. In Norway and Sweden the plate was kept straight, but the 



<■&■. 



Fig. 36. Vi 



!) Aak,. Gryten pgd. Romsdalen. C. 6200. Ab. 1872. p. 94, pl. II, flg. 12. 



