1906] The cruciform brooches of Norway. 3^ 



construction of the cruciform brooches in Norway and Sweden ; the 

 short spring-coil, nearly always made of iron, is constantly pre- 

 served, 1 ) but being no more visible and taking no part in the develop- 

 ment of the form, it will not be especially mentioned in the fol- 

 lowing description. The development being now purely ornamental,. 

 it presents at the first glance a lot of irregular variations of all the 

 parts of the brooches, from which it should seem impossible to make 

 out a general direction of the changes. As it would be inconvenient 

 too, for this purpose to count here all the varieties found in the 

 Eastern parts of the Peninsula, I have trietl to tind a classification 

 living a general view of the varieties most commonly used in the 

 district. As the basis for this classification I have chosen the 

 joot of the brooches, this part of them showing differences better 

 marked out than either the bow or the upper part of them. It is 

 very natural that it should be so ; the cross-like upper part having 

 already from the prototype a characteristic form to which very little 

 could be added, and the bow by its practical destination being 

 nearly excluded from further ornamental changes, the imagination of 

 the workman hacl to work chiefly upon the foot, originally plain 

 and narrow, as a space especially reserved for decoration. I have 

 tried, therefore, from a survey of the variations of the foot to esta- 

 blish a number of different series, for the most part contemporary 

 with each other. As mentioned, I do not treat the form of the animal- 

 head from an ornamental point of view; it will be studied only, 

 as an element taking part in the form, as far as regards the diffe- 

 rences which it produced in the building of the foot. One more 



*) Upon this point, as commonly respecting the cruciform brooches, dr. 

 Hildebrand has the best observations. A pronouncement of dr. Ekhopjp that the 

 late cruciform brooches have no spring-coil and no axis (in „Bohuslens och 

 Goteborgs fornminnen och historia," vol. V, p. 359) must be referred to some 

 rare specimens and ought not to be regarded as a rule. Professor Gdstafson 

 has accidentally expressed a similar opinion (Ab. 1894, p. 172, no. 67 b) probably 

 induced by the authority of dr. Ekhoff. I have observed very fe w cruciform. 

 brooches having no spring-coil, though it is sometimes difficult to make it out, 

 this part being commonly of iron and consequently worse corroded and dama^ed 

 than the rest of the brooch. The brooches which have really no spring-coil, 

 generally belong to the earlier forms, where this peculiarity must be regarded as 

 an imitation of Roman forms. Of younger specimens may be noted a brooch 

 from Sweden, illustrated in Månadsblad, 1898—99, p. 146, and another from 

 Jutland (Copenhagen Museum, 25502), where the double hinge indicates that 

 there has been no spring-coil. 



