Haakon Schetelig. [No. 8 



rated very rapidly which is quite natural as the form was first 

 introduced when the type was already declining towards the end 

 of its history in Scandinavia; but the final decline went on even 

 faster with respect to a hybrid variety, as the one before us, than 

 was the case with the pure forms. An example, showing this 

 process, is given in the brooch fig. 110 1 ) where the general form 

 is quite well preserved, while the head-plate with the knobs has 

 lost all of distinct form and moulding. The degeneration is also 

 easily traceable in the not good proportions observed in most of 

 these brooches, though the corruption of the proportions may in 

 some degree be attributed to the introduction of foreign elements ; 

 as that the bow, when provided with a square top-plate, is made 

 broad and flat to suit this novelty. But on the whole the very 

 rapid decline of these brooches is best explained by the missing of 

 a fixed and conventional form, the appearance of which svas pre- 

 vented by the circumstance that they were not made in any con- 

 siderable number. — Most of these brooches are of small dimensions, 



Fiff. 105. 



and the one fig. 106 is one of the largest specimens found; an 

 exception is seen only in the enormous brooch fig. 114 beloAV, which 

 is also in other respects not a little different from the normal form 

 of this series. 



As already mentioned this form is confined to the Scandinavian 

 Peninsula; it is known neither from England nor from Denmark, 

 a fact which, together with the scarce appearance of it, indicates 

 that it was never much in vogue. Certainly it was a late form of 

 hybrid origin and consequently a form without the organic life 

 capable of producing a long series of descendants. As its only 

 contribution to the main development of the type may be counted 

 the fact that in some cruciform brooches — in other respects not 

 of the sort treated nere — the bow has got a top-plate which is 

 probably borrowed from here. 2 ) 



1 ) See foot-note 2 pag. 87. 



2 ) See fig. 153 below. Another example is C. 17475. Ab. 1893, p. 107. 

 Two Swedish brooches (Stockholm Museum 2549 and 9589 : 38) show the same 

 peculiarity. 



