Stave Church Portals

In 12th century Norway the Gothic style began to overtake the architecture and artistry in the creation of stave church portals. After Christianity swept through Norway new styles and motifs were brought along and adapted by craftsmen, particularly woodcarvers who incorporated them into everything from furniture to stave churches. But in many ways tradition outweighed renovations, particularly in animal motifs. When exploring the portals of Gothic Viking buildings one continued motifs speaks with a unique significance. This paper will determine the significance of the appearance of dragons on the Hylestad stave church portal by considering the meaning of the motifs on the portal, the role of dragons in Viking culture, and the affect the iconography of the particular portal has on those who pass through it.
The Hylestad is a Norwegian Gothic stave church built in the late 12th, early 13th century. The panels of the portal are estimated to have been built around 1175 but shows a strong influence from the ornate Romanesque style. The Hylestad church was dismantled in 1664 with only the doors surviving. In the portal of the church there are seven scenes carved on the two panels from the Sigurd legend. The right panel
The legend of Sigurd slaying Fafnir is considered a heathen legend, which is odd since it is carved into the doors of a church. When Christianity came to Norway the construction of the stave church became highly popular. Carved doors depicting a variety of scenes varying from the new religion to old traditions lay within the portals of these churches. Very few doors remain intact today and those that do often depict the “pre-Christian Norse legend” Sigurd, the slayer of the dragon Fafnir. Sigurd’s placement on the doors of stave churches held a “magico-religious intent”, guarding against the evil, both new and old world, that lie outside the ornate, sacred