Gullgubber
Encyclopedia
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
) are art-objects, amulets, or offerings found in Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
and dating to early medieval times. They consist of thin pieces of beaten gold (occasionally silver), usually between 1 and 2 sq. cm. in size, usually stamped with a motif, and are the oldest examples of toreutics
Toreutics
Toreutics is a term, relatively rare in English, for artistic metalworking, by hammering gold or silver , engraving, Repoussé and chasing to form minute detailed reliefs or small engraved patterns. Toreutics can include metal-engraving - forward-pressure linear metal removal with a...
in Northern Europe.
The word gullgubbe means "little old man of gold" and is taken from a report published in 1791 by Nils Henrik Sjöborg, in which he said that villagers in Ravlunda, Scania
Scania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
who found them in the dunes called them guldgubbar.
Approximately 3,000 gullgubber have been found, from approximately 30 sites in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, and the greatest number in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. No fewer than 2,350 were found at the settlement of Sorte Muld on the Danish island of Bornholm
Bornholm
Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...
, while over 100 were found at Lundeborg, near Gudme
Gudme
Gudme is a town in central Denmark with a population of 935 , located in Svendborg municipality on the island of Funen in Region of Southern Denmark. Until January 1, 2007, it was the site of the municipal council of the now former Gudme municipality.Gudme was an important site during the Iron Age...
on the Danish island of Funen
Funen
Funen , with a size of 2,984 km² , is the third-largest island of Denmark following Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy, and the 163rd largest island of the world. Funen is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 454,358 inhabitants . The main city is Odense, connected to the...
, and most recently 122 at Uppåkra
Uppåkra
Uppåkra is a village located five kilometres south of Lund in Scania in southernmost Sweden.-History:Uppåkra was situated on the ancient main road between Trelleborg and Helsingborg in what was to become the Danish kingdom. The original foundation of Uppåkra is dated to the first century AD,...
, Scania
Scania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
, Sweden. Relatively few gullgubber have so far been found in Norway, although 19 were found during excavations at Vingrom
Vingrom
Vingrom is a village in the municipality of Lillehammer, Norway, located just north of the Gjøvik border by the lake Mjøsa. Vingrom has a population of 524....
church in Oppland
Oppland
is a county in Norway, bordering Sør-Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The county administration is in Lillehammer. Oppland is, together with Hedmark, one of the only two landlocked counties of Norway....
between 2003 and 2005, and the distribution of finds may be affected by modern circumstances as much as the political situation at the time they were laid down.
They date to the late Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
, from the end of the Migration Age to the early Viking Age
Viking Age
Viking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
, particularly what is referred to in Norway as the Merovingian era, in Sweden as the Vendel era
Vendel era
In Swedish prehistory, the Vendel era is the name given to a part of the Germanic Iron Age ....
, from 550 to about 800, but can be hard to date because they are often found in contexts that do not establish date. It seems likely that they replaced bracteate
Bracteate
A bracteate is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age...
s, which require far more metal, after obtaining gold from the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
became difficult.
Iconography and purpose
Many of the gullgubber that have been found in Norway and Sweden depict a man and a woman facing each other, sometimes embracing, sometimes with a branch or a tree visible between them. Sometimes the figures' knees are bent and they may be dancing. They are almost always clothed, with the clothes generally depicted carefully and more formal than casual. Some have only a single figure, either male or female, or an animal. A few are unstamped cutouts. Sharon Ratke, in her dissertation on the gullgubber, has added a further category of "wraiths" and suggests that they may indicate that some gullgubber were a tribute to the dead or to travellers. She rejects the notion of dancing, interpreting those figures as static and classing them among the wraiths.A common interpretation of the motif of the man and woman on the gullgubber is that it symbolises the sacred marriage
Hieros gamos
Hieros gamos or Hierogamy refers to a sexual ritual that plays out a marriage between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities. It is the harmonization of opposites...
between the Vanir
Vanir
In Norse mythology, the Vanir are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods and are the namesake of the location Vanaheimr . After the Æsir–Vanir War, the Vanir became a subgroup of the Æsir...
-god Freyr
Freyr
Freyr is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with farming, weather and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals"...
and the jötunn Gerðr, which we know of from the Eddic poem Skírnismál
Skírnismál
Skírnismál is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda. It is preserved in the 13th century manuscripts Codex Regius and AM 748 I 4to but may have been originally composed in heathen times...
. Some have interpreted the tree branch as a reference to the grove, Barri, where Gerðr agrees to meet Freyr; others have noted its resemblance to the Garden Angelica
Garden Angelica
Angelica archangelica, commonly known as Garden Angelica, Holy Ghost, Wild Celery, and Norwegian angelica, is a biennial plant from the Apiaceae family Apiaceae family, formerly known as Umbelleferae...
, a plant associated with fertility. The thinking is that the deposition of the gullgubber was intended to ensure fertility, or that it was intended as a depiction of the mythical pair who gave rise to a chieftainly line. From historical sources, for example, we know that the Yngling
Yngling
The Ynglings were the oldest known Scandinavian dynasty. It can refer to the clans of the Scylfings , the semi-legendary royal Swedish clan during the Age of Migrations, with kings such as Eadgils, Onela and Ohthere...
line traced its ancestry to Fjölnir
Fjölnir
In Norse mythology, Fjölnir, Fjölner, Fjolner or Fjolne was a Swedish king of the House of Yngling, at Gamla Uppsala. Fjölnir appears in a semi-mythological context as the son of Freyr and his consort Gerðr...
, son of Gerðr and Freyr.
Recent finds have somewhat changed the view of gullgubber. Almost 2,500 have been found at Sorte Muld, on the Danish island of Bornholm
Bornholm
Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...
, by far the highest number at any site. And in 2000-2004, 122, the second highest number, were found not far away at Uppåkra
Uppåkra
Uppåkra is a village located five kilometres south of Lund in Scania in southernmost Sweden.-History:Uppåkra was situated on the ancient main road between Trelleborg and Helsingborg in what was to become the Danish kingdom. The original foundation of Uppåkra is dated to the first century AD,...
, Scania
Scania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
, Sweden (previously also part of Denmark). Several of those found at the two sites are similar; some were made using the same dies or patrices, and four dies and part of a fifth were found at Uppåkra, which was therefore presumably the point of manufacture for at least some of the Sorte Muld gullgubber. In addition, some gullgubber found at some other sites also show strong similarities to some from Uppåkra, and some from Uppåkra are unusually sharp in their details. At Uppåkra they were found in postholes and wall ditches of a building that is interpreted as a heathen hof
Heathen hofs
Heathen hofs or Germanic pagan temples were the temple buildings of Germanic paganism; there are also a few built for use in modern Germanic neopaganism...
partly on the basis of their presence as votive offerings, which is how they are now generally interpreted.
Recent attempts have been made to interpret the gestures of the couples depicted on gullgubber in terms of medieval sources such as the Sachsenspiegel
Sachsenspiegel
The Sachsenspiegel is the most important law book and legal code of the German Middle Ages. Written ca...
, as denoting betrothal, for example. However, at both Uppåkra and Sorte Muld, the majority of the gullgubber do not depict couples. At Uppåkra, most depict men, a smaller number depict women, and only a few depict couples. Some iconographic features of the single figures - a thumb to the mouth gesture associated with being a seer
Clairvoyance
The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception...
as in representations of the legend of Sigurð, a group of figures with clubs and two others with staffs or sceptres of differing lengths - have been seen as relating to individual Norse
Norse paganism
Norse paganism is the religious traditions of the Norsemen, a Germanic people living in the Nordic countries. Norse paganism is therefore a subset of Germanic paganism, which was practiced in the lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes across most of Northern and Central Europe in the Viking Age...
gods.
Locations of finds
Gullgubber have been found at 42 sites in Norway, Sweden, and in greatest numbers in Denmark. Some of the most notable locations are:- BorgBorg, VestvågøyBorg is a hamlet near Bøstad, Vestvågøy, Norway. It is the location of Lofotr, a living museum presenting on a reconstruction and archeological excavation of a Viking chieftain's village.The area around Borg has many horses, most of which are Nordlandshester....
, LofotenLofotenLofoten is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Though lying within the Arctic Circle, the archipelago experiences one of the world's largest elevated temperature anomalies relative to its high latitude.-Etymology:...
, Norway - BorgeBorge, ØstfoldBorge is a parish and former municipality in Østfold county, Norway.-History:The parish of Borge was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 . The district of Torsnes was separated from Borge as a municipality of its own January 1, 1910. The split left Borge with a population of 6,466...
, ØstfoldØstfoldis a county in southeastern Norway, bordering Akershus and southwestern Sweden , while Buskerud and Vestfold is on the other side of the bay. The seat of the county administration is Sarpsborg, and Fredrikstad is the largest city.Many manufacturing facilities are situated here. Moss and...
, Norway - MæreMæreMære is a village in the municipality of Steinkjer in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located along the European route E6 highway and the Nordlandsbanen railway line, about south of the town of Steinkjer. The village of Sparbu lies about south of Mære. Mære Church is located in this...
church, Nord-TrøndelagNord-Trøndelagis a county constituting the northern part of Trøndelag in Norway. As of 2010, the county had 131,555 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-least populated county. The largest municipalities are Stjørdal, Steinkjer—the county seat, Levanger, Namsos and Verdal, all with between 21,000 and...
, Norway - 9th century, found during excavations in 1968 - VingromVingromVingrom is a village in the municipality of Lillehammer, Norway, located just north of the Gjøvik border by the lake Mjøsa. Vingrom has a population of 524....
church, LillehammerLillehammeris a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was...
, Norway - found during excavations between 2003 and 2005 - Kongsvik, TjeldsundTjeldsundTjeldsund is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Ofoten traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hol i Tjeldsund. Tjeldsund was separated from the municipality of Lødingen in 1909....
, NordlandNordlandis a county in Norway in the North Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Nord-Trøndelag in the south, Norrbottens län in Sweden to the east, Västerbottens län to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The county was formerly known as Nordlandene amt. The county administration is...
, Norway - found in the 1740s - Hauge, KleppKleppKlepp is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The parish of Klep was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 ....
, RogalandRogalandis a county in Western Norway, bordering Hordaland, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. It is the center of the Norwegian petroleum industry, and as a result of this, Rogaland has the lowest unemployment rate of any county in Norway, 1.1%...
, Norway - approx. 700-800 C.E. - SlöingeSlöingeSlöinge is a locality situated in Falkenberg Municipality, Halland County, Sweden, with 974 inhabitants in 2005.Archeological excavations has revealed a chieftain estate from the 8th century; among the remains is a large number of golden figures....
, HallandHalland' is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden , on the western coast of Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Scania and the sea of Kattegat.-Administration:...
, Sweden - approx. 690 C.E. - HelgöHelgöHelgö is an island in Ekerö Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden. Helgö is an island situated in Lake Mälaren. The island's greatest width is about 1.5 km, it is about 5 km long and covers 48 hectares. -Excavations at Helgo :...
, UpplandUpplandUppland is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea...
, Sweden - UppåkraUppåkraUppåkra is a village located five kilometres south of Lund in Scania in southernmost Sweden.-History:Uppåkra was situated on the ancient main road between Trelleborg and Helsingborg in what was to become the Danish kingdom. The original foundation of Uppåkra is dated to the first century AD,...
, near LundLund-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...
, ScaniaScaniaScania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
, Sweden - 111 found - Sorte Muld, BornholmBornholmBornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...
, Denmark - 2,480 found, dated together with those at Uppåkra to the 6th century - Lundeborg, GudmeGudmeGudme is a town in central Denmark with a population of 935 , located in Svendborg municipality on the island of Funen in Region of Southern Denmark. Until January 1, 2007, it was the site of the municipal council of the now former Gudme municipality.Gudme was an important site during the Iron Age...
, FunenFunenFunen , with a size of 2,984 km² , is the third-largest island of Denmark following Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy, and the 163rd largest island of the world. Funen is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 454,358 inhabitants . The main city is Odense, connected to the...
, Denmark - about 100
About 1800 gullgubber are on display in the Bornholm Museum in Rønne
Rønne
Rønne is the largest town on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. It has a population of 13,904 . Once a municipality in its own right, it is now the administrative centre of the Bornholm municipality....
. Most of the gullgubber from Uppåkra can be seen at the Historical Museum at Lund University
Lund University
Lund University , located in the city of Lund in the province of Scania, Sweden, is one of northern Europe's most prestigious universities and one of Scandinavia's largest institutions for education and research, frequently ranked among the world's top 100 universities...
.
Sources
- Jan Peder Lamm. "Figural Gold Foils Found in Sweden". In Helen Clarke and Kristina Lamm (ed.) Excavations at Helgö XVI: Exotic and Sacral Finds from Helgö. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 2004. ISBN 91-7402-339-X
- Margrethe Watt. "Die Goldblechfiguren ('guldgubber') aus Sorte Muld, Bornholm". In Karl Hauck (ed.) Der historische Horizont der Götterbild-Amulette aus der Übergangsepoche von der Spätantike zum Frühmittelalter: Bericht über das Colloquium vom 28.11.-1.12.1988 in der Werner-Reimers-Stiftung, Bad Homburg. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992. ISBN 3525825870. pp. 195–227.
- Margrethe Watt. "Guldgubber". In Christian Adamsen, Ulla Lund Hansen, Finn Ole Nielsen, Margrethe Watt (ed.) Sorte Muld. Rønne: Bornholms Museum og KulturarvsstyrelsenHeritage Agency of DenmarkThe Heritage Agency of Denmark is a body under the Danish Ministry of Culture. It has the regulatory responsibility for sites and monuments, listed buildings and State-subsidised museums...
, 2008, ISBN 8788179117. pp. 42-53.