Viking Magazine - April 2013 - 14

TOOLS
OF THE
TRADE
Stave churches
were constructed
entirely with hand
tools, which were
also handmade.
The medieval
timber-framer
used various axes
to cut, peel and
shape timbers.
Augers, planes,
knives and chisels
were used to cut
mortises and
tenons, pegs and
wedges. Equally a
master of his craft
and material, the
medieval blacksmith
extracted
iron from local
bog ore, smelted
it, and forged
these specialized
framing and joinery
tools. He also
sharpened and repaired
them, and
when the building
was complete, he
made the highly
decorative hinges,
door handles
and locks for the
stave church door.
Missing from the
timber-framer's
toolbox, however,
was a saw, a tool
that was rare
because it was so
diffi cult to make
with forging tools.
... continued from p. 12
pitches and many gable ends
lend delicacy and refi nement
that strongly balanace the
mass of the building.
Reconstructing the tree
Stave church builders used
a post and beam method of
timber framing that relies entirely
on hand-cut mortise and
tenon joints to fi t the timbers
together. These early builders
understood that through the
forces of tension and compression,
the vertical staves
could support the lateral
beams that stabilized them,
much like a tree supports its
branches. They added arches
and x-shaped cross-bracing
between the staves and beams
to further stabilize them.
Not content to stop at
engineering, the church
builders often carved faces,
foliage and animal imagery
typical of their old Norse
mythology into the staves,
beams, arches and braces.
Mythical, mysterious and
beautiful, these carvings
transform the very support
structure of stave churches
into highly-crafted works of
art. Perhaps they also reassured
the common people
that their Norse gods could
live side by side with the new
practices of Christianity.
Commenting on the resulting
web of posts, beams
and arches, " Norway's
Stave Churches " author Eva
Valebrokk writes that " the
crown of shadowy, interlaced
[roof] beams was like a dark
and distant Nordic sky. The
church's interior ring of naked
columns gave the feeling
of being deep in the forest,
complete with upright trees
and spreading branches. "
The Black Death and
the Reformation
At the height of the Middle
Ages, an estimated 1,000
stave churches stood as testimony
to Christianity's fi rm
establishment in Norway. But
after two centuries, the stave
church building era came to
an end with the arrival of the
Black Death to Norway in
1349. As the plague spread,
killing more than half of the
country's population, stave
church building came to
an abrupt halt, and many
churches were lost to fi re or
disrepair. Two centuries later,
the arrival of the Reformation
in Norway brought with
it renewed interest in church
building. Stave churches
were demolished and new
churches built on site, or the
aging stave churches were upgraded
with pews, windows,
decorative painting, carved
altar-pieces and pulpits that
refl ected trends in the current
Renaissance church design.
By the end of the 19th
century, the unique form of
the stave church began to be
appreciated as a symbol of
national identity. The Society
for Preservation of Ancient
Norwegian Monuments
(Fortidsminneforeningen)
was founded in 1844 and
VISIT A STAVE CHURCH
Grip
Kvernes
Rødven
Lom
Hopperstad
Undredal
Røldal
Eidsborg
Garmo
Kaupanger Urnes Høre
Øye
Borgund
Torpo
Uvdal
Rollag
Heddal
LomenL
H
Hegge
Reinli
Hedalen
Nore
Flesberg
Gol*
Høyjord
Want to fi nd a stave church stateside?
Check out these stave church replicas in the United States:
✥ Chapel-in-the-Hills (Borgund replica), Rapid City, S.D.
✥ Hopperstad replica, Moorhead, Minn.
✥ Gol replica, Minot, N.D.
✥ Epcot Stave Church, Disney World, Fla.
*Gol has been moved to the Oslo Museum of Cultural History. A replica can be seen in Gol.
14 VIKING APRIL 2013
sonsofnorway.com
Ringebu
Haltdalen
✥ For more information about stave churches,
visit: stavechurch.com
✥ For a complete list of existing stave churches in Norway, visit:
visitnorway.com/us/About-Norway/History/Stave-churches/
http://www.stavechurch.com http://www.visitnorway.com/us/About-Norway/History/Stave-churches/ http://www.sonsofnorway.com
Viking Magazine - April 2013

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