SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

6 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
patterns into Gaut's repertoire gives opportunities for
much contention.
It is always difficult to estimate the growth of a man's
style in a period or area without literature: it would be
unusual if a craftsman's products exhibited no stylistic
change in the course of a working lifetime and it is quite
possible that a large number of the Scandinavian crosses
of the Isle of Man were carved by Gaut himself. There are
certainly enough common traits in the ornament of about
half the surviving corpus to postulate that, if they were
not all made by one man, they were at least the product
of one workshop; and it is clear (as I shall show) that the
Norse crosses did not span a great period of time.
Before examining any of the historiated or zoomorphically
ornamented crosses, a more thorough examination
must be made of the origins of the art of the series
attributed to Gaut. Kermode, who was the first person
to examine the crosses systematically, pointed out that
Gaut's ring-chain pattern was also found in England,
quoting the examples at Gosforth and Muncaster in
Cumberland, an example from Burnsall in Yorkshire, and
odd examples from Penmon, Anglesey and Cardynham
near Bodmin, Comwall.P He considered the motif to be
indigenous to the Isle of Man - a view which was
inevitable at the beginning of this century, when the art
of other regions was less well understood. Kermode did
point to two parallels in Sweden.P now considered hardly
relevant, but it was not until many years later that
Shetelig was able to produce any really satisfactory
parallels outside England and the Isle of Man. 14
Shetelig showed that the ring-chain was an important
element of the Borre style which flourished in Scandinavia
from the middle of the ninth century until late in the
12 Kermode, op. cit., 40 n. and fig. 29.
18 ibid., 44.
u Shetelig, op, cit. (note 10 above), 4.