With the establishment of Christianity in Norway one thousand years ago, the culture of continental Europe gained a first foothold in the country. The meeting between the new culture and the old gave rise to impulses which made a considerable impression on Norwegian society. Church buildings tell some of the story of this cultural convergence.
By Håkon Christie
Although none of the 29 stave churches that now survive belongs
to the first generation of Norwe-gian churches, we now know that those built in
the eleventh century - during the early period of conversion to Christianity, -
were closely related to the stave churches. The earliest ones were built of wood
and had walls of upright posts and planks. However, the posts were embedded in
holes in the ground. This gave them sufficient stability to function as the
constructive frame-work of the building, but it also caused their bases to rot.
Traces of this first generation of Norwegian churches can still be seen in the
form of rows of deep post-holes at archaeological sites, and decayed remains of
wood at the bottom of the post-holes clearly reveal the fate of these early
constructions.
Apparently, the first generation churches did not stand for
more than about a hundred years. In the twelfth century the need for more solid
constructions became obvious. The problem was solved by introducing sills, upon
which the planks and staves rested, thus raising the walls above ground level
and protecting them against rot. The method proved so effective that churches
built in the twelfth century are still standing today.
It is this method of construction that has given the stave
churches their name. A stave wall consists of vertical planks with their bases
in a groove in the sill-beam, and their tops in a groove in the wall-plate. At
each corner is an upright post connected to the sill below and the wall-plate
above. Thus, a stave wall has a solid frame consisting of sill, wall-plate, and
two corner posts. This sill is filled with vertical planks. The sills of the
four walls form a solid horizontal frame on which the whole church rests. The
wall-plates form a corresponding horizontal frame at the top.
Many different types of stave church have been built but they
have one shared feature in that all have stave walls. The most common type is a
simple, relatively small building with a nave and a narrow chancel. An even
simpler construction is the long church, in which the nave and the chancel form
a single, rectangular building of uniform breadth under a pitched roof. In these
churches the chancel has been divided off from the nave by an open wall or
chancel screen.
The largest and most ornately designed stave church in Norway
is Borgund church. This consists of a nave and a narrow chancel, but in addition
the chancel has a semicircular extension, or apse, at the east end. However, the
distinguishing characteristic of this type is that the central part of the nave
is higher than the aisles. The latter must not be confused with the external
galleries which surround the entire church. External galleries were common in
all types of stave churches, and are, there-fore, not characteristic of any
particular type. The higher section of the nave is supported by free-standing
posts, spaced about two metres apart and placed approximately one metre inside
the outer walls. These separate the aisles from the central nave.
Some of the stave churches have only one free-standing post,
placed in the middle of the nave and reaching right up to the roof. These
central-mast churches resemble most closely the churches of a simple type with a
nave and a narrower chancel, but their system of construction is more complex.
The stave churches are constructions of high quality, richly
decorated with carvings. In virtually all of them the door frames are decorated
from top to bottom with carvings. This tradition of rich ornamentation appears
to go back to the animal carvings of the Viking age. The dragons are lovingly
executed and transformed into long-limbed creatures of fantasy, here and there
entwined with tendrils of vine, with winding stems and serrated leaves. The
elaborate designs are executed with supreme artistic skill. The stave church
doorways are, therefore, among the most distinctive works of art to be found in
Norway. However, it is difficult to connect them with the Christian gospel.
The interiors of the stave churches are dark. The only
original sources of light were small,round openings high up under the roof,
which shed a meagre light on the lofty room. Nevertheless, the wood carvers made
some embellishment in the interior. In some of the churches the posts are
equipped with capitals, giving associations with the contemporary Romanesque
stone churches. The obvious wish was to decorate the stave churches in the same
way as the best known stone churches of the day. The basic construction of the
stave churches - so intimately linked to the properties of wood - has, however,
been preserved intact.
Haltdalen stave church
Most of the Norwegian stave churches were small, simple
buildings with a short nave and a narrow chancel. The roofing was usually wooden
shingles, and both the roof and the walls were tarred. Internally the rooms
extended right up to the ridge of the roof. As the churches were small they
could not accommodate the growing congregations, particularly after seating was
introduced. Most of the stave churches of this type were demolished, or extended
and rebuilt. Haltdalen church has been moved from its site to the Trøndelag
Folk Museum at Sverresborg, near Trondheim, where it has been restored to its
original appearance.
Produced for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Nytt fra Norge. The author is responsible for the contents of the article. Printed in March 1996.
Reproduced with permission from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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