The Wayland Kista ( Old Norse Chest.)

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Wayland

Hárbarðr
Over the years I've taught myself the basics of a few crafts, sometimes on my own or often with the help of friends.

Woodworking though has always been a struggle for me. I can normally beat a piece of metal into submission fairly well but wood demands a more co-operative approach and I find that frustrating at times.
This project came about as an effort to rectify that situation.

Rejoining the Vike and returning to public events after a few years absence prompted me to start making stuff again which inevitably means more stuff to move and transport. For the most part, I carry my stuff around in wooden boxes based loosely on a Viking age tool chest found at a place called Mästermyr.

Mastermyr.jpg


This six board method of making chests seems to have been commonplace in the early medieval period and suits my needs well. Discovering that my local DIY store had started selling natural oak boards, I decided to build a new box.

As the oak was quite thick and therefore heavy, and as I had no other practical way to reduce the thickness, a plan slowly hatched that there might be enough material to do some deep carving on the surface.

Wayland-Chest.jpg


The Vikings liked carving wood. I suspect it may have been their finest art form but sadly wood does not often survive well in the ground so much of it must have rotted away.

The Oseberg ship burial was placed in ground conditions which, remarkably, preserved some astounding quality carvings but apart from rare and often accidental finds the next best source we have are the wooden stave churches which survive in a few places in Scandinavia.

Most of these are slightly later than the Viking period but they do give us a flavour of the tradition of carving that must have existed.

One such example is a portal that survives from a church in Hylestad that is now housed in the Kulturhistorisk museum in Oslo.

Hystad-Portal.jpg


The portal illustrates the story of Sigurd the giant slayer and dates to the 12th-13th Century so although the story is old enough, the style of art is slightly too late for me to copy directly, but it did give me an idea.

As some of you know, I have been widely known as Wayland for many years. This is not just as a simple connection between the legendary smith and my penchant for bashing metal but also because of my surname, Waidson, formerly spelt as Wadeson in our family history. According to some historical sources, Wayland the Smith was the son of a giant called Wade which in effect would made him a Wadeson too. A legendary ancestor of sorts.

There are one or two pictorial sources relating to Wayland ( or Volund as he is known in Norse sources.) but nothing as complete as the Hylestad portal. The most relevant one for my purposes is the Franks Casket. This small carved whalebone box has several scenes on it but one covers a couple of episodes from the story of Wayland and it dates from the 7th or 8th Century.

Franks-Casket---Wayland-Panel.jpg


The Casket shows Wayland capturing the feather fetches of three swan maids ( Valkyrie ) on the right and later, while a captive of King Niðuð, seducing Blöðvildr, the King's daughter on the left, with one of her dead brothers shown under the forge.

Another useful image comes from Runestone VIII at Ardre dating from the 8th or 9th Century.

Ardre-Stone.jpg


This image shows a similar scene with Blöðvildr leaving on the left, the dead brothers on the right and Wayland using a feather fetch to escape between Blöðvildr and the forge.

I also used a stone cross shaft from Bewcastle dating from the 8th-9th Century to influence the art style of the border and give it a more British provenance.

Bewcastle-Cross.jpg


The only part of of the artwork I now needed for the story were a King and Queen, which I borrowed from another late source, the Lewis Chess pieces.

Lewis-Chessmen.jpg


The resulting design was developed using greaseproof paper as a tracing film, working through different versions, refining the design on each re-drawing. A process which gave me a new respect for our ancestors that would have had to work directly on the wood, probably with charcoal.

Wayland-Design.jpg


I then used black carbon paper to transfer the design (almost final) onto the sides of the chest.

Wayland-Chest-Marked-Out.jpg


Now comes the difficult bit.

Watch this space.


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Dave

Hill Dweller
Sep 17, 2003
6,019
9
Brigantia
Very interesting background story that, and well conceived design. But looks like quite a task for a novice carver.
Always interesting posts though, Ill give you that! :)
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
A really interesting post, it's good to see the influences that go to make up a project. I especially like the designs on the Bewcastle cross post, which I've not seen before.

I'll be very interested to see the finished article; Will you Kohlrose the design, or a deeper, more durable, carving?
 

didicoy

Full Member
Mar 7, 2013
541
12
fens
Having attended a Viking reenactment at Wood Gren a few weeks ago. I now appreciate your attention to detail. I love the chest you have made and expect you will get a great deal out of carving it.
 

Wayland

Hárbarðr
A really interesting post, it's good to see the influences that go to make up a project. I especially like the designs on the Bewcastle cross post, which I've not seen before.

I'll be very interested to see the finished article; Will you Kohlrose the design, or a deeper, more durable, carving?

The oak is about an inch thick so I'm aiming to carve in about half of that at it's deepest. It should have a good deep relief when it's finished.

I did think of Kolrosing some fine decoration into the finished figures, but I haven't decided about that yet. I may darken the box down with tar and oil so that would probably just get lost in the process.

Very interesting background story that, and well conceived design. But looks like quite a task for a novice carver.

Always interesting posts though, Ill give you that! :)

I don't believe in doing things by half. Extreme situations are sometimes the best teachers.





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Wayland

Hárbarðr
Having attended a Viking reenactment at Wood Green a few weeks ago. I now appreciate your attention to detail. I love the chest you have made and expect you will get a great deal out of carving it.

I had intended to be at Wood Green but life got in the way so I missed it.

I gather it was not very busy with the public which was a shame because they are trying to make it an annual event. Time will tell.
 

Dreadhead

Bushcrafter through and through
fantastic work Wayland, look forward to seeing this beauty finished! I'm in the process of buying a couple of very small chests based on the Mästermyr so that I'll then have a solid template to work from to build my own when i have some more free time later in the year. Pretty fed up of woodwork for now, as the day before Gudvangen market I had to make the entire frame for my viking tent, and also made a solid table and two very large benches to fit everybody on for my courses (pics to follow in my write up next week)
 

Fraxinus

Settler
Oct 26, 2008
935
31
Canterbury
Looks like a cracking project, I don't want to use the word "simple" as that belies the thought process behind the chest joinery but your carving design raises that "simple" chest to a higher level. :cool:
There are various ways to thin down planks without huge machinery although they can take time and effort depending on what you have to hand, a portable electric router and a sled on tracks are just one option. Similar to what I did here ( working in wood is my trade so keep in mind the table could be just a bit of ply to support the router and a smaller cutter means more passes).

Rob
 

Wayland

Hárbarðr
Actually the chest design is very simple which is one reason I like it. All the clever thinking was done about a thousand years ago.

I'm using a freehand plunge router to take some of the donkey work out of the carving. Using it to cut down to just above the background of some of the open areas, stuff like that.

It's the first time I've used one so I'm quite impressed with the tool's potential.

I can see how you might use it for thickness reduction but that would leave an awful lot of wood on the floor. It just doesn't seem right somehow.




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Fraxinus

Settler
Oct 26, 2008
935
31
Canterbury
Yeah, I did not mention the noise level...so as not to put you off...;)
(also one of the reasons I use the brand of tools I do, they scream less)
The waste factor with wood is quite big and always has been but I do try to minimise this as far as possible, in the above link those boards were being repurposed and the method used was actually less wasteful than trying to plane them on a big machine (planer and thicknesser) that I don't own.
Routers are a much underrated tool, much as the old hand router (hand powered) is, I have two of those that get used a lot, they just need the operator to realise their usefulness. :)
Looking forward to the finished kista,(btw, the old Norse is similar to the german "Kiste" or "Kasten" obviously sharing their etymology in our history).

Rob.
 

Wayland

Hárbarðr
It also probably links to the Old English word "Cist" which archaeologists still use in some contexts today. Both seem to come from Greek through Latin.

I tried the router out for a few minutes when it first arrived and noticed my ears ringing then.

Bearing in mind that I'm already half deaf and suffering from tinnitus, I didn't think it would be a good idea to make things worse, so the ear defenders were a must before I did anything else with it.

I went for a 1400W Boche jobbie. It seemed like a good balance between power, price, weight and handling which, at the moment, doesn't seem far wrong. I can live with the noise. (Hope my neighbours can.)

I must admit, my mind is already coming up with all sorts of interesting ideas that I might be able to do with this thing.
 

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