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Jomsborg |
The Romersdal Thor’s hammer is a tenth century silver pendant found in Romserdal, on the island of Bornholm in Denmark. [1] It was probably cast, and was decorated with two stamps: a dotted ring and a slotted bar. Both are very common Viking stamp motifs.
The Romersdal Hammer
The Romersdal Hammer I cast a silver blank in a two piece clay mold from a Sculpey clay original. The casting method in Viking Age Scandinavia used a two peice clay mold that was broken to remove the peice [2]; the modern clay is reusable, which makes it more of a sandcasting process. MAPP gas and a silica crucible were used to melt the silver. Here is more information on casting.
I made the ring stamp from a broken pin punch, and the bar stamp from an old cold chisel. Since I’ve never seen the back side of the hammer, I stamped the two sides the same. While making the stamps, I tried them out on a practice pad like the one from Mastermyr [3], although mine was lead-free pewter rather than lead. The chain follows the construction of a large group of extant Viking Age knit silver wire chains. I based this chain on features taken from three of these. I chose copper over silver for cost and availability, and because this was my first attempt at knitting chain. The Nationalmuseet at Copenhagen has an example of the knit pattern I chose: a four stitch, double-knit. Unfortunately my source has no information on where it was found or date of manufacture. [4]
A surviving flat chain from the Viking Age found in Ballinaby, Isley, Scotland helped me choose the wire diameter. This chain was made from 0.4mm silver wire [5]; I chose 0.5mm wire because it was available. A terminated chain from Kiev was found in Birka. [1] I bought the silver filigreed, granulated terminals from a jewelry supplier to contain the knit ends of the chain. The granulation and filigree work is in period, and even the soldering method appears to be similar. The Birka Cross shows similar granulation, filigree, and plain wire work. [6]
Terminated chain and cross From Birka :
The beads were supposed to look like this bead from a necklance found in Eidem, Norway. [1] I lampworked the beads from moretti glass with a stainless steel mandrel and modern separator in a MAPP gas flame.
- Dirk
Dirk allows unedited reprints of his articles as long as this sentence is included.
References
1 The Vikings, Graham-Campbell and Kidd. British Museum Publications Limited 1980.
2 Cultural Atlas of the Viking World, Graham-Campbell. Andromeda Oxford Limited, 1994.
3 The Mastermyr Find, Arwidsson and Berg. Larson Publishing Company, 1999.
4 A History of the Vikings, Gwyn Jones. Oxford University Press, 1984
5 The Viking Age Gold and Silver of Scotland, Graham-Campbell. National Museums of Scotland, 1995.
6 Birka V: Filigree and Granulation Work of the Viking Period, Duczko. Almquist & Wiksell International, 1985.