Gripping beast
A lively animal seen face-on, its paws gripping everything within reach: a favourite motif of Viking art from the late 8th century for about 200 years.
Meaning
The Danish encyclopedia Lex describes gripping beasts as lively animals whose head is normally shown from the front and whose feet grip everything around them; there are gripping humans too. Store norske leksikon adds that the head can have cat-like features, or look human, or be impossible to name, an ambiguity between animal and human that is typical of Iron Age animal styles. The bodies are shown in high relief and often twisted, so that the beasts grip each other’s limbs.
Origin and history
The motif reached Scandinavia at the end of the 8th century and marks the Oseberg and Borre styles of about 800–950, Store norske leksikon says; the gripping beasts on the stems of the Oseberg ship belong to its early phase, and the drawing here follows them. The oldest fully developed gripping-beast ornament in the North is on a metal mount from a grave on Gotland of the late 8th century. The National Museum of Denmark lists gripping beasts among the usual decoration of Viking jewellery.
A Scandinavian invention, or borrowed
The sources disagree on where it came from. Lex calls the motif “presumably a Scandinavian innovation”. Store norske leksikon says its origin has been much discussed, with possible models in the eastern Mediterranean, in Frankish, Italian and Byzantine decoration and in Anglo-Saxon art.
What it was for
No one knows for certain. Lex, describing a small bronze gripping beast found in a sunken hut at Gødvad in Denmark, suggests it may have been an amulet that protected its owner.
See also
Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer), Gungnir, Sleipnir, Huginn and Muninn, Yggdrasil, Valknut.
Sources
- Gribedyr (Lex), Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon
- Gripedyrstil (Store norske leksikon), Store norske leksikon
- Clothes and jewellery, National Museum of Denmark
Last reviewed September 26, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research