Great beast of Jelling
The great beast carved on King Harald Bluetooth’s runestone at Jelling, about 965: a striding animal with a snake wound around it. Its meaning is disputed.
Meaning
Harald Bluetooth raised the large Jelling stone about 965 in memory of his parents, Gorm and Thyra. The National Museum of Denmark describes its images: “On one side of the stone Christ can be seen and on the other an animal with a snake coiled around it.” The inscription runs across the faces, and the words “and made the Danes Christian” end on the face with the Christ figure, so the text follows the pictures, as the Danish encyclopedia Lex notes. The stone still stands where it was raised, beside Jelling church.
Origin and history
The great beast gives its name to no style but belongs to one. Store norske leksikon says the stone is decorated in the Mammen style, which Lex dates from the middle of the 10th century to about 1000 and names after the silver-inlaid axe from the Mammen grave; in it the animals have more body than in the older Jelling style, and plant ornament plays a large part. The Jelling style is named after a small silver cup from the North Mound at Jelling, with ribbon-like animals in profile. The last Viking style, the Urnes style of about 1050 to the first half of the 12th century, returned to the great beast, now slender and interlaced with snakes and plant tendrils.
A lion, a beast, or unknown
The sources name the animal differently. Store norske leksikon calls it “a lion adorned with acanthus”; the National Museum of Denmark calls it an animal. Lex counts “the great animal” of the Jelling stone and the Urnes brooches among the symbols of Viking art “whose meaning is disputed”.
In the Urnes style
The Urnes style takes its name from carved planks at Urnes stave church in western Norway, dated 1050–1100. Store norske leksikon describes its scenes as fights between four-legged animals and snakes in high relief; Lex describes large, greyhound-slender animals in undulating interlace with snakes and plant tendrils.
See also
Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer), Gungnir, Sleipnir, Huginn and Muninn, Yggdrasil, Valknut.
Sources
- The Jelling Stone, National Museum of Denmark
- Jellingsteinene (Store norske leksikon), Store norske leksikon
- Jellingstenene (Lex), Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon
- Vikingekunst (Lex), Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon
- Mammenstil (Lex), Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon
- Jellingstil (Lex), Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon
- Urnesstil (Lex), Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon
- Urnesstil (Store norske leksikon), Store norske leksikon
Last reviewed September 26, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research