Gripping Beast Pendant

This curious pendant is a combination of two finds of the gripping beast from the Viking Age.

The gripping beast is a modern term for a viking art motif that thrived in the 9^th and 10^th centuries. Spirited, humourous animals gripping themselves or other things around them - they are a fascinating and exhuberant expression of the Viking Age. They survived for a century and a half, carved in many different forms by Viking craftsmen. Yet, for all that, their meaning remains a mystery.

Yet who could deny that they stand as witness to the viking sense of humour?

I have used a little amber figure found in Norway, with its feet wrapped around its neck, as the basis for my own gripping beast pendant. I have then added details from a viking brooch now in Saint Petersburg, covered in these grinning goblins cheerfully biting on their own fingers.

 Height 27mm

Weight of Sterling Silver 13g (Weight may vary from piece to piece)