Imagining national belief through art: Old Norse Religion and the Vikings in J. L. Lund ́s painting Nordisk offerscene fra den Odinske periode (Nordic sacrificial scene from the period of Odin, 1831)

This article analyzes the painting Nordisk offerscene fra den Odinske periode (Nordic sacrificial scene from the period of Odin), created by the Danish painter Johan Ludvig Gebhard Lund (1777-1867) in 1831 and which presents a theme regarding Old Norse religion and the Vikings. We have made use of Ernest Gombrich's schemata theory and the studies of reception by Margaret Clunies Ross. Our main perspective is that Lund's work was related to both Danish nationalist romanticism and to a perspective of history and art in which the ancient religious forms and idealized representations of the Vikings played a major role in shaping social and cultural identities of his time.


Introduction
Norse myths have always fascinated Western art since the nineteenth century. Whether in traditional visual arts or visible in the modern advent of opera, film, comics and television, the mythology and the universe of gods from the Scandinavian area hold a privileged space, shaping many expressions of cultural identity and being popularized by new medias recently. Our fundamental purpose in this article is to analyze Johan Ludvig Lund's Nordisk offerscene fra den Odinske periode (Nordic sacrificial scene from the period of Odin, 1831). 1 Despite its historical significance -it was the first artistic representation of a pre-Christian Norse ritual, as well as the first painting depicting the Vikings -it has not received any detailed analysis by researchers yet. 2 Our text is divided into three parts: first I have synthesized the general context in relation to the artistic reception of Old Norse themes in Europe and Denmark from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; secondly I have scrutinized the general contents of the painting; at last, the "Viking theme" has been taken into consideration.
As the main theoretical support on image, I rely on the studies from Cultural History, especially by Peter Burke. In such an approach, I seek to understand the fundamental social context in which a particular visual culture is created. Thus, the images provide access to contemporary views of a given social world; the images, then, need a series of contexts (cultural, political, material and artistic) in order to be understood. 3 As an analysis methodology, I have chosen John Harvey's considerations about visual culture, understanding the tradition and intrinsic characteristics of the artifacts, its materiality and its situation. 4 As main theoretical support for the theme of artistic reception I follow the idea that the popularity of Nordic themes in visual arts was due to its connection with ideals of national cultures and the political 1 Born in Kiel (1777) and died in Copenhagen in 1867. He was appointed professor in The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, along with C. W. Eckersberg, in 1818. His main works were historical paintings, mythological and religious themes, natural landscapes and everyday themes. PALMER, Allison Lee. Johan Ludwig Gebhard Lund . Historical Dictionary of Romantic Art and Architecture. Lanham/New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019, p. 192-193. 2 Perhaps one explanation for this is that Lund has a very low prestige in Danish art history. Recently, The Hirschsprung Collection in Copenhagen has been conducting research and exhibitions aimed at reevaluating Lund's work and restoring its central role within the "Golden Age" context of Danish art and the intellectual circle. From September 25, 2019 to January 12, 2020 this museum held the exhibition: Den anden guldalder: Johan Ludvig Lund over alle graenser (The second golden age: Johan Ludvig Lund across all borders), curated by Anna Schram Vejlby. Available at: https://hirschsprung.dk/en/udstillinger/udstillinger. Accessed on: 19 May 2021. 3  situation of each European country at that time, defined by Knut Ljøgodt. 5 Another basic reference in my research is that in the representations of Vikings and Norse Myths by Europeans artists during Romanticism, the classicist reference was not always totally predominant, but this was also constituted by resistance, adaptation and use of Nordic motives, as pointed out by Nora Hansson. 6 The main investigative endeavor is to try to ponder on the involvement of nationalism in European artistic production: in particular, the theme of the Vikings -were they related to symbols, themes or motifs linked to ideologies or national sentiments by the Europeans? How were the Vikings and Norse Myths portrayed by Western art? Have their representations changed over time?

The revival of Norse myths in European art
Post-medieval European interest in Norse mythology, culture and history has always been frequent, even though often limited to the Scandinavian countries themselves, especially by the works of the antiquarians. In general, the medieval Nordic themes start to become relevant to the arts as a whole after the crisis of neoclassicism in the eighteenth century, motivated especially by the search for national identities. Each country sought the roots for its aesthetic references in its own history, folklore and ancient literature. Rome and Pompeii were not the only stimulators of art at this time 7 -major European nations sought inspiration from James Macpherson's Ossian poem, supposedly based on oral Scottish traditions, published in 1762. Far from a classical world according to the Roman or Greek molds, intellectuals and artists started to search for the political and cultural glories of their own past inhabitants, especially Celtic, Germanic or Scandinavian warriors, who evoked a barbaric and epic past whose symbolic figure of the became the great reference of the so-called The Nordic Renaissance: as an alternative to neoclassicism, he presents a fusion of Rousseau's savage nobleman, the tradition to be reclaimed by the Ossian model and the recent pre-romantic concept of the sublime. Mallet's book not only deals with the historical past (in the form of monuments, chronicles and deeds) but also presents the laws and ancient religion of the Scandinavian countries. In 1756 Mallet also publishes a French translation of the Eddas. In this professor's work, the ancient Norse traditions were seen as wild, passionate and sublime, popularizing the interest in Norse Mythology throughout Northern Europe. A large number of English (and some German) poets published numerous works influenced by Mallet, propelling the emergence of various operas, theater, and visual arts in the Scandinavian countries by the end of the eighteenth century. In particular, in 1773, Johannes Ewald's Balders Død (Balder's Death) opera was premiered in Copenhagen with great success and it was constantly performed until the following century. 9 In the early nineteenth century Denmark, nationalist romanticism was the leading point of reference for both artists and intellectuals in general. This was notably fierce after the English bombardment of the city of Copenhagen in 1807. Such incident grew into the main impetus for artistic creations that recovered, on the one hand, the glories of the past, and on the other, gave aid to the formation of the desired identity for the moment. Thus, we have the publication of N. F. S. Grundtvig's  (1826) by Hermann Ernst Freund. All of these artists and literati were part of a period of creative production known as Den danske guldalder (Danish Golden Age). 10 Remarkably, this has also been a period of intense historical and antiquarian study of the Danish past. 11 Since the seventeenth century, there have been expeditions to collect objects of material culture (such as coins, weapons, utensils) which increased private collection organizations related to Danish kings and aristocrats. The great public interest in such discoveries, coupled with the growing nationalistic interest in the study and conservation of these objects, originated in 1807 the Royal Committee for the Preservation and Collection of National Antiquities. In 1819 the Oldnordiske Museum (The Nordic Ancient Museum) was inaugurated, serving public service at the Trinitatis Church in Copenhagen and later transferred to Christiansborg Castle in 1832. Within the Danish national-romantic project, there has been a tension between the desire to obtain artifacts and the imaginative transcendence of these same objects: artists generally interpreted the past more imaginatively than historians and archaeologists of this period. 12 Norse themes, however, were a shared interest among all.

The painting Nordisk offerscene fra den Odinske periode
In 1815 painter Johan Ludwig Lund was commissioned by king Frederik VI and Slotsbygningskommissionen 13 to portray the various historical periods of religion in Denmark. 14 Five paintings were carried out, whose names are The painting of our main interest is the second one in the collection's chronological order of execution. It is a canvas painted in oil technique [ Figure 1], executed within a romantic and idealistic framework, demonstrating strong influences from the Nazarene movement -especially the highlight to the spirituality of ancient times. 16 The image represents a supposed sacrificial rite from the Viking Age, displaying as the central figure a priest dressed in white, who presides over the cult. In front of him, beside a dolmen, is a nearly human-sized statue of the god Thor, while at his feet, occupying the foreground to 12 RIX, Robert William. In darkness they grope: Ancient Remains and Romanticism in Denmark. European Romantic Review, v. 26, n. 4, 2015, p. 435-451. 13 The Palace Building Commission it was the state institution responsible for the reconstruction of Christiansborg  the right, sits a skald playing the harp. Also in the foreground, although at the far left, a male figure carries a musical instrument (lur). Secondarily, behind the priest, several people gather, from peasants to warriors. The picture presents a total of almost thirty people, mostly men, but with the presence of one child and two women. We are going to deliver our analysis of the painting's contents in two levels: the main elements (the priest, the skald, the musician, the statue and the sacrifice), and then the secondary elements (the audience). This content analysis is going to take into consideration some comparisons with other works of the painter, while also contextualizing his artistic influences and the studies of archeology and Norse Mythology which were current in Denmark and Europe then. Finally, we are going to analyze the framing of the work in national and cultural terms of its time.
The priest is the central figure of the canvas. Endowed with intense white and showing the most intense color on the painting, he wears a yellow cloak, a knife in his belt and raises his hands in front of the statue. Although some records of sacrificial cults do exist in medieval sources, this scene is very fanciful. In Johan Lund's time, there was little information on the ancient religions of Europe, so he made use of the conventional artistic (and stereotyped) mode of representing the typical Celtic religion priest, the druid: in various illustrations from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these priests were depicted wearing a long cloak of light color and bearing a huge white beard. An example is the classic illustration by Meyrick and Smith (1815) of a druid. 17 These visual stereotypes (schemas) act as a familiar filter for themes with little historical information: "a guess conditioned by habit and tradition." 18 Nevertheless, the representation of a druid likewise comes close to the idea of the priest in Christianity (in pre-Christian Nordic context experts use the term "cult leader" 19 ). In this collection of five Lund paintings, white color refers to the supreme spirituality religion is able to provide. Another detail is that within the Ossian tradition from the eighteenth century the Celtic world was merged with the Germanic one, creating a Northern European artistic character to perpetuate "high ideas of magnanimity, generosity, and true heroism." 20 Even though some intellectuals at that time distinguished the Scandinavians from the Celts (such as Árni Magnússon) and the writers paid little attention to Macpherson's work in Copenhagen, the Danish painters devoted many of their works to this theme.
Although some researchers believe that the last painting in Danish art exhibiting the Ossian theme was Temora (1828) the poet was related to the still living glories of his people, while in the second painting he is merely the last representative of a culture that was now dying, something dearly appreciated by romantic aesthetics.
In the background of Den sidste skjald there is a cross on the hill by the sea. This adds to the melancholy atmosphere of the painting, because it announces the new times (the arrival of Christianity).
The central object of observation in the Nordisk offerscene painting is a statue of the god Thor, set above a small platform of arranged and jagged blocks. Right next to it is the figure of a man carrying a lur.
The statue is made of stone 23 and bears two details in gold (the belt and the diadem). The god is also wearing a tunic with short sleeves and portrays a long hair and a beard. He holds a wide-headed hammer and has a small bracelet on his right arm. At the base of the statue lies a small vase, a bowl and a hammer, possibly manifesting the idea of offering them to the deity. Albeit several mythological descriptions of this god exist, information about his worship was scarce at the time of Lund. Virtually the only document 20 CELENZA, Anna H. Harwell. Efterklange af Ossian. Scandinavian Studies, v. 70, n. 3, 1998, p. 363. 21 Ibidem, p. 382. 22 Here Lund was objectively influenced by the Swedish Erik Gustaf Geijer in his poem Den sist skalden, published in Iduna magazine in 1811. In this work, Geijer performs a praise to the Nordic past, a true elegy to a "golden age" -the Viking Age -a pagan but honorable, festive and heroic time -which is lamented for its end, but which can return, at least symbolically. The skald figure is the main means for this symbolic return. GREENWAY, John. The Golden Horns: Mythic Imagination and the Nordic Past. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2008, p. 140-142. 23 Anna Schram Vejlby sent us a note on this detail, by email (February 12, 2020): "It is interesting that I have always thought that the Thor statue was made of bronze. I now realize that Lund seems to have changed the material from bronze to stone between the painted sketch and the finished painting. I have mainly looked at the sketch which has a warmer tone than the light grey of the finished painting. Perhaps he wanted the contrast to the belt and head band".   Winter landscape in Vordingborg, 1829, Statens Museum for Kunst) were already portraying dolmens in a more scientific and realistic framework, Lund preferred to perpetuate the association of stone traces as the main ritual instruments of pagan religion, an idea also closely associated with the Celts and Germanics in general during the eighteenth century. 27 We further conceive that in the Nordisk offerscene painting, Lund was objectively influenced by an illustration of a book on Norse mythology by Paul Mallet from 1756 [ Figure 11]. 28 In this image a dolmen was pictured next to a large runic stone, accompanied by a representation of Sleipnir and Odin. Set in a twilight and covered with moss, it gives the illustration a certain mystery.
The representation of sacrifice is at the heart of Lund's canvas. We have to consider that the painting was originally given another name, the same as an 1830 drawing: Ofring til Thor (Sacrifice to Thor). 29 Nevertheless, why has the title been changed to Nordisk offerscene fra den Odinske periode (Nordic  night-time setting for nationalist yearnings to rescue the country's past was also conveyed by Nikolaj Grundtvig, the most iconic intellectual in Denmark at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the poem Gunderslev Skov (Gunderslev Forest, 1808), a forest is the scene of ancient remnants of the cult of the gods, now dormant but still symbolically present by the passing of imposing winds. He follows the prevailing notion that we have already commented, that the megalithic blocks served as altars for worship: "Alterets mossede Stene 34 " (altar's mossy rocks).
On the other hand, Lund also made some modifications of this Danish literary tradition. In his

The Romantic Invention of the Viking
This is certainly a historical moment in Western art: the first representation on oil painting of these famous Scandinavian characters. The first member of the group carries a spear a decorated armor and a crested spherical helm [ Figure 4] -obviously influenced by eighteenth century aesthetics and with a lack of historical background. The second one wears a wolfskin over his head and trunk, also carrying a fanciful sword does not correspond to the Viking Age sword models, and a large dart, similar to a Roman pilum (also an imprecise model for Norse standards). This is possibly an allusion to the úlfhéðnar described in the Icelandic sagas or even an influence from the representation of the Germanic warriors composing the Roman army. The third warrior in the painting is the most important of his group, for as much as this is certainly the representation of a leader: depicted in a red tunic and wearing an imposing golden helmet with side wings. Like the skald and the priest, he has a huge white beard, a symbol of wisdom and knowledge.
The romantic image of the Vikings is derived from the eighteenth century's growing interest in  word Viking here becomes associated with an expedition warrior (kämpe) and as the sea king (sjökonung).

Freedom, independence, and self-government in Geijer's work blended with the very idea of nation that
Sweden had been building in the early nineteenth century. The poem was restricted to Swedish intellectual circles, although his ideas were popularized in the Frithiofs saga version of the Swedish teacher and bishop Esaias Tegnér, published in 1825 and which came to be translated into several languages. 43 This book would also be reprinted in Swedish several times: 1827, 1828, and 1831, all three of which were accompanied by illustrations. Tegnér's Frithiofs saga was translated into Danish by H. Foss in 1826.
Tegnér's saga gives an account of a love story between the hero, Frithiof, and his adopted sister, Ingeborg, whose passion is rejected by the brothers. Especially in an excerpt from this work -the Vikingabalk (The Viking Code) -nautical endeavors receive heroic valorization, being transformed into a series of norms whose central core is courage, masculinity and honor. Tegnér romanticized several passages of the Eddas and further radicalized the vision of an invincible hero who cannot be stopped by any obstacle or fear. In this sense, cowardice is seen as an element subject to death. However, unlike what is observed in Erik Geijer, the Viking of Tegnér is shaped by Christianity, that is, he is a "civilized" character, without rambunctious or predatory behavior.
From the 1830s on the term Viking became constant in numerous books, artistic works, seminars and letters, giving rise to a romantic fashion -the Norse were seen as the glorious ancestors or as the figure of the "other", revealing aspects of the notions of identity by part of the intellectuals and artists of the period. In particular, the detail that interests us the most at this moment is to analyze the three Viking warriors in Lund's painting, an anticipation of the immense popularity they would bring about through Wagner operas during the 1870s, 44 but which was already present in Lund's imagination.
The first warrior seen in the canvas Nordisk offerscene was influenced by an earlier painting of Lund (Habors tilbagekomst fra slaget, Habor return from the battle, Akademiraadet, Figure 5), executed in 1813.
It is a scene taken from Saxo's Gesta Danorum (Deeds of the Danes, in Peter Frederik Suhm's version) 45 , depicting the narrative of Hargbard and Signy, demonstrating a fascination with the heroes of the sagas and with the medieval world, even though without the romantic reference of the Vikings as proposed by 43 MJØBERG, op. cit., 1980, p. 207-238. 44 In general, Scandinavian artists used very little the stereotype of the winged or side-horned helmet during the early nineteenth century. These became much more common in British, German, and American art after the 1870s. the model of Esaias Tegnér: The character Habor is very similar to the heroes of classical mythology, whose shield with animal coat of arms is highlighted.
Already in an 1819 drawing [ Figure 6], which was a study for the painting Christendommens indførelse i Danmark (Christianity's introduction in Denmark, Statens Museum for Kunst), we locate the origin for the second canvas warrior in Nordisk offerscene. In this image, Lund deals with missionary Ansgar's preaching in the Hedeby city in the ninth century 46 , while a small group of six warriors stands on the sidelines of the crowd watching his preaching. Two of them carry wolfskins, but one of them carries a carnyx, a Celtic wind instrument (which were not used by the Norse, Figure 7). Some move their arms in a position of distrust, while the central leader demonstrates a thoughtful and bowed head, with one hand on his chin. This scene was influenced by classical sources, in which Celts and Germanics are merged with or taken as Scandinavians, but even so, the painter moves towards a medieval expression with reference to the Norse.
Notwithstanding, when Lund painted Christendommens indførelse i Danmark 47 (Christianity's introduction in Denmark, Christiansborg Slot, Figure 8) in 1827, he made several modifications. He eliminates the group of discontented warriors with the preacher, letting only three of them, among whom the leader carries his spear, portrayed in a thoughtful and suspicious position, but now, instead of a smooth helmet, he wears small side wings and a cloak. He contrasts with the anachronistic knight right in front of him, standing on the right side of the missionary Ansgar, while holding a sword, dressed in his full armor and with his hand on his waist [ Figure 9]. This symbolizes the triumph of Christianity over paganism which was at that moment beginning to succumb. In this case, the leader represents the pagan      characters (the skald wears a green tunic; the priest wears an intense white garment; the völva was depicted wearing a sky-blue one). We can clearly point out the influence of the Nazarene movement on the painter -the colors are not thought of in terms of light and materiality coming from nature or even from human society in natural terms. They are designed to highlight the moral and abstract meaning the author wishes to convey: these are precisely the main religious elements of his interpretation of Old Norse society.
The last significant elements in Lund's painting are the representations of a woman and a child in the background of the group, just behind the priest [ Figure 4]. Unlike most people, she is not looking at the statue of Thor but remains with her face turned to the Viking leader. It bears a diadem with intertwined spirals, another Bronze Age pattern mistakenly related to the Viking Age. While this woman has a much more decorative figure in relation to the ensemble, the child, standing behind and leaning on a man's lap, is much more significant. It refers to the idea of innocence and, at the same time, the hope of a new future, supported by the Christianization that is coming in the future. This theme in which the child holds a special place in the scenery was extremely common in nineteenth century Scandinavian drawings and paintings on Christianization.

Conclusion: Nordisk offerscene and the national context
The nineteenth century was a period of intense changes, where nationalism occupied an important space as an ideological and social framework. The visual arts played a great role in the construction of national identities and themes, essential for countries that sought self-assertion, delimitation of borders and identities within a world that was increasingly globalized. In this context, several artistic works related to the Norse appeared, which visually "invented" the Vikings, within what Eric Hobsbawm has proposed as a set of practices of symbolic nature, inculcating values and behavior and implying an artificial relationship with the historical past. 50 Real historical continuity was thus replaced by a series of images or stereotypes that were inspired by the myths, legends or individual fantasies of the artists. Icelandic sagas and Nordic Mythology contributed to arouse in Europeans, in general, an interest in the ancient history and archaeology of each country. The Vikings were a reflection of this historic time, providing a benchmark of a magnificent past to countries that have undergone humiliation, were oppressed or needed to create a sense of patriotic pride.
And within this context, the Nordisk offerscene painting was part of a major art project in the history of religion in Denmark, in which Christianity was the central theme: the first production in the collection 50  of the Christiansborg Palace was the only one whose size was 570 cm [ Figure 8]. In this project, paganism is represented as anticipating Christianity. Whether in a simple and bucolic way in prehistory [ Figure 3] or already containing the superior form of priesthood and ritual [ Figure 1], the history of Denmark has moved towards its true national religion, established in the pagan period [ Figure 9]. Visual art confirms the Christian nationalist yearnings of the period: "The form of representation cannot be divorced from its purpose and the requirements of the society in which the given visual language gains currency." 51 In this way, the painter brought together the three phases of religious history of Denmark (paganism, Catholicism and Lutheranism) in a single timeline, displaying Christianity as being "rooted in the past, celebrated in the present and providing hope for triumph and success in the future." 52 The Nordisk offerscene painting and religious collection of Christiansborg Palace contains a clear ideology of destiny. Its messianic fervor and cultural-religious agenda would inevitably come to create the future for the Danish nation.
And Nordisk offerscene painting was also the last breath of a romantic view of the history of Denmark in which Old Norse religion mingled with the megalithic landscape, merging the Celts with the Norse and considerably influenced by the "spirit of ancient times" of the poets Oehlenschläger and Grundtvig. This archaeological conception would be objectively undone four years later with the publication of Ledetraad til Nordisk Oldkyndighed (Guideline to Scandinavian Antiquity), by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. At the same time, however, this painting inaugurates another schemata, one that would be bound to success among artists until the twentieth century: the romantic vision of the Vikings.
Various elements of Lund's canvas would come to be perpetuated in later works.
Lund's work is currently being reevaluated. Compared to the impact of C.W. Eckersberg, it is much smaller, both in terms of the number of works in the collections of Danish museums and in repercussions.
Lund's paintings were not seen by subsequent generations as realistic and his continental influences are now seen with less prejudice. 53 Nordisk offerscene painting, in this sense, manifests both influences from the Nordic theme of older artists, and nationalist ideals from sponsoring the work. There are many aspects of Danish art in the nineteenth century that still need to be studied, including Lund's work, especially the link between representations of Norse mythology and Old Norse religion with pan-Scandinavian themes, material culture, patriotic ideologies and religious nationalism, landscape, boundary and space politics, among others. We believe that Johan Ludwig Lund can be a starting point for these discussions, while hoping the present paper can also restore his historical value as an artist.