The knife fighters

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The knife warrior (Swedish Bältespännarna , actually "The Belt Tensioner ") is a national romantic sculpture by the Swedish sculptor Johan Peter Molin from the middle of the 19th century . It shows two men in the mythical duel of "belt tensioning". The sculpture became Molin's major breakthrough and was known across Europe for a while. There are different versions of the sculpture, examples can be found today in the Bältespännarparken in Gothenburg , in front of the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm , in front of the Vänersborgs Museum and in Mästarnas Park in Hällefors .

The knife fighters from 1867 in front of the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm . Note the runic inscription .

execution

The two fighting men stand on a rectangular base that shows the phases of the duel in relief images on four sides. Three out of four sides also contain serpentine ribbons with runic symbols. On certain versions of the sculpture there is also a band with another runic inscription at the top of the base. For a long time it was unclear whether the runes were mere ornaments or whether they had a meaning. However, from correspondence from Molin, the conclusion was drawn that the runic inscription in the base band was intended from the beginning and represents an Old Norse text from the Edda of Songs . Molin had problems translating the text into runic inscription, since the Edda was not written in runic inscription, and asked various linguists for help. The text in the horizontal runic band comes from the Hamðismál . The other runic inscriptions in the snake ornaments come from the Hamðismál and the Hávamál .

The first known specimen to contain the runic inscription in the horizontal base band is the Stockholm specimen from 1867.

History of origin

Molin began sketching for sculpture in the 1840s. His friends Gunnar Wennerberg and Hans Forssell modeled the faces of the two fighters. In 1859 the first version was cast in zinc and in the same year it was shown in Paris without success. A year later it was shown at the Art Academy in Stockholm. But it wasn't until 1862, when the sculpture was cast in bronze by Moritz Geiß in Berlin , that it received greater attention. Molin received, among other things, the great Prussian gold medal for art. In the same year the sculpture was shown at the World's Fair in London and received a lot of attention there. Two copies were sold, one to the city of Cologne and one to an English art dealer. A zinc specimen was ordered for the city of Gothenburg. This was initially in Brunnsparken, but was moved to its current location in 1863. Another bronze specimen was cast in Nuremberg in 1867 , on the order of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum . In the same year the National Museum in Stockholm ordered a copy that was placed in front of the museum's entrance for the inauguration of the museum.

A zinc-made example is now in Powerscourt Gardens in Ireland.

The knife fighters in Hallsfors

Picture gallery

  • Sculpture in Vänersborg

  • Relief (front) on the base of the sculpture in Vänersborg

  • Relief (back) on the base of the sculpture in Vänersborg

  • Relief (right) on the base of the sculpture in Vänersborg

  • Relief (left) on the base of the sculpture in Vänersborg

  • Bältespännarna, Museiparken in Stockholm, plinth

literature

  • Bo Gustavsson / Jan Westin: Bältespännarnas öden och Äventyr: en krönika med focus på Göteborg, Vänersborg och ristade runor . 2016. In: Göteborg förr och nu , Volume 2016 (36), published by Göteborgs hembygdsförbund. Pages 191-218. ISSN 0348-2189. (Swedish)
  • Bo Gustavsson / Jan Westin: Hundraåriga gåtan solves , Göteborgs-Posten , (10 August 2014), part 3, page 58. (newspaper article, Swedish)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://rupertharris.com/products/the-knife-wrestlers - Description of the restoration of the specimen in Powerscourt Gardens