Föreställd hedendom. Tidigmedeltida skandinaviska kyrkportar i forskning och historia

Sammanfattning: The thesis discusses Medieval Scandinavian art, in particular church doors and portals from 12th and 13th century Sweden and Norway. The entrance of the church was a demarcation of holiness, but also a meeting place for the local communities, where otherwise secular activities could be legitimatized by the ecclesiastical context. This makes the doors and portals of special interest for the study of social interaction through means of visual communication. It is argued that the ?pre-Christian? and ?folkloristic? traits in the images, symbols and styles of the doors and portals have been overemphasized in earlier research. These traits should not be understood as pagan relicts in an unbroken continuity from the Viking Age, but rather as the results of a newborn interest in the past from around 1200 AD and into the 13th century. Decorative art with connections to the pre-Christian past is most frequently occurring in parish churches, but could theoretically also have been used in the cathedrals. The same tendencies existed on the Continent, where texts and motifs from the Classical Antiquity came to use. In Scandinavia however, there are examples of indigenous pre-Christian motifs being used instead of antique ones. This was consistent with a proto-national discourse known from written sources, and should not be understood as religiously problematic. A variety of models of interpretation are discussed. It is possible that the indigenous motifs were used in state- and Church policy and in connection with the emerging parish church system where the churchwardens gained influence at the expense of the patrons. It is likely that both central and local actors were participating in this process, and the idea that the art functioned as a one-way propaganda should be dismissed. The most important conclusion is that the church art in this study should not be understood as reflections of a backward and peripheral Scandinavia in the 13th century. Rather, it was the result of assertive and fully Christianized people who were finding their own ways in a wider European context.