Viking Norse Keris for comment

[alexish]

Dear collectors,

my sincerest apologies for re-opening this new thread on an old subject. For the sake of completeness, I just feel compelled to post pictures of my newly commissioned piece. Of course, it will be criticized for being a modern fantasy piece along the lines of the fantasy barbarian swords of the Kult of Athena. But, the point I want to make is how easily medieval Norse motifs can easily be mistaken as local Indonesian to the untrained eye, even by native Indonesians themselves. I have actually shown pictures of this new 'Norse' sarung to some local Indonesian collectors, and many of them seem to think of it as a variant of Madurese-style sarung. I think because the Norse and various Indonesian cultures are sea-faring, it is thus not surprising that there are many similarities in carved motifs of these cultures on opposite ends of the world.

[alexish]

There is a popular TV series on History Channel 'Vikings'. Although not 100% historically accurate, I believe that the producers have at least made some attempt to keep a degree of authenticity to the costumes and prop, for example, the absence of horned helmets, as in popular culture. I therefore believe that the dragonhead prop of the protangonist's (Ragnar Lothbrok) Viking ship is actually inspired by genuine Norse motifs, even though it was never based on an actual archeological artifact. Hence, I utilized this as a model for my hilt, rather than genuine archeological artifacts such as the Oseberg ship dragonhead (which shape incidentally was not suited for a keris hilt).

[alexish]

For the pendok, I utilized motifs from the Oseberg ship, which is a genuine archeological artifact. For the carved motif of the wrongko, I utilized a Dragon motif found on a Scandinavian weather vane.

[alexish]

The blade is however based on a Kemardikan pakem.

[kai]

Hello Alexis,

The blade is however based on a Kemardikan pakem.

AFAIK there have been no additions to the pakem during the kemardikan period yet (neither by the Solo kraton nor Yogya). Thus, it would be rather out-of-pakem as most modern keris art. Not a bad thing per se, just saying...

Regards,
Kai

[David]

Originally Posted by alexish

Dear collectors,

my sincerest apologies for re-opening this new thread on an old subject. For the sake of completeness, I just feel compelled to post pictures of my newly commissioned piece. Of course, it will be criticized for being a modern fantasy piece along the lines of the fantasy barbarian swords of the Kult of Athena. But, the point I want to make is how easily medieval Norse motifs can easily be mistaken as local Indonesian to the untrained eye, even by native Indonesians themselves. I have actually shown pictures of this new 'Norse' sarung to some local Indonesian collectors, and many of them seem to think of it as a variant of Madurese-style sarung. I think because the Norse and various Indonesian cultures are sea-faring, it is thus not surprising that there are many similarities in carved motifs of these cultures on opposite ends of the world.

<SIGH> I'm sorry you have felt so "compelled" Alexis. I don't know how many times and how many ways i need to tell you that this is not what we do here. You will not be told again.
I am also not surprised that you have met Indonesians who believe this is a variant Madurese style. There are Americans (far too many in fact) that also know little of their past culture and this country is less than 250 years old. Despite what we as keris collectors know on the subject, keris is no longer in the forefront of the Indonesian mindset. Ignorant and uninformed people live in all cultures. That you have confused a few Indonesians with this is not at all surprising, but it validates nothing. But i believe it is our responsibility to keep keris culture alive and increase the wealth and knowledge of this wonderful cultural icon, not to confuse the issue and pollute the field with nonsensical cultural appropriations.
This thread is closed.