A Viking’s Silver Osprey in Gold

Silver Osprey Reinterpretation

This was one of those scrolls that just manifested itself! The award is an Atlantian fighting award of two Osprey around a sword. I was told that the recipient had a Viking persona, and not much more beyond the reason for the award, garnered from the Herald’s report on the Book of Faces.

The actual award

I have seen variations on these Viking birds for a while as reproduction pieces, jewelry, etc. These pieces are pulled from harness mounts recovered in a find from Gotland in Sweden and dated to about 600 n. Chr. They are now on exhibit in the Statens Historiska Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.) centered around a broad sword.

The design layout

Freshly laid gesso

Impressions

I drew in outlines on pergamenata, then used raised gesso to create each bird, imprinting the patterns on the solidifying gesso. (Hindsight: should have done those a bit sooner than I did…the gesso was quite firm!)

Getting a photo of the gold leaf sparkling was a bit hard. The sword contained the transliteration of the award in runes to present the award and the hilt of the sword became his (future) heraldry.