The Germanic animal style is typical of Germanic art from c. 475-1100 AD but we can see it existed in an earlier form too.

In the 3rd century, Northern Europeans, who had formerly been influenced artistically mainly by Celts, and more recently by Romans, adopted an old Scythian way of depicting stags and other quadrupeds that would become the “backward facing beast” motif which endured to the Viking age.

On the Thorsberg disc, c. 250 AD, which is mainly in a Roman style, there are also four beasts in a Scytho-Germanic style. A gold disc from Tannendorf in Lower Saxony c. 300 AD has an early backward facing beast, and other deer-like animals with S shaped bodies are seen on Nordic drinking vessels dated to the 3rd century.

Nehalennia - Celtic-Germanic goddess, worshipped by travellers that crossed the North Sea from the Netherlands and/or went into the rivers networks.

It's finally complete! My first collab piece with Ianthine Art featuring her original individual rune designs. Check out her channel for more of her lovely work.

I inverted her original Othala design to better work with stenciling. I added a gilded Yggdrasil symbol to the center and surrounded it all with ash tree branches.

This piece will be available with my autumn collection drop this weekend!

Materials- black walnut, acrylics, foil, polymer, and resin.