OCR Text |
Show Origin of Stave Churches The origin of the quaint and beautiful beau-tiful Norwegian stave churches is somewhat uncertain, but it is thought that they were fashioned after the style of the Viking ships. In a country where shipbuilders were the best carpenters, wooden buildings erected by them were likely like-ly to be influenced by the traditions of the shipyard. Many features support sup-port this theory, such as the method of locking the planks together, and the practice of carving and ornamenting orna-menting the gables with dragons' heads seems to suggest that they were borrowed from the dragonhead dragon-head beaks of the Vikings' ships. |