Mangle Board with Heddal Stave Church portal design.
ONCE UPON A TIME, a church was built by a troll. The church was called Ryginar and was in a place called Heitradali, in Telemark. This place of worship was so large and so grand that it could not possibly have been the work of a human being. It was rumored that sorcery must have been involved. Although more rational explanations for the church's existence turned up later, wonderment about this impressive piece of architecture, Norway's largest stave church, has not lessened over the years.
For example, Bishop Jens Nilsson wrote the following about the church after having seen it on an official visit in 1595: "Heiterdal's church is a wooden structure, built in a most amazing manner with three small towers, one on the eastern end of the chancel, one on the centre of the chancel, and one, the largest, with bells hanging from it, on the centre of the church."
"Our most luxurious and beautiful monument of this kind," was art historian and professor Lorentz Dietrichson's description of the church.
Unlike so many other churches, Heddal is not placed on a high elevation, but on the level field along the Heddola River. This made it easy for the farmers who lived around Lake Heddal, to get themselves to church by boat. It is likely that this church, referred to as "a gothic cathedral in wood," and consecrated to the Virgin Mary, was built in about 1250 during the prosperous reign of Hakon Hakonsson. This date is deduced from a runic inscription on the fourth wall board to the right of the southern entrance portal, and from carvings on the portal itself in which foliage and vine ornamentation make a strong appearance in combination with the older animal ornamentation. However there is no recorded mention of the church until 1315, in connection with a change of ownership. Like many other churches, the Heddal stave church is possibly the second on the same location. It is thought that the chancel of the present structure was originally the nave of a smaller church from the 1100s.
The photos below show the design of the portal art that has been carved on the Mangle Board. It comes from the right side portal of the door found on the south wall and is known as Heddal I. The basic design consists of interlocking closed circles or loops. They are decorated with a tangle of various plant scrolls and snakes. Through the branches flow a number of small snakes, infilling empty areas.
