# Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics (Munthe & Karelianism)

> The flat, decorative branch of Norway's and Finland's national romanticism, which turned Viking carving, the sagas, the Kalevala and old peasant weaving into modern ornament. Gerhard Munthe set the woodcut-like pen style and blackletter type of the 1899 saga edition, had Draumkvæde (1904) hand-lettered after Norse saga manuscripts, and designed tapestries of stiff myth figures in flat folk colour; Akseli Gallen-Kallela gave the Kalevala bold outlines and flat colour in woodcuts, frescoes, ryijy rugs and book vignettes; Dragestil timber buildings carried dragon heads.

- Period: 1880–1922
- Where: Northern Europe
- Origin: Kristiania (Oslo) and Lysaker in Norway, Helsinki and Ruovesi in Finland: Norwegian Dragestil timber architecture (c. 1880–1910), drawn from the stave churches and the Tune (1867) and Gokstad (1880) ship finds, joined after 1904 by Oseberg (Holm Munthe, Balthazar Lange); Gerhard Munthe's decorative art from the early 1890s, from tapestry cartoons (1893) to the saga edition Snorre Sturlason: Norges Kongesagaer (1899) and Draumkvæde (1904); and Akseli Gallen-Kallela's Karelianism, from his 1890 journey to East Karelia to gather Kalevala material to the Koru-Kalevala (WSOY, 1922). The entry covers the flat, decorative branch of Nordic national romanticism; it leaves out the folk-tale and troll illustration of the same decades, Erik Werenskiold's and Theodor Kittelsen's for Asbjørnsen and Moe's Norwegian folk tales and John Bauer's for Sweden's Bland tomtar och troll (from 1907), and Denmark's skønvirke (Thorvald Bindesbøll)
- Branch: Craft & organic
- Also known as: Karelianism, Dragestil (dragon style, in architecture and ornament), Nordic National Romanticism (its flat decorative branch)
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/nordic-national-romanticism/

## Use it with care

In Norway the fascist Nasjonal Samling (1933–45) took a golden sun cross on red, which it claimed as St Olav's shield, for its emblem, leaned heavily on Viking art and symbolism and built on romantic nationalism, so keep saga warriors, dragon ships and the Olav cross away from ethnic-nationalist framing. Old signs near this material, the othala rune, the sun cross (also called Odin's cross) and Odin's valknut, are used by neo-Nazis and other white supremacists, though non-racist pagans also use the othala rune and the valknut: check how such a sign reads in context before borrowing it. Gallen-Kallela's 1918 insignia for the White Army's Order of the Cross of Liberty set a golden swastika into the cross: do not borrow it. Karelianism cast Karelia as a refuge of authentic Finnishness, and some of its ideas later fed the irredentist Greater Finland project, so do not present Karelian or Orthodox folk culture as merely Finland's past: Karelians are a living people with their own language and crafts. In these decades Norway's Norwegianisation policy pressed the Sámi to assimilate: do not fold Sámi duodji motifs into this Norse ornament.

## How it works

- Draw the myth, not the street: take figures from the sagas, the Kalevala and folk ballads, and stand them stiff and frontal in flat, frieze-like rows, as on a woven tapestry, or, with Gallen-Kallela, lock their action into heavy outlines and large flat fields of colour.
- Imitate the carver with the pen: draw in firm black outline and cut-like hatching that recalls the woodcut, and keep volume and perspective shallow.
- Keep two kinds of letter apart: set running text in a blackletter type, as Munthe did for the sagas, or hand-letter it after medieval Norse saga manuscripts, as in Draumkvæde, with long swashed ascenders and descenders and ornamented capitals in red; draw titles by hand, in red and black above a frieze of animals, or in heavy rustic capitals as on Gallen-Kallela's posters.
- Lay colour in large flat fields of folk dyes, madder red, ochre, deep blue and green, on a linen-toned ground, taken from old tapestries, åkle coverlets and ryijy rugs.
- Take ornament from Viking carving and peasant craft, dragon and serpent heads, interlaced bands and woven geometric borders, and use it for vignettes, bindings, headpieces and gables instead of Art Nouveau whiplash and flowers.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Classical text block](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/classical-text-block/) (characteristic)
- [All-over field](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Measured density](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/measured-density/) (characteristic)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (characteristic)
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (characteristic)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [Blackletter](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/blackletter/) (characteristic)
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (occasional)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Earth & mineral](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/earth-and-mineral/) (characteristic)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (characteristic)
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Jewel & metallic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/jewel-and-metallic/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (characteristic)
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (defining)
- [Carved line](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/carved-line/) (characteristic)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (defining)
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (characteristic)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (characteristic)
- [Geometric tessellation](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-tessellation/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (defining)
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Textile & craft](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/textile-and-craft/) (defining)
- [Letterpress](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/letterpress/) (characteristic)
- [Architecture & signage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/architecture-and-signage/) (characteristic)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (characteristic)
- [Hand-painted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-painted/) (occasional)
- [Woodblock & linocut](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/woodblock-and-linocut/) (occasional)
- [Lithography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/lithography/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Nostalgic & retro](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/nostalgic-and-retro/) (defining)
- [Romantic & sensual](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/romantic-and-sensual/) (characteristic)
- [Authoritative & institutional](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/authoritative-and-institutional/) (characteristic)
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (occasional)

Avoids: Whiplash line, Grotesque & neo-grotesque, Geometric sans, Straight photography, Ornament-free, Gradients, Pastel, Modular grid, Illusion of depth, Ironic & self-aware

Palette: #e8dcc2, #2a1f17, #a3342b, #c9932e, #2e4a7d, #56703f

Typefaces: The hand-lettered text of Draumkvæde (1904): a pen hand of blackletter character with long swashed ascenders and descenders, modelled on Norse saga manuscripts of the 13th and early 14th centuries, above all Codex Frisianus (c. 1300–1325), with ornamented capitals in red, some roman and some blackletter; drawn by Aug. Sørensen after Munthe's models, The blackletter text type Munthe chose for Snorre Sturlason: Norges Kongesagaer (1899), not named in the sources; the National Library of Norway's scan shows it in a justified block, with long s and emphasis by letterspacing, beneath his hand-drawn red-and-black saga titles and initials, Muntheschrift, Gebr. Klingspor's type after the Draumkvæde hand: proofed in 12 and 16 pt in 1910 but never completed or released, its material destroyed in 1944; Fabritius-skriften (1962) and Torbjørn Eng's digital Frisianus (1994, FrisianusOT 2011) were later drawn in its spirit, Gallen-Kallela's hand-drawn poster capitals: the heavy block letters of Bil-Bol (1907) and the rustic capitals, with a round uncial E and V for U, of his lithograph poster for the exhibition of German art at the Ateneum, Helsinki (1922)

Known for: Snorre Sturlason, Norges Kongesagaer (Kristiania: J. M. Stenersen, 1899; Gustav Storm's translation; a state-subsidised national edition of 1900 in 70,000 riksmål and 30,000 landsmål copies): Gerhard Munthe designed the binding, title page, endpapers and all the vignettes, chose the blackletter text type and set the pen-drawn, woodcut-like illustration style for all its artists, while Erik Werenskiold led the team of illustrators: of some 220 pictures Werenskiold drew 57, Krohg 47, Wetlesen 43, Egedius 37, Munthe 27 and Peterssen 8, and Werenskiold's, such as the sacrifice of King Dómaldr, set the figures in landscape before a horizon (Munthe's pen drawing Bord, Eirikssønenes saga, 1899, Nasjonalmuseet NG.K&H.B.07191); Draumkvæde – Et digt fra Middelalderen (Foreningen for Norsk Bogkunst, publication no. 1, 1904; about 300 copies, most for the society's members), edited by Moltke Moe: Munthe's binding, watercolour illustrations reproduced in up to six colours with gold, and text hand-lettered by Aug. Sørensen after Munthe's models and Norse manuscripts, with red ornamented capitals; Gerhard Munthe, Nordlysdøtre (Daughters of the Northern Lights), tapestry after his watercolour Friere (Nordlysdøtrene) of 1892, woven in 1903 at the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum's tapestry atelier, Trondheim (Nasjonalmuseet OK-1996-0006); Gerhard Munthe, Indtoget i Myklagaard, tapestry woven by Det norske Billedvæveri, 1900–1906 (Nasjonalmuseet NMK.2017.0244); Akseli Gallen-Kallela, woodcuts Sammon taonta (The Forging of the Sampo) and Kalman kukka (The Flower of Death), 1895; Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Kalevala frescoes for the cupola of the Finnish Pavilion, Exposition Universelle, Paris 1900 (The Forging of the Sampo, The Defence of the Sampo, Ilmarinen Ploughing the Field of Vipers, The Departure of Väinämöinen), with his Liekki ryijy and the Iris Room for the Friends of Finnish Handicraft; Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Koru-Kalevala (WSOY, 1922), the Kalevala with his vignettes; Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Bil-Bol poster for an automobile retailer (1907)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Arts & Crafts Movement](https://stylogeny.com/styles/arts-and-crafts.md) (1860–1920)
- Influenced by: [Gothic Blackletter & Fraktur Tradition](https://stylogeny.com/styles/blackletter-fraktur.md) (c. 1180–present)
- Influenced by: [Art Nouveau](https://stylogeny.com/styles/art-nouveau.md) (1890–1910)
- Influenced by: [Japonisme](https://stylogeny.com/styles/japonisme.md) (1860–1910)
- Alike in its design choices: [Celtic Revival Illumination & Lettering](https://stylogeny.com/styles/celtic-revival.md) (1861–1951), 79% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Mir iskusstva Book Art](https://stylogeny.com/styles/mir-iskusstva.md) (1898–1927), 77% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Mithila (Madhubani) Painting](https://stylogeny.com/styles/mithila-painting.md) (c. 1350–present), 75% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Northwest Coast Formline Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/northwest-coast-formline.md) (1700–present), 71% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Bezalel School](https://stylogeny.com/styles/bezalel-school.md) (1906–1929), 71% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [European Heraldry](https://stylogeny.com/styles/european-heraldry.md) (c. 1140–present), 65% alike

## Sources

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragestil
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holm_Hansen_Munthe
- https://snl.no/Gerhard_Munthe
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Munthe
- Torbjørn Eng, 'From Draumkvæde of 1904 to the type proofs of Gebr. Klingspor', Typografi i Norge (2018, rev. 2024): https://typografi.org/munthe/muntheschrift.html
- https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/collection/object/OK-1996-0006
- https://nasjonalmuseet.no/en/collection/object/NMK.2017.0244
- https://nasjonalmuseet.no/en/collection/object/NG.K_H.B.07191
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akseli_Gallen-Kallela
- https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akseli_Gallen-Kallela
- Ateneum Art Museum, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, The Fratricide (1897), on his post-1895 Kalevala decorative works: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/HgHNa6D4ZMbPNQ
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelianism
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Cross_of_Liberty
- https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/valknot
- https://www.norgeshistorie.no/hoymiddelalder/0950_snorre-sturlassons-forfatterskap.html
- MyNDIR (University of Victoria), Kongesagaer (1899 ed.), illustrator counts: https://myndir.uvic.ca/SKng-1899.html
- MyNDIR, Erik Werenskiold, the sacrifice of King Dómaldr, Kongesagaer 1899: https://myndir.uvic.ca/SKng-1899-Oslo-016-01.html
- National Library of Norway, scan of Kongesagaer (1899): https://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2016050948137
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gerhard_Munthe_-_Titteldekorasjon,_H%C3%A5kon_Herdebreis_saga_-_NG.K%26H.B.03779_-_National_Museum_of_Art,_Architecture_and_Design.jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Draumkv%C3%A6de_1904_side_7.jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Akseli_Gallen-Kallela_-_Bil-Bol,_Poster_for_an_Automobile_Retailer.jpg
- Gallen-Kallela, poster for the German art exhibition at the Ateneum (1922, Ateneum): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Affiche_d%27Akseli_Gallen-Kallela.jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tune_ship
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gokstad_ship
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oseberg_ship
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Frisianus
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Werenskiold
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Kittelsen
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bauer_(illustrator)
- https://lex.dk/sk%C3%B8nvirke
- Japanomania in the North 1875–1918 (Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, 2016, with Ateneum and SMK), where Munthe's Nordlysdøtre was shown: https://nasjonalmuseet.no/en/exhibitions-and-events/the-national-gallery/exhibitions/2016/japanomania-in-the-north-18751918
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasjonal_Samling
- https://www.medievalists.net/2015/07/buried-forgotten-disinterred-the-1944-national-socialist-st-olav-monument-at-stiklestad
- https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/othala-rune
- https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/celtic-cross
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegianization

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics (Munthe & Karelianism)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/nordic-national-romanticism/