12th of December

(Klik på billedet for en større version)

AM 371 fol. is a report from 1627 on Norwegian "antiquities", i.e. monuments. The report contains several coloured drawings and information on runestones and monuments with runic inscriptions written by Peder Alfsen, a cantor and lecturer at the learned school in Kristiania (Oslo) and doctor. He travelled around Norway on behalf of Danish doctor and antiquary Ole Worm (1588-1654). 

The drawing found on f. 6v is a drawing of a tapestry found in a church by the farm Bilden in Hadeland just north of Oslo, where it may have been used as an antependium on the alter. Ole Worm described the tapestry in his work Monumenta Danica (1643), and he may have included the tapestry in his cabinet of curiosities, but it has since been lost. 

The drawing on f. 6v shows a hunter with a spear, a stag, hawk and a hunting dog. Another man is depicted vertically behind the stag's antlers. A third man is seen standing in a stream with some kind of fishing intstrument.
In the middle there is a runic inscription which reads [loþen × mærkæþe uer × raknilti × systur×totor sini] ”Lodin mærkede våret for Ragnhild, sin søsterdatter” ("Loðinn marked the coverlet for Ragnhildr, his niece". See: http://skaldic.abdn.ac.uk/m.php?p=ms&i=19802 )
On the right-hand side of the drawing is a king of lion or griffin, with a lion's head and body but with a long scaly neck. The left side of the drawing appeares to have been cut at some point, and we do not know if there was more to the picture.

The tapestry has been dated to the 12th century based in this imagery.