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76 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
me to form a connecting link between the Mosque of
St. Sophia and our more recent Gothic edifices. The
idea of deriving the pointed Gothic arch and nave from
the old Scandinavian shrine, or sarcophagus of the
sea-kings—a ship hauled ashore and placed keel uppermost—
is most feasible; for if instead of placing the inverted
ship upon natural pillars of the craggy coast-rocks of
Norway, a "wooden roof with beams, ribs, &c., shaped
like a ship’s hull, were placed on a Byzantine colonnade
and arches, with a rude Byzantine cupola at. the stern
end, we should have exactly what appears to have been
the original form of this shrine and sarcophagus of the
converted and canonized old Scandinavian king, St.
Olaf. The date of its construction extends from about
1033 to 1248.
It may be thought presumptuous on my part to
express an opinion, having only read the stone records,
and none whatever of the many printed treatises on the
subject; but still I cannot refrain from protesting
against the practice of applying the name of either
Saxon or Norman to the rounded arch with the zig-zag
ornaments and squat columns, with capitals that all
differ from each other in everything but the common
attribute of ugliness. These in all their varieties are
unmitigated Byzantine barbarisms: the architectural
refuse of the decaying Roman empire, they are but bad
copies of what we may see yet remaining in
Constantinople, in the subterranean temple, or rather reservoir,
of the thousand and one columns, and in the Mosque
of St. Sophia.
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