Viking Designs
By Elaine Handley

      When Vikings weren’t looting and pillaging or sailing the seas, they were basically a peaceful lot, quietly farming or creating beautiful artwork. Here is a whole bookful of it, handily transformed into line drawings for transforming your next project into something a bit different. Adding a Viking-themed design source book is a stroke of real imagination, as it is not something that instantly springs to mind. Here are intricate knotwork patterns, fierce warriors and maidens with long plaits, ships and swords, fanciful beasts and intricate floral motifs.

       In common with the rest of this series, these are large page-sized designs, although some of them are not too detailed so they can be scaled down if desired. The buyer is free to use the designs for their personal use or sell the items they make for charity, but these are not public domain, so no commercial use is permissible. What sort of projects can they be used for? I keep seeing a bold bedspread, knotted rug or wallhanging worthy of a Viking banqueting hall, but the author also suggests taking a section of a picture and enlarging it to create something new, which is a delightful idea and certainly gets me wanting to have a go at it. A more versatile book than it might appear at first glance, and certainly original.