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tips and most of the branches were cut off, leaving the trunks just barely alive
to stand in the woods for about a decade. This allowed the sap to penetrate the
wood and lock in the resin, strengthening the wood while keeping it elastic.
Once built, a stave church was slathered with black tar to protect it from the
elements.
Stave churches are notable for their resilience and flexibility. Just as old
houses creak and settle over the years, wooden stave churches can flex to
withstand fierce winds and the march of time. When the wind shifts with the
seasons, stave churches groan and moan for a couple of weeks...until they've
adjusted to the new influences, and settle in.
Even after the Vikings stopped raiding, they ornamented the exteriors of
their churches with warlike, evil spirit-fighting dragons reminiscent of their
ships. Inside, a stave church's structure makes you feel like you're huddled
under an overturned ship. The churches are dark, with almost no windows
(aside from a few small “portholes” high up). Typical decorations include
carved, X-shaped crossbeams; these symbolize the cross of St. Andrew (who
was crucified on such a cross). Round, Romanesque arches near the tops of
the staves were made from the “knees” of a tree, where the roots bend to meet
the trunk (typically the hardest wood in a tree). Overall, these churches are
extremely vertical: the beams inside and the roofline outside both lead the eye
up, up, up to the heavens.
Most surviving stave churches were renovated during the Reformation
(16th and 17th centuries), when they acquired more horizontal elements such
as pews, balconies, pulpits, altars, and other decorations to draw attention to
the front of the church. In some (such as the churches in Lom and Urnes),
the additions make the church feel almost cluttered. But the most authentic
(including Hopperstad near Vik) feel truly medieval. These time-machine
churches take visitors back to early Christian days: no pews (worshippers
stood through the service), no pulpit, and a barrier between the congregation
and the priest, to symbolically separate the physical world from the spiritual
one. Incense filled the church, and the priest and congregation chanted the ser-
vice back and forth to each other, creating an otherworldly atmosphere that
likely made worshippers feel close to God. (If you've traveled in Greece, Rus-
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