In 1883 William Morris was approached to make stained glass for Vinland mansion, built in Newport, Rhode Island, for Catherine Lorillard Wolfe. After consulting Burne-Jones, Morris suggested subjects connected with the Norse voyagers to America (which they had called Vinland) and proposed "Odin Thor and Frey the 3 great Gods above the adventurers of Vinland." 1 He drew on his extensive knowledge of the Norse saga to recommend the choice of Thorfinn Karlsefne, his wife Gudridr, and Leif the Lucky, son of Erik the Red. These were the figures that duly appeared in two tiers on the staircase window, with three smaller panels above, two with inscriptions on scrolls flanking a Viking ship. 2 Morris’s interest came naturally to a self-confessed "man of the North," 3 but Burne-Jones was equally steeped in the stories and iconography of Norse mythology. For such a commission it was his practice to go to some lengths to get the details right, and here he invested his magnificently brooding cartoons with the proper atmosphere and associations. Odin, the northern equivalent of Jove, is shown as "the All-Father, the Wanderer of Wagner s Nibelungen cycle, with his two wolves, Geri and Freki, at his feet, and the two ravens, Hugin and Munin, perched upon his shoulder, the cap of darkness drawn down over his missing eye, and in his hands the magic spear that Siegfried shattered." 4 This was the center panel of the window, with Thor on the left, armed with his mallet and thunderbolts, and Frey, goddess of the harvest, on the right. Asgard, which appears in the background of all three designs, looking rather more like Camelot, was the home of the Norse gods. The job evoked one of Burne-Jones's acid comments in his account book with the firm, under January 1884: "To six Norsemen - gods as heroes - price not originally fixed, but left to a shifting principle termed honour - this combined with sudden outburst of social views on subject of property has made of this contract something I would sooner not dwell upon now. After a scene of great pain to me price fixed at £25 each £150. For same set, a smaller design of Ship. Norse heroes on the sea making for other people’s property. £15. " 5 This sar- castic note was written at a time when Morris was deeply involved in the Socialist movement, but it may also refer to a disagreement over ownership of the cartoons, which Morris may have been insisting on, against Burne-Jones s expecta- tion - in view of the by now almost nominal recompense - to make of them independent and salable works of art, as he had previously done in exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery. All six of the main cartoons are in the Birmingham collection, and that for the Viking Ship is in the Carlisle Museum and Art Gallery. 6 The glass itself was removed from Vinland in 1934 and the panels dispersed; Leif the Lucky was known to be in an American private collection in 1975, and the Viking Ship is now in the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington. 1. William Morris, letter to an unidentified recipient (possibly the archi- tect of Vinland), April 11, 1883, in Morris, Letters, vol. 2a, 1881-1884 (1987), p. 182 (for further correspondence on the commission, see pp. 208, 422-25). Morris met Miss Wolfe in London on July 21, 1883, and although she ordered an embroidery from the firm, he was "sorry to say that she is sadly stupid, and I believe monstrously rich." 2. Sewter 1974-75, vol. II, pp. 224-25; another four-light window, in the library, was made in 1884 to designs by Walter Crane (apart from two small minstrel figures, his only stained glass for Morris & Company). 3. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, My Diaries, 2d ed. (London, 1932), p. 229. 4. Bell 1892 (1898), p. 69. 5. Sewter 1974—75, vol. II, p. 224. 6. Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (408-410’27, 1134-1136’270); the cartoons for Thor, Odin, and Frey are reproduced in ibid., vol. I, pis. 564-66, and that for the Viking Ship, pl. 562. The stained-glass panel of the Viking Ship is reproduced in Morris, Letters, vol. 2a, 1881-1884 (1987), p. 423.
Morris’ decorative arts company got under way in 1861. The early concentration on medieval design was gradually broadened to include other stylistic influences. Sometimes the style was dictated by the patron, as in the case of this stained glass piece, part of a larger window scheme for the Newport, Rhode Island, home of Catherine Lorillard Wolfe, a wealthy art patron. Her home, one of the earliest of the Newport Gilded Age “palaces,” was designed around a Viking theme, reflecting a local belief that the first Vikings on the continent landed nearby.
Letters of William Morris: April 11, 1883: "I propose Odin Thor and Frey the three great Gods above the adventurers of Vinland; & in the small lights, a ship the middle, & on each side a scroll, with the passages from Hávamál (Edda) about undying fame on it." April 15, 1885: "Gudrinn is holding a rune-staff because in the Thorfinns saga in the part about the 'little vala' it says that Gudrinn was wise in ancient lore and incantation. The background to the heroes is a conventional representation of the sea. The inscription on Gudrinns' rune-staff is only pictorial & can't be read."
