File:Brooch. -5243 (FindID 12771).jpg

English: Large and complete trefoil Viking brooch. Three attachments on back. Borre/Jellinge style.

Seen and described by Caroline Paterson: Substantial trefoil brooch with Borre/Jellinge style cast ornament belonging to Petersen's type 109, which is based on the fine prototype from Blaker, Oppland, Norway. The brooch is most probably of cast copper alloy with traces of gilding on its upper surface and white metal plating on the reverse. Corrosion stains on the reverse indicate that the pin, of which there are slight remains in the double attachment lug, was iron.

The ornament is an example of the Borre/Jellinge transitional phase, with the en-face animal head and balanced loping of the animals body typical of the former style, whilst the extended ribbon interlacings, pelleting and spiral joints are more characteristic of the latter style. These features suggest a mid-ninth to mid-tenth date for the finds manufacture.

Although the trefoil brooch is of a standard Scandinavian type, its substantial dimensions and the apparent absence of large numbers of parallels suggest this was quite an exclusive series. It is paralleled by the type find from Hvaleby, Oppland, Norway(Petersen1928,109ff) and by two recent finds from Denmark, namely Sebbersund and Ottestrup (Christensen and Johansen 1991,209,fig.6; Eriksen 1991,193-4,fig.11). The latter site is close to the military encampment of Trelleborg, and the former to the similar structure at Aggersborg. Although dendrochronology has now dismissed the theory that these encampments were constructed for attacks on the British Isles, their important strategic locations with easy access to the North Sea could well provide the context from which this recent trefoil brooch find from England originally came.