For the barbarians, as for most primitive peoples, life was a constant battle for survival—against the stormy northern environment, against wild animals, against neighboring tribes. Such a life bred men of stubborn independence, like the anonymous Viking warrior whose fiercely mus-tached profile, carved in elkhorn, appears at center right.
It also bred men of fanciful imagination. In an effort to explain or influence the forces that shaped their lives, the barbarian peoples devised myths and legends, cults and gods. Frequently these gods were in their own fierce image, like the Celtic deity Cernunnos, whose powerful, magnificently whiskered visage is seen above. Other, later incarnations of the supernatural expressed the barbarians'feeling for mysticism; the massive-headed little figure at far right combines the forbidding features of a pagan idol with cryptic Early Christian markings on its chest.
World History
