Scandinavian animal ornamentation was the most characteristic imagery of the Late Iron Age. It was produced from the end of the 3rd century to the middle of the 12th century. Despite an obvious stylistic variation over time, the central motifs remained the same. The focus was on stylized animal and human figures whose bodies were often stretched out lengthwise and bound in more or less complicated weaving patterns. In its oldest variants, animal ornamentation can be found on weapons and armor in the large southern Scandinavian weapon sacrifice finds, but also on costume buckles and monumental stones. At the time of Christianization, rune stones, church buildings and church furnishings were also decorated with animal ornamentation. The fact that animal ornamentation was produced over several centuries suggests that it had deep social and cultural meanings in contemporary Scandinavia. The question is what these meanings were. The aim of the thesis is to shed light on the symbolic meanings of Scandinavian animal ornamentation in a long-term perspective, from the end of the Roman Iron Age to the middle of the 12th century. The focus is on animal ornamentation as a centuries-old pictorial tradition in relation to social and cultural conditions in contemporary Scandinavia, not least the change of religion. In order to deepen our understanding of animal ornamentation as a traditional, but at the same time innovative expression, comparisons are made with the partly contemporary Norse skaldic poetry.