Viking Age images rarely appear as independent monuments. Most often they are decorations on everyday objects. Therefore, animal ornamentation has mostly been treated as meaningless decoration. But in the oral culture of the Viking Age, it would have been a waste of resources not to take advantage of the potential of the decoration for visual messages. For this reason, animal ornamentation has been discussed in connection with Viking sagas. Indeed, a recurring story in medieval literature is that of a Viking poet who happened to see a beautiful image, which prompted him to improvise a visual poem. This raises the question of whether Viking utility objects could give rise to similar situations. Did the decoration serve as a memory aid, or are they just nonsense motifs? Over the past few years, I have analyzed the animal ornaments from the perspectives of archaeology, design, art history and cognitive theory. I did this as a self-funded PhD student. The work has led to exciting results that have been published in a number of scientific articles. In connection with this, I have pursued a continuous methodological development. This is necessary as archaeology has long neglected its main source material - the objects - in favor of theoretical thought exercises. It is hoped that my new standard will contribute to the revitalization of archaeology. Nevertheless, every doctoral student has to take stock sooner or later. I am achieving this by completing my monograph at Uppsala University.