Bowed harp

Bowed harp (Swed. Stråkharpa), term coined by Otto Anderssen for the ancient Nordic lyre played with a bow; it survived until this century. A 12th-c. stone carving at Trondhjem Cathedral, Norway, is the oldest record we possess of one. According to Anderssen, the bowed harp followed a general stream of Northern culture that flowed from west to east. The bowed harp had an almost rectangular body hollowed out of a single block of wood or made of thin slats, with either a flat or a curved back…