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Initial from the 7th century (Owen Jones). 
S 
THE KELTIC ORNAMENT. 
rnamental art, such as was developed in the British Isles, but more especially
in Ireland, 
even during the sway of heathenism, was, without any doubt, a pure Keltic
art of its own, without any traces of Byzantine or South European influences.
The very same ornamental work which we find in the old heathen stone coffins
are also to be seen in the manuscript paintings of the Keltic monks of the
sixth century. Keltic artists show a most astonishing and extraordinary skill
and variety in the delineation of ornamental tracery, in which the bodies
of birds, dogs, snakes and fantastic animals are most skillfully interwoven.
Vegetable ornaments 
were entirely absent in the earlier specimens of this work, appearing first
in the 9th century, very probably as the result of Roman influence. The very
great similarity existing between Scandinavian and Keltic ornament points
to a very close connection between the two styles of art, a fact which is
all the more evident when we remember .that Christianity was introduced into
Norway and Sweden by Irish missionaries.