Viking Style Woodcarved Bookshelf - Week 1

Okay, never tried woodcarving before. Joined up for a four hour session on Mondays every week yesterday and plan to post an update image every week. And as for what I decided to do, skip the learning curve and jump right onto the fun stuff.
I found a basic design, and the first thing I did was modify it to be even more difficult, and I adapted it to become a side for a one level bookshelf, which I sorely need seeing as how I just last week found and bought an edition of Snorri Sturluson's Viking Sagas from 1942 deserving of a bookshelf just like this.
So my plan is to first carve this, and then carve a mirrored version for the other end, and then I will design and carve out the entire back end based on a nearly 1200 years old chest found in the Norwegian Oseberg Viking Ship Grave.
So what do I tell myself concerning this project? Good luck.