While some will say that they were more or less only an alphabet, I feel that is overly simplistic. This process likely took decades or even a century and went on long into the Viking Age.Īs with almost everything Old Norse, opinions are varied when it comes to runes as symbols. The Elder Futhark was replaced by the Younger Futhark around the late 8th century. There are several different systems of runes, but the most well-known are the Elder Futhark and Younger Futhark, which consist of 24 and 16 runes respectively. They were also used for divination and as a means of casting spells. Their use spans from inscriptions on small objects and talismans to carvings on runestones and other large objects and recording laws and historical events. Yes, the runes were the Vikings alphabet, but they could also be magical and used for all manner of things. The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons ![]() Here we will dive into some of the most well-known and iconic symbols of Norse mythology, including runes, the Helm of Awe, the Horns of Odin, the Vegvisir, the Sun wheel, Mjöllnir, the Svefnthorn, and the Valknut. Scaring your enemy, protecting from evil, or putting an adversary to sleep. In this culture, symbols held a special place and were used for all manner of things. The gods walked among them and could be invoked for help, evil spirits had to be placated, your fate was predestined and magic was all around. They also didn’t necessarily have a clear distinction between what was “real” and what was based on belief in something we would call supernatural. Instead of written stories, they had a rich storytelling tradition. The Vikings had a strong oral culture where literacy rates were likely quite low. While it’s old, they were definitely not Vikings.Īs for the Valknut, there seems to me to be a straightforward case for why the name is wrong, but the symbol is truly Viking Age. When you are my age, that is the same century as my great grandparents. The oldest descriptions of the Vegvisir are from a few manuscripts from the 19th century. The latter however is decidedly so but is named incorrectly. The former is really not associated with the Viking Age at all. Two good examples are the Vegvisir and the Valknut symbols. ![]() While some symbols are controversial because we are unsure of their true name, others might be less Viking Age than you probably believe. In saying that, my personal position is that it is important to keep an open mind when considering the origins and sources of these symbols. Others, less so, and remain both mysterious and harder to prove to be directly from the Vikings. Some of these symbols are fairly well understood or at least documented in old texts and artifacts. ![]() Before diving into discussing the symbols in this list I want to make a couple of points.
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