Norse people also used more common ancient symbols, like the swastika, found in many premodern European and Asian cultures. Indigenous Norse symbols are relatively few in number but are repeatedly seen in many Norse stories and artifacts. The earliest symbols of Norse culture date from the Viking Age (circa 790-1100) or before. The Islendingasögur, or Family Sagas, is the most famous, but the Fornaldarsögur, or Legendary Sagas, offers wild and mythological tales of heroic encounters with trolls, witches, and shapeshifters. Exciting stories, historical and mythical, of the Viking Age, these 13th to 15th-century works, some epic in length, detail travels, politics, economics, law, and supernatural encounters. As with the Poetic Edda, Snorri’s book includes the Norse creation epic, and tales of the major gods, including Odin, Thor, Loki, the Aesir and Vanir, and the main geographies of the Norse universe.įinally, the Icelandic sagas are the pearl of Old Norse literary tradition. Snorri, a powerful Chieftain and Christian, wrote the Edda to preserve both poetic tradition and the ancestors’ beliefs. Here the reader finds the origins of the Norse mythological and ethical world.īased on the Poetic Edda, Snorri Sturlusson’s Prose Edda is a more accessible source for Old Norse beliefs. Most famously, it also includes the Hávamál, the sayings of Odin, and the Völuspá, or the sayings of the Vala, a seer or priestess. Written down in the 13th century, it includes heroic tales, including both Creation and Ragnarök. The Poetic or Elder Edda is a collection of works by anonymous authors, orally composed in the 10th century. The two Eddas, the Poetic Edda, and the Prose Edda offer insight into pre-Christian Norse traditions. Textual sources from Iceland provide the most precise descriptions of the powerful symbols and images that defined traditional Norse thought. The metalwork from graves like Købelev in Denmark, images from runestones in Sweden, and various objects from ship burials in Norway help us reconstruct early Norse beliefs. Sources for the SymbolsĪrchaeology perhaps offers the best testament to early Norse symbols and traditions. These ideas embody the strength, cunning, and power associated with these North Atlantic warriors. Norse symbols, including Mjöllnir, Yggdrasil, Valknut, Ægishjálmur, and Svefnþorn, reveal the earliest Viking warrior culture.
#Glow shift guage button series
A series of symbols affiliated with their most prominent gods help us better understand their central beliefs.
Their seafaring abilities, sense of adventure, and complex mythologies and world views continue to fascinate us. Once seen solely as barbaric raiders, scholars now recognize the complex and sophisticated culture and ideologies of these Scandinavian raiders. In recent years, our perception of Vikings has transformed.
0 kommentar(er)
