Beyond The Little Book of Viking Age Symbols:

Expanded Reading & References

Maintained by Joseph S. Hopkins for Hyldyr, December 2023. Updated Februrary 2025. Special thanks to Ann Sheffield.

The present resource serves as an extension to the following Hyldyr publication:

For readers without a copy, please note that (despite the title) the book contains discussion and depictions of imagery related to but exterior to Viking Age Scandinavia, containing extensive discussion about symbolism used by for example the Anglo-Saxons and continental Germanic-speaking peoples. It also includes discussion of symbols thought to be ancient but of much more recent origins.

On this web page we provide an expanding roster of resources readers will find useful for further research. To make matters easiest for most readers, we have wherever possible focused on modern and (mostly) English language publications.

For a general discussion on relevant ‘getting started’ guide and translations of primary sources, see “Getting Started with Norse Mythology” at Mimisbrunnr.info, and for a list of relevant digital collections, see “Museum Resources: Digital Collection Catalogues” at Mimisbrunnr.info.

Index

Click any of the following links to go directly to the entry

Ancient symbols

Contemporary symbols

Ancient Symbols

This section includes both visual and literary symbols found in not only the Viking Age but also among related peoples, such as the continental Germanic-speaking peoples and the Anglo-Saxons.

Antler

Apple

Boar

Cat

  • Petersen, Peter Vang. 2023. "Wheels for Freyja's Chariot? Wheel-shaped Pendants from the Viking Age" in Leszek Gardeła, Sophie Bønding, & Peter Pentz (eds.). The Norse Sorceress: Mind and Materiality in the Viking World, p. 463-468. Oxbow Books.

  • Pezzoli, Luciano. 2023. "The Oseberg Wagon: Reopening the Case" in Leszek Gardeła, Sophie Bønding, & Peter Pentz (eds.). The Norse Sorceress: Mind and Materiality in the Viking World, p. 239-255. Oxbow Books.

  • Toplak, Matthias. 2019. "The Warrior and the Cat: A Re-Evaluation of the Roles of Domestic Cats in Viking Age Scandinavia". Current Swedish Archaeology 27, p. 213-245.

Drinking horn

Genitals

Hair

Horned helmet

Horse

  • Armstrong Oma, Kristin. 2022. “The Steed Knew Well His Master Was Slain: Human-Horse Relationships in the Age of Heroes— The Scandinavian Iron Age" in Gala Argent & Jeannette Vaught (eds.). The Relational Horse: How Frameworks of Communication, Care, Politics and Power Reveal and Conceal Equine Selves, p. 77-89. Brill.

  • Gjessing, Gutorm. 1943. “Hesten i førhistorisk kunst og kultus”, in Viking, 7, 1943, p. 5-144.

  • Henderson, Rebecca. 2022. “Hrafn ok Sleipnir, hestar ágætir: Horses of the Medieval North” in Anastasija Ropa & Timothy George Dawson (eds.). Echoing Hooves: Studies on Horses and Their Effects on Medieval Societies, p. 49-56. Brill.

  • Pedersen, Anne & Merethe Schifter Bagge. 2021. Horse and Rider in the Late Viking Age: Equestrian Burial in Perspective. Aarhus University Press.

Mask

  • Image item: “Århus-runesten 3”. National Museum of Denmark. Web.

  • Gunnell, Terry. “Introduction” in Ed. Terry Gunnell. Masks and Mumming in the Nordic Area. Acta academiae regiae Gustavi Adolphi 98. Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folkkultur.

Mead

  • Image item B: “Valkyrie fra Nygård”. National Museum of Denmark. Web.

  • Buckley, James. 2015. Inspiration and Inebriation: Transformative Drinks in Old Norse Literature. MPhil Dissertation, University of Cambridge.

  • Eriksen, Stefka G.. 2018. “‘Liquid Knowledge’ in Old Norse Literature and Culture.” Viator 49.2: 169–197.

  • Grage, Joachim. 2001. “Der Vergessenheitstrank: Zur Funktion der magischen Amnesie in der Nibelungenüberlieferung.” Arbeiten zur Skandinavistik 14: Arbeitstagung der deutschsprachigen Skandinavistik, 1.–5.9.1999 in München, ed. Annegret Heitman, 499–507. Frankfurt am Main: Lang.

  • Hopkins, Joseph S. 2020. “Bee & Honey”. Mimisbrunnr.info. Web.

  • Nelson, Max. 2005. The Barbarian’s Beverage: A History of Beer in Ancient Europe. London: Routledge.

  • Nordland, Odd. 1969. Brewing and Beer Traditions in Norway: The Social Anthropological Background of the Brewing Industry. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

  • Orton, Peter. 2007. “Spouting Poetry: Cognitive Metaphor and Conceptual Blending in the Old Norse Myth of the Poetic Mead.” In Constructing Nations, Reconstructing Myth: Essays in Honour of T. A. Shippey, edited by Andrew Wawn, Graham Johnson, and John Walter, 277–300. Turnhout: Brepols.

  • Quinn, Judy. 2010. “Liquid Knowledge: Traditional Conceptualisations of Learning in Eddic Poetry.” In Along the Oral-Written Continuum: Types of Texts, Relations and Their Implications, edited by Slavica Ranković, Leidulf Melve, and Else Mundal, 183–226. Turnhout: Brepols.

  • Sheffield, Ann. 2023. “Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature.” Scandinavian Studies 95.1: 85–107.

  • Stephens, John. 1972. “The Mead of Poetry: Myth and Metaphor.” Neophilologus 56 (3): 259–68.

  • Svava Jakobsdóttir. 2002. “Gunnlǫð and the Precious Mead.” Translated by Katrina Attwood. In The Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology, edited by Paul Acker and Carolyne Larrington, 27–57. New York: Routledge.

  • Unger, Richard W. 2004. Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

  • Viklund, Karin. 2011. “Beer Brewing in Medieval Sweden: Archaeobotanical and Documentary Evidence.” In Processing, Storage, Distribution of Food: Food in the Medieval Rural Environment, edited by Jan Klápště and Petr Sommer, 235–43. Turnhout: Brepols.

  • Zimmerman, Ute. 2014. “Bier, Runen und Macht: Ein Formelwort im Kontext.” Futhark: International Journal of Runic Studies 5: 45–64.

Raven

Rune (Historic)

  • Beck, Wolfgang. 2021. "Reading Runes in Late Medieval Manuscripts" in Mindy LacLeod, Marco Bianchi, and Henrik Williams (eds). Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions, Nyköping, Sweden, 2–6 September 2014, p. 225-232. Uppsala.

  • Looijenga, Tineke. 2020. "Germanic: Runes" in Palaeohispánica 20, p. 819-853. Institucion Fernando el Catolico de la Excma. Diputacion de Zaragoza.

  • Page, R.I. 1999. An Introduction to English Runes. Boydell Press.

  • MacLeod, Mindy & Bernard Mees. 2006. Runic Amulets and Magic Objects. Boydell Press.

  • Spurkland, Terje. 2005 [2001]. Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions. Boydell Press

Serpent, Dragon, & Wyrm

  • Gardeła, Leszek. 2020. “Uncoiling the Serpent: Snake Figurines in the Viking Age.” Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 16, p. 27–61.

  • Gräslund, Annie-Sofie. "Wolves, serpents, & birds: Their symbolic meaning in Old Norse belief" in Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert, & Catharina Raudvere (eds). Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspectives, p. 124-129.

  • Johansen, Birgitta. 1997. Ormalur: Aspekter av tillvaro och landskap. Ph.D. thesis, Stockholms universitet. Stockholm Studies in Archaeology 14. (Summary is in English)

Ship

Spear

Image item: “C55000/1”. National Museum of Norway. Web.

Swastika

  • Mees, Bernard. 2008. The Science of the Swastika. Central European University Press.

Sword

  • Image item: “Valkyriefigur fra Tjørnehøj, Hårby s.”. National Museum of Denmark. Web.

  • Ellis Davidson, Hilda. [1998] 1962. The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England. The Boydell Press.

  • Peirce, Ian G. 2002. Swords of the Viking Age. The Boydell Press.

Tree & Grove

  • Bintley, Michael D. J. 2015. Trees in the Religions of Early Medieval England. Boydell & Brewer.

  • Cusack, Carole M. 2011. The Sacred Tree: Ancient and Medieval Manifestations. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

  • Dowden, Ken. 2002 [2000]. European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Routledge.

  • Hooke, Della. 2010. Trees in Anglo-Saxon England: Literature, Lore and Landscape. The Boydell Press.

  • Hopkins, Joseph S. 2020. "Sacred Tree & Holy Grove". Mimisbrunnr.info. Web.

Thor’s Hammer/Mjölnir

Three & Nine

Valknut

Wolf

Contemporary SYMBOLS

In this section we examine contemporary symbols, including those often mistaken to be ancient.

Black Sun (Schwarze Sonne)

Note that this symbol is sometimes incorrectly referred to as “the Sonnenrad”. However, German Sonnenrad is just a common noun meaning ‘sun wheel’, a category often including symbols like the swastika and the Black Sun.

Teudt’s “Irminsul”

“Valkyrie wing” tattoo

Web of Wyrd

Wolfsangel

Related resource

See Also

Cover of "The Nine Plants Spell" by Joseph S. Hopkins
Cover of "Lady Elder Tree" by Hopkins & Hjarnø Rasmussen
Cover of "The Folk of the Mountain Door" by William Morris
Cover of "The Roots of the Mountain: Part I of II" by William Morris
Cover of "The Roots of the Mountain: Part II of II" by William Morris
Cover of "Dark Forest Longing" by Ludwig Tieck
Cover of "The Elder Futhark: The Oldest Runes" by Alberts & Hopkins
Cover of "The Comparative Völuspá: The Viking Age Prophecy of Birth, Death, & Rebirth"
Cover of "The Galdrabók: Forbidden Icelandic Folk Magic" by Kári Pálsson