The purpose of this blog is to explore the mythologies and religions of the Indo-European peoples with a particular emphasis on the Germanic, including symbology, mystical practices, dream analysis and runology.
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Wednesday, 21 August 2019
The Fylfot (Swastika) in Anglo-Saxon England
We are told repeatedly these days that the swastika symbol has 'nothing to do' with the German or Germanic peoples and belongs originally to Hindu civilisation etc. This of course is a bare faced lie for there is ample evidence for the use of this symbol by many pre-Christian Indo-European peoples outside of India. For this article I intend to focus exclusively on its use by the Anglo-Saxon and Norse peoples.
Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson refers to the use of the swastika or fylfot in Anglo-Saxon times in her remarkable Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (1964) and points out that it is to be found on funeral urns in pre-Christian England, especially in cemeteries in East Anglia. She points out the great care that was taken when carving the symbol with a high degree of precision so this symbol clearly had particular significance for our ancestors. She associates this symbol with Thunor, the Anglo-Saxon variant of the Norse Thor and by inscribing the fylfot on urns our ancestors were asking for Thunor's protection of the dead person. Likewise David Wilson comes to the same conclusion in his Anglo-Saxon Paganism (1992).
It needs to be remembered that Thunor or Thor is a God who is most closely associated with protection and the wearing of the hammer or axe amulet gives the wearer a feeling and consciousness that He walks before, behind and along side us. It is clear from the Eddas that Thor was invoked on at least three special occasions in the lives of His followers: birth, marriage and death. We know that many children were named after Thor in pre-Christian Iceland and Scandinavia. Often names incorporated 'Thor' as a prefix. It must be pointed out that probably no one would have been called 'Thor' but 'Thor' was included as part of a given name, e.g. Thorolf, Thorbjorn, Thorgrim, Thorgeir, Thorkel, Thormod, Thorsten, Thorvald, etc. Davidson points out that the hammer was "used to hallow the new-born child who was accepted into the community" (page 80).
Thor presided over marriage rites. A hammer would be placed on the lap of the bride which symbolically was a request for Thor to bless the woman with fertility. In the Lay of Thrym (Thrymskvida) in the Poetic Edda we have the story of how Thor won back His hammer from the giant Thrym by presenting Himself as the giant's bride. The hammer is placed into the hands of Thor as part of the wedding ceremony so what we have here is the mythological origin of this marriage ritual. Some scholars have drawn analogies between this and the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale recorded by the Grimm brothers. Bronze Age rock carvings in Bohuslan in Sweden show an axe wielding God standing over a couple which could be a very early pictorial depiction of a Thunder/Sky deity blessing a marriage.
Thor also presided over funeral rites. We already have evidence for the association of Thunor with funerary urns but there is also a story in Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda which relates the death and funeral of Baldr. Thor uses His hammer to consecrate the funeral fire.
In addition to the appearance of the fylfot on funeral urns the symbol also appears on Anglo-Saxon broaches, bronze belt mounts, sword hilts and Saxon sceatta coins. Germanic bracteates from Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Hungary also feature the fylfot, sometimes in association with the God Woden/Wodan/Odin. Many items recovered from the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo ship burial also feature the fylfot.
* The image at the head of this article is that of an urn found in North Elham, Norfolk and dated to the 5th-6th century.
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