The Hiddensee Amulet

 In this article, I am going to discuss the 'Hiddensee amulet', a little about its background, and some of my own thoughts and speculations on its symbolism. The Hiddensee amulet was discovered as part of a hoard of  Viking-age gold treasure in 1873 on the German island of Hiddensee, which is situated in the Baltic Sea. Its discovery came about as the result of flooding in the area.

Experts date the hoard to the last quarter of the 10th century and it consists of 10 cross-like pendants, 4 small spacer pendants, a broach and a neck ring. The total weight of the hoard is 598g, a very substantial weight in gold! It is generally considered that all 14 pendants were worn as part of a single necklace. If that is the case then many of the spacer pendants are surely missing? It should also be noted that the cross-like pendants vary in size and weight, the smallest weighing just 20.2g and the largest, 40.4g (Armbruster, Eilbracht). If they were intended to be worn as a single item, as suggested, then it would have felt very heavy indeed, especially if the wearer was a woman. A closer examination of the pendants shows that there are at least two different styles. That fact, along with the large variations in size and weight of the pendants, gives me the feeling that this was not intended to be worn as a single necklace.

The whole treasure was manufactured in one workshop and from a single source of metal (Armbruster, Eilbracht). Anyone interested in its manufacture would profit by reading the excellent and detailed analysis by Barbara Armbruster and H. Eilbracht, Technological aspects of the Viking age gold treasure from Hiddensee, Germany.

For a long time there has been speculation that the treasure belonged to the Danish King Harald Bluetooth Gormsson (died 985/986 CE) or a member of his family. The neck so-called ensemble appears to mix heathen and Christian elements which is evident in the 10 cross-like pendants. Bluetooth converted to Christianity at some time in the 960s but the circumstances and details are rather vague and very confusing. Regardless of whom the hoard was commissioned for, the recipient must have been both wealthy and presumably powerful. Due to the dating of the hoard and the location where it was found, the assumption for its ownership by Bluetooth or his family may be valid. It has long been speculated that the hoard was stolen by Slavic pirates, operating at that time in the area. In my opinion, the theft was possibly from a goldsmith's workshop, rather than the Danish royal family, although it could have been commissioned by them.

I have only recently learned that these pendants were not at all unique and other examples have been discovered, one example being a silver version from a hoard in Tolstrup, Denmark and dies from Hedeby, Germany, one being quite elaborate, like the Hiddensee pendants, the other being more simplistic and lacking in filigree ornamentation (Armbruster and Eilbracht). 

Moving on to discuss the symbolism of the cross-like pendants. All 10 cross-like pendants have a suspension loop in the form of a bird, which clearly resembles the Thor's Hammer from Scania, Sweden. I interpret this bird to be a raven, not an eagle as some claim. The raven, as my readers will know, is closely associated with Odin and is thus a heathen, not a Christian symbol. So we have to ask ourselves, what is the the raven doing on these pendants if they belonged to a Christian king? Likewise, what is a wolf's head doing on the suspension loop of the Thor's Hammer from Fossi, Iceland, if it is a cross and not a hammer as I believe? One could argue that in both cases, these were examples of a period of transition from Germanic heathenism to Christianity. I have discussed the wolf hammer before, and I will do so again in a future article.

Another feature of the pendants are the 'eyes' in the lower half of the pendants which give them a mask-like appearance. If you have a reproduction copy and hold it up to the light, you will see this most clearly. Until I read Armbruster and Eilbracht's work I thought that I was probably the only person to have observed this feature. They comment on this on page 38 of their article and quote from Graham-Campbell (2001, p.180), referring to the 'glaring eyes associated with Thor in Eddic tales.' They also compare the body of these pendants with 'the pagan Thor's hammer.' I would encourage anyone who is interested in any aspect of the Hiddensee hoard to read Technological aspects of the Viking age gold treasure from Hiddensee, Germany

 An excellent example of the Tolstrup pendant may be found on the website of Asgard, a Scottish manufacturer of good quality Viking age reproductions: Hiddensee . You will note from this reproduction and the photograph on page 38 of Armbruster and Eilbracht that the Tolstrup pendant lacks the 'eyes' of the Hiddensee ones but they are present on the dies from Hedeby (page 31).

All of the Hiddensee, Tolstrup and Hedeby pendants contain what appear to be three equilateral crosses within their body. Two of the Hiddensee pendants resemble more the cross style featured on the Tolstrup pendant and are less stylised and not so subtle. One can see how the majority of them resemble a series of three Thor's Hammers, rather than Christian crosses and they share this style with the four hammer-shaped spacer pendants.