Thunor and the Fylfot

A 5th-6th century Anglo-Saxon cremation urn from North Elmham, Norfolk.


There is a clear link between the fylfot (swastika) and the Germanic thunder God Thunor/Thor/Donar and this is via His hammer Mjolnir. Christopher R. Fee in his Gods, Heroes, & Kings The Battle for Mythic Britain refers to the 'image' of the Mjolnir 'spinning end-over-end' in the heavens, resembling a swastika.


When Thunor throws His mighty hammer it gives the appearance of a rotating fylfot. The hammer represents one of the four arms of this sacred Aryan symbol. So when followers of the heathen faith wear the hammer of Thunor around their necks they are also in effect carrying a fylfot or swastika.
Stephen Taylor in his book The Fylfot File also draws on this connection, referring to the fylfot as a stylised version " of Mjolnir.


The association of the hammer with a sky God is to be found amongst other Indo-European cultures. The Baltic thunder God Perkons also carried a hammer called Milna which may very well be linked linguistically to Mjolnir along with the Russian molnija and the Welsh mellt which both mean 'lightning'.

The Slavic thunder God Perun carried an axe which fulfills a similar function in mythology to the hammer. Indeed sometimes Mjolnir is referred to as an axe or a club and we must not forget that the Greek Herakles and the Roman Hercules both carried a club. Other Indo-European sky or thunder Gods such as the Greek Zeus or the Roman Jupiter had a thunderbolt as their primary weapon but we must not forget that Mjolnir is the source of lightning in Germanic mythology. The Indian Indra also carried a thunderbolt as his primary weapon.

Not only is the concept of the thunder and sky God a pan Aryan mythological concept but so also is the fylfot or swastika and no doubt this connection between the two is via the thunder God's weapon whether it be axe, club, hammer or thunderbolt.

Armanen Runes and the Black Sun in Modern Heathenry Volume 1-a Review

Recently Aelfric Avery published a three volume set on the Armanen Runes. Some time ago I completed my first reading of volume 1, published by Lulu Books. I have not yet purchased the other two volumes in the set but I will do in due course.

Mr Avery is better known for his works on Gothic mythology and religion so it is good to see him turn his hand to the more esoteric works of the early 19th century. There is very little material which has been translated into English on the Armanen Rune masters. Thus far the most noted translators and reinterpreters have been Dr Stephen Edred Flowers (Edred Thorsson) and the 55 Club. I have occasionally translated some extracts of the more obscure literature on my blogs, most notably by Friedrich Bernhard Marby.

Mr Avery sets the groundwork for Armanism in volume 1 by giving a history of it and its main thinkers and pioneers, being Guido von List, Friedrich Bernhard Marby, Rudolf John Gorsleben, Siegfried Adolf Kummer, Karl Maria Wiligut and Peryt Shou as well as post war rune masters such as Karl Spiesberger, Adolf Schleipfer, Karl Hans Welz and Edred Thorsson. It may be argued that Marby was not an Armanen rune master as he did not work with the Armanen Futhorkh but the Anglo-Saxon/Anglo-Frisian Futhorc but nevertheless he was a rune master and had a deep influence on the Armanen tradition and was the originator of rune yoga or rune gymnastics, later developed by Kummer. Mr Avery does emphasise this point in his book. So for these reasons it is valid to include this great man within a work on Armanism.

Mr Avery discusses the relationship between Wotanism (von List) and Armanism, the thorny subject of National Socialism and the Armanen runes, the use of the term 'Aryan', Irminism, Aryan Kristianity, Hyperborea, Atlantis, the Midnight Mountain, ancient civilisations, Root Races, Vril, alchemy, the Holy Grail, Isais, the Black Sun, the Swastika and even  Zoroastrianism. As far as I know Mr Avery is the first and thus far only published writer to link the Black Sun with the runes and to introduce the religion of Zoroastrianism in connection with Armanism. It should be noted that in recent years Dr Flowers has researched Zoroastrianism and published several books on how this religion may be adopted by modern day Indo-Europeans and magical practises within this tradition.

Volume 1 contains a great deal of hitherto untranslated material which is essential reading for all latter day Armanen and I have to say that Mr Avery's work is both old in the sense of the source material but at the same time refreshingly new with his ingenious interpretation. With this 3 volume set and his recent translation of Siegfried Adolf Kummer's Heilige Runenmacht (Holy Rune Might) this young man has established himself as someone to follow in the coming years. It is very rare to find a modern writer who is not shackled by false notions of political correctness and who is both a practicing heathen and an Armanen. This book may be purchased on Amazon, Lulu Books and ebay. Without the least hesitation I wholeheartedly endorse and recommend this incredible book to my readers.

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.

The Fylfot and Church Bells

I discovered an interesting connection between the pealing of church bells and the sign of the Swastika/hammer of Thunor in Stephen Taylors The Fylfot File. Rev. Taylor states that the Flyfot appears on a number of church bells in the mid-eastern counties of England. He has identified 40 churches that contain such Flyfots in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire. Of course these counties are situated in the old Danelaw part of England where Germanic heathenism was reintroduced to a Christianised Anglo-Saxon population by Danish settlers.

He believes that the occurrence of the Flyfot is linked to pre-Christian Germanic tradition. The Fylfot as we know represents the hammer of Thunor/Thor,Donar and in Sweden in Thor`s temples the sound of thunder was imitated by the striking of pieces of metal with a hammer. There may be also an association between this and the presence of cauldrons in myths relating to Thor. Quoting from another author (Ernest J. Eitel) he states: "Perhaps also you remember to have heard that among the German peasantry and in Iceland the same figure is used as a magical charm to dispel thunder." Rev Taylor goes on to refer to the mediaeval custom English custom of ringing church bells to dispel storms and pestilence. Many European bells bore the Latin inscription Fulgura Frango, "I break up the lightning".

He also refers to an Icelandic magical ritual which was intended to deter or punish thieves. First one must find copper which has been taken from a church bell and stolen three times. The hammer must be hardened in human blood. This must take place on a Whitsunday "between the reading of the Epistle and the Gospel." Additionally one must also forge a spike from the same copper and jab the spike against the head of the hammer. Whilst doing so one must say "I drive this in the eye of the Father of War, I drive this in the eye of the Father of the Slain. I drive this in the eye of Thor of the Aesir." If carried out correctly the thief should feel pain in his eyes and this is how the thief may be identified. Failure to return the stolen goods would necessitate the repetition of the spell but it would result in the loss of one of the thief's eyes. If carried out a third time then he would lose the sight in both eyes. (Described in Icelandic Folktales and Legends, Jacqueline Simpson). It is remarkable how such an obvious heathen spell has managed to survive the process of Christianisation in Iceland. We can learn much about our ancient religion by analysing certain aspects of mediaeval church practice which contains many elements of our ancient faith.

Gibor, the Fyrfos and the Phoenicians

Professor L.A. Waddell in his The Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots and Anglo-Saxons Discovered by Phoenician and Sumerian Inscriptions in Britain by Pre-Roman Coins (1924) states:

"The Hitto-Phoenician origin of this design is evident from the Phoenician coin from Gaza here figured in which darts are also used to show the direction of revolution as in the Scottish Swastika:...."

He is referring to a coin which is also figured on page 878 of Thomas Wilson`s Swastika The Earliest Known Symbol and its Migrations (1894). The Swastika symbol featured on the coin is clearly the same symbol as the Gibor Rune of Guido von List`s Armanen Futhorkh/Futharkh.
Wilson states:

"The Swastika sign is not perfect, only two arms of the cross being turned, and not all four".

I do not for one minute accept that the Phoenicians who Professor Waddell considers to be Aryan and not Semitic would have carelessly produced a sloppy and imperfect Swastika on their coins. This to me is not conceiveable. I believe that this was a deliberate act to conceal the full nature of the Swastika for some reason best known only to them.

The Gibor Rune which is the 18th and last of the Armanen Futhork is clearly a half way stage between the equilateral Aryan Solar Cross and the true Swastika. It visually combines both elements. Of course we have always known that these two solar symbols were linked and scholars speculate which came first. If one considers the Solar Cross which is an equilateral cross in a circle one can see how by a simple adaptation the rounded Thulean Swastika can be made to appear. The Swastika has many variants and meanings. In Das Geheimnis der Runen von List refers to Gibor as signifying God, the All Begetter. This is not Der Gott of the Christians but Das Gott of the ancient Germans. He is the Begetter of the All, Das All which contains Das Ich-The I, the awakened self which is signified by the Is/Iss/Isa Rune, the Rune which is first necessary to master when practicing Runic Yoga for all the other Runic forms stems from this. Regular invocation and meditation in the Is stance focuses concentration and intensifies Self-awareness; it awakens Das Ich-The I which of course is the main task of the Arman, the Sonnenmensch.

From the Is stance the Arman can then simply adopt the cross stance referred to in Siegfried Adolf Kummer`s Heilige Runenmacht. Kummer`s curriculum of Runic Yoga involves 13 Runic forms and full instructions on this curriculum may be found in Edred Thorsson`s Rune Might, probably THE most important book he has published to date. I followed this curriculum many years ago and it assisted in deepening my skills in Rune Magic. Also the astute observer will notice the similarity to the Wolfsangel Rune. The presence of Gibor amongst the Phoenicians in Gaza demonstrates how far Aryan man travelled over the earth in his faustian quest for knowledge and is further evidence to support the theory of the Aryan Phoenician.

The Hidden Fylfot in the Shield Knot

An intriguing symbol which I have been medidating on for some time is the Shield Knot which Nigel Pennick briefly discusses in his The Book of Primal Signs (2007). A recent term for this symbol is swastika pelta, pelta being Latin for shield. The term Shield Knot is more 'intelligible' as Mr Pennick writes and also it lacks the unfortunate stigma that our enemies have attached to the sacred Aryan Swastika.

The Shield Knot comes in a variety of forms. One resembles an Iron Cross with a Swastika in the centre. Another variant is the Swedish Sank Hans vapen which has a loop in all 4 courners and a square in the middle, an example of which may be found in the stonework of the transept window of William Lethaby's church in Brockhampton, Herefordshire. Another example that Mr Pennick provides is in the illustration of a Lappish shaman's drum so it is quite obvious that this is an ancient and pre-Christian symbol found in northern Europe. More elaborate examples can be found in tradtional Austrian furniture.

The version that interests me the most is the first type which resembles an Iron Cross with a Swastika in the centre. Another closely related version of this symbol has the 4 arms or triangles of the cross joined together to form a circle and thus contains 3 significant elements: the circle (a symbol of eternity and the most basic representation of the sun), the Iron Cross which is a solar symbol and the Swastika, also a solar symbol. If you study this type of the symbol closely you will recognise that it is a barely disguised curvilinear Thulean Swastika except on the Thulean symbol the Swastika is evident on the outer ridge of the broken circle whilst in the Shield Knot the Swastika is almost hidden on the inside. You have to look for it to see it and thus this is a far more esoteric symbol. The value of such symbols is that they can act upon the Collective Unconscious or Blood Memory in a most subtle fashion without any cognition by the viewer. We also avoid any unnecessary negative attention that the more outward variation of the Swastika (including the curvilinear Thulean) would engender. Those of my readers who are members of esoteric Orders will understand what I am implying here.

Yet another variant of the symbol is a fourfold loop with 3 central Swastikas (this features as Fig. 24.9 in the book). I have noticed that this symbol as an amulet is now commercially available and also mass produced but inevitably marketed as a Celtic Knot or some such similar descriptor! For some reason the author attributes the symbol to the Celtic Samhain festival-I am unsure as to the logic behind this. There is a general concept that the Shield Knot is a protective symbol when used as an amulet, its four arms invoking the protection of the Gods from the 4 cardinal compass points.