The Ysby Thor's Hammer and its Striking Resemblance to the Hedeby Thor's Hammer

 Please examine the photograph of a newly discovered Thor's Hammer pendant from the site of an archaeological excavation at Ysby in Halland, Sweden in 2022, which was widely reported in professional journals and the Miami Herald in October of that year.

                                                     Image courtesy of Radio Sweden

The photograph shows the hammer after it had been cleaned up. It is approximately 3cm in height and cast from lead. Although made from the most humble of metals it may have very well been gilded in silver or gold.

I would now like you to see an image of a Thor's Hammer discovered in modern day Hedeby in Germany. I am unable to glean exactly when it was discovered but I am led to believe that it was either in the 1950s or the 1970s. I have owned a bronze version of this hammer since the late 1990s and currently wear a stainless steel version, manufactured in Germany, and purchased by me well over 5 years ago.

The original, as pictured, was cast in silver. Modern reproductions of this hammer are available in gold, silver, bronze, pewter, stainless steel and zinc alloy.

Below is a photograph I have taken of my stainless steel version, which shows the detail with far more precision than my bronze copy.

My readers will note that this is one of the few historical hammers which depict a human face, which by process of deduction must be assumed to be that of the god, Thor, not Odin as some sellers on 'Etsy' have incorrectly suggested! This adds an extra layer of sacrality to the amulet. On the head of the hammer is found an 'infinity knot' with three circles. The design is the same on both sides on the original and on modern reproductions.

My question is this: why do we find the same design of hammer in both Germany/Denmark and Sweden? Are there any other original examples in existence? I would appear to be the very first researcher to have publicly identified the similarity in design of both hammers.

During the 8th to the 11th centuries Hedeby, or to give it its Danish name, Haithabu was an important trading centre on the southern end of the Jutland peninsula. It is now part of the German Land of Schleswig-Holstein in the most northern part of Germany. The issue of German or Danish ownership of this territory became an inflamed question during the 19th century. After the second Schleswig War in 1864 it became a permanent part of Germany but it has been fought over for many centuries prior to that. The official language of the Land is German but the languages of Low German, Danish and North Frisian are also recognised. Its culture is a mix of those three elements, making it an intriguing Germanic 'melting pot'. As an aside, I have recently learned that I am genetically related to a number of human burials from post Viking Age Hedeby, four males and one female, which makes the Hedeby hammer that much more special for me.

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.  

The Eyraland Thor and the Icelandic Foss Hammer

"National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik. Figure of god Thor ( ca. 1000 AD ), made of bronze" by Wolfgang Sauber, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyrarland_Statue The image has not been changed and the image owner does not endorse this blog.



A figurine depicting what appears to be a seated Thor, grasping a hammer was discovered in 1815 or 1816 when it was unearthed from the soil at the Eyraland farm near Akureyri in Iceland. The figure is made of bronze and is currently housed in the National Museum of Iceland. I have 2 bronze replicas of the Eyraland Thor and they are used as altar items in my worship of Him.

As I have mentioned before (and need to keep reiterating) the type of hammer that 'Thor' is holding is in the typical Icelandic cross shape, almost a duplicate of the 'Wolf's Cross' found at Foss in Iceland, currently also housed in the National Museum. This clear resemblance should once and for all close the argument as to whether the Foss Hammer is a hammer or a cross. This variation of the hammer was clearly local to Iceland and the argument that it is a 'hybrid' between the Christian cross and Thor's Hammer does not hold water in view of the form that the hammer takes in the hands of the Eyraland Thor.

The argument in favour of it being a hybrid is that it could be disguised as a cross by its wearer (to avoid persecution) but as it dates back to the 10th century and thus PREDATES the Christianisation of Iceland this does not make one iota of sense. Even after the Icelandic Althing voted to accept Christianity in the year 1000 heathenism was still tolerated as a private practice on the island. So it begs the question why anyone would seek to disguise his hammer amulet PRIOR to the Christianisation process?

I have several variants of the Foss Hammer in a variety of metals: pewter, bronze and stainless steel and indeed the St Justin (larger size) Foss Hammer was the second Thor's Hammer I ever purchased in the mid 1990s. I particularly recommend their version which is much chunkier than the original and their products do come with a life time guarantee. The chief gothi of the Asatru Association in Iceland, Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson has been photographed wearing a Foss Hammer himself. Surely there can be no higher recommendation than this?

The Felling of Donar's Oak

The felling of the sacred oak of Donar in 723/724 CE (this date is estimated) at Geismar, near Fritzlar, Hesse, Germany reminds me of the felling of the Irminsul by Charlemagne in 778 CE. Both trees or columns were sacred to the ancient Germans and symbolically they remind us of the tree Yggdrasil referred to in the Icelandic Eddas. The destruction of these two sacred things by the genocidal and maniacal Christian Church should not surprise us. Christianity like Islam is a death cult whilst the Irminsul and Donar's Oak represent LIFE!

The felling of Donar's Oak is referred to in Willibald's Life of Saint Boniface, a grossly exaggerated account of what actually occurred. According to Willibald as soon as the Anglo-Saxon Boniface (born Wynfrith) took his axe to the oak tree it began to fall and this 'miracle' caused astonishment amongst the witnesses so that they readily converted to Christianity. In reality it took many hours to chop down the tree as Boniface made known in his letter to Pope Gregory II, making Willibald (like most of his ilk) a bare faced liar. Allegedly oak from this sacred tree was used by Boniface to build an oratory (a small chapel for private worship) and dedicated it to Saint Peter.

I dare say that the Oak of Donar in Hesse was not unique and many such sacred oaks existed in pre-Christian times but the account by Willibald is significant for the 8th century marked a turning point in the Christianisation of Germany and the massacre of 4,500 Saxons at Verden in 772 CE showed how desperate Charlemagne and the Church were to impose their alien religion upon my ancestors. Not content with desecrating our most sacred sites the Church was not above committing genocide in their forceable conversion of the Saxons. The only reason why we do not see this today is because the power of the Church has been broken but we do see the same impulse in modern day Islam.

This vile creature, Boniface became known as the 'Apostle of the Germans'. However ultimately he was to pay the price for his sacrilege. By felling Donar's Oak he had in effect weaved his own wyrd!  In 754 CE he was slain by the heathen Frisians. He dared to challenge our God Donar and 30 years later he paid the consequences for his crime. For those of you who are interested in the association between Donar and the oak I would direct you to chapter 15 (The Worship of the Oak) of The Golden Bough by James George Frazer (1922), a most excellent work on mythology which has in my opinion never been equalled.