Comments on: Odin as Weapon Dancer

By: Leif Rafngard

Leif Rafngard — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:43:43 +0000

If the “horns” are bird, might the “ears” be tails?

Har det bra,
Leif

By: Leif Rafngard

Leif Rafngard — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:42:29 +0000

A wounded foot shows up at least two times other times in Viking era images, usually connected with Odhinn. I don’t know if anyone has ever done formal study of it, but I’ve seen it on a cross from the Isle of man and a rune stone in Sweden, in both case a figure is bitten on the foot by a wolf or some other beast.

Personally, I think it’s an example of mono-sandalism, where a figure wears only one shoe, or is limp in one foot, which you find all over Europe in connection with shamanistic practices. Carlo Ginzburg has written on it in his book “Ecstasies,” but he seems to have missed these examples from Scandinavia.

Har det bra,
Leif

By: Lorenzo

Lorenzo — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:53:33 +0000

Hi
regard to the “strange ears below the horns ” in the hats I think they can be the covers for cheecks (as we can see in the Sutton Hoo helmet) drawn without perspective. It is just an impression that I felt analyzing the images.
You made really a good work!!!!
Ciao

By: Viking Rune

Viking Rune — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:31:29 +0000

Thank you for your insightful comment. All this needs additional research, to be sure.

By: Rahul

Rahul — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:48:14 +0000

Intriguing article. The one point I would remark is the heel-wounding motif: given the vast and internationally attested array of mythological and folkloric data pertaining to the sacred/vulnerable heels of gods, and of (euhemerized?) heroes/kings, this surely invites further research and speculation. As far as I know the sacred heel motif (that of Achilles being perhaps most traditionally familiar to the educated in modern Europe) while present in early Welsh literature is not – at least in literary sources -recorded in Germanic/Norse? I am aware that the likes of Frazer and Graves are currently discredited but they gleaned and gathered up an enormous catalogue of material on such things, and I seem to recall Graves (in the ‘White Goddess’) discussing the sacred heel specifically in the context of a limping dance. …

By: Viking Rune

Viking Rune — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:16:58 +0000

Hi David. Fafnir was the dragon’s name, so you probably mean Fenrir. Yes, that’s exactly what I was intending in the last paragraph of the article above.

By: David Rodigari

David Rodigari — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:25:42 +0000

Hi again … I dont really think that the man at the left of Odin is a Wolf warrior … Isn´t he Fafnir, the giant wolf???????
That is just what I think … so if Iam wrong please correct me :-)

By: Greg Sjostrom

Greg Sjostrom — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:25:54 +0000

The depictions you are showing here are of a far earlier time than that of the Vikings. The double heads on some of the helmets represent the Two Hrafna, Ravens of Odin and the Aseir, while the Boar on the other helmut is the emblem of the Vanir. The Golden Boar is the Emblem of Frej, and Freja of the Vanir.

Takk for det informasjon
Greg