![]() ![]() Sky recently cancelled a reality TV show after viewers complained one contestant was covered in tattoos - including on his face - that could be seen as having far-right connotations. These "coded" symbols, and others newly borrowed from Norse myth, are even harder to spot and condemn. One of these is the Othala runic letter - its name means "inherited land", and so it frequently appears in the emblems of white nationalist groups from Ukraine to the US. He is displaying these tattoos to full effect, and wants them to be seen.įar-right adherents also favour other characters from the Germanic runic writing system which communicate similar messages. Borrowed symbolsĪngeli claims that he wears his bizarre costume to draw attention to himself - but there's surely another reason for the bare chest and precariously low-slung pants. Whatever its original meaning, it has been used in more recent times by various neo-pagan groups - and increasingly by some white supremacists as a coded message of their belief in violent struggle. Snorri Sturluson, a medieval Icelandic collector of myths, tells us in his "Language of Poetry" that a famous giant called Hrungnir had a stone heart "pointed with three corners", and so the valknut is sometimes also called "Hrungnir's Heart". As Odin is closely connected with the gathering of fallen warriors to Valhalla, the valknut may be a symbol of death in battle. The symbol's original meaning is unclear, but it appears in close proximity to the father of the gods, Odin, on the stones. It depicts a valknut - an image that appears on two Viking-Age stones from Sweden carved with scenes from Norse mythology, including the Stora Hammars I stone on the island of Gotland. Unlike Thor's hammer, it was only rarely depicted by the Vikings, and representations such as the one below are modern interpretations.Ībove these tattoos with a central place in Norse mythology is one that is more contentious. Yggdrasill is the giant ash tree that supports the Norse cosmos, its branches reaching into sky realms inaccessible to humans, and its roots to the subterranean realm of the dead. Mjölnir is one symbol we can be pretty sure was used by the original adherents of the Norse belief system, perhaps to summon the protection of the god Thor. ![]()
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