Norse symbols, from the sources

The Library is a reference shelf, not a listicle. Each entry takes a single symbol and answers what a roundup skips: where it actually appears, in which manuscript or on which stone, how old the earliest surviving record is, and what has been added to it since.

Every entry follows the same shape: a short definition, the primary source quoted where one survives (with its manuscript and shelfmark), the etymology, the misconceptions worth correcting, and a bibliography you can go and check.

One distinction runs through the whole shelf: not everything sold as a Viking symbol is from the Viking Age. The Valknut and Thor's hammer are archaeologically attested, carved on picture stones and buried as amulets. Others, including Vegvisir and the eight-armed form of Aegishjalmur, are Icelandic magical staves written down in post-medieval grimoires, centuries after the Norse period ended. Both are worth knowing. Collapsing the two is how bad history spreads, so every entry says plainly which it is.

Entries are free to cite. Where the drawing is our own work, the entry says so and releases it under CC BY 4.0.