It is also frequently linked to the god Odin (See Nene River Ring and Valknut), and his ability to ‘bind and unbind’ the minds of people, and has thus been called ‘Odin’s knot’. The term itself means ‘knot of the slain.’ The most we can say, based on its artistic context, is that it is somehow connected to the ideas of death, sacrifice, burial, or the underworld. Therefore we lack any substantial written evidence as to what this symbol actually means. It was not called this during the Viking age. I must say first that the term ‘valknut’ is a relatively modern Norwegian word. The valknut and triquetra are frequently mentioned as one in the same, but I would really argue against this. The supposed valknut is in the Celtic triqueta form, which, I agree, is loosely visually similar to the valknut (primarily its unicursal style), and similar in cultural affiliation, but is inherently different in terms of ideology and use.

Upon viewing the picture, I was pretty disappointed. This particular stone is Brompton 4 (Lang 1984), or Brompton 19 (Lang 2001). The first object that inspired this investigation is the hogback stone from Brompton, Yorkshire, that has been described as having the valknut symbol carved onto its side. This blog post was inspired after seeing a picture one of these monuments, regrettably after the fact, and going on to hunt down these supposed valknutted artefacts to see for myself. In recent papers I’ve presented to conferences I’ve briefly mentioned the valknut symbol and its presence on stone monuments in the British Isles.

I am no expert on Viking/Celtic/Christian symbolism, but I am keen to argue against lumping the valknut and triqueta forms together as one. Whilst these ‘variations’ may hold similar meanings, I’m not convinced that they are closely related. triqueta) frequently seen in Celtic cultural contexts. I’ve come across a few sources that state that the valknut comes in various different forms, including one with rounded edges (aka. I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.As I’ve been doing quite a bit of musing about the Nene River Ring and its two contrasting bezels lately, I’ve been asked about different variations of the valknut symbol, and whether or not it was adopted and adapted by Christianity. In some countries this may not be legally possible if so: I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. Licensing Public domain Public domain false false 9 -9 x rlineto 12 0 x rlineto -9 9 x rlinetoĬlosepath gsave 6 setlinewidth stroke grestore Alternate version of File:Valknut-Symbol-triquetra.svg with thicker black lines.įor a rounded version, see Image:Triquetra-tightly-knotted.pngĬonverted from a version of the following vector PostScript source code:ġ5 dup scale/xdef 3 setlinewidthġ2 13 x moveto 18 0 x rlineto -6 6 x rlineto See also Image:Valknut-Symbol-borromean.svg and Image:Valknut-Symbol-3linkchain-closed.png. Found in early medieval Germanic inscriptions (see File:Tangelgarda Odin.jpg). The Valknut symbol in a form topologically equivalent to a Triquetra or trefoil knot.

Triquetra valknut