When amateur archaeologist and metal detectorist Morten Skovsby uncovered this tiny silver figurine near the village of Hårby in the southwest part of the Danish island of Funen, he knew exactly what to do. He documented the findspot immediately, and then took the artifact to the City Museum in nearby Odense. When the museum’s curator, Mogens Bo Henriksen, saw the figurine, he knew what it was. “There can hardly be any doubt,” he says, “that this depicts one of Odin’s valkyries.”

Norse myths, called sagas, tell of female figures called valkyries (from the Old Norse valkyrja meaning “chooser of the slain”). The valkyries were sent to battlefields by the god Odin to select which fallen warriors were worthy of afterlives in Valhalla, filled with feasts of wild boar and liquor milked from goats. Despite their prevalence in the sagas, depictions of valkyries are relatively rare. They are confined to Swedish picture stones dating to about A.D. 700 and a handful of Early Viking fibulae (brooches) from Sweden and Denmark. So this three-dimensional representation is unique.

The figurine, which would probably have been a pendant, is partly gilded, while other areas are colored black by niello, a mixture of copper, silver, and lead sulphides used as an inlay. The valkyrie wears a long patterned dress and carries a double-edged Viking sword in her right hand and a shield protecting her body in her left. Dating to about A.D. 800, the figurine was recovered near an excavated area known to have been a metal workshop. Perhaps, says Henriksen, it was discarded as waste. Or maybe it was raw material on the way to the melting pot. “For some unknown reason it didn’t make it that far—and that’s our good luck.”

Source: JA Lobell. Archaeology Magazine

Hi there this is Reni,
I already have an account as Reni but I had to reset my PC and don´t remember my password. Who is responsible for things like that? I sent a request to change my password several times but I do NOT receive the needed six digits code. I used the correct email address. Who is in charge for that and could you kindly help me!?

As much as I love swords and knives, I also love to shoot. Here is a recent video from when I went to range and had some fun with my AR-15. Time, patience and persistence pays off. The dings you hear are when I hit the target

Work in progress. Sneak peek on the new label designs for my products, this one being of the Ragnarok scent. So far this has taken over 60 renders of armies, 100 renders of Surtr and his sword and hours on lighting and color toning, blending, etc. I will slowly be trickling out the artwork in the weeks to come. Heavily inspired by Lord of the Rings and Neverending Story for this piece.

A bit of my music...
#music #viking #vikingmusic #fljugahrafna #sword #lastkingdom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jktT6nAyQJM