Like most ancient Germanic symbols, the form of its visual representation was far from strictly fixed. Thus a man could meet his enemies and be sure of victory. Make a helm of awe in lead, press the lead sign between the eyebrows, and speak the formula: This interpretation is confirmed by a spell called “There is a Simple Helm of Awe Working” in the collection of Icelandic folktales collected by the great Jón Árnason in the nineteenth century. One of the representations of the Ægishjálmr in the Galdrabók In the Fáfnismál, one of the poems in the Poetic Edda, the havoc-wreaking dragon Fafnir attributes much of his apparent invincibility to his use of the Helm of Awe:įor I found no power a match for my own. Such overpowering might was apparently what this magical symbol was intended to produce. Just looking at its form, without any prior knowledge of what that form symbolizes, is enough to inspire awe and fear: eight arms that look like spiked tridents radiate out from a central point, as if defending that central point by going on the offensive against any and all hostile forces that surround it. The Helm of Awe ( Old Norse Ægishjálmr, pronounced “EYE-gis-hiowlm-er”) is one of the most mysterious and powerful symbols in Norse mythology. Book Review: Neil Price’s The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia.
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