This small figurine, silver-gilt with niello inlay, and less than 2 cm square, has been found in the archaeological excavations at Lejre, and is (perhaps a bit hastily in my opinion) being touted as a representation of the god Odin, sitting on his seat Hlidskjalf. Read more about it (from Roskilde Museum) in Danish here and here. One does wonder, when a find is as 'unique' and 'unprecedented' as this one, whether the excited finders shouldn't have been a bit more cautious in declaring what exactly it is, not least because, as far as I can tell, the figurine has two eyes!
15 November 2009
Odin Finally Discovered
This small figurine, silver-gilt with niello inlay, and less than 2 cm square, has been found in the archaeological excavations at Lejre, and is (perhaps a bit hastily in my opinion) being touted as a representation of the god Odin, sitting on his seat Hlidskjalf. Read more about it (from Roskilde Museum) in Danish here and here. One does wonder, when a find is as 'unique' and 'unprecedented' as this one, whether the excited finders shouldn't have been a bit more cautious in declaring what exactly it is, not least because, as far as I can tell, the figurine has two eyes!
There's a very nice video of the figurine on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVAbp3kNYIU. Meanwhile, the controversy continues, as Martin Rundkvist, in his blog Aardvarcheology, continues to maintain it is a statuette of Freyja, or at least a female figure, see http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2010/01/the_lejre_freya_miniature.php
ReplyDeleteI read about the Viking at http://crusades-medieval.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI am afraid I am with the Aardvark on this, the "missing eye" just looks worn to me, and "he" is either cross dressing or this is a female figure. It resembles the other metal female figures of the same artistic style..But until we dig up a frozen Danish silversmith of the period and revive them to ask "Who is this?" or find a similar item with an inscription stating who it is, the debate will go on forever.. I still love it, may we find more such objects.
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