MyNDIR

The object that Óðinn is brandishing while riding Sleipnir is likely meant to represent a thunderbolt. “Thunderbolts are associated in western pagan religions with sky gods such as Zeus and Jupiter; and they also are a feature of eastern religions such as Hinduism where it is the god Indra who is the god of war and weather, and who carries a varja, the symbol of lightning. Jupiter’s thunderbolt was a weapon that was “represented either as a double-ended, multi-pronged and barbed fork or as a bunch of flames, perhaps zigzag in shape” (Hall 303). According to the Interpretatio Germanica (Lindow 202), Óðinn was equated with Mercury and Þórr with Jupiter, and, indeed, it is Þórr who is most frequently associated with thunderbolts in Norse mythology. However, as Lindow notes, Óðinn was the head of the Norse pantheon “at least in the sources recorded in the thirteenth century” (Lindow 248); consequently by the seventeenth century it may have seemed natural to equip him with the thunderbolt as a symbol of power. Moreover, Óðinn was believed to have thrown his spear over the enemy host before going into battle (Lindow 155), and the flight of the spear falling from the sky is suggestive of a lightning strike. Although only the illustration in [Nks1867 f. 97v.] has Óðinn holding the lightning bolt, the triple-pronged top half of the lightning symbol appears on the top of Óðinn’s hat/crown and is also part of the trappings of his horse in both [Nks 1867 f. 97v.] and [SÁM 66 F. 80v.], and is also part of Valhöll’s architectural details in [SÁM 66 73r.].” (Baer An Old Norse Image Hoard 235-6)