by A gold pendant recently unearthed in Denmark bears the earliest known inscription depicting the Norse god Odin.
archaeologists Think of the pendant – technically called a bracteate and made of thin, stamped gold – dates from the fifth century AD, making it 150 years older than the oldest known artefact to date that mentions Norse mythology.
“It is the first time in the history of the world that Odin’s name is mentioned.” Lisbeth Ever (opens in new tab), a runologist and writing expert at the National Museum of Denmark, told Live Science. “This means that Norse mythology can now be dated back to the early fifth century.”
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The inscription in letters called runes reads “He is Odin’s man” and the name “Jaga” or “Jagaz” in an early form of the Norse language. It is thought to refer to its owner, an Iron Age chief or king who may have claimed the god as an ancestor.
“I think the wording refers to the central motif depicting a man with a horse representing the local magnate or king who presents himself as a descendant of the king of gods and god of kings, Odin,” said ever. “We have other literary evidence that kings liked to present themselves as descendants of gods.”
Related: 2 Viking swords buried upright could have linked the dead to Odin and Valhalla
Imer and her colleague, linguist Krister Wasshus (opens in new tab)spent more than a year deciphering the runic inscription on the bracteate that was part of a stunning hoard of gold Excavated in Jutland, Denmark in 2021. The find contained nearly 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of gold and is now known as the “Vindelev Hoard” after a nearby town.
Norse gods
In Norse mythology, Odin was the king of the gods; the god of death, wisdom, magic and runes; and the “Allfather” of gods and mortals. Although the Norse pantheon included dozens of deities, Odin was one of the three main gods worshiped in Norse religion, along with Thor and Frey.
Odin is often depicted with only one eye because, according to legend, he gouged out his other eye to gain unparalleled knowledge. He is also the Norse form of the Germanic god Wotan and the Anglo-Saxon god Woden, although both seem to have had two eyes.
Imer said the runic inscription seemed to have weathered more than the rest of the pendant, possibly because it was a sacred inscription touched to “gain power”.
“It was a time when religion was more integrated into daily life,” she said in an email. “Society leaders were responsible for cultic activities and performing rituals to maintain good relations with the gods.”
The interpretation of the tiny runes is difficult, however, because the words run together without spaces and because the name ‘Odin’ is written as ‘Wodnas’ and not in the regular form ‘Wodinas’ – possibly because it is in an early spelling form of Norse called Proto-Norse, said Imer.
Proto-Viking
Archaeologists assume that the Norsemen descended from North Germanic peoples who lived from about the fourth to the first century BC. emigrated to Denmark and other Scandinavian countries viking Raiders in Europe; They established colonies in parts of Britain, France, Iceland and Greenland for a time. Some Vikings even made it to the Faroe Islands And Newfoundland in present-day Canada.
However, the Vindelev hoard dates back to a “proto-Viking” period before the Norsemen were known (and feared) as Vikings.
The discovery of the inscription has already influenced the interpretation of inscriptions on other gold bracteates; more than 1,000 have been found in northern Europe, and more than 200 of them have inscriptions.
“The inscription on the Odin bracteate is actually copied onto one of the other bracteates from Vindelev with a slightly different motif,” Imer said. “But the carver who copied the inscription got the wording wrong, so in many places he just carved random dashes and lines.”
It also appears that the copied bracteate was stamped from the same stamp as another found on the Danish island of Funen in 1852 and given to the National Museum, although its inscription has never been deciphered.
“So the National Museum has had an inscription with the word Odin on it for 170 years – but we didn’t know until recently,” Imer said.
