Contemporary uses of the Valknut Symbol Valknut in Religion, arts and cultures There are comparisons in the Eddas, with the heart of Hrungnir made of stone with three corners, as the carved symbol hrungnishjarta.įinally, the valknut appears on two stones from Gotland: the stone from Stora Hammars I. It also appears on a ring found in the Nene River, an Anglo-Saxon gold finger dated to the same period, in England, and on the Oseberg boat, in Norway.

It was observed as early as the 6th century in two distinct topological forms: unicursal ( Tängelgarda stone) and tricursal ( Lärbro stone). The valknut appears on a wide variety of objects found in the regions inhabited by the pre-Christian German-Scandinavians. However, this interpretation is not unanimous, nor is the one that sees it as a heiti to designate the heart, or that sees it as a corruption of a hypothetical *valhnot, 'nut'.įinally, val could refer to the Indo-European *wald, referring to 'power', 'sovereignty', 'government', giving the Latin valor, our current 'value ', as in the Breton Celtic Thule, Thual or Tudal, 'valiant people '. Hellers considers it likely that, if it existed at all, the word *valknútr had the meaning 'knot of those who fell in battle '. The first, on the other hand, could be derived from several words: from val, 'the choice', from valr, 'the falcon' or its homonym meaning 'one who has fallen in battle', from vala, 'the phalanx' or from vǫlr, valr, designating a rounded stick. The latter does not pose any particular problem of interpretation and is generally recognized as coming from Old Norse knútr, 'knot '. The word is divided into two compounds: val and knut. The word is divided into two components: the first is the term for a knot in which a knot is made, and the second is the term for a knot in which a knot is made. The visual appearance of these shapes is quite different from that of the present Valknut, so there is no certainty about the connection between them, although this tends to show that the term is not a recent invention and may indeed have an ancient origin.

However, Hellers notes that the term existed as early as the eighteenth century to refer to both an S-shaped double knot and a geometric pattern used in tapestry, similar to the Bowen knot. The term valknut comes from Norwegian and is not attested in Old Norse. It is thus connected to the symbolism of the three and the nine in Norse mythology. In particular, it is linked to the god Odin evoking valour and death (in the sense of liberation of the soul) and the roots of Yggdrasil (in the sense of the interconnection of the nine worlds of the Nordic religion). Although the age of its name is debated, it is an old symbol of Norse mythology that can mean several things.

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