Thor's Hammers
A pendant roughly shaped like a hammer. Usually worn with the hammer head suspended downwards.
Depictions of Thor’s hammers can be seen on Viking rune stones. They are usually cast but can be cut from sheet, formed from hammered rod or soldered together from chased sheet-silver. Thor’s hammers can be broken into three categories, plain, punch worked or filigree. (ROESDAHL and WILSON 1992, p.190)
Contents
Types of Thor’s hammers
The following style types are those devised by Staecker as listed by Jensen [JENSEN 2010:p.72]. Finds data is based on the database created by Jensen and only includes Thor’s hammers dateable to the Viking Age. For instance they do not contain 7th century Thor’s hammers from England.
Thor’s hammers of Iron
Loose Thor’s hammers of iron
C9th & C10th
Archaeology
- England, 1
- Denmark, 53
- Germany, 5
- Iceland, 1
- Scania, 3
- Sweden,65
Discussion
Thor’s hammer rings
Archaeology
- Scotland, 1 find
- Sweden, 120 finds containing 321 Thor’s hammers
- Gotland, 1 find
Discussion
- Birka: 58 Thors hammer rings found. 95% in cremations. Of graves 11 on women, 9 on men. [ARWIDSSON 1984: p.133]
Thor’s hammers of silver
Unfortunately Jensen does not supply any information regarding the number of silver Thor’s hammers that fall into Staecker four sub categories.
Archaeology
- England, 12
- Denmark, 25
- Iceland, 1
- Norway, 5
- Sweden, 26
Thor’s hammers of silver, without ornaments
Thor’s hammers of silver with stamped ornaments
Thor’s hammers of silver with vegetable patterns
Thor’s hammers of pressed silver foil
Thor’s hammers of Other Materials
Thor’s hammers of amber
C10th (but most examples cannot be dated)
Archaeology
- Denmark, 9 finds
- Scandia, 1 find
- Sweden, 3 finds
- Gotland, 2 finds
Discussion
Thor’s hammers of copper alloy
Archaeology
- England, 4 finds
- Denmark, 12 finds
- Sweden, 2 finds
- Gotland, 1 find
Discussion
Thor’s hammers of lead
Archaeology
- England, 2 finds
- Denmark, 7 finds
- Gotland, 2 finds
Discussion
Thor’s hammers of gold
Archaeology
- Denmark, 1 find
Discussion
Reference
<nocite> ARWIDSSON1984 JENSEN2010 ROESDAHL1992 </nocite> <biblio force=false>#Template:Bib</biblio>