Northern Europe, Viking or Norse culture, ca. 800 to 1100 CE. An incredible and authentic Viking long knitted silver chain ending in two cast terminals with small stamped and repeated triangular designs; on a narrow ring with coiled ends is a large and heavy Viking period Thor's hammer amulet, also known as Mjolnir. The hammer is stamped with matched designs to the terminals. Size: 29.5" L (of knitted chain) and 1.6" W x 2.2" H (of amulet) (74.9 cm x 4.1 cm x 5.6 cm)

Small Thor's hammers were worn as religious amulets throughout the Viking era, usually made of silver and usually hung on silver chains. Some even made it to the Christian era. For instance, there is a famous example of a Thor's hammer amulet from Fossi, Iceland, that has been turned into a cross. (They were also invoked this past summer to describe the power of the surprisingly mighty Icelandic football team at the Euro Cup) The chain itself, meanwhile, is a style of knitwork done with thin silver wire that seems to have originated with the Vikings, although the excellent condition of this chain suggests that it may be more recent. The important Viking metalworking shops correspond to their great trading ports and proto-urban centers - Birka, Helgo, Sigtuna, and Lund in Sweden, Ribe, Haithabu (Hedeby), and Fyrkat in Denmark, and Kaupang and Trondheim in Norway. Silver was the principal currency of the Viking world, which stretched from Russia to northern Canada at the height of their influence. In many places, the Vikings kept silver not as coins, but as jewelry, a wearable currency form that was not subject to the authority of a monarch or mint. One of the most common archaeological finds from the Viking period is a hoard of metal objects, often buried in the earth or deposited in bodies of water, like river beds. These are found in great quantities throughout the British Isles and the Nordic countries. What was the meaning of such hoards? Were they treasures buried for safe keeping, perhaps by people fleeing violence who did not wish to travel with heavy loads and who died or forgot before they could retrieve them? Or does their presence in rivers suggest votive deposits, gifts and offerings to spirits who lived in the water?

See similar examples in: Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Ed. Fitzhugh and Ward. Washington D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.

Provenance: Ex-Allakhverdov Collection, New York, NY

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#119411

Excellent and wearable!