Vegvísir (wrongly called "Viking Compass") 

while it may not be a viking era symbol its more than likely that the symbol itself was created by those who kept the old norce faith of the viking era which would mean that it is still as valid as any other symbol of norce paganism

@@fangslore9988 *norse

@JacksonCrawford I would not call this a sigil, it's a stafgaldur, staf (letter) and galdur (spell), as in a written spell instead of a chanted spell. I do agree that the it seems very reminiscent of the grimoire sigils, and the "letters" seems likely to have been made using the mysticism of the nine chambers from kabbalah. Interesting enigma.

@@williamabrahamsson2945 norse paganism adopts many different sigles staves and symbology, it is only natural that it change over time

@@fangslore9988 I know, I'm born in and live in scandinavia, and my family still keeps viking traditions. But your answer is not an answer to what I said.

laughed out loud at that one!

Knowing Colorado this was probably filmed in June.

How can you not believe in magic, in a setting like that?

Omg the “can I see your tattoo?” Line dude you are cracking me up here

I spit my coffee out at this

I laughed so hard at that lol

This video has the perfect amount of sarcasm based on experience haha

Well, Wilhelm Grimm died in 1859, :p but yes, it was after the rise of Romanticism which seems to be what you are alluding to.

1860, yes, the best bavarian Football Club!

Spurious? Because it's not ancient and...maybe....influenced by an 1800's European culture? We all know that the Vikings of 'The Viking Age' were eager to explore other cultures and easily assimilated elements into their own. It's a Viking cultural process...if you will....that hasn't changed. Spurious?...nay....I say in line with a long tradition.

@@JACK_TheAllSeeingEye you know the « Viking age » was so short relative to the ages that happen before a well as after , that sometimes I can’t compute why some people either don’t care to search or learn about of what remains of the long evolution of the Cultures that became the « Viking Nations » or they dismiss any folkloric evolution that happened after cause it might be tainted by Christianity or inaccurate to « the Viking age « ! Folklore is really important, it literally is the adaptation of pre-Christianity beliefs , myths , legends , customs , practices to a Christianized society ! Folklore is literally how some beliefs , myths and cultural practices survived , so I don’t get the fuss about it not being old enough, still folk magic tho !

@@mikejobstbulldog2020 sure, …lol

Yeah, his Íslensk is pretty spot-on.

Thanks for another amazing and informative video ☺️

A fascinating museum, well worth a visit for those traveling in the Westfjords. They also offer online lectures and have an excellent bookstore and restaurant.

😱😱😱😱😱

I don't have a tattoo either because I think they're unnatural.

I had the vegvísir tattooed on my chest about 3 months ago 🙄

Just because it doesn't come from the Vikings dosent mean it doesn't have meaning. It's just a sigal that came later then the Vikings age

@@lunawolfheart336 sigil* that came later than*...

@@feldgeist2637 That or you'd be considered a man connected with the gods.

Confirmed.

Haaaalarious! I love your sense of humor…I laugh because at times that’s life right? It’s difficult to know the truth and still fit into the norm, but sometimes it’s just fun to play along.

In Sweden, we have "vägvisare" to describe a person showing somebody else the way. I could technically be applied to signs and things as well. It's not a commonly used word though.

@@Larrypint We still have a similar thing in Icelandic. "Fé" (I think that's pronounced similar to "Vieh" if you can make that one syllable) can mean "livestock" (and then we can make it more specific like "sauðfé" (sheep-fé) and "fiðurfé" (feather-fé) and "nautfé" (cattle-fé) - out of all the livestock, "fé" on its own most of the time refers to sheep, just because sheep were the most common animals kept through Iceland's history), but it can also just mean "money". "Reiðufé", at least today, means "cash" or more literally "ready-fé". Then there's word like "búpeningur". "Bú" means "farm", and "peningur" in modern Icelandic normally means "money" (I'm pretty sure it's related to "pfennig"), but combined it's "livestock of a farm". Which makes sense, as you say - before people got around inventing cash, a part of someone's wealth could well be counted by how many animals they had on their farm. You got 50 sheep and 2 milking cows, then you're kind of poor (didn't have much "fé" or "Vieh") but if you had 800 sheep and 85 milking cows, then you'd be rich. I guess, I don't actually know how much you'd need to have to be considered "rich" back then, but as far as I can remember, 2-300 sheep was considered a generous dowry. And as an aside - in Latin there's a word, "pecunia", and if I remember properly, that means both "money" or "flock", maybe even specifically referring to sheep.

@@Larrypint Oh, and we have a pun for "fé".... So, "fé" in the dative is "fjár". And "embezzlement" is "fjárdráttur" - literally meaning "drag away fé". But, since "fé" by itself mostly refers to just sheep, and since "dráttur" can also mean "sexual intercourse", we can say: "Tut tut, you naughty bankers, always shagging the sheep..."

Called 'vejviser' in Danish and Norwegian. Because you know, Germanic languages.

@@Larrypint Goes for the Scandinavian languages as well.

Hahhahah

LOL!

@@Larrypint Interessant, so hab ich das Wort "Vieh" noch gar nicht gesehen, generell vermeide ich es eher, wegen seinem eher beleidigenden Charackter, aber das macht schon irgendwie Sinn und klingt schon etwas besser. Schade dass wir so viele Wörter einfach für gegeben nehmen und gar nicht mehr über deren Herkunft und ursprüngliche Bedeutung nachdenken.

How about a Volknot?

@@Larrypint weisen=advise

This is pretty obvious. The vikings popularized the beliefs but the old gods were worshipped long before the vikings existed.

I have a couple questions: What about Aegishjalmur; is it from viking era or after? Is Viking mythology the same as Norse mythology? (Odin, Valhalla, Yggdrasil, Valkyrie, etc..) Im curious because I am designing my second tattoo related to Norse and Viking. I just want to get my facts correct.

@miller_6700 like turning water to wine ? Walking on water ? Raising the Dead ?

@miller What? You say magic is nonsense but then say its important to respect it? Make up your mind.

@@Alphardus you can not believe the principle without being cunty about it. like I don't believe in hinduism but I respect it

@@wolfodinson5303 I'm not religious or superstitious but there's a difference between a gods power and magic

and Buchstaben in german, literally (pun intended) meaning staffs of beech-wood.

I view ignorant people looking back at ancient Norse in a similar way to people looking at ancient Egyptian writings. They add magic to it since they want to romanticize it.

@@timoadler6356 …. also literally meaning book-staves lol.

In denmark we are taught that bogstaver (letter) comes from the wooden staves that the old norse used for mail.

I'm not sure I understand why people find it interesting that words used today are the same or similar to those used at some point in history. All the romance languages are based on and would be relatively understandable to someone who spoke Latin 2-3000 years ago. Similarly, Germanic languages should find many of the words used today derive from ancient Norse (and whatever preceded it). Many of the names used across Western European cultures are ancient Hebrew - as much as 6000 years old. Seraphim derives from Seraph, an ancient Hebrew word for serpent that almost precedes the written word! If a word has no reason to be replaced, it won't be. You should expect that more than 50% of the words you use can be found in use, or derived from words in use, thousands of years back.

Vatican still uses it as an official language so technically not dead. Also it’s taught still to priests around the world and in colleges for law and medical degrees ect. It’s not that long ago that people had to understand Latin to read the bible also so even though it may have not bin a main language in places like Ireland and Mexico it definitely was practiced and used in worship before it was “okay” to translate it for lower classes and made profitable by the Gutenberg press

@@BigpapamoneymanMVPtypebeat If the inhabitants of the vatican are passing on latin to their children as their mother tounge something has gone seriously wrong. A language taught only at secondary or tertiary level is a dead language.

I wish everyone knew it too. Ive seen a video very recently of that Icelandic girl that pronounces how some of the words are supposed to be. On top of all her other content. But in the comments a guy was arguing with so many people saying it is from the Viking era. Even tho there’s no evidence at all ever that said the Vikings used it. Because the symbol was used as a part of a Christian magic ritual that may have had some movements rooted in Icelandic culture, but was very common ritualistic practice across Christendom. It’s a Icelandic magical Sigil like Jackson says here. Just like people think Vikings had horns on their helmets when they found helmets that date back 2000 years even before the Vikings were around. Because for a festival a costume designer decided to put horns on the helmets. But I think the sigil is still cool and there’s a few others in the magical staves that are pretty aesthetically appealing too and their meanings. If it means something to you then by all means you know

i am getting a tattoo which have vegvisir included and this doesnt bother me. Im not gonna change it even i could. Going to get it

I have one in the back of my vest and people always think it's a Viking symbol and I tell them no it's an Icelandic sigil but came way after the Viking age. Some people get upset that that cool symbol isint Viking but I hate missinformation so I'ma just bluntly say what it is even if it upsets people

I got one on my arm as the gentleman says “will not get lost through storms and bad weather” stay on the right path! I’m half Celtic half Viking My Celtic surname means guardian of the sea!

​@gabemore1766 you can't be half viking...

Even our language, our own alphabet, is considered kind of magical today by numeroligists. We use the letters of our alphabet to do divination. Our own alphabet. There might not be any good evidence that the Nordic people considered their own alphabet to be magical, but it's a lot more probable that they did. It matches human nature. A lot of the conjectures that he makes, or some at least, tend to go against human nature.

@@jessiehermit9503 The problem with arguments based around human nature is that you have to claim that you have a full understanding of human nature. If you claim to do so you should write a book because few would have such confidence.

I don’t know about human nature, but I think it’s interesting that Devanagari, Tibetan, and Hebrew alphabets are all used for regular writing and also have long traditions of using the letters for magical practices (as well as writing out spells, and combinations of the two). Obviously that doesn’t mean the runes were used that way historically (they are almost certainly used that way nowadays because the techniques were taken from eastern practices at the beginning of the 20th century), but the regular writing doesn’t inherently invalidate the magical purposes of individual letters.

A sidenote; in relation to Finnish tradition, the word «rune» can refer to a spell, not a symbol (these spells weren’t written at all until the 19th century), but a story/statement of knowledge/prowess and/or intention.

I recently found a paper on a new body of medieval textual information in Denmark: Latin-alphabet lead strip amulets (folded and crimped into squarish lumps). The metal-detecting hobbyists/amateur historians over there had been handing over the ones with runes on them under the assumption that the rune-amulets were the old, and the Latin-alphabet were more recent (18th-century +), and therefore of less consequence. When an archaeologist gave a presentation on these amulets, they realized that the Latin-alphabet amulets and the rune amulets were actually contemporaries, and started reporting them in droves. The paper in question is Lumps of Lead - New Types of Written Sources from Medieval Denmark by Lisbeth M. Imer.

Same! hahaha Love it

I was on an archaeological dig one time and my favorite thing I ever found was a smooth rock. There were no rivers near by meaning somebody, probably a kid, picked up a smooth rock by a river and brought it home. It was a small stone so it wouldn’t have had use beyond a trinket. It had no real archaeological value and nobody would ever do anything with them but to me it was always one of the coolest finds. That somebody 2500 years ago thought it was cool.

@@Dougy359 did you keep the rock?

I almost quit my patreonship because of that. Maybe it's just a culture shock.

@@zejo65 Yeah, that comment felt kind of strange. Maybe he's had trouble with people trying to find where he lives? It's a problem a lot of RU-vidrs face, so I get it, but it came across as jarring since it was unexpected in this context. People who live in rural areas need to take a different set of precautions since law enforcement or even just help in general is much further away than in suburban or urban areas.

@@zejo65 its just dry middle-aged American humor. don't worry about it he wasn't serious.

One of the oldest concepts, knowledge is power and a man who could write/record when many couldn't would indeed be considered magical/wise/powerful or similar.

The Latin alphabet, as well as the Greek and Hebrew alphabets, have long been associated with church ritual or apotropaic "magic". They were f.e. used during the dedication of churches in a ritual known as the abecedarium (where the bishop writes the Alphabet in sand or with holy water). There are also some medieval abecedarium inscriptions to be found in German churches. Scholars assume that the inscribed Latin or Greek alphabet was thought to have apotropaic power, meaning having the power to repulse evil.

That's the power of squiggles!

@@maxgruntgens9000 that comes from the idea that Latin, Greek and Hebrew were consecrated by the blood of Christ during his crucifixion.

Heh… «grine». 😅 Morsomt hvordan norsk og dansk har det samme ordet for to så veldig forskjellige betydninger. Samtidig som vi bruker nedertysk alle sammen. Språk er gøy! …eller «sjovt». 😊

@@binker__nor9907 Both are actually correct. In Old Norse "grina" means to show teeth as a reaction eg grin, laugh or cry. In modern times, this has become grin/laugh in Danish, Swedish and in fact English. In Norwegian, this has turned into crying. In German, they have the related variant "greinen" which means to whine.

@@Hvitserk67 Swedish contains both meanings. Grina is laugh/smile in the south and southwest, but it means cry/whine in the rest of the country. It can cause some confusion (or more likely amusement). Grina illa means to make a pained face.

@@binker__nor9907 Ja, det er faktisk ret "gøy", heh. Men der er en forskel på "at grine", altså verbet, og "et grin" altså substantivet, som godt kan betyde grimasse i en mere bred forståelse. F.eks. hun havde et fælt grin.

@@Hvitserk67 And the English "cringe" is likely related to this "greinen", though I must confess that my understanding of German is rather poor.

Well it's all germanic languages..which is why English, scandanavian, German, French, ect. Have so much in common

Those would be fanfiction, like the biblical apocrypha, but that does not make them any less true than original scriptures like the Granth or the Book of Mormon.

@@faithlesshound5621 By the same token, that doesn’t make them any more ‘true’ at all.

@@senacht "Truth" is not an attribute of fiction. It's up to us whether we choose to suspend our disbelief while hearing, reading or watching it. Doing so gives us an emotional work-out. Afterwards, we may recollect those emotions in tranquillity, but there's no point in looking for Camelot or Hogwarts on the map.

Well said, and I'm planning on getting mine soon for the reason of I LOVE ICELAND and maybe too about helping me find my way along my winding path of life....

@@jenniferahillesheim2285 mine does have dragon heads on either side and a interlacing flame above. Need some light if you wanna go where " there be dragons" 😉

i think its more than positive when a scholar keep behaving as a scholar, believer or not. Having "religious faith" on the matter of your study can lead to interesting points of view, but it can also bring some bias on your research

@@regnbuetorsk The same can easily be said for those who are disbelievers/anti-theists. Inherent bias is not a one-way street

@@chuckn4851 Agnosticism is a thing.

It's natural. Many Christians get very upset with historians who aren't talking about Jesus as being a deity. Religion gets people in their passions.

Yes most that survived time were carved in stone, wood and bone, therefore very straight edged. Anything fancier would have rotted away long ago.

@@SkogarmaorFeder I'm talking about surviving runestones. Most of those runes feature curved branches. Straight branches are more common in inscriptions on wood, bone, or antler which survive less well

Sorry, accidentally sent it too early. Anyway, I’m having trouble deciding the lineage for my character who is based on Svipdagsmal and I was hoping to connect with you to help me decide something because I respect your opinion

Please let us know if you get lost while wearing it! You can be a living experiment! Haha!

Up the tree, down the tree carrying gossip and insults.

ha! thats funny! hes like the monkey, in chuck berry's song, Jo Jo Gun

Yes. I believe he has a card for it in this video when he mentions it.

He opens the video explaining his video about the ægishjálmur.

I’ve been doing tattoos for over 20 years I can assure you they never did

It's not like people does not research, but to be honest, some information is not as easy to find. Ive been trying to learn about Norse mythology and viking age, but it's hard to find a website that I can trust 100% when there are so many misinformation everywhere

Exactly. The structure is the name of the rune and a short poetic sentence associated to it. I think one should see rune poems more as a mnemonic device, to better remember the names/sounds of the runes, more than a sort of magical formula thing

Kind of, but the Rune names were a lot more standardized than those names. They are mostly consistent for over a thousand years in all countries that use them.