Comments on: Odin at Lejre?

By: Gandelfar

Gandelfar — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:18:56 +0000

ITs LOKI.Loki was a HE/SHE And maskaraded as the other Gods and animals,The christens stole Loki AS Lucifer to discredit the old history.They never had an original Thought.

By: Terry

Terry — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:05:08 +0000

Mrs Odin?ie Frigg,queen of the Aesir,or Heimdall keeping watch for Odin on his throne?Harald fairhair after the barbers when he became overlord of Norway?
Odin himself?Or another theory one side ugly ,madame Hel in Niflheim?

By: La statuetta di Lejre « Gangleri

La statuetta di Lejre « Gangleri — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:19:22 +0000

[...] http://oldnorsenews.org/2009/11/odin-at-lejre/ [...]

By: Carsten Lyngdrup Madsen

Carsten Lyngdrup Madsen — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:54:33 +0000

It may be worthwhile comparing this newly found figure with another Danish figure that has been around for more than a century. I am thinking of the wooden statue from Eskildstrup, which is now in the National Museum in Copenhagen. This figure can be seen in a 3D animation on this adress:
http://oldtiden.natmus.dk/udstillingen/aeldre_jernalder/guder_i_jernalderen/traemanden_fra_rude_eskildstrup/
There are similarities between the two, which may have an impact on the interpretation of “Odin from Lejre”. In both cases you see a person sitting in pretty much the same position. In both cases the person is wearing a long dress and a huge necklace. However, there is one clear difference. The statue of Eskildstrup is provided with a moustache and probably a beard and must be interpreted as a male figure. Considering this I do think that the strong symbolism of the throne, the ravens and probably the damaged eye makes it likely that “Odin from Lejre” really was an amulet of Odin. /clm

By: Odin from Lejre? « Runes of Christ

Odin from Lejre? « Runes of Christ — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:48:28 +0000

[...] more here. See the Roskilde Museum’s page [...]

By: Markku

Markku — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:18:03 +0000

Looks like a female dress, but ravens and wolves point to the direction of the Old One Eye…we can speculate, but it is likely we will never know for sure.

By: Roderick

Roderick — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:02:08 +0000

No one has commented on the “hungry doghs/wolves” carved into the chair/throne.
They appear to be eating something.

Dogs / Wolves, plus Birds/ravens plus a damaged left eye, all appear to add up to a representation of Odin

By: Sofie

Sofie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:13:32 +0000

Hi Chris … I like your little idea of the statue representing a woman of high status. Maybe that’s all it is and because of ageing the statue got a bit damaged causing it to look like the figure only has one eye. Maybe that woman liked birds or was (if we have to go along with the religious aspect of the statue) a follower of Odin …

By: Chris Abram

Chris Abram — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:04:24 +0000

Dr Rundkvist compares this figure to the Aska pendant, which is unambiguously feminine — the ornamentation around the neck/chest (the ‘necklace’) seems to have been worked in similar fashion on both pieces.

If we accept that the dress/ornament of the figure is female, we’re left with two iconographic incongruities: the ravens (an Odinic symbol) and the missing eye (an Odinic symbol). I can therefore see why the ‘Odin in drag’ theory has gained some traction, since we know that he had a feminine aspect. However, if we just had a woman with ravens, we might think of a valkyrie, i.e. a female figure connected with Odin but not a hypostasis of Odin. The ‘missing eye’ is not totally conclusive to me — it looks as thought the left eye has been modelled, although it lacks the detail we find in the right eye. It could have been damaged — deliberately or accidentally. The ‘valkyrie’ interpretation perhaps suffers in that we might not associate these figures with sitting on a throne.

Still, I’m going to vote for ‘valkyrie’ anyway, but I’m also wondering if we might look for non-mythological explanations for the Lejre object. Could it just be a high-status lady, sitting on a stylized chair, whose eye has been scratched off? There is a tendency to interpret any ambiguous find as being a religious object, even when we have absolutely no context for it. And there are surely dangers in explaining a Viking-Age Danish object by recourse to myths that are only found in 13th-century Icelandic texts?

By: Sofie

Sofie — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:54:38 +0000

If you take into account that there are two ravens or birds sitting on the high-seat, then you could claim that it is Odin with a woman’s frock on.

But looking at the dress, the necklace … and the figurine as a whole, I would agree with Martin Rundkvist and say that it is a woman (perhaps Freyja or Frigg).