I will still make the case that the valknut is a great example of spiritual idiosyncrasy drawn from faulty reasoning, which consequently brings more darkness than light to our understanding of pre-Christian religion. Rather, I hope I am adding something to public discourse that should have been said a long time ago. Obviously, I cannot argue with personal ideas and connotations, and I didn't write this article to burst any bubbles. Actually it's quite the opposite! I believe source criticism matters: It is not the enemy of fanciful speculation. I don't believe academic nuance has damaged my relationship with the symbol. If anything, the connotations have developed and matured with me. Regardless of source-critical status, it worked as the personal reminder I intended it to be. While I no longer accept this as the be all and end all interpretation of the symbol, it still retains a personal significance to me. By permanently fixing it to my skin, it showed my appreciation for the things in life, both good and bad, that are beyond our personal agency and control. My teenage self would say the valknut was an odinic symbol of sacrifice and fate. In retrospect, I suppose my perception was pretty standard. This younger, less discriminating version of myself went down to my local tattoo parlor, and asked for a dotwork valknut on my forearm, which I got. You may find some solace from my iconoclastic rampage in the fact that I am one of you.Īt the age of 18 I found myself in the blissful and rare situation of having few financial commitments, yet an abundance of spare cash. This demographic makes for a significant chunk of my reader base, and if you are one of these people, then please bear with me. The uncountable masses who wear it as a pin on their jacket. Who sold t-shirts, and those who bought them. This may be a shocking and provocative statement to make in the face of the thousands of people who have the so-called valknut symbol tattooed, even branded, or carved into their skin. More importantly: No evidence connects the name to the symbol pictured above. The valknut, a staple not only of the study of Norse religion, but of modern heathenry and neopaganism as well, is actually an entirely spurious term: There is no evidence for a “knot of the slain” in any Norse source whatsoever.
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