Also called Thor's hammer, Mjölnir amulet, hammer amulet
A small pendant shaped like the hammer of the Norse god Thor, worn for protection and strength. Hundreds of real hammer amulets survive from Viking Age Scandinavia, most from the 10th century, and the symbol is worn today by followers of modern Heathenry and anyone drawn to Norse heritage.
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Take care: If you pour an offering outdoors, use a non-toxic drink. Wear iron pendants over clothing or seal them, since rust can stain skin.
Iron rings strung with tiny hammers were laid in cremation graves around Lake Mälaren, often on top of the burial urn, and also turn up at settlement sites. A ring from Viby gård in Sollentuna is dated to the 9th or 10th century. Their exact use is unknown; they may have been offerings or protective charms.
About 50 silver hammers are known, mostly from hoards and some from graves, across southern and central Scandinavia and Iceland, with a few from Poland and England. Many are decorated with filigree and granulation, and they were worn as pendants.
Bray argues the hammer amulet spread partly as a pagan answer to the Christian cross. A stone mould from Jutland could cast both hammers and crosses, an Icelandic pendant from Foss blends the two, and some graves contain both, suggesting many people wore whichever protection felt right.
In Norse myth Mjölnir is the hammer of Thor, the thunder god who guarded gods and people against giants. Snorri Sturluson's 13th-century Prose Edda tells how dwarves forged it, and in the Eddic poem Thrymskvida the hammer is laid in a bride's lap to hallow a wedding. Archaeology shows people wore its likeness for real: hammer amulets appear from about 750 AD and become common in the 900s, concentrated in Denmark, south-eastern Sweden and southern Norway. The Swedish History Museum counts about 50 silver hammers, alongside many small iron ones on rings from cremation graves.
Scholar Daniel Bray has argued that the hammer's 10th-century boom was a pagan response to the spread of the Christian cross, which people could see around the necks of converts and traders. Hammers were later carved on 11th-century runestones in contrast to crosses. In the 20th century the pendant was revived by Heathen religious groups and Norse heritage enthusiasts. A small number of hate groups have also misused Norse symbols, which most Heathens loudly reject; wearing a hammer for protection and heritage is the mainstream meaning today.
A ring of iron bent so its ends cross and curl, sold as an ancient Scandinavian charm against trolls and evil magic. The jewelry form is a modern invention by a Swedish smith in the late 1990s, though iron charms and protective house marks in Sweden are genuinely old.
The legendary signet ring of King Solomon, said to give him command over demons, and the star symbol (a hexagram or a pentagram) later used for it on amulets across Jewish, Christian and Islamic magic.
The night of 30 April, when German folklore said witches gathered on the Brocken mountain, and people lit hilltop fires, rang bells and made noise to drive them and winter away. It is still kept with bonfires in Sweden, Finland, Germany and the Czech Republic.
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