So, over the weekend Georgia’s friendly neighborhood genocidal racist hatemongers had a little cookout with a blazing swastika. And right next was a blazing… thing. But it turns out that thing was not just at the fire. It was everywhere at the Newnan and Draketown Nazi rallies. And before that it was at … the Charlottesville Unite The Right Rally. Along with a few other important symbols.
So what are these symbols? What do they have in common and what do they mean?
These symbols are all symbols that were used in during the period of time we call the Viking age and were used by Vikings.
Why are Nazis, Klan and other racist scum using them?
Simply put, if you walk around with a swastika or even a Klan cross, people recognize these symbols and know what they mean. It’s hard to deny you are a Nazi when you wear a swastika. Racists are adopting new symbols which are related to what they regard as the “ultimate Aryan warrior culture” the Vikings. It doesn’t help that the head of the murderous SS during Hitler’s reign had a fascination with archeology and wanted to tie Vikings to a mythical past where germanic warriors dominated Europe.
Let’s look at these symbols:
This symbol is a rune from the pre-Viking Elder Futhark alphabet and fell out of use in the 700’s when the transition to Younger Futhark runes took place. The meaning of this symbol is “estate, heritage, property” — to the Germanic/Scandinavian tribes of Iron Age Europe this would have referred to land, tools, cattle, clothing and weapons. To the modern alt-right this seems to imply some kind of racial heritage. This has become a very popular symbol among racist groups and I understand that even some Christian Identity extremists may be using it.
This is another rune, one that appears in both Elder and Younger Futhark with little modification (in Younger Futhark the arm branches are more rounded). Interestingly, linguists are not sure about the original meaning of this rune — one of the liabilities of studying cultures that were pre-literate and the vast majority of their traditions handed down orally. The best guess is that it meant “elk” which in the United States we call “moose.” I have to admit that I was not aware of any connection to modern racists until I noticed this on the t-shirt of the bearded man in the banner photo. I’m researching what it symbolizes for neo-nazis but so far the well has been dry.
The Valknut (this is a MODERN Norwegian name meaning “knot of the slain”) is a mysterious symbol which appears on picture stones on Gotland, an Island off the Swedish coast in the Baltic Sea. Intriguingly it is also found on the grave goods that were buried as part of the Oseberg Ship Burial - see about the middle of the diary for that and on an Anglo-Saxon ring. What did this symbol mean to the Vikings and other Iron Age Europeans?
We have no idea.
However, we do know that it is associated with the dead (see the dead dude in the picture from the stone?).
What does this mean to the nazi scum? What I have been told by nazi scum is that it is a representation of the nine world of Viking myth and is apparently used to identify other racists.
This last symbol is the rune for Tyr or Tîwaz and this rune appeared in both the Elder Futhark and the Younger Futhark alphabets. This rune appears to refer to a Germanic deity, Tîwaz, who appears to have been the chief god of the pantheon before Odin/Woden supplanted him. By the time of the Vikings, Tyr was the deity who lost his hand to the wolf Fenrir (Greed).
Possibly because of its association with warrior gods this symbol has been appropriated by racists in Europe and has become so throughly identified with far right ideology that members of the Norwegian 2018 winter olympic ski team did not want to wear the official sweater because the Tyr rune was a motif on the sweater.
I am involved in a project to expose the neo-nazi/far right/alt-right/racist appropriation of viking symbols and here is my video about that. If you are willing to do me a favor, please subscribe to my YouTube channel. If not, that’s cool. Nobody really wants to see a fat Texan anyway.