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Thor the Wind-Raiser and the Eyrarland Image (review)

2005; Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies; Volume: 22; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/pgn.2006.0005

1832-8334

Katrina Burge,

Linguistics and language evolution

Reviewed by: Thor the Wind-Raiser and the Eyrarland Image Katrina Burge Perkins, Richard, Thor the Wind-Raiser and the Eyrarland Image (Viking Society For Northern Research Text Series, 15), London, Viking Society For Northern Research, 2001; paper; pp. xi, 177; 35 b/w illustrations; RRP £12; ISBN 0903521520. The Eyrarland image is a small bronze figurine about six centimetres high, variously interpreted as a weight, a toy, a playing piece or, most often and in the work reviewed here, a representation of the Scandinavian pagan god Thor. It was found in Iceland, where replicas are aggressively marketed in locations ranging from milk cartons to duty free shopping catalogues, and its reproduction is ubiquitous in discussions of Viking art. Clearly the Eyrarland image is an important medieval Scandinavian artefact deserving of analysis and discussion, which Richard Perkins ably provides. For a book with such a focused title, the well-structured discussion is wide-ranging. The first section is a fascinating general survey of the importance of wind in Viking society, and the various ways by which those dependent on it might try to manipulate it. Viking ships are often discussed in such hyperbolic terms as 'the stealth bombers of their day' and it is seldom acknowledged that the elongated and shallow keel which gives them their beaching ability and unparalleled grace also made them very difficult to sail in any direction except the way the wind blew them. Perkins provides numerous written examples of Norse sailors attempting to conjure up wind magic, often through the invocation of the god Thor, who is charged with special responsibility for the weather. Perkins relies on a detailed explication of a passage from the little known Icelandic þáttr (tale) to argue that, as with his better-known hammer-wielding influence over thunder, the god's control of the wind is instrumental. Perkins interprets the terms skeggrödd and skeggraust (each meaning 'beard-voice') as the act of Thor blowing out the wind. The central argument of this work is that the Eyrarland image is a plastic representation of Thor carrying out this process, using his beard in the manner of a wind instrument. Perkins is an accomplished philologist and his reading of the passage is convincing. However it is a limitation that the text is provided only in Old Norse, though passages in Latin and Russian are translated. Old Norse texts will continue to be marginalized in medieval studies if they are not made accessible to those outside the rather narrow discipline of Norse studies. An engaging and technical discussion of Scandinavian artefacts and texts will always find an audience there but other scholars are prevented from fully appreciating this argument if they cannot understand the critical texts. [End Page 253] The argument that Thor was visualized as blowing out the wind, and that he was invoked to influence the wind leads to the conclusion that the Eyrarland image and other similar artefacts can be identified as amulets carried by those, presumably sailors, who most wanted to control the wind. Perkins briefly mentions a strikingly similar image to the Eyrarland image, the bronze Rällinge image. As this small figure is in rather an excited condition, he is usually identified with the fertility god Freyr, an identification with which Perkins concurs. However the Rällinge image too is stroking his beard, in the gesture which Perkins repeatedly characterizes as Thor's wind-raising ritual. Frustratingly, this parallel is not explored. The remaining sections of the book follow this conclusion into archaeological territory. Perkins focuses specifically on four small figures, including the Eyrarland image. The figurines were found as far apart as Iceland and the Ukraine, and made from media ranging from carved amber to cast bronze but Perkins identifies in them distinctive characteristics which, he argues, type them all as representative of Thor in his wind-raising capacity. These symbolic qualities range from the general observation that they tend to have the glaring eyes and muscular physique appropriate for textual accounts of the 'bruiser' god (p. 70), to the very specific feature that each of them appears to be holding his beard like a wind instrument and blowing into it. The intriguing circles on...