The Vegvisir - a confusing "compass"

The Vegvisir - a confusing "compass" - Tattoo Lexicon

Hardly any other motif has become as popular in recent years as the Icelandic "Vegvisir" - and hardly any other motif has so much nonsense circulating about its origin and meaning.

One after the other: The Vegvisir is an Icelandic magic symbol that is shown and described in several Icelandic magic writings. The Huld manuscript, which was compiled in 1860, states: "Wear this symbol and you will not get lost in storms or bad weather, even if the area is unknown." In the 1940 spell book called Galdraskraeda, there is a similar description of the magic sign: "Carry this sign with you and you will hardly ever lose your way in a storm or die of exhaustion, even if you are unfamiliar with the surroundings." The depiction of the symbol in the Huld manuscript and in the Galdraskraeda differ in some details, and there are countless other variants on the internet, some more, some less distorted and modified.

So much for the facts. In fact, this symbol is often found under the name "Viking compass", a very misleading and incorrect name. The name "compass" seems obvious, as the symbol actually serves as a compass for orientation and, like a compass, seems to indicate eight directions, for north, south, east and west and the respective directions in between, such as south-west, north-east etc.

But this similarity is purely coincidental; many other Icelandic magic symbols, which have nothing at all to do with orientation or navigation, also show these eight spokes. This characteristic type of magic symbol in this form originated in continental Europe from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance; you can find amazingly similar symbols with eight spokes in the famous magic book "Clavicula Salomonis", but also in Alpine magic writings such as a magic scroll from Upper Austria from 1594. It is known that Icelandic magicians and occultists were studying in Europe at this time and were familiar with the magic symbols common there. It is likely that, under European influence, magic signs of this kind, such as the Vegvisir, were also created in Iceland.

But how does the obviously nonsensical connection to the Vikings come about when the symbol only appears many centuries after the Viking Age?

As far as can be reconstructed, the Icelandic singer Björk, who had this symbol tattooed many years ago, is probably to blame. When asked about it in an interview, she claimed that the Vikings carved this symbol into their ships so that they could always find their way home safely - a nice story, but definitely false: there is no evidence of this symbol anywhere from the Viking Age, certainly not in the form of any carvings on ships, and there is no mention of a symbol with this meaning in any other sources from this period either. It is not known whether Björk deliberately told sailor's yarns she had invented herself in this interview or whether she was simply repeating what she had heard herself.

But since the myth of the "Viking symbol" was taken up in the HBO series "Vikings" and shields with the symbol were seen there, which actually appeared at the earliest during the Renaissance, the misattribution of the magic symbol to the Viking era has become practically indelible.

But that's not all; years ago, in an attempt to annoy new pagans who adorn themselves with the supposed Viking symbol, an amateur historian spread the claim that the Vegvisir is actually even a "Christian" symbol - because Christian figures such as Jesus, Mary or Christian saints are also invoked in the spell books in which it can be found. While this is true, it is also true that Christian references can be found in almost every European spell book of the last one and a half thousand years. This may sound confusing, as it is often (wrongly) presented as if magic and Christianity were insurmountable opposites, but in fact European magic and sorcery have been very syncretic since antiquity, meaning that they readily drew on a wide variety of influences, regardless of origin. However, this does not mean that the vegvisir is a Christian symbol or has a Christian symbolic content.

So what is certain is that the Vegvisir is definitely a magical symbol that actually originates from Icelandic folklore and the magic that is actually practiced there - however, the magic symbol definitely does not date back to the Viking Age but was created in the period after the Middle Ages at the earliest and can only be documented in writing from the 19th century onwards.

Text: Dirk-Boris Rödel

Graphic: Jonas Bachmann