Description
A Vegvisir is an Icelandic magical stave intended to help the bearer find their way through rough weather. The symbol is attested in the Huld Manuscript, collected in Iceland by Geir Vigfusson in 1880 (but consisting of material of earlier origin).A leaf of the manuscript provides an image of the vegvisir, gives its name, and, in prose, declares that; if this sign is carried, one will never lose one way in storms or bad weather, even when the way is not knownThe Helm of Awe (Old Norse Ægishjalmr, pronounced “EYEgishiowlmer”) is one of the most mysterious and powerful symbols in Norse mythology. Just looking at its form, without any prior knowledge of what that form symbolizes, is enough to inspire awe and fear: eight arms that look like spiked tridents radiate out from a central point, as if defending that central point by going on the offensive against any and all hostile forces that surround it.Such overpowering might was apparently what this magical symbol was intended to produce. In the Fafnismal, one of the poems in the Poetic Edda, the havocwreaking dragon Fafnir attributes much of his apparent invincibility to his use of the Helm of Awe:The Helm of AweI wore before the sons of menIn defense of my treasure;Amongst all, I alone was strong,I thought to myself,For I found no power a match for my own.
