Odin was one of the most powerful of all the shamans and magicians. To find associations with both Odin and death together should come as no surprise, as Odin has been, among many other things, a psychopomp – that is a figure that ferries the spirits of the dead to the underworld and then back to the world of the living – and the leader of different hosts of the dead like the warriors of Valhalla and the Wild Hunt. For instance, the Anglo-Saxon urns feature depictions of wolves and horses, two animals that usually accompany Odin in the Norse mythological tales.

Even in moments where he is not present directly alongside the valknut, we usually find some other symbols which are closely related to it.

In most of the cases, scholars also proposed a variety of explanations for this symbol, sometimes associating it with the god Odin. They are another Germanic people that are closely related to the Norse linguistically, ethically, as well as regarding their pre-Christian worldview and religion. Similar-looking symbols may also be found on the cremation ruins of the Anglo-Saxons. In the archaeological record, the valknut appears just in connection with the cult of the dead, as in the runestones and ship burial, which we mentioned before. What was the meaning of this symbol? Well, there is one short answer, and it is that it is not known. Valknut is a modern Norwegian compound word, which means knowledge of the ones fallen in battle, and it has been introduced by Norwegians that lived long after the Viking Age. The name of this symbol was mentioned in any period sources.

Meaningful valknut tattoo meaning