Sunday, October 24, 2010

Thunor and the Flyfot


There is a clear link between the fylfot[swastika] and the Germanic thunder God Thunor/Thor/Donar and this is via His hammer Mjollnir.
"The image of Thor`s weapon spinning end-over-end through the heavens is captured in art as a swastika symbol[common in Indo-European art, and indeed beyond]"[page 31 of Gods, Heroes, & Kings The Battle for Mythic Britain by Christopher R. Fee]. When Thunor throws His mighty hammer it gives the appearance of a rotating fylfot. The hammer represents one of the four arms of this sacred Aryan symbol. So when followers of the Asatru faith wear the hammer of Thunor around their necks they are also in effect carrying a flyfot or swastika.
Stephen Taylor in his book The Flfot File also draws on this connection: "The Flyfot was, amongst many other things, the symbol of Thor, the Norse god of thunder. It represents a stylised version of his hammer, Mjollnir["Smasher"] which he would throw as a weapon and which would cause the rumblings of thunder and shattering power of lightning."[Page 79].
The association of the hammer with a sky God is to be found amongst other Indo-European cultures. The Baltic thunder God Perkons also carried a hammer called Milna which may very well be linked linguistically to Mjollnir along with the Russian molnija and the Welsh mellt which both mean `lightning`.
The Slavic thunder God Perun carried an axe which fulfills a similar function in mythology to the hammer. Indeed sometimes Mjollnir is referred to as an axe or a club and we must not forget that the Greeke Herakles and the Roman Hercules both carried a club. Other Indo-European sky or thunder Gods such as the Greek Zeus or the Roman Jupiter had a thunderbolt as their primary weapon but we must not forget that Mjollnir is the source of lightning in Germanic mythology. The Indian Indra also carried a thunderbolt as his primary weapon.
Not only is the concept of the thunder and sky God a pan Aryan mythological concept but so also is the fylfot or swastika and no doubt this connection between the two is via the thunder God`s weapon whether it be axe, club, hammer or thunderbolt.

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