Never mind Smaug in The Hobbit or Viserion in Game of Thrones, the dragons of Viking age are far more scary and likely to give you nightmares. It is no surprise the Vikings carved dragon heads for the ends of their longships. The sight of a dragon head on an approaching Viking ship would surely have been enough to make you run for your life. And with good reason. For the Vikings themselves, the dragon head on the prow of the ship may also have been enough to scare away the sea monsters lurking in the depths ready to devour them.
The dragons mentioned in the Norse sagas are creatures of diabolical design. Like the corpse eating Nidhogg. Nidhogg lives under the roots of Yggdrasil – the tree of life – and eats its roots. Why? To bring the world into chaos. Nice.
Or how about Jormungandr? If you think the dragons you know of already are big, imagine one that is so large it stretches completely round the world and is able to grasp its own tail. Yes, that's Jormungandr. Be afraid. Be very afraid. If the sagas are to be believed, although Jormungandr will meet its end at Ragnarok, the fight will cost Thor his own life...something for you superhero fans to think about.
The Vikings certainly knew the power and symbolism of the dragon. There are depictions on buildings, carved into runestones and created in fine jewellery. The dragon, or serpent, was most likely thought to convey the ideas of strength and bravery. So wearing a dragon motif would symbolise these ideas. It's also clear the dragon symbol would be used to ward off other beasts and creatures, so it could offer protection too. This may be the reason why the dragon is found so widely on everyday objects, and why it persisted to be used even in the early Christian period in Scandinavia, as in the carvings on Norway's stave churches at Urnes and Borgund.
Our own dragon bracelet design is modeled on an archaeological find on the island Gotland, Sweden. Perhaps just the perfect thing to be wearing if you encounter something breathing fire on a dark night...
Take a look:
3 comments
NorseGuy
You forgot Fafnir, my guy. A greedy dwarf prince, that got cursed and became a dragon. He then took all his gold into a dark forest, where he was eventually slain by Sigurd, the dragon slayer’s sword Gram. He was the king of the dragons, and was in fact the inspiration for the dragon Smaug in the Hobbit.
You forgot Fafnir, my guy. A greedy dwarf prince, that got cursed and became a dragon. He then took all his gold into a dark forest, where he was eventually slain by Sigurd, the dragon slayer’s sword Gram. He was the king of the dragons, and was in fact the inspiration for the dragon Smaug in the Hobbit.
Daisy Lei
Thank you for this info! i needed it for a school project and then i saw this! I checked it, and not only is it super true and reliable, it has a little bit of humour in it too. Thank you so much for putting this on the internet; I can totally imagine how many more students would agree with me. Please put more ideas about dragons in, not just Norse legend. Bye and thank you (again) for writing this.
Thank you for this info! i needed it for a school project and then i saw this! I checked it, and not only is it super true and reliable, it has a little bit of humour in it too. Thank you so much for putting this on the internet; I can totally imagine how many more students would agree with me. Please put more ideas about dragons in, not just Norse legend. Bye and thank you (again) for writing this.
Keziah Black
I have searched "tonight that is’ a whole dragon book, then I put in a search as I was looking for a very specific creature, I care not if you believe this but I think I found my beast! I always knew him as the destroyer of worlds was here at the dawn and will be here until the very end, I am being careful how I word this as this is how it used me to shift dimensions, it was not physical except for the sound & you really have no idea how long a breath takes, It said it was the black dragon it said how it was born/here first it claimed to be the most powerful creature to have come into existence, it called itself the decider and eater of galaxies long before this place was an idea and will be the last as it was first, it was strange that it called itself the dark dragon, I think I have uttered the name plenty but as I was saying it was like a ghost image and the lines that allowed you to see it were green, I was the loudest breather I noticed this the night after it used me as a door <ok just in case this is confusing I was 16 & hadn’t quite worked out that my gift was channeling> I was studying the scriptures east and west even tried combining diferent strengths because I saw things, usually felt them first, at that point I thought I had only had the one full on encounter at 15 & he was the old man that probably died in that old house, he was phisically harrasing me EVERY night, my sis even though she heard the footsteps in the house was I think trying the if I dont think about it it will cease to exist, while this fundamental law is fact, It only applies to thoughts that you have never had and are likely to never think it into your belief that faith and trust makes that your truth, even if your the only one who ever has that thought it is still fact because you believe it to be fact! That is how the dragon was able to use a energy magnet to come through me, I was getting ready to go out & we were making up stories all the time so when I started saying these words that were not mine I had no idea that they were planted the verse went on as long as this message & as nothing happened right then well not that I could tell we went out to a gig…The evening I was in my connected room I used for painting as I was being spoilt by my adopted bro letting me put a painting into his show, so I’m near the window painting & then that low 3min growling rumble started up outside of my window. At first, I thought I was hearing things but it was too loud and long and REAL btw the movies have no idea, you know horses breath longer and louder because of volume…I could have been in a room with a menagerie of whales & any other animals besides the animals helping me to know this was my fact I still would have guessed what those lungs were attached to! So I do the usual run & get help, but every time Pete came up it refused to breathe after looking silly for the 5th time I knew it was not going to reveal itself to anyone so I just turned up my stereo & pretended it was all in my head…HA! I will say it again HAAAA!! within about a week my sister went up to my room and fell asleep next to that window & she SCREAMS wt#’ is that breathing out on your roof next to the window! I nearly fell over, really because after I turned up the music I heard nothing I assumed I had made it up, I learned something Dragons are patient as hell…So my sister ran home to her own demons but energy vamps are nothing compared to what had taken up residence upstairs when it had it’s fun getting my sisters high but away & somehow it knew that I didn’t say anything to anyone not even Maia…Next, I’m lying in bed and I feel paranoid not just that feeling you get when someones looking at you this was Clever Calculated & it had an air of Superiority…I opened my eyes and its face, which was at least 4×1/2 getting wider near where its ears would have been, all teeth and the eyes were like lights & to be honest I freaked, I didn’t know if there was a different look for I’m going to eat you now as my nostrils are almost on your face or so your the one I can’t eat if I’m going to be taking you with me as I need a shofar, couldn’t pick my teeth with you anyway & that girl in the next room even smaller, I reverted back to kid mode when you watched that movie that you weren’t allowed pulling your quilt over your head because the werewolf is in the cupboard..seriously I’d seen my 3rd ghost by then so I was really passed hiding as a tactic anyway my first ghost was a man who stood at the end of my bed when I was about 5-6 it was my grandfather who I barely knew only met him once I remember that better than the strange standing at the foot of my bed, although you bring any kid a really super toy & they will remember everything even that he spoke to me in German asking for my mum gave me the prezzi & we did have one day out which I don’t remember but later on when the visitor memory came back I thought it’s really strange that I woke up that being stared at thing looked long enought to see that the man was tall and thin dressed in an overcoat for putting over a suit & that would have been correct attire for Austria at that time of the year but rather than screaming or even feeling scared it was the opposite I looked enough to satisfy my curiosity & then turned on my side & went straight back to sleep…the second spiritual thing I couldn’t handle it was like a thousand voices all calling my name, men women, some with accents like if you dubbed a thousand people saying your name over the space of 3 minuits but as the first hundred had started the second lot overlapped it was as if they were not aware of each other but that makes absolutely no sense as it was the first and only time this happened as I screamed STOP! NO with my hands over my ears & it stopped I thought I was going crazy which is the main reason it upset me so much, why else would strange voices be calling your name when you’re at home alone, the other really weird thing that happened was really strange movie night for my bestie & me, house to ourselves all of about 13yrs & I had scored a job at the video store which meant whatever I wanted no matter the rating! Anyway, I asked ‘something like what’s the meaning of life? but it wasn’t that question I really wish I could remember but what happened after I asked the question was the really strange thing & it freaked my friend out in a huge way, she thought someone was in the house and had rigged the tv because I ask… T.V. screen goes black and no sound for a second then the answer was written in bold white over the screen…I will say I was born and grew up in the age of square t.v.s no computers until I was a senior and they were the white box with black & green writing…I was too busy making things there was nothing else to do or walking a couple of k’s to go get my horse & bring her home for a few days, saved me having to mow the horse loved the soft grass & no slap from mum because of the yard is a jungle!!! Gone off topic, that dragon after my face to face a few days passed not much going on except my best friend was trying to what do they call it..TRADE UP!?! in this particular case she was out of her depth yeah the other girl got Maia to take her out pay for the gig and drinks, as no free gig if it was not both Maia & I, the girls or vamps from the gunnery were too cool to dance which is why we never paid as no one wants to be first up unless your there for that…anyway that episode got her thrown down stairs wrapped in her quilt and her bed was not near the door it was 3 turns for her to get from her bed to the door let alopne down the stairs….I really don’t know but she was freaked out and confused as to what hadf thrown her, I already knew…the dragon thjat was forged in the innertia that is created by the very act of creating, this being talked as if it were the oldest thing nedemptyness itself as the universe grew the dragons hunger to replace that which can only be taken from its very essence and that very alone all knowing as he surely felt the absence of what had been created only opposite, this dragon is no joke & powerfull indeed…I feel lucky to have moved & I am under no illusion that those intelligent eyes that bore through me examining every cell that is was and will be could find me again if he so chose to! HE IS THE BLACK DRAGON…wow now that I think ive found the unfathomable & still dare not say more verse I feel a little saddenened forced into the void with no limitations on everything he gains back of himself pushes him further into the blackness of memories that were only an echo stolen from and used so that the many could thrive while his belly is costantly emty his only sin was not being, not taking, not coveting as you dont miss what never was & now this never thats forever away furthur that any of us could fathom….Sorry very long I had a few appiphonies as I realised what it was that passed through my being like some ‘& yes the irony is very apt’ nothing to fill and use because in a world of things space is needed if there was only black there would be nothing for the white peirce like it was first…as I said this has been a long search but I know that dragon eating the roots of the world tree I also know and cant explain why 2050-59 end!..>>>>>X<<<<<
I have searched "tonight that is’ a whole dragon book, then I put in a search as I was looking for a very specific creature, I care not if you believe this but I think I found my beast! I always knew him as the destroyer of worlds was here at the dawn and will be here until the very end, I am being careful how I word this as this is how it used me to shift dimensions, it was not physical except for the sound & you really have no idea how long a breath takes, It said it was the black dragon it said how it was born/here first it claimed to be the most powerful creature to have come into existence, it called itself the decider and eater of galaxies long before this place was an idea and will be the last as it was first, it was strange that it called itself the dark dragon, I think I have uttered the name plenty but as I was saying it was like a ghost image and the lines that allowed you to see it were green, I was the loudest breather I noticed this the night after it used me as a door <ok just in case this is confusing I was 16 & hadn’t quite worked out that my gift was channeling> I was studying the scriptures east and west even tried combining diferent strengths because I saw things, usually felt them first, at that point I thought I had only had the one full on encounter at 15 & he was the old man that probably died in that old house, he was phisically harrasing me EVERY night, my sis even though she heard the footsteps in the house was I think trying the if I dont think about it it will cease to exist, while this fundamental law is fact, It only applies to thoughts that you have never had and are likely to never think it into your belief that faith and trust makes that your truth, even if your the only one who ever has that thought it is still fact because you believe it to be fact! That is how the dragon was able to use a energy magnet to come through me, I was getting ready to go out & we were making up stories all the time so when I started saying these words that were not mine I had no idea that they were planted the verse went on as long as this message & as nothing happened right then well not that I could tell we went out to a gig…The evening I was in my connected room I used for painting as I was being spoilt by my adopted bro letting me put a painting into his show, so I’m near the window painting & then that low 3min growling rumble started up outside of my window. At first, I thought I was hearing things but it was too loud and long and REAL btw the movies have no idea, you know horses breath longer and louder because of volume…I could have been in a room with a menagerie of whales & any other animals besides the animals helping me to know this was my fact I still would have guessed what those lungs were attached to! So I do the usual run & get help, but every time Pete came up it refused to breathe after looking silly for the 5th time I knew it was not going to reveal itself to anyone so I just turned up my stereo & pretended it was all in my head…HA! I will say it again HAAAA!! within about a week my sister went up to my room and fell asleep next to that window & she SCREAMS wt#’ is that breathing out on your roof next to the window! I nearly fell over, really because after I turned up the music I heard nothing I assumed I had made it up, I learned something Dragons are patient as hell…So my sister ran home to her own demons but energy vamps are nothing compared to what had taken up residence upstairs when it had it’s fun getting my sisters high but away & somehow it knew that I didn’t say anything to anyone not even Maia…Next, I’m lying in bed and I feel paranoid not just that feeling you get when someones looking at you this was Clever Calculated & it had an air of Superiority…I opened my eyes and its face, which was at least 4×1/2 getting wider near where its ears would have been, all teeth and the eyes were like lights & to be honest I freaked, I didn’t know if there was a different look for I’m going to eat you now as my nostrils are almost on your face or so your the one I can’t eat if I’m going to be taking you with me as I need a shofar, couldn’t pick my teeth with you anyway & that girl in the next room even smaller, I reverted back to kid mode when you watched that movie that you weren’t allowed pulling your quilt over your head because the werewolf is in the cupboard..seriously I’d seen my 3rd ghost by then so I was really passed hiding as a tactic anyway my first ghost was a man who stood at the end of my bed when I was about 5-6 it was my grandfather who I barely knew only met him once I remember that better than the strange standing at the foot of my bed, although you bring any kid a really super toy & they will remember everything even that he spoke to me in German asking for my mum gave me the prezzi & we did have one day out which I don’t remember but later on when the visitor memory came back I thought it’s really strange that I woke up that being stared at thing looked long enought to see that the man was tall and thin dressed in an overcoat for putting over a suit & that would have been correct attire for Austria at that time of the year but rather than screaming or even feeling scared it was the opposite I looked enough to satisfy my curiosity & then turned on my side & went straight back to sleep…the second spiritual thing I couldn’t handle it was like a thousand voices all calling my name, men women, some with accents like if you dubbed a thousand people saying your name over the space of 3 minuits but as the first hundred had started the second lot overlapped it was as if they were not aware of each other but that makes absolutely no sense as it was the first and only time this happened as I screamed STOP! NO with my hands over my ears & it stopped I thought I was going crazy which is the main reason it upset me so much, why else would strange voices be calling your name when you’re at home alone, the other really weird thing that happened was really strange movie night for my bestie & me, house to ourselves all of about 13yrs & I had scored a job at the video store which meant whatever I wanted no matter the rating! Anyway, I asked ‘something like what’s the meaning of life? but it wasn’t that question I really wish I could remember but what happened after I asked the question was the really strange thing & it freaked my friend out in a huge way, she thought someone was in the house and had rigged the tv because I ask… T.V. screen goes black and no sound for a second then the answer was written in bold white over the screen…I will say I was born and grew up in the age of square t.v.s no computers until I was a senior and they were the white box with black & green writing…I was too busy making things there was nothing else to do or walking a couple of k’s to go get my horse & bring her home for a few days, saved me having to mow the horse loved the soft grass & no slap from mum because of the yard is a jungle!!! Gone off topic, that dragon after my face to face a few days passed not much going on except my best friend was trying to what do they call it..TRADE UP!?! in this particular case she was out of her depth yeah the other girl got Maia to take her out pay for the gig and drinks, as no free gig if it was not both Maia & I, the girls or vamps from the gunnery were too cool to dance which is why we never paid as no one wants to be first up unless your there for that…anyway that episode got her thrown down stairs wrapped in her quilt and her bed was not near the door it was 3 turns for her to get from her bed to the door let alopne down the stairs….I really don’t know but she was freaked out and confused as to what hadf thrown her, I already knew…the dragon thjat was forged in the innertia that is created by the very act of creating, this being talked as if it were the oldest thing nedemptyness itself as the universe grew the dragons hunger to replace that which can only be taken from its very essence and that very alone all knowing as he surely felt the absence of what had been created only opposite, this dragon is no joke & powerfull indeed…I feel lucky to have moved & I am under no illusion that those intelligent eyes that bore through me examining every cell that is was and will be could find me again if he so chose to! HE IS THE BLACK DRAGON…wow now that I think ive found the unfathomable & still dare not say more verse I feel a little saddenened forced into the void with no limitations on everything he gains back of himself pushes him further into the blackness of memories that were only an echo stolen from and used so that the many could thrive while his belly is costantly emty his only sin was not being, not taking, not coveting as you dont miss what never was & now this never thats forever away furthur that any of us could fathom….Sorry very long I had a few appiphonies as I realised what it was that passed through my being like some ‘& yes the irony is very apt’ nothing to fill and use because in a world of things space is needed if there was only black there would be nothing for the white peirce like it was first…as I said this has been a long search but I know that dragon eating the roots of the world tree I also know and cant explain why 2050-59 end!..>>>>>X<<<<<