As part of my Viking persona the need for some sort of magical
amulet devolved into another research project. I had heard about thunderstones,
and straightforward that I am, assumed those would have been made out of
fulgurites, which form of melted sand from lightning striking the beach. But
just to be on the safe side I looked into these fascinating talismans and found
that throughout history many, many objects had been perceived as thunderstones.
For a very long time thunderstones were believed to be the physical remains of
thunderbolts or lightning strikes endowed with the power to avert evil or bad
luck, and to protect the house, property and family against lightning and by
association, storms and fire. In the words of 17th century Adrianus
Tollius “Thunderstones are generated in the sky by a fulgureous exhalation
(whatever that may look like) conglobed in a cloud by a circumfixed humour, and
baked hard, as it were, by intense heat”…
As much as that almost seems plausible, what did they expect
those exhalations to look like? Most thunderstones seem to fall into one of
three categories: they look like weapons (the sky gods used lightning as a
weapon, like Thor’s hammer Mjöllnir), they are associated with thunderstorms (for
instance resemble hail) or have lightning like properties (spark fire).
Preferably they are found in conjunction with lightning storms and lightning
strikes: objects that were not there before the storm but were there after –
washed out of the ground by heavy rains but attributed to having fallen out of
the sky; like stone objects with a peculiar shape, with holes in them or sharp
ends, polished, chipped (proof they fell from the sky), perfectly round,
smooth, with a projectile shape, like pointed, arrow like etc…
Thunderstone amulets could be categorized in three classes:
the minerals, the fossils and the ceraunia. Examples of minerals would be those
unusually shaped stones; fire sparking stones like flint, iron pyrite and bog
iron; fulgurites (found by digging out the lightning strike site, looking for
the magical core) and meteorites, especially those with remaglypts which do
kinda look like fingerprints of the gods! Only a couple types of fossils are
considered thunderstones: sharks teeth and Belemnites (squid) resemble weapons,
and Echinoids are rather round with a, to us, familiar five pointed pattern. But
the most interesting are the ceraunia. These stone age tools were crafted by
early man, but as this knowledge had been forgotten, the sometimes abundantly
found stone weapons became part of thunderstone myths instead!
In archaeology, thunderstones are most often found in grave finds and in house foundations. This is interpreted as a wish to protect the dead and help them into the afterlife, and to protect the house and family from lightning strikes and fire. As thunderstones were seen as the manifestation of lightning strike cores, and throughout history the myth (hope) of “lightning/disaster never strikes twice” prevailed (even today, as shown by the Norse disaster protection rune on our modern day ambulances), having a thunderstone in your house or on your person would, therefore, exempt you from being hit.
The connection between thunderstones and burial could come
from their connection to faeries. The Fae were thought to be the inhabitants of
a mystical, enchanted world, with plenty of honey and wine, feasts, playing and
drinking, and where you’d never grow old (sound familiar?). The Celts believed
that this Otherworld could be accessed from the real world through Neolithic
and bronze age barrows - which would have stone tools - and thought that
Otherworld was the land of the dead. Placing echinoids (called faerie loaves) or
stone tools in burial sites would help guide the spirits of the dead on their
journey into Otherworld, or the afterlife.
In Norse mythology Thor’s hammer Mjöllnir was thought to
have the power to call up the dead to renewed life and placing the sign of
Mjöllnir, either as a fossil echinoid or a stone axe, in burials can therefore
be seen as an act of symbolizing rebirth after death. Thunderstones were believed
to fall from the sky during thunderstorms; missiles hurled by Thor to keep the
wandering trolls under control. If a thunderstone struck a troll careless enough
to be out in a thunderstorm, instant death followed. If it were not for Thor's
missiles, the Norse believed, the trolls would have spread across the earth
like a plague! Thor’s hammer Mjöllnir also represents the lightning as when
thrown it magically returns to Thor’s hand, just as natural lightning is seen
to strike the earth (leader) and then fly black to the skies (return stroke).
There is also a connection between thunderstones and the use
of iron. Revered for its transformative qualities by way of smelting and
smithing, the transformation of iron into a new state could be regarded as a
parallel for the path of the body and soul through burial rituals and might
seem as a good catalyst to assist the dead to do the same, similar to the
believe of stone tools and echinoids. According to Norse belief, placing
objects of iron in and around the grave site is a most reliable way of ensuring
the dead stayed bound to their proper place (the Norse draugr are zombies, apparently risen from the grave due to lack of
iron, or thunderstones!). Iron is also used to wire wrap thunderstones to wear
as amulets as iron would trap the magic and keep the thunderstone ‘loaded’. Popular
myth also mentions faeries can be deterred/trapped or hurt/killed with pure
iron, which concurs with thunderstone myths.
Apparently thunderstones were seen as pretty darn useful: tools
& echinoids would be included in graves to protect souls, guide travel into
the afterlife and keep evil spirits away. They would be placed inside walls,
under the floor or the threshold or kept under eaves or staircases of buildings
to protect the owner and his house from being struck by lightning, fire and
storms, and would be worn to avoid dying at sea, losing in battles, and to guarantee
good sleep at night.
Echinoids placed on shelves in the
pantry would keep the milk fresh and cause plenty of cream, and were hung around
the necks of cattle. They guaranteed good breeding luck and good hunting &
fishing luck. And thunderstone echinoids made the beer ferment.
Who finds a thunderstone should not
give it away, otherwise he loses his luck. In Norse mythology they were thought
to keep trolls and witches (or general evil) away, and bring good luck. They
were also thought to protect the unchristened child against being “changed”. And
thunderstones were considered to be good protection against elfish malice, the
evil eye and especially, the Devil.
Thunderstone echinoids were even assimilated into Christian culture as a protection sign against evil. In some parts of England, openings like doors and windows on the north side of a church, which in medieval and earlier times was known as the Devil’s side of the church, would be rimmed with echinoids (called shepherd’s crowns), all with the five pointed side visible. Echinoids naturally display a five pointed star, the forbearer of the pentagram, which became symbolic of the power of good over evil!
To keep up with demand, objects that looked like magical
items became regarded as similar, and were believed to take on the same magic,
which is called the Theory of Similars (or Sympathetic Magic). This explains
the prevalence of manmade Thor’s hammer amulets in later period, from very
crude (as part of iron amulet rings which were believed to keep the spirits of
the dead confined to the grave) to elaborate jewelry pieces, all used as
protection amulets and talismans. And how the five pointed star of the echinoid
likely evolved into the powerful symbol the pentagram, which took with it
several of the thunderstones protections, including safeguarding brewing
(Scandinavian), protection against witches & general evil and especially protection
against the Devil.
Interestingly, the word “urchin” for modern sea urchins likely
came by way of thunderstones: fossil echinoids, often called fairy loaves, were
associated with the Fae, and another word for these creatures was “urchin”. And
ironically, it took until contact with Native American Indians in the 16th
CE, who at that time still used stone tool technology, for the European
scientific community to realize ceraunia were actually stone tools made by an
earlier kind of people!
Over time, the powerful thunderstones devolved into no more
than talismans, or lucky stones. But remember, next time you find a stone with
a hole in, and you just have to put it in your pocket – you’re just following
in your ancestors footsteps and there is nothing superstitious about that! Or
is there…
The inspiration amulet, my amulet and part of my
Thunderstone Amulet display at the Yule Peace Tournament this December. In the
foreground is a striker (to demonstrate how well flint sparks fire) and a piece
of naturally found flint from England
(shaped like a tube as the flint formed in a prehistoric animal seafloor
tunnel). Thank you, Angelika for loaning
the striker and the replica stone tools, Edward Harbinger for the real stone arrow
point and Artemius of Delftwood for the belemnite. The rest of the
collection comes from my personal stash collected during years of wandering all
over the place picking up whatever looked unusual!
Bibliography
McGinnis M., Meghan P. Ring Out Your Dead. Stockholm: Stockholms Universitet, 2016
http://www.archaeology.su.se/polopoly_fs/1.288568.1467018819!/menu/standard/file/Mattsson_McGinnis_Meghan_Paalz-Ring_Out_Your_Dead.pdf
Fig a & b are attributed to this text.
Johanson, Kristiina. The Changing Meaning of ‘Thunderbolts’. Wood cut is attributed to this text.
McNamara, Kenneth J. Shepherds’ crowns, fairy loaves and
thunderstones: the mythology of fossil echinoids in England. Myth and Geology. London: Geological
Society, 2007. Fig 4 & 8 are attributed to this text.
Report of the U.S
National Museum,
Part I. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899.
Ravilious, K. “Thor’s Hammer” Found in Viking Graves. National Geographic News, 2010.
Seigfried, Karl E. H. The
Norse Mythology Blog. 2010
Dian-stanes and “Thunderstones”. Orkneyjar, the heritage of the Orkney
Islands.
Sibley, Jane The Divine Thunderbolt USA: XLibris, 2009
Extant piece found at http://www.geolsba.dk/echinoids/dan/Galerites-vikingesmykke.html
Published January 11th, 2017 in the Aethelmearc Gazette.
https://aethelmearcgazette.com/2017/01/11/pin-down-the-dead-or-how-to-protect-against-zombies-and-the-evil-eye/
Published January 11th, 2017 in the Aethelmearc Gazette.
https://aethelmearcgazette.com/2017/01/11/pin-down-the-dead-or-how-to-protect-against-zombies-and-the-evil-eye/
No comments:
Post a Comment