The Torslunda plates are four cast bronze dies found in the Torslunda parish on the Swedish island

Öland Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Øland'' in other Scandinavian languages, and often ''Oland'' internationally; la, Oelandia) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area ...

. They display figures in

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

, representing what are presumed to be traditional scenes from

Germanic mythology Germanic mythology consists of the body of myths native to the Germanic peoples, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, and Continental Germanic mythology. It was a key element of Germanic paganism. Origins As the Germanic language ...

. The plates are moulds designed for production rather than display; by placing thin sheets of foil against the scenes and hammering or otherwise applying pressure from the back, identical images could be quickly mass-produced. The resulting ''pressblech'' foils would be used to decorate rich helmets of the sort found at

Vendel Vendel is a village at Tierp Municipality in Uppland, Sweden. The village overlooks Vendelsjön, a long inland stretch of water near the Vendel river which has its confluence with the river Fyris. Vendel was the site of an ancient royal estate, ...

Valsgärde Valsgärde or Vallsgärde is a farm on the Fyris river, about three kilometres north of Gamla Uppsala, the ancient centre of the Swedish kings and of the pagan faith in Sweden. The present farm dates from the 16th century. The farm's notability ...

, and

Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo is the site of two early medieval cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near the English town of Woodbridge. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a ...

. Two of the plates may have been made as casts of existing ''pressblech'' foils.

Discovery

The plates were discovered in a

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

in early 1870, and are in the collection of the

Statens Historiska Museum The Swedish History Museum ( sv, Historiska museet or Statens historiska museum) is a museum located in Stockholm, Sweden, that covers Swedish archaeology and cultural history from the Mesolithic period to present day. Founded in 1866, it operates ...

. Their fame derives from containing full scenes from mythology, unlike the fragmentary and degraded scraps of ''pressblech'' foils that are known. The plates have been exhibited internationally, including from 13 May to 26 June 1966, when they were part of the exhibition ''Swedish Gold'' at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. The plates have been dated to the

Vendel Period In Swedish prehistory, the Vendel Period ( sv, Vendeltiden; 540–790 AD) appears between the Migration Period and the Viking Age. The name is taken from the rich boat inhumation cemetery at Vendel parish church, Uppland. This is a period wit ...

of the 6th and 7th centuries.

Description

Each plate contains a different mythological design, traditionally labeled, displayed here counterclockwise from the bottom right A to D, as "man between bears", "man with axe holding roped animal", "walking warriors carrying spears" and "dancing man with horned head-dress and man with spear wearing wolfskin". The warriors in Plate C are depicted as wearing boar helmets.

Interpretation

The last depiction is particularly well known for its missing right eye, shown by a laser scanner to have been struck out, likely from the original used to make the mould. This recalls the one-eyed Norse god

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...

, said to have given an eye to be allowed to drink from a well whose waters contained wisdom and intelligence, and suggests that the figure on the plate is he. He is depicted along with a wolfman, interpreted as a

berserker In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word '' berserk'' (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers ...

(''Úlfhéðinn'')''.'' The latter is perhaps a ''

pars pro toto ''Pars pro toto'' (, ), , is a figure of speech where the name of a ''portion'' of an object, place, or concept is used or taken to represent its entirety. It is distinct from a merism, which is a reference to a whole by an enumeration of parts; ...

'' embodying the wolf-warriors led in ecstatic dance by the god of frenzy.

References

Bibliography

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