The defining picture of the storming of the US Capitol on Jan. 6 was undoubtedly that of a bare-chested man posing resplendent in a horned fur hat and face paint. Photographs of him in his bizarre costume have been shared throughout the globe—he appears to completely encapsulate the absurdity of the mob takeover of America’s sacred seat of energy.
The person in query has since been identified within the media as a far-right activist from Arizona by the identify of Jacob Chansley (often known as Jake Angeli). He was rapidly alleged to be an adherent of the QAnon conspiracy principle—although not earlier than fake rumors spread that he was really an antifa “plant”.
One factor that ought to make it very clear the place Angeli’s politics lie are his tattoos. On his torso he has a big Thor’s hammer, generally known as Mjölnir, and what seems to be a picture of the Norse world tree, Yggdrasill.
Mjölnir is one image we may be fairly certain was utilized by the unique adherents of the Norse perception system, maybe to summon the safety of the god Thor. Yggdrasill is the large ash tree that helps the Norse cosmos, its branches reaching into sky realms inaccessible to people, and its roots to the subterranean realm of the useless. Not like Thor’s hammer, it was solely hardly ever depicted by the Vikings, and representations such because the one under are fashionable interpretations.
Above these tattoos with a central place in Norse mythology is one that’s extra contentious. It depicts a valknut—a picture that seems on two Viking-Age stones from Sweden carved with scenes from Norse mythology, together with the Stora Hammars I stone on the island of Gotland.
The image’s authentic which means is unclear, but it surely seems in shut proximity to the daddy of the gods, Odin, on the stones. As Odin is intently related with the gathering of fallen warriors to Valhalla, the valknut could also be an emblem of loss of life in battle.
Snorri Sturluson, a medieval Icelandic collector of myths, tells us in his “Language of Poetry” {that a} well-known large referred to as Hrungnir had a stone coronary heart “pointed with three corners”, and so the valknut is usually additionally referred to as “Hrungnir’s Coronary heart”. No matter its authentic which means, it has been utilized in newer instances by numerous neo-pagan teams—and more and more by some white supremacists as a coded message of their perception in violent wrestle.
Borrowed symbols
Angeli claims that he wears his weird costume to attract consideration to himself—however there’s absolutely another excuse for the naked chest and precariously low-slung pants. He’s displaying these tattoos to full impact, and needs them to be seen.
Many individuals have related tattoos which categorical their neo-pagan perception, Scandinavian heritage, or curiosity within the myths. However there is no such thing as a doubt that these symbols have additionally been co-opted by a rising far-right motion. A touch at the place Angeli lies on this continuum is in a tattoo that’s much less seen on his left shoulder, however which a number of lecturers together with archaeologist Kevin Philbrook Smith have identified appears to be a model of the Sonnenrad, or sun-wheel.
It is a image listed by the Anti-Defamation League as “one in all plenty of historical European symbols appropriated by the Nazis of their try to invent an idealized Aryan or Norse heritage”. Usually it incorporates a swastika or different hate image—however worn with nothing inside, it is vitally straightforward for different white supremacists to fill within the clean.
Canine whistles
There may be, in fact, an extended historical past of the co-opting of Norse imagery by the far proper. Beloved of Himmler, the runic script inspired the insignia of the SS, whereas the swastika is one other of these “historical European symbols” that options in numerous kinds on image stones and runic inscriptions.
This misappropriation continued after the autumn of the Third Reich, although in a extra muted type. Neo-Nazis—no less than these not brazen sufficient to put on a swastika—are likely to go for much less recognizable symbols. These embrace numbers representing “Heil Hitler” (88—H is the eighth letter of the alphabet) or “Aryan Brotherhood” (12—letters one and two). Far-right adherents additionally favor different characters from the Germanic runic writing system which talk related messages.
Considered one of these is the Othala runic letter—its identify means “inherited land”, and so it ceaselessly seems within the emblems of white nationalist teams from Ukraine to the US.
These “coded” symbols, and others newly borrowed from Norse fable, are even more durable to identify and condemn. Sky recently canceled a reality TV show after viewers complained one contestant was coated in tattoos—together with on his face—that could possibly be seen as having far-right connotations. But when sure symbols are arduous for most people to identify, they’re actually canine whistles to members of an more and more world white supremacist motion who know precisely what they imply.
Many students argue that one of the best ways to counter far-right misuse is to drown it out with constructive and correct representations of Norse fable—the place I took in my recent retelling. However within the wake of the mass capturing in Norway in 2011 by Anders Breivik, who named his weapons after weapons of the Norse gods, in addition to the 2019 Christchurch mass shooter Brenton Tarrant, together with his allusions to Valhalla, and of this newest poster-boy of far-right riot, we now have to assume very arduous about whether or not that is the precise strategy to counter a very world extremist motion. On the very least, lecturers—and anybody else with a real curiosity in Norse mythology—must be way more concerned in countering these abuses of our topic on the bottom.
In any other case, we run the chance of ceding the sector to those that see the obscure idea of “Norse heritage” as a solution to additional unite a global fraternity of violent white supremacists.
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