Viking symbols are everywhere, on jewellery, tattoos, album covers and a great many t-shirts, ours included. What most lists leave out is that only some of these symbols were known to the Vikings. Others were drawn in Iceland hundreds of years later, and a few were invented within living memory. This guide covers sixteen of the best known and says plainly where each one comes from.
Sixteen symbols at a glance
| Symbol | Age | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Thor's hammer, Mjolnir | Viking age | Protection, strength and blessing. Worn as a pendant across the Viking world |
| Valknut | Viking age | Three interlocked triangles linked with Odin and the dead. The name is modern |
| Triple horn | Viking age | Three interlocked drinking horns, carved on the Snoldelev stone in Denmark. Often linked with Odin and the mead of poetry |
| Ravens | Viking age | Odin's birds, Huginn and Muninn. Viking armies carried a raven banner into battle |
| Wolf | Viking age | Savage strength. Fenrir, and the wolfskin warriors of the sagas |
| Serpent | Viking age | Jormungand, the world serpent. Serpents coil around hundreds of runestones |
| Eight legged horse | Viking age | Sleipnir, Odin's horse, shown on picture stones from Gotland |
| Longship | Viking age | Travel, power and the journey to the afterlife. Carved on stones and coins |
| Runes | Viking age | The Norse alphabet, used for writing and now and then for charms |
| Yggdrasil | Old idea, modern drawing | The world tree of the myths. The circular tree emblem is a recent design |
| Gungnir | Old idea, modern drawing | Odin's spear, which never misses. Described in the myths |
| Helm of Awe | Old name, later drawing | Named in Viking age poetry. The eight armed sign comes from Icelandic magic books of the 1600s onwards |
| Svefnthorn | Old name, later drawing | The sleep thorn of the sagas. The symbols that carry the name come from later manuscripts |
| Vegvisir | Later | The wayfinder, from an Icelandic manuscript of 1860 |
| Troll cross | Modern | A bent iron charm designed in Sweden in the 1990s |
| Web of wyrd | Modern | A grid of nine lines said to contain every rune. A twentieth century invention |
Symbols the Vikings really used
Thor's hammer
The hammer of the thunder god is the best evidenced symbol of the whole period. Small hammers in iron, silver and amber were worn round the neck, most of them in the ninth and tenth centuries, when Christianity was spreading north and the hammer became a badge of the old faith. Read more about the god himself in our guide to Thor.
The valknut
Three interlocked triangles appear on picture stones from the Swedish island of Gotland and on objects buried with the Oseberg ship in Norway. They are usually found beside scenes of warriors, horses and the dead, which points to a link with Odin. Nobody recorded what the symbol meant or what it was called. Valknut is a modern Norwegian name.
The triple horn
Three drinking horns locked together are carved on the Snoldelev stone in Denmark, which dates from around the start of the Viking age. The sign is often connected with the three draughts of the mead of poetry that Odin stole from the giants, though that is an educated guess.
Ravens, wolves and serpents
Viking art is full of animals. Ravens belonged to Odin, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the capture of a Viking war banner called the Raven in 878. Wolves stood for ferocity. Serpents and dragons wind their way around the edges of hundreds of runestones, often carrying the inscription along their bodies, and the world serpent itself appears on stones that show Thor fishing.
Ships and horses
The longship was the foundation of Viking power and a symbol of the last journey, which is why great men and women were buried in ships. The picture stones of Gotland show ships under full sail, and some show a rider arriving on an eight legged horse, generally taken to be Sleipnir carrying a dead warrior to Valhalla.
Symbols with old roots and newer drawings
Some symbols come from the myths but had no fixed drawing in the Viking age. Yggdrasil, the world tree, and Gungnir, Odin's spear, are described in the poems, and the emblems used for them today are modern artwork. The Helm of Awe is named in the old poems as something the dragon Fafnir possessed, while the spiked sign we know by that name was first drawn in Icelandic magic books centuries later.
Symbols that came later
The Vegvisir, often sold as a Viking compass, comes from the Huld manuscript of 1860. The troll cross was designed by a Swedish smith in the 1990s, based on a charm she recalled from her family's farm. The web of wyrd, a lattice of nine lines, has no source older than the twentieth century. They can still be meaningful to the people who wear them. They are just not Viking.
A note on misuse
A small number of Norse symbols and runes were taken up by the Nazis in the twentieth century and are still used by some extremist groups. The overwhelming majority of people who wear a hammer or a rune have no such connection, but it is worth checking the history of any less familiar symbol before you have it printed or tattooed.
Go deeper
We have separate guides to Viking symbols of protection and Viking symbols of strength, and a full table of rune meanings. Our own symbol, the horned helmet, is a different sort of invention, and you can read the story in did Vikings wear horned helmets.
Common questions
What is the most famous Viking symbol?
Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. Hundreds of hammer pendants survive from the Viking age, more than any other religious symbol of the period.
Which Viking symbols are real?
Thor's hammer, the valknut, the triple horn, ravens, wolves, serpents, longships and runes all appear on objects made in the Viking age. The Vegvisir, the Helm of Awe as it is drawn today, the troll cross and the web of wyrd are later creations.
Is the Vegvisir a Viking symbol?
No. It first appears in an Icelandic manuscript from 1860, about eight hundred years after the Viking age. It is a real piece of Icelandic folk magic, but the Vikings did not use it.
What is the Viking symbol with three triangles?
The valknut, three interlocked triangles found on picture stones in Sweden and on items from the Oseberg ship burial. It appears close to images of Odin and of the dead, and its exact meaning is unknown.
Is it all right to get a Viking symbol tattoo?
Of course, and plenty of people do. It is worth knowing the real age and meaning of a symbol first, and worth being aware that a few Norse symbols have also been adopted by extremist groups, which can affect how they are read.
Last reviewed 12 November 2026