Ægishjálmur (Helm of Awe)
The “helm of awe”: in the Eddic poems and the Völsunga saga, a helmet that terrified all who saw it; in Icelandic grimoires of the early modern period, a protective magical stave of eight armed spokes.
Meaning
Two things share the name. The older is an object in the Sigurd legend. In the Eddic poems the dragon Fafnir owns the ægishjálmr, the “fear-helm, of which all living creatures were terrified”, and speaks of it as he dies: “The fear-helm I wore | to afright mankind.” In the Völsunga saga Sigurd takes “the Helm of Awe” from Fafnir’s lair with the rest of the hoard. Henry Adams Bellows called the word’s etymology “still disputed”.
Origin and history
The other is a stave. The Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft describes the ægishjálmur as a defence against evil spirits, enemies, oppression and the anger of chieftains: it was carved in a plate of lead and pressed onto the forehead between the eyes, with the words “Ægishjálm ég ber milli augna mér”, “I bear the helm of awe between my eyes”. The spell the museum gives ends by invoking the Virgin Mary and the Trinity. Many of the spells raised in Iceland’s witchcraft trials of the 17th century, the museum notes, are found in grimoires kept in manuscript collections, and these staves come from that world, centuries after the Viking Age.
Medieval, Renaissance or heathen roots
The museum is cautious about where the staves came from: it is hard to say what learning lies behind them. Some seem rooted in medieval mysticism and the antiquarian scholarship of the Renaissance, others show ties to Ásatrú and heathen rune lore. It lists the ægishjálmar as a set, “the nine Ægishjálmar”, rather than a single fixed design.
See also
Vegvísir, Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer), Gungnir, Sleipnir, Huginn and Muninn, Yggdrasil.
Sources
- The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation), Henry Adams Bellows (trans.), 1923, American-Scandinavian Foundation (Project Gutenberg), Reginsmol, prose after stanza 14 and note; Fafnismol, stanza 16
- The Story of the Volsungs (Morris and Magnússon translation), Eiríkr Magnússon and William Morris (trans.), 1888, Project Gutenberg
- Galdrastafir (Galdrasýning á Ströndum), Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft, Hólmavík
- The old religion, National Museum of Denmark
Last reviewed September 26, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research