Svefnþorn
The “sleep thorn”: in the Eddic poems and the Völsunga saga, the thorn with which Odin cast the valkyrie Brynhild into a long sleep; in the Huld manuscript of 1860, a magical stave to keep a sleeper from waking.
Meaning
In the Sigurd legend Odin punishes a valkyrie for giving victory to the wrong king. The prose of the Eddic poem Sigrdrífumál says that “Othin pricked her with the sleep-thorn in punishment for this, and said that she should never thereafter win victory in battle, but that she should be wedded.” In the Völsunga saga the birds tell Sigurd of a shield-maiden asleep on the fell, into whom “The sleep-thorn set Odin”, and Brynhild tells him herself that Odin “stuck the sleep-thorn into me”.
Origin and history
The stave is much later. In the Huld manuscript, made in Iceland in 1860, the svefnþorn is number X among the magical staves, and Justin Foster’s translation of its note reads: “These symbols were carved on oak and laid under the head of whoever that was sleeping, then he could not wake up until it was taken away.” The drawing follows that page’s four barbed staves in simplified form.
Read next
- Next in Norse and Viking symbolsTroll crossA protective mark of Swedish folk belief: a cross cut into buildings, furniture and cattle gear, and small iron crosses hung on animals, to keep witchcraft and evil beings away. It is not a Viking Age symbol.
- The same shape in Greek gods and their symbolsPoseidonPoseidon’s symbol is the trident, a three-pronged spear. Greek artists also gave him the horse, which he was said to have created, and the dolphin, so that he is easy to pick out among the gods.
See also
Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer), Gungnir, Sleipnir, Huginn and Muninn, Yggdrasil, Valknut.
Sources
- The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation), Henry Adams Bellows (trans.), 1923, American-Scandinavian Foundation (Project Gutenberg), Sigrdrifumol, prose after stanza 4; note to Fafnismol 43
- The Story of the Volsungs (Morris and Magnússon translation), Eiríkr Magnússon and William Morris (trans.), 1888, Project Gutenberg
- The Huld Manuscript – ÍB 383 4to: a modern transcription, decryption and translation, Justin Foster, June 2015, Internet Archive
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from arrows or lines.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. How we research
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