Troll cross
A 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.
Meaning
The folklorist Nils Ålenius, writing in 1943 for the Uppland county yearbook, describes crosses of this kind, called “trollkors”, cut above farm gateways, on gateposts and on the overhanging lofts of storehouses in Uppland. His example is an old trestle table from Vendel, now in the Upplandsmuseet, probably from the 17th or possibly the 16th century, with nine crosses cut on each trestle: each cross starts from a lip-shaped notch, and its other three ends finish in triangular wedge cuts. The drawing follows his description. Sometimes, he adds, the crosses are flanked by a pair of horns.
Origin and history
Ålenius reads these marks as protection for food and, through milk and cheese, for cattle. Länsmuseet Gävleborg holds a cattle collar of forged links with ten “so-called trollkors” fitted into its loops, “to protect the animals from witchcraft and evil beings”. The oldest object these sources date is the Vendel table, from centuries after the Viking Age. The looped pendant sold today as a troll cross is not among the objects they describe.
Read next
- Next in Norse and Viking symbolsMjölnir (Thor’s hammer)The hammer of Thor, the Norse thunder god, and his weapon against the giants. In the Viking Age small hammer pendants were worn as amulets; followers of modern Ásatrú wear them today as a sign of their faith.
- The same shape in Knights Templar symbolsCross and crownThe emblem of the Masonic Knights Templar, an order of Freemasonry first recorded in the 18th century: a red passion cross with a gold crown. It is not an emblem of the medieval Knights Templar.
See also
Gungnir, Sleipnir, Huginn and Muninn, Yggdrasil, Valknut, Triple horn of Odin.
Sources
- Skyddet för födan, Nils Ålenius, Uppland 1943, pp. 86–91, Upplands fornminnesförening (Årsboken Uppland)
- Bindsle (Länsmuseet Gävleborg), Länsmuseet Gävleborg (DigitaltMuseum)
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from crosses or triangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. How we research
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