A horse, a horse...that's rather a lot of legs, isn't it?
February 13, 2017 1:54 PM   Subscribe

I'm looking for the origin of this graphic of Odin riding Sleipnir design. It is all over the internet which makes me think it's after something older but try as I might, I can't find what. And, of course, like all things Nordic, the neo-Nazis have peed all over it.
posted by Kid Charlemagne to Media & Arts (5 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: First question here:

Claire April 22, 2013 at 2:24 am

Does anyone know where the Sleipnir and Odin design with the spirals come from?

Reply

Jennifer May 2, 2013 at 7:57 pm

Hi Claire- If I recall correctly, the image was from a cloak pin or horse buckle, I forget which (this was probably twelve or thirteen years ago). I simply isolated the image and created a b/w graphic from that.
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:10 PM on February 13, 2017


Best answer: Viking stele?

ETA: Tjängvide image stone.
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:27 PM on February 13, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: A search on tineye shows the oldest version of this image as some sort of medallion-like object. Unfortunately the website linked is long dead, and archive.org doesn't help much.
posted by gennessee at 7:58 PM on February 13, 2017


Best answer: It looks like a newer design inspired by images of Odin riding Sleipnir on runestones, yeah. This jewelry artist claims it's his original design.

Viking brooches had animal and naturalistic designs, not people (so far as has been found anyhow). Runestones are where it's at otherwise.
posted by fraula at 6:13 AM on February 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Yeah, there are a couple tortoise broaches with human faces on them but they're significantly stylistically different.

I was thinking this might be after a stone somewhere, but sans anyone turning up any evidence of that, I'm goign to assume semi-modern.

Thanks for the quality assistance folks!
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 11:13 AM on February 17, 2017


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