Northern European Folk
Symbol · Northern European Folk
Dara Knot
Roots of the Oak Tree
Strength that is all underground: what holds through a storm is the part no one ever sees.
What it meansThe whole figure is root, and that is the argument: an oak stands through a storm because of a structure nobody has ever looked at. Strength here is defined as the part that is not on display, and the emblem shows only what is normally underground.
Symbol · Northern European Folk
Valknut
The Knot of the Slain
Three interlocking triangles associated with Odin, representing the transition between life and death.
What it meansIt appears on memorial stones and on ship burials, beside Odin and beside the dead — three triangles that cannot be separated without cutting. The reading is a binding at the passage out of life, which is Odin's own office as the god who takes the slain.
Symbol · Northern European Folk
Green Man
The Face of Nature
An ancient folkloric sculpture of a human face sprouting leaves, symbolizing the rebirth of nature and springtime vitality.
What it meansA face with foliage coming out of the mouth, carved in churches by masons whose subject was elsewhere. Read as vegetation that will not be catechised — life returning through the fabric of the building meant to contain it, put there by the builders themselves.