A storm of swords and spears: The weapon dancer as an enduring symbol in prehistoric Scandinavia

Abstract

The past fifteen years have witnessed increasing effort to study and understand the belief system of Bronze Age Scandinavia. Different forms of material culture—including rock art and metalwork—and allusions to texts such as the Vedic Rig Veda, have led many to suggest the existence of a shared belief system with an Indo-European solar focus. Yet certain symbols attributed to this Indo-European system seem to have striking parallels in later Norse religious iconography—symbols such as weapon dancer imagery. Several examples of Bronze Age rock art display scenes of weapon-bearing figures, performing ritualistic motions that some have interpreted as dancing. Could this represent a case of prehistoric continuity? By presenting and comparing the Iron and Bronze Age evidence, this paper suggests a possible continuity in representations of warrior rituals on figurative material, underlining the importance of advertising a warrior identity and mentality in Prehistoric Scandinavian communities. In doing so, it also emphasizes the endurance of Prehistoric Scandinavian symbolic structures overall.

Keywords

• weapon dancer
• rock art
• norse faith
• indo-european
• bronze age
• symbolic structures
• longue durée