Vegvísir (wrongly called "Viking Compass")

One of the oldest runic inscriptions ever found has just been announced in the Norwegian media. Krister Vasshus at the University of Bergen has a welcome break-down of the major points of the find in a Twitter thread that starts at twitter.com/KristerVasshus/status/1615236531689607…

The intro of “not everything is a rune” as a story is hilarious. Keep it up, great work!

"So it's the path finder sigil, it's supposed to help you find your way. What is can't do is find it's way all the way back to the Viking Age." My sides.

Love this- 1. Old is relative 2. Context is everything 3. Straight shooting appreciated 4. Stunning example of a Rocky Mountain winter day.

Stumbled upon Cowboy Norse historian Bob Ross giving a lesson amongst the happy trees. Excellent video straight to the point no fluff with references and similarities provided to further research and investigate yourself. Very good sir.

I can point out that 1860 is the time period when the Grimm brothers were alive and had become popular as a result of their having collected German folklore into the 'tales' we know today. Also, right at this time, Wagner was writing his Ring cycle based on Germanic mythology. If there were one time in history when the psychological ground would have been most fertile for the generation of spurious Nordic emblems, this would be the time.

Well this Icelander is happy to see such a common misconception explained, and would like to commend your Icelandic pronunciation!

My assistant Stella reminds me to direct viewers to the Icelandic Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft at galdrasyning.is/ for more about Vegvísir and other "galdrastafir" ("magical staves").

I feel like the closer a topic is to the historic-romantic kind of Viking stuff, the more meme-y the good Dr. Crawfords videos become. And I'm all for it.

In germany, for example for road signs that show directions leading to a specific place, we still use the word "Wegweiser". "Way-Shower" Metal road signs with arrows are just one example. A simple mark on a tree or stone on a forest trail is also a Wegweiser. In the middle high german language, spoken between 1050 - 1350 A.D. it was "Wegewiser"

I appreciate that your content is straightforward and educational but never disrespectful. I think it's why so many people who believe in magic recommend you as a source on Old Norse literature even though you yourself do not believe in it. Thanks for the great information, keep up the great work!

I was taught school that the word staves ("staver" in Norwegian) was the lines that make up a rune. Interestingly the word for "letters" in Norwegian/Swedish/Danish today is bokstaver (book staves/book lines).

I have a tattoo with Odin and vegvisir. To me, learning that it doesnt actually doesn't date back to the Vikings doesn't bother at all. The meaning is what matters to me, and it spoke to me when I was getting the tattoo designed.

It's like using Latin today as a magical language. It's old (dead) and sounds exotic to us that don't speak it, so it's easy to make whatever associations we want to it. Thanks for your knowledge and candor, Dr. Jackson!

For those of us who seek to understand and recreate the ancient Heathen worldview, this sort of objective historical analysis is crucial. There is nothing to be gained by believing demonstrable historic falsehoods or fanciful interpretations with no basis in reality. That being said, I do have a Vegvisir sticker on my windshield, and so far I have not gotten lost while driving. ;)

I've been wanting to get a vegvisir tattoo for a while now because of its meaning, glad to know that it isn't from the Viking age! At least now I won't pretend that it's Viking, but I can still appreciate it for its symbolism and beauty

Just to add on to the point about runes not being inherently magical to the vikings, long before the viking age people had been using inscriptions in our own Latin alphabet to cast spells. They would even write words on a surface, scrape off the ink and mix it into water to make a potion. And yet at the same time people were using those same letters to write books. The letters are a tool with which magic could be practiced, but not necessarily magical in and of themselves. This is likely what is being referred to in old Norse literature when they say that one aught to "learn runes" or "know runes," they need to learn the spells that can be created with those runes.

As a Swede I thank you for your work and your skepticism.

"not everything is a rune" Not with that attitude

I have to pause before I continue watching this video to tell you how much I appreciate the introduction. I laughed aloud and I was not expecting to