It is not two centimetres tall and weighs nine grams – and yet it set off one of the most exciting debates in Norse archaeology. A tiny silver figure sits on a throne, two birds on the armrests, two animal heads on the backrest. Does Odin sit here on his high seat, from which he sees into all the worlds? Or is it someone else entirely?
On 2 September 2009, the amateur archaeologist Tommy Olesen lifted a small cast silver figure from the earth during a Roskilde Museum excavation at Gammel Lejre – “Old Lejre.” The place is chosen with care: Lejre is regarded as the legendary royal seat of the Skjöldungs, the stage of the Beowulf epic. The figure dates to around 900 AD, is just 18 millimetres tall, and is decorated with black niello and a little gilding.
What you see is, at first glance, unmistakable: a figure on a splendid high seat. Two birds sit on the armrests, and the backrest ends in two animal heads. For the excavator the reading was clear: this is Odin on his throne Hliðskjálf, from which the Allfather looks into all nine worlds. The two birds would then be his ravens Huginn and Muninn, who fly the world for him and bring him everything; the animal heads could be his wolves Geri and Freki. An image straight out of the Edda. More about this god is in our piece on Odin.
“Hliðskjálf is the high seat; when Odin sits there, he sees over all the worlds.” after Snorri, Gylfaginning (public-domain translation tradition)
And here the dispute begins. For, on closer inspection, the figure wears a floor-length dress, an apron, no fewer than four bead necklaces and a neck ring – in short: thoroughly female attire. Specialists in Viking-age dress objected: no man dressed like that. At once new readings arose. Perhaps it is not Odin at all, but a goddess – his wife Frigg or the goddess of love Freyja. Parallels were drawn to a very similar silver figure from Aska in Sweden, often read as Freyja.
A thorough study of 2018 reached a cautious conclusion: the person on the throne is at any rate not in the typical male dress of the time. It could equally well be the dress of a high-status woman – or even the robe of a Christian bishop. Both lead away from Odin.
The little piece leads us into a fundamental problem: we read the images of the Viking Age with the eyes of texts written down only centuries later. “Two birds by the throne” means, to us, at once “Huginn and Muninn.” But the people around 900 had written no label to it. So the figure remains beautiful, puzzling and open – a high seat on which perhaps Odin sits, perhaps a goddess, perhaps a mighty one of this world.
It is precisely this openness that makes it so appealing. It shows how closely art and belief lay together in the North, and how much a handful of silver can tell. Whether god or goddess: it is an image of a ruler, a being on the high seat of power, surrounded by its animals. And it reminds us to stay honest – the finest image does not always reveal whom it shows.
The “silver figurine from Lejre” (also “Odin from Lejre”) was found in 2009 at Gammel Lejre during a Roskilde Museum excavation. It is a cast silver figure of around 900 AD, 18 mm tall, 9 g in weight, with niello inlay and gilding. It shows a figure on a throne, two birds on the armrests, two animal heads on the backrest. The depicted person wears a dress, an apron, several bead necklaces and a neck ring. The figure is in the Roskilde Museum.
The reading as “Odin on Hliðskjálf with Huginn and Muninn” is plausible but not certain. Because the figure wears female attire, specialists also consider Frigg or Freyja possible; a 2018 study rules out the typical male dress and even holds a bishop's robe conceivable. Only the find is certain: a high-ranking figure on a throne with birds and animals. Whom exactly it shows remains open.
Odin · Tissø – the royal seat by the lake · The Norse pantheon · The Vindelev gold hoard · Hugin & Munin – Odin's ravens.