Helm of Awe

The Helm of Awe or Helm of Terror (Icelandic: Ægishjálmur, Old Norse Œgishjalmr) is an object in Norse mythology relating to the hoard protected by the worm Fáfnir and subsequently the name of a modern Icelandic magical stave.

An example of the modern Icelandic occult symbol that shares the name of the object in Norse mythology

The word comes from the Old Norse words œgir "one who frightens" and hjálmr "helmet", and according to Alessia Bauer and Alexandra Pesch is "commonly interpreted as 'helmet of awe' or 'helmet of terror'".^[1]

Medieval attestations of the object

Völsunga saga

A physical object called the Ægishjálmur is referenced as one item Sigurðr takes from Fáfnir's hoard after he slays him in Völsunga saga.^[2]

Reginsmál

In the prose of Reginsmál, Fáfnir is described as owning the helm and that all living creatures feared it.^[3]

Fáfnismál

The object is also discussed in Fáfnismál in the Poetic Edda, here translated as "Fear-helm":

Old Norse text[4]	Bellows translation[5]
Fáfnir kvað: "Ægishjalm bar ek of alda sonum, meðan ek of menjum lák; einn rammari hugðumk öllum vera, fannk-a ek svá marga mögu." Sigurðr kvað: "Ægishjalmr bergr einungi, hvar skulu vreiðir vega; þá þat finnr, er með fleirum kemr, at engi er einna hvatastr."	Fafnir spake: The fear-helm I wore to afright mankind, While guarding my gold I lay; Mightier seemed I than any man, For a fiercer never I found. Sigurth spake: "The fear-helm surely no man shields When he faces a valiant foe; Oft one finds, when the foe he meets, That he is not the bravest of all."

In the next stanzas of the poem, Sigurðr refers to the helm again:

Old Norse text[6]	Bellows translation[7]
"Inn fráni ormr, þú gerðir fræs mikla ok galzt harðan hug; heift at meiri verðr hölða sonum, at þann hjalm hafi."	"Glittering worm, thy hissing was great, And hard didst show thy heart; But hatred more | have the sons of men For him who owns the helm."

Magical symbol

Origin

Magical symbols became popular in Iceland around the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries, inspired by medieval Latin magical texts from Continental Europe such as the Liber Razielis Archangeli and Clavis Salomonis and spurred on by the imposition of Lutheran Christianity on them by the Danish monarch in 1550.^[1] The closest parallel for the later Icelandic Ægishjálmur symbol identified by Bauer and Pesch appears in a series of magical symbols known as pentacles found in a Greek text called Hygromanteia whose earliest manuscripts (such as London, British Library, Harley MS 5596) are from the fifteenth century.^[1]

Icelandic books of magic are more common from the seventeenth century onwards, and symbols named Ægishjálmur appear often. The earliest example cited by Bauer and Pesch is an anonymous work from 1670 known as the Galdrakver^[8] found in the late seventeenth-century in the collection of Bishop Hannes Finnsson by Jón Árnason and rebound in 1865.^[1][8] Symbols named Ægishjálmur also show considerable diversity of form.^[1] Meanwhile, similar symbols also appear under other names, including Þórshamar ("hammer of Thor") and Þjófastafar ("thieves' symbols", i.e. symbols to use when magically identifying thieves).^[1] Bauer and Pesch concluded that "all in all, there is a lot of variation, and it seems that neither the names nor the specific shapes of the figures were standardised".^[1]

Twenty-first-century use

Flag of the neo-Nazi Party of the Swedes, which has been argued partly to have been inspired by the Ægishjálmur symbol

According of Bauer and Pesch, just as "the Icelanders adopted the ancient tradition of kaballistic grimoires and partially attributed new meanings to it, [...] modern people again claim the right to re-interpret old symbols for themselves", and symbols labelled Ægishjálmur have become widespread in popular culture, found for example on tattoos, t-shirts and pendants, where they are often marketed as and understood to be "Viking" in origin.^[1]

In twenty-first-century culture, the Ægishjálmur symbol is often confused with another modern symbol known as Vegvísir, and designs exist that include features of both.^[1] In 2023, Bauer and Pesch found that

while Vegvísir, though widely used today, is rarely found in radical right-wing groups, Ægishjálmur enjoys a higher level of popularity there: the martial references attributed to this symbol today make it attractive for some predominantly male, combative groups. Ægishjálmur has not yet become an official and distinctive label, although similar designs, such as star-shaped figures with trident-like ends, are being used by right-wing extremists.^[1]

Accordingly, the Ægishjálmur symbol influenced the logo of the neo-Nazi Swedish political party Svenskarnas parti, which existed from 2008 to 2015.^[1]

Link between the item and symbol

While it is debated whether the Helm of Awe may have been an actual helm, in medieval sources, it never references a symbol such as that recorded in the modern period.^[1] The meaning of the word used to define the helm seemed to change as years went on, going from a physical object to a voracious trait of striking fear into one with a glance.^{[9][unreliable source?]}

See also

• Bind rune
• Sigil - a type of magical symbol
• Vegvísir - another Icelandic magical stave first recorded in the modern period