A small bronze figurine found in 1904 in a potato field at the farm Rallinge in Lunda parish, Sodermanland, Sweden, and held by the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm under accession number SHM 14232. The figure sits cross legged, clasps its beard with one hand, wears a conical cap, and is carved ithyphallic, a combination of traits scholars most often read as marking a fertility god, and most identify the figure as Freyr on that basis, though the reading is not certain beyond dispute. Dated to the late Viking Age around the year 1000, it is among the small number of surviving three dimensional figures thought to depict a named figure from the pre-Christian Scandinavian pantheon rather than a generic votive form.
Facts
Subject Matter
Devotional FunctionSourced to the subject's own accountScholars have long compared the figure to Adam of Bremen's eleventh century account of an idol of Fricco kept in the Temple of Uppsala, described as carrying an enormous phallus; the comparison is suggestive rather than proven, since no direct evidence ties the two together beyond the shared trait of exaggerated virility read as a fertility marker. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Freyr, Figures This source names Freyr directly: "god, and most identify the figure as Freyr on that basis, though the reading is not certain beyond dispute."
This source names Sweden directly: "in Lunda parish, Sodermanland, Sweden, and held by the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm under accession number SHM 14232."
Belongs to Tradition
Depicts
Freyr, Deities The seated, bearded, ithyphallic figure most scholars read as Freyr in Viking Age Scandinavian craft's own votive form for a fertility god, held by the Swedish History Museum, Stockholm, SHM 14232.
Sources
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