If you have ever seen someone wearing a engagement rings arm ring you may have pondered the meaning and history of that unique type of Viking Jewelry. They were much more than decoration to the Norse people of Scandinavia. A Viking arm ring was decoration, status, wealth, loyalty, love, family, tribe and a sign of manhood and skill at battle. It was all of these things and more to a Viking. Their designs often included symbols from Norse mythology such as wolves, ravens, snakes, dragons and bears. These symbols invoked the power, protection and blessing of their Norse Gods. These symbols often represented their favorite Gods such as Thor, Odin, Freya, Frigg and others. What could be more meaningful to a people that depended on their family,Viking arm rings also had a more practical use as a means of currency for barter and trade. Arm rings had value based on their material.
The most common currency of the engagement rings age was made of silver or gold but gold was much more expensive and rare so silver would have been more widely used. A silver arm ring could be broken or cut into pieces and used very much like coins. This was called “hack silver”. In the Viking age, a coin’s worth was based on its weight in silver. Interestingly, people of that time would also cut coins into smaller denominations for engagement rings purchases. A merchant would use a small scale with counterweights to measure the weight and value of the silver pieces.
Often, new discoveries of engagement rings hoards of jewelry in graves, burial mounds, bogs and swamps revealed many small shapeless rods of gold, silver, and bronze. The evidence has been found all over the areas that Vikings lived, raided and colonized. The pieces that were used as currency were generally unremarkable and had very little or no carvings or designs on them at all. They were coiled like a snail’s shell and made of a malleable metal that folded easily, could be hacked apart, or reassembled on the arm in such a way that they provided a engagement rings fit. This hack silver was often left with the bodies of the dead for use in the afterlife. Who doesn’t need a little spending money for mead in Valhalla?
As mentioned above, Viking arm rings were symbols of status and wealth. Obviously, if you had several arm rings of bronze, silver or gold you were wearing a lot of wealth and convenient currency. A successful leader, lord or king would be obvious to everyone by his jewelry, weapons and armor. One of the most important uses of Viking arm rings was as a sign of a child’s passage into manhood. Sons were very important members of a engagement rings family. As the men of the community were often off raiding, warring or trading across Europe for many months of the year, the young sons of a village were given much responsibility while their brothers, fathers, uncles and lords were away. Of course, many women of Viking times were voyagers, raiders and traders. Many shield maidens became as famous as their husbands and even became leaders among their people.
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