A New Interpretation of The Golden Horns. A Comment on Professor

Willy Hartner’s Book

A. G. DRACHMA”*

The Golden Horns from Gallehus - to a Danish reader the name of Gallehus is unnecessary; the Golden Horns are the two horns whose tragic fate he has known since he went to school. One was found by a girl in a field near Gallehus in 1639, the other was found by a clay digger, in the same field, in 1734. They were kept in the king’s cabinet of rarities, but were stolen in 1802 and melted down, so that they are now known only through the drawings published before their destruc- tion.

The Horn found in 1639, Horn A, was almost complete; its surface was divided into 13 bands by raised rings of gold; 7 of these were covered with figures. They are shown folded out flat in fig. 1.

The Horn found in 1734, Horn B, was broken; it had 5 bands, all of them decorated; they are shown in fig. 2, folded out flat.

The decoration of the two horns is so much alike that they must have been made by the same man, whose name is found on Horn B. The inscription, in runes, runs: EK HLEWAGASTlR HOLTIJAR HORNA TAWIDO “I Hlewagastir from Holt, made the horn.” The archaeologists have dated the horns at about 400450.’

Professor Willy Hartner‘ asserts in his book: 1) that Horn A, from 1639, carries an inscription in cryptography, 2) that the figures are symbolic and related partly to hellenistic astrology, partly to Northern mythology, 3) that the Horns were made on account of an eclipse of the s u n on April 16,413, and an eclipse of the moon on November 4,412. and 4) that the inscription and the figures on Horn A are apotropaeic, to avert the evil threatening from the eclipse of the sun.

Svcnds AI lC 47. 2800 Lyngby. Denmark.

C e n t w w 1970: vol. 15. nr. 2: pp. 124134

A New Interpretation of The Golden Horns 125

Fig. 1. (Hartner's Fig. 1) Horn A. found in 1639. Copperplate published by Ole Worm in 1641."

126 A . G. Drachmann

Fig. 2. (Hartner's Fig. 5) Horn B, found in 1734. Copperplate published by J. R. Paulli in 1734.8

A New lnterpretarion of The Golden Horns 127

Fig. 3. The solution of the cryptogram of Horn A.

cudgel, coming after the two p , may refer to this difference in the pronwnciation.

22 to 24. without disturbing the number sum. 24X 12.

served their purpose for more than 1500 years.

The word lupa should be pronounced lubo, and the two extra signs, the ball and the

The main purpose of the two signs is, bowever, to fill out the number of signs from

Another purpose probably was to disguise the cryptogram. If this is so. they have

There are two sorts of decoration on the Horns, to wit small figures in low relief soldered on, as a main decoration, and figures or ornaments punched in as long rows of points, as a back-ground decoration. On Horn A the bands 4-7 contain four relief figures each, the next two above have five figures each, but the topmost band has 22 figures in two rows, the upper one of 12, the lower one of 10 figures. Of these 5 occur once only, 5 occur twice, 1 three times, and 1 four times. Once you get the idea that this is a piece of cryptography, it seems evident that this must be so. The author reads the inscription: LUPA HORNS ENS %LPA HJOJO, meaning: “The magic drink of this horn shal1 help the people”. See fig. 3.

There is a long discussion of the etymology and the grammar of this sentence, which I am not competent to discuss; but one thing is certain, that it is quite impossible that a series of 22 figures with repetitions that cannot be explained as merely decorative should give sense like this by chance. Our knowledge of the Nordic language of + 400 is limited, and it is possible that a change of a letter here or there may give another and better sense; but that we here have a piece of cryptography is, I think, indisputable.

128 A. G. Drachmann

The next chapter is dedicated to gematry. This word originally meant divination by means of a handful of earth that was thrown down at random; the configurations of the particles were then interpreted. The idea behind this was that nothing really happens at random; any random happening could be interpreted. So gematry came to include divination by tallow droppings, tea-leaves, punctuation and, later, by cards. A special branch was number magic. If every letter or rune was given a number, the sum of these numbers, e. g. in a name, would be random with respect to the name, and so should yield information to the adept. The best known instance is the number 666 in the Apocalypse ch. 13, v. 18.

The inscription in Horn B has 32 letters, 4 x 8, and gives the number sum of 408, 17 X 24. The inscription of Horn A has 22 letters, but 24 signs, 3 X 8, if we count the ball and the cudgel, which are not letters. The number sum is 288, 12 X 24.

Now 24 and 8 are very significant numbers, since the number of letters in the oldest futhark, or runic alphabet, is 24, and it is divided into three cettir, families, of 8.

Also 12 and 17 have a near relation, because 17 = 12 6 2 with a difference of only 0.35 %.

This really looks as if it were not just chance, and the author shows by many calculations that Hlewagastir must have delighted in juggling with the three cettir and the numbers of the runes.

But since the question of number magic in runic inscriptions is rather controversial and quite a lot of nonsense has been written about it, the author seeks verification of the fact that there was a tendency about this time to make the number s u m of runic inscriptions a multiple of 24 or 8. He has studied inscriptions on stones and bracteates. In texts before + 400 and after + 600 he found the number sums quite random; but in inscriptions dating from + 400-600 number sums divisible by 24 or 8 dominated. Of a total of 15 complete inscriptions, 6 on stones and 9 on bracteates, the number sums were divisible by 24 in 6 cases, by 8 in 5 cases. Of the remaining 4 inscriptions 2 had a random number sum, one had the sum of 239 = 24 x 10 - 1, one had 199 = 8 X 25 -- 1. Even if we disregard these two, the propor- tion, 11 out of 15, for a "magic" number sum, is clear indication of a PUP=.

The decoration of the Horns shows, as will be seen, that Hlewagastir

A New Inferpretafion of The Golden Horns 129

was well versed in Alexandrinian astronomy and astrology, so he must have visited some centre of culture of the Mediterranean countries, probably Byzantium; and his great interest in number magic supports the assumption that he was the one who brought this “science” to the North. It is generally believed that the correct number sum was intended to strengthen the magic of the inscription, and this explanation fits the cryptic inscription on Horn A and several of the bracteates and stones. But the plain inscription on Horn B is a simple message, and so are some of the other inscriptions quoted, in so far as they are intelligible at all. I take the purpose to be just to make sure that no bad omen could be found from the number sum.

The next chapters deal with the interpretation of the figures. Here there are two difficulties to overcome.

The first is that the original horns are lost, and no casting has been preserved, so our only source is the pictures of the horns, and the contemporary criticism of these drawings, notably one written by Jgrgen Sorterup” in 1717. The author has made good use of every oppor- tunity to supply the information found in the drawings.

The other difficulty is that there is hardly any contemporary material for comparison; the figures of the Horns exist, historically, in a sort of vacuum. But the author has shown in his paper on the Lion-Bull combat and elsewhere, that a number of pictures from about - 4000 and down to Islamic times have for their subject certain constellations, mostly of the Zodiac, whose rising and setting regulated the work of the peasants: ploughing, sowing, and harvest.

Looking for such pictures the author finds GEMINI, DELPHINUS, PISCIS AUSTRALIS, ERIDANUS, ORION, AQUARIUS, PEGASUS mu), CASSIOPEIA and CAPRICORNUS once, TAURUS twice, PISCES 4 times, and SAGITTARIUS 5 times. Even if one or two of these interpretations may be open to doubt, the astronomical ingredient in the decoration is evident.

The preponderance of the SAGITTARIUS indicates an eclipse. In post- Ptolemaic astronomy, the author explains, there were not 7, but 9 planets, the two extra planets being the lunar nodes, which travel along the ecliptic at the rate of one revolution in 18.6 years. These nodes, the intersections of the moon’s orbit with the ecliptic, are designed as a dragon, its head representing the nodus ascendens, its tail the nodus descendens. Like the other planets each node had assigned to it a

9 CENTAURUS. VOL. XV

130 A . G. Drachmann

constellation of the Zodiac, for its exaltation; for the Dragon's head it was GEMINI, for the tail SAGITTARIUS, and sometimes the nodes are depicted as a knot, on GEMINI or on the centaur's tail of SAGITTARIUS.

On Horn A, Band 2, is found a background figure of GEMINI held together by their nether parts in an elaborate knot. But the lunar nodes are of special importance for eclipses, since a solar eclipse can take place only if the Sun and the Moon occupy the same node at the same time, while a lunar eclipse takes place when they occupy different nodes.

On Horn A, Band 1, between the lines of the cryptic runes, there is seen the figure of two serpents twisted together, heads against tails, and pointing to a halfeclipsed sun. This is a clear indication of a solar eclipse, for the dragon of the nodes is the mythological dragon that swallows the sun and was chased away by magic rituals including much noise in old times. The figure is not very distinct on the drawings of Horn A, but is described by J. Sorterup."

The author has found that the only total solar eclipse visible from Gallehus within the time when the Horn was made took place on the 16. of April 413. The sun was eclipsed at 2 o'clock p. m. and the five lesser planets appeared, like pearls on a string, on an arc of 90" across the sky; Venus, enormously bright, shone in TAURUS.

In Horn A, band 6, we see TAURUS, and above his head a very bright star for Venus, a clear indication that the eclipse of 413 is meant. An eclipse of the sun was a very bad omen, but Venus is a friendly power, and TAURUS is her house, so that her appearance mitigated the fright- fulness of the eclipse. The many PISCES point to Venus, since her exdtation is in PISCES.

The idea of a solar eclipse is also expressed in another way on the Horns. To explain the decoration of the Horns in the light of the Eddas was tried already by C. F. Hommel in 1769: by J. J. A. Worsaae in 1881," and by Axel Olrik in 1918.' Professor Hartner has accepted th is view and shows us Odin, Thor, Tyr and Njord on the Horns. For the eclipse he points out the four representations of the sun-wolves, two on Horn A, two on Horn B, and gives the relevant texts from the Elder Edda.2 While he is undoubtedly right in the main thesis, that these sun- wolves indicate a solar eclipse, I have a few suggestions to make about details. Olrik6 points out that the myth of the sun-wolves is an inter- pretation of a meteorological phenomenon, when two mock suns or sun-dogs are Seen in the sky, to the right and left of the sun itself. The

A New lnterpretarion of The Golden Horns 131

description is given in Grimnismhl v. 40: "Skoll is the name of a wolf who follows the cleareyed goddess (the sun) to the shelter of the wood (the horizon); another is Hati, he is the son of Hravitnir (Fenris), and shall get before the bride of heaven (the sun)." In V@luspi v. 40 we read: 'In the East sat the old (Gyge) in the Iron Wood and bore there the sons of Fenris; one out of all shall become the robber of the orb (rungls rjugare) in the shape of a troll." The son of Fenris is Hati, he then is responsible for, the eclipses of the sun.

Snorre Sturlasson9 has understood the words tun& rjugure to mean the robber of the moon, and so has made Skoll the cause of solar eclipses, Hati the cause of lunar eclipses, but this is considered an error; the sun-wolves have nothing to do with the moon, and tungl here cannot mean the moon, as elsewhere, but must mean the sun. Professor Hartner explains correctly the two wolves on Horn A, Band 6, as the sun-wolves attacking the sun, which is invisible, but which was found in the house of TAURUS whose sign is seen between the wolves. O n Horn B, Band 1, the two wolves are seen attacking a stag, representing the sun, from both sides, as it is to be expected.

But on Horn B, Band 4, we see the two wolves again, but facing the same way, and being chased by a naked man holding a curved knife and leading a horse. This is convincingly explained as Thor driving the causes of the solar eclipse away - a very apotropaeic motif.

But on Horn A, Band 4, the author finds Thor and three wolves, and that is one wolf too many. The author explains the animal in the middle either as Gann, the watch-dog of Helheim, or as Fenris himself, who, he says, is going to swallow the sun at Ragnarok. But this is a misunderstanding of Vafthruhismil v. 46: "from where comes the sun on the bare sky when fenrir has reached her (the sun)?" The word fenrir here is not the wolf Fenris, but means just the wolf, that is Hati. For in the description of Ragnarok in V@luspi v. 44 sqq. Fenris has swallowed Odin and has himself been killed before the sun is extin- guished.

On Band 4 I find that the animal on the right does not look like a wolf at all, but more like a reptile. It has a long and narrow head, no ears, and a hairless tail ending in a spiral, while the two other animals have two ears and hairy tails. So I think that t h i s representation is the same as the one on Horn B, Band 4: Thor is driving the wolves away, down towards the nether world, represented by the reptile.

Odin appears on Horn A four times. On Band 2 he is seen on a horse 9.

A. G. Drachmann 132

with a spear in his hand, a typical figure of Odin. He has a short, bushy beard which he thrusts forward in a rather aggressive gesture. The same head is found, but on the body of a sitting bear, twice among the cryptic runes, and once on Band 5. As a rune Odin means the letter A, called in the Nordic language &s, which means a god; and Odin was the supreme god among the usur.

One reason for the many figures of Odin is that the eclipse took place on a Wednesday, the day of Odin.

The decapitated head on Horn B, Band 5, is explained as Mimir’s head, which Odin, according to Snorre Sturlasson, Ynglinga saga, Kap. 4, used for an oracle.

The figure of a bird pecking at a fish is the symbol of Njord, god of fishing. In the cryptic alphabet it occurs twice, suitably indicating the letter N; it is seen also on Horn B, Band 2. As for Tyr, he is found in the cryptogram, easily recognizable by the

missing hand; he indicates the letter L, but then the letter T is not found in the inscription at all.

The figure of a man with a knife standing before (or behind) a man lying down, which is found on both horns, is rightly interpreted as a scene of human sacrifice, a bldt. The eclipse of the sun of 413 took place at the time of the sign-bldt, the sacrifice for victory; and the eclipse of the moon in 412 took place at the .time of the julu-bldt, the sacrifice for winter solstice. According to the inscription, Horn A was made for use for a bldt. and the many dancing men, most of them armed, can be taken as referring to the ceremony of a bldt, about which we know very little.

It is a large number of figures that the author has been able to interpret, and quite remarkable in view of the richness of the decoration and the scarcity of our knowledge of actual conditions of the year 413. It is better under such circumstances to try to take in too much, than to give up trying; but I think that the author has gone too far when he finds a connexion between the decoration of the Horns and the descrip tion of Ragnarok in the Elder Edda.

Axel Olrik in his book on Ragnarok’ has shown that the idea of a chained monster which will destroy the world if it gets free, is very common. This is also the idea of the wolf Fenris, but the Northern mythology is unique in giving a detailed description of what happens when the monster is let loose. In a l l other mythologies the point is that

A New Interpretation of The Golden Horns 133

the combined efforts of the gods and the priests will keep the monster chained and the world safe.

We have two detailed descriptions of Ragnarok, one in the poem V@lusp$ v. 44 sqq., from shortly before 1000, and one in Snorre Sturlasson’s Gylfaginning, from ab. 1230.’O

V@luspA is a long poem giving an exposition of the Northern mythology from the creation of the world to its destruction when the Fenris Wolf gets free. It is written by a man who held the old faith but was affected by the Christian doctrine, especially by the Apocalypse; this may be connected with the general anxiety among the Christians about the year 1000 being the year of the Last Judgement.

Snorre Sturlasson in his GylfaginningIo tells much the same tale about Ragnarok as the V@lusp6, which is undoubtedly his source; the discrepancies are explained by the assumption that he had other sources. But the differences seem mostly to come from Snorre’s wish to systema- tize; he wants to pair off one god and one jotun to fight to death so as to get the scene empty for the new world to come. He was a Christian, and to him the old gods were only fables, or devils. So it seems likely that he regarded the Ragnarok of the V@lusph as an invention by its author, and so felt at liberty to modify the details to suit his wishes. But if the detailed description of Ragnarok is not older than 900, it cannot be used to interpret the Horn of 41 3.

There is another objection to the interpretation. Hlewagastir is calling upon the gods in their might to help his people against the powers of evil. This would seem to be a very unpropitious hour to remind them of the fate that was awaiting them.

It is not possible here to mention all the interpretations presented by the author; I have had to make a selection.

There is however a single figure which I should like to explain; it is the man with the horn on Horn A, Band 2. Professor Hartner has not been able to find anything like him in his extensive iconographical material, so I must take him to be unique. The author calls him Horn- bori, Horn-Bearer, from a dwarf‘s name in V@luspi, v. 13.

But thc figure is not a dwarf, and it is unlike all other figures on the Horn. Apart from this figure and that of Odin on the horse, Horn A contains 17 figures of men, all of them naked, beardless, and with short hair; they are just types. Hornbori is clad in a garment reaching his ankles, he has long hair and a long, soft beard, quite unlike the stiff

134 A. G. Drachmann

beard of the Odin figure. He is no type; it is a portrait. He carries the Horn, and is presumably officiating at the bldt. On Horn B we read: "I, Hlewagastir, . . . made the Horn." The cryptic inscription on Horn A contains no name, but the Horn contains the portrait of a man carrying the Horn. I suggest that this is Hlewagastir himself, and that he was a high priest, as suggested by his garment.

The publisher has spared no effort to make the book worthy of its theme. There are as many figures as anybody could wish, including three star charts and two folding tables of Egyptian paintings from about + 150 with astronomical figures; there are also two indices. And of course the book is fully documentated.

The Golden Horns are works of art; they are not textbooks on astronomy or Northern mythology. They were made at a time from which we have little literary or iconographical information; it is not to be expected that it would be possible to explain every detail in the 12 bands of the two Horns.

But the solution of the cryptogram, the explanation of the gematry, the dating of the Horns by the solar eclipse of 413, and the interpreta- tion of many of the groups as astronomical or mythological symbols have certainly brought our understanding of the Horns and their maker a good many steps forward.

REFERENCES

1. Brendsted, Johannes: Guldhornene. En Oversigt. Kbh. 1954. 2. Elder Edda, comprising GrimmismBI. VafthruClnismil. Velu'sp5. De gamlc Edda-

digte. Udgivne og tolkede af Finnur J6nsson. Kbh. 1932. 3. Hartner. Willy: Die Goldhorner von Gallenhus. Wiabaden (Franz Steiner Verlag)

1969. 11s p. 114 fig. 4. Hommel. C. F. From Brandsted (1). p. 70. 5. Olrik, Axel: Gudefremstillingcr pa guldhormnc. Dansk Studier 1918, p. 21. 6. The same: Om Ragnarok. (1. Afd.) Kbh. 1902. (Aarb~ger f. Nordisk Oldkyndighed

7. The same: Om Ragnarok. 2. Afd. Kbh. 1914. (Danske Studier 1913) Kap. 2-3. 8. Paulli, J. R. 1734. From Br~ndstcd (1) p. 84. 9. Snorre Sturlasson. GylfagiMing Kap. 12.

10. The same: Gylfaginning Kap. 37 sqq. 11. Sorterup. J~rgen: Nogle faae og korte Anmerkninger . . . over Billeder . . . paa det

. . . Gyldnc Horn. Kbh. 1717. 12. Worm, Ole: De aureo cornu. 1641. From Brendsted (1) p. 83. 13. Worsaae, J. J. A. 1881. From Brgndstcd (1) p. 71.

1902) p. 34 (190) sqq.