Lecture by Prof. Dr. Alexandra Pesch

Thors' hammers, runes and other symbols from the Viking Age enjoy great popularity today – yet their use in the modern 'Viking scene' raises many questions. Professor Alexandra Pesch, extraordinary professor at Kiel University and researcher at the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA), is an expert on symbol research and the pictorial language of Northern European peoples. The lecture presents relevant symbols, graphic signs and runes and explores the historical backgrounds reconstructed from archaeological image research. It also investigates how these signs are received today and in some cases misused. What did Thors' hammers, runes and other symbols originally mean in their historical context, and how does this differ from their use today? A critical examination of the modern appropriation of early medieval symbolism.