Gullgubber

Many of the gullgubber that have been found in Norway and Sweden depict a man and a woman facing each other, sometimes embracing, sometimes with a branch or a tree visible between them. Sometimes the figures' knees are bent and they may be dancing.[[Hilda Ellis Davidson|Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson]], ''Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions'', Manchester University Press, 1988, {{ISBN|071902207X}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=t5W9AAAAIAAJ&q=engraved+on+minute+pieces+of+gold+foil&pg=PA17-IA2 p. 121]. They are almost always clothed, with the clothes generally depicted carefully and more formal than casual. Some have only a single figure, either male or female, or an animal. A few are unstamped cutouts. Sharon Ratke, in her dissertation on the gullgubber, has added a further category of "[[Ghost|wraiths]]" and suggests that they may indicate that some gullgubber were a tribute to the dead or to travellers.Sharon Ratke, [http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/2009/1909/1909-1.pdf "Guldgubber - Einblicke in die Völkerwanderungszeit,"] PhD dissertation, [[University of Bonn]] 2009 (German), category D, ''Schemen'' in German: pp. 79-95. For memorials or thoughts of travelers (her suggested third purpose for gullgubber), see [http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de:90/2009/1909/1909.htm the summary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303104238/http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de:90/2009/1909/1909.htm |date=2012-03-03 }} (German and English). She rejects the notion of dancing, interpreting those figures as static and classing them among the wraiths.Sharon Ratke and [[Rudolf Simek]], "Guldgubber: Relics of Pre-Christian law rituals?" in Anders Andrén, Kristin Jennbert, Catharina Raudvere, eds., ''Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspectives: Origins, Changes, and Interactions: an international conference in Lund, Sweden, June 3–7, 2004'', Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2006, {{ISBN|91-89116-81-X}}, pp. 259-66, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gjq6rvoIRpAC&q=There+is+however+no+indication+of+movement&pg=PT87 p. 262]. See also Ann-Britt Falk, "My home is my castle: Protection against evil in medieval times" in Andrén, Jennbert and Raudvere, pp. 200-05, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gjq6rvoIRpAC&q=dancers+or+shamans&pg=PT87 p. 202]: "Ratke and Simek instead propose an interpretation of their body positions as being of refusal or incapability, they might even be dead".

Many of the gullgubber that have been found in Norway and Sweden depict a man and a woman facing each other, sometimes embracing, sometimes with a branch or a tree visible between them. Sometimes the figures' knees are bent and they may be dancing.[[Hilda Ellis Davidson|Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson]], ''Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions'', Manchester University Press, 1988, {{ISBN|071902207X}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=t5W9AAAAIAAJ&q=engraved+on+minute+pieces+of+gold+foil&pg=PA17-IA2 p. 121]. They are almost always clothed, with the clothes generally depicted carefully and more formal than casual. Some have only a single figure, either male or female, or an animal. A few are unstamped cutouts. Sharon Ratke, in her dissertation on the gullgubber, has added a further category of "[[Ghost|wraiths]]" and suggests that they may indicate that some gullgubber were a tribute to the dead or to travellers.Sharon Ratke, [http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/2009/1909/1909-1.pdf "Guldgubber - Einblicke in die Völkerwanderungszeit,"] PhD dissertation, [[University of Bonn]] 2009 (German), category D, ''Schemen'' in German: pp. 79-95. For memorials or thoughts of travelers (her suggested third purpose for gullgubber), see [http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de:90/2009/1909/1909.htm the summary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303104238/http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de:90/2009/1909/1909.htm |date=2012-03-03 }} (German and English). She rejects the notion of dancing, interpreting those figures as static and classing them among the wraiths.Sharon Ratke and [[Rudolf Simek]], "Guldgubber: Relics of Pre-Christian law rituals?" in Anders Andrén, Kristin Jennbert, Catharina Raudvere, eds., ''Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspectives: Origins, Changes, and Interactions: an international conference in Lund, Sweden, June 3–7, 2004'', Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2006, {{ISBN|91-89116-81-X}}, pp. 259-66, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gjq6rvoIRpAC&q=There+is+however+no+indication+of+movement&pg=PT87 p. 262]. See also Ann-Britt Falk, "My home is my castle: Protection against evil in medieval times" in Andrén, Jennbert and Raudvere, pp. 200-05, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gjq6rvoIRpAC&q=dancers+or+shamans&pg=PT87 p. 202]: "Ratke and Simek instead propose an interpretation of their body positions as being of refusal or incapability, they might even be dead".

A common interpretation of the motif of the man and woman on the gullgubber is that it symbolises the [[Hieros gamos|sacred marriage]] between the [[Vanir]]-god [[Freyr]] and the [[jötunn]] [[Gerðr]], which we know of from the [[Eddic poem]] ''[[Skírnismál]]''.[[Gabriel Turville-Petre|E.O.G. Turville-Petre]], ''Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia'', London: Weidenfeld, 1964, OCLC 460550410, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dL8oAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Such+foils,+of+which+a+number+survive,+have+often+been+taken+to+represent+the+god+Freyr%22 Caption, Fig. 43]. Some have interpreted the tree branch as a reference to the grove, Barri, where Gerðr agrees to meet Freyr; others have noted its resemblance to the [[Garden Angelica]], a plant associated with fertility. The thinking is that the deposition of the gullgubber was intended to ensure fertility,Ellis Davidson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=t5W9AAAAIAAJ&q=goldgubber&pg=PA17-IA2 pp. 31-32]: "It has been thought that they symbolise the marriage of god and goddess and that they may have been used at weddings, or to bless a new home". or that it was intended as a depiction of the mythical pair who gave rise to a chieftainly line.Watt, p. 217, citing this as a more modern view espoused by [[Gro Steinsland]]. From historical sources, for example, we know that the [[Yngling]] line traced its ancestry to [[Fjölnir]], son of Gerðr and Freyr.

A common interpretation of the motif of the man and woman on the gullgubber is that it symbolises the [[Hieros gamos|sacred marriage]] between the [[Vanir]]-god [[Freyr]] and the [[jötunn]] [[Gerðr]], which we know of from the [[Eddic poem]] ''[[Skírnismál]]''.[[Gabriel Turville-Petre|E.O.G. Turville-Petre]], ''Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia'', London: Weidenfeld, 1964, OCLC 460550410, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dL8oAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Such+foils,+of+which+a+number+survive,+have+often+been+taken+to+represent+the+god+Freyr%22 Caption, Fig. 43]. Some have interpreted the tree branch as a reference to the grove, Barri, where Gerðr agrees to meet Freyr; others have noted its resemblance to the [[Garden Angelica]], a plant associated with fertility, or [[Leeks in Germanic paganism|leeks]], which have a prominent role in Germanic paganism.{{cite journal |last1=Oehrl |first1=Sigmund |title=On the iconography of the gold foil figures from Hauge |journal=AmS-Skrifter |date=2025 |issue=29 |pages=161–170 |doi=10.31265/ndsdkk69 |url=https://journals.uis.no/index.php/AmS-Skrifter/article/view/984 |language=en |issn=2535-6127}} The thinking is that the deposition of the gullgubber was intended to ensure fertility,Ellis Davidson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=t5W9AAAAIAAJ&q=goldgubber&pg=PA17-IA2 pp. 31-32]: "It has been thought that they symbolise the marriage of god and goddess and that they may have been used at weddings, or to bless a new home". or that it was intended as a depiction of the mythical pair who gave rise to a chieftainly line.Watt, p. 217, citing this as a more modern view espoused by [[Gro Steinsland]]. From historical sources, for example, we know that the [[Yngling]] line traced its ancestry to [[Fjölnir]], son of Gerðr and Freyr.

Recent finds have somewhat changed the view of gullgubber. Almost 2,500 have been found at Sorte Muld, on the Danish island of Bornholm, by far the highest number at any site.John McKinnell, [http://www.heathengods.com/library/viking_society/2001_XXV_4.pdf "On Heiðr,"] ''Saga-Book'' 25 (2001), 394-417, p. 409 refers to the painstaking methods of the Sorte Muld excavation and suggests that there may have been far more gullgubber at other sites than were found. And in 2000–2004, 122, the second highest number, were found not far away at [[Uppåkra]], [[Scania]], Sweden. Several of those found at the two sites are similar; some were made using the same dies or ''patrices'', and four dies and part of a fifth were found at Uppåkra, which was therefore presumably the point of manufacture for at least some of the Sorte Muld gullgubber. In addition, some gullgubber found at some other sites also show strong similarities to some from Uppåkra, and some from Uppåkra are unusually sharp in their details.[[Lars Larsson (archaeologist)|Lars Larsson]], [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9438475 "The Iron Age ritual building at Uppåkra, southern Sweden,"] ''Antiquity'' 81 (2007), p. 16; pictures p. 18.Watt, pp. 169, 170, 214. At Uppåkra they were found in postholes and wall ditches of a building that is interpreted as a [[heathen hofs|heathen hof]] partly on the basis of their presence as votive offerings, which is how they are now generally interpreted.For example McKinnell, p. 409 simply refers to "the custom of using goldgubber as temple offerings".

Recent finds have somewhat changed the view of gullgubber. Almost 2,500 have been found at Sorte Muld, on the Danish island of Bornholm, by far the highest number at any site.John McKinnell, [http://www.heathengods.com/library/viking_society/2001_XXV_4.pdf "On Heiðr,"] ''Saga-Book'' 25 (2001), 394-417, p. 409 refers to the painstaking methods of the Sorte Muld excavation and suggests that there may have been far more gullgubber at other sites than were found. And in 2000–2004, 122, the second highest number, were found not far away at [[Uppåkra]], [[Scania]], Sweden. Several of those found at the two sites are similar; some were made using the same dies or ''patrices'', and four dies and part of a fifth were found at Uppåkra, which was therefore presumably the point of manufacture for at least some of the Sorte Muld gullgubber. In addition, some gullgubber found at some other sites also show strong similarities to some from Uppåkra, and some from Uppåkra are unusually sharp in their details.[[Lars Larsson (archaeologist)|Lars Larsson]], [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9438475 "The Iron Age ritual building at Uppåkra, southern Sweden,"] ''Antiquity'' 81 (2007), p. 16; pictures p. 18.Watt, pp. 169, 170, 214. At Uppåkra they were found in postholes and wall ditches of a building that is interpreted as a [[heathen hofs|heathen hof]] partly on the basis of their presence as votive offerings, which is how they are now generally interpreted.For example McKinnell, p. 409 simply refers to "the custom of using goldgubber as temple offerings".