Viking brooch Pitney, bronze

Product description

This Viking brooch is a replica of an 11th-century original found in Pitney, England. The original now belongs to the collection at the British Museum in London. Made in the Urnes style, it also clearly features Anglo-Saxon elements. The Midgard Serpent is depicted on the brooch.

Dragons were the mythical counterpart of serpents and appear in some of the earliest myths of modern humans. As humans spread across the world, dragon mythology spread with them. In many Indo-European cultures, dragons play a prominent role in mythology. In Germanic and later Viking mythology, dragons are seen as all-devouring monsters. They also symbolize the evil beast that a hero must defeat. These two archetypes—the destroyer and the hero's adversary—reinforce each other.