Product description
A beautiful Viking torque with dragon heads. This torque is based on a dragon head that was on a clothing pin from the Viking Age town of Haithabu near Schleswig. You can bend the torque and adjust it to your size.
The Torque: from Indo-European oath ring to ornament. The torque is known as a typical Celtic ornament, but was also worn by other Indo-European peoples such as Germans, Scythians, Thracians and even Romans. This tradition began around 1200 BCE and lasted far into Roman times. Torques probably originated in the Indo-European steppe culture. They may have served as oath rings, linked to oath-bound reciprocity. Wearing a torque symbolized loyalty to a deity, tribe or leader. During the migration period, the 'Celtic' torques fell out of use. Germans chose ring forms such as bracelets and rings. In the Viking Age, the torc returned in the form of silver and bronze neck rings.
Dragons were the mythical variant of the serpent and were incorporated into the earliest myths of modern humans. With the spread of mankind, dragon mythology also migrated across the world. In many Indo-European peoples, dragons play a prominent role in their mythologies. In Germanic and later Viking mythology, dragons are seen as all-destructive monsters. At the same time, they symbolize the evil beast that must be defeated by a hero. These two archetypes – the destroyer and the opponent of the hero – reinforce each other.
