Viking Brooch

Brooches are a quintessential part of Viking style. Both men and women used brooches to secure their clothing and would hang small pouches and important items off brooches.

This collection of brooches is inspired by genuine Viking-age pieces surviving in the Norse archaeological record.

Incorporate some authentic Viking style into your wardrobe with these utilitarian and stylish brooches.

Brooches are pieces of jewelry held on to clothing by a clasp or a pin. They were usually made from precious metals and decorated with complicated designs, most often with the animal-style decoration common in Norse art. A variety of different brooch forms were used in the Viking age including circular, bird-shaped, oval, equal-armed, trefoil, lozenge-shaped, and domed disc.

All of our brooches are replicas of genuine Viking age brooches.

Our Lindholm Hill Bronze viking Brooch is based on one found in an 11^th century burial at Aalborg in Denmark. It is decorated with the “great beast” motif, which features a larger animal intertwined with a lesser serpent. This was common in Urnes-style art.

The serpent almost certainly represents Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent. The gods so feared this serpent when he was young that they threw him in the waters surrounding Midgard. There the serpent grew to such an enormous size that he can encircle the whole world and hold his own tail in his mouth. He will only emerge from the waters at Ragnarok to join the fight against the gods.

Jormungandr represents the things that men and gods fear most. The power of fear can tangle us up and make it difficult to move.

Our Finlandia Bronze viking Brooch is in the Borre style and is a replica of a 10^th century Finnish artifact. It looks like a Viking round shield, decorated with rings of chain mail. If you look closely, you can also see gripping beasts and animals with elongated ribboned bodies that characterize Norse art.

Our Borre Style Bronze viking Brooch is based on a find from a hoard dating from the 10^th century found at Birka in Sweden. It uses geometric patterns made from unending lines and is very similar to Celtic knotwork.

Our Upppakra Bronze viking Brooch is a copy of a genuine brooch from the 9^th or the 10^th century found at Uppakra in Sweden. It is in the shape of a raven, which is the bird sacred to Odin.

Odin, the god of war, wisdom, wanderers, writing, and witchcraft, had two raven companions, Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory). They would fly out into the world each day and tell the god everything they saw and heard. When he decided to enter the world as a wanderer, they would accompany him.

It was a good omen to see ravens circling the battlefield as it meant that Odin was present to choose the bravest fallen dead for Valhalla, with the help of his Valkyries.

Our Vendel Era Turtle Bronze viking Brooch Set is based on two authentic turtle brooches in bronze found in Uppland in Sweden. They date from the very early Viking period, known as the Vendel era, that lasted from 540 to 790.

They are decorated with geometric patterns that look abstract, but are probably meant to reference Odin. If you look at the brooch, you can see the mask of a warrior. This abstract symbology is often used to represent Odin, the god of war. Some of the geometric design also looks like feathering, which makes the brooch look like the back of a bird, specifically a raven, the sacred bird of Odin.

These brooches are ideas for recreation Viking clothing to keep your clothes in place in the authentic manner. Or, they can be worn as purely decorative pieces as part of your modern Viking wardrobe.