Is this a Viking Magic Wand?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeT4iJaONDiPO6svWvTJhdr3WQYGGKiiu2lv29Zq4kCFmNxTuR6q-eYm1rGa1uHw8C6MuFDRSPTIWUFN930IVimaD7tVApM2752nvP1It_57CS0I58bvqLVKI_wajyos3L4LQRZCu5PcQ/s1600/viking+wand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeT4iJaONDiPO6svWvTJhdr3WQYGGKiiu2lv29Zq4kCFmNxTuR6q-eYm1rGa1uHw8C6MuFDRSPTIWUFN930IVimaD7tVApM2752nvP1It_57CS0I58bvqLVKI_wajyos3L4LQRZCu5PcQ/s1600/viking+wand.jpg" /></a></div><br />For decades the experts at the British Museum believed that this item, discovered at a woman's grave from Norway was just a hook used in fishing. However, new research suggests that it was her 'magic wand' and that it was deliberately bent to destroy its power.<br /><br /><i>The Times</i> newspaper reported that this item, a 90 cm long iron rod, was first brought to the British Museum in 1894. British Museum curator Sue Branning believes that it was probably a magical staff used to perform 'seithr', a form of Viking sorcery predominantly practiced by women.<br /><br />She told <i>The Times</i>: "These are magical practices, which we don't fully understand. It involves divination, prophecy, communication with the dead and making people do things. Our rod fits, in terms of its form, with a number of these rods that turn up in the 9th and 10th century in female burials. They normally take the form of these long iron rods with knobs attached to them."<br /><br />The rod would have been 'ritually' destroyed in order to prevent the sorceress from rising from the dead, or to stop anyone else from using it. Branning adds, "When we hear about the Vikings we hear all about the powerful warriors, but now we know there were also powerful women. These women were very well respected, but they were quite feared as well. They may have been on the margins of society. You might not want to get close to them because they have this power. The sources we have describe them as wearing blue and black cloaks with gems attached."<br /><br />Visitors to the British Museum will be able to see the artifact when the new Early Medieval Gallery reopens on March 27th. <b><a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/">Click here to visit the British Museum website</a></b>.

Is this a Viking Magic Wand?

For decades the experts at the British Museum believed that this item, discovered at a woman's grave from Norway was just a hook used in...

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Medieval pendant found by boy, 4, on show at British Museum

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGqHMPoRzKOXzQETCeyYU1LmzFCS9W4RBSEnhO0-QuuZtOcpom7icIzwu031TEJhv9p8z9f7u4Z3c5pNdncBQINK-oFy1WFqnqcf2TiqqOnLd1Ab0lFlPwtj_zHZQdQ4mGVh5_zLFstD0/s1600/melcior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGqHMPoRzKOXzQETCeyYU1LmzFCS9W4RBSEnhO0-QuuZtOcpom7icIzwu031TEJhv9p8z9f7u4Z3c5pNdncBQINK-oFy1WFqnqcf2TiqqOnLd1Ab0lFlPwtj_zHZQdQ4mGVh5_zLFstD0/s400/melcior.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />A 500-year-old gold reliquary, beautifully engraved with the names of the Magi and images of Christ and St Helena, which was found by a four-year-old playing with his father's metal detector, has gone on display for the first time at the British Museum.<br /><br />It would once have been brilliantly coloured, with enamel work filling in the letters and decoration, and may once have contained a relic of the cross. It probably dropped from the neck of some wealthy and pious person, and lay undiscovered in the field for half a millennium.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/dec/21/medieval-pendant-british-museum" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from The Guardian</a></b><br />

Medieval pendant found by boy, 4, on show at British Museum

A 500-year-old gold reliquary, beautifully engraved with the names of the Magi and images of Christ and St Helena, which was found by a four...

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Church to sell 15th century chalice to British Museum for £1.3 million

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL0wmscx0ocs1E12OR8sp1rEHABCJMZJSdZSOYmg_Gl0bSl9BQn3ecFg0KPgVbraibPo5mJrzqTu0R2ZQrSS6mzwJnZ_avesrm99k0WPCXxQZ_DYYFxGIH6pThT55ZxzgKH9kCA3xzDjY/s1600/october-exhibitions-at-the-british-museum.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL0wmscx0ocs1E12OR8sp1rEHABCJMZJSdZSOYmg_Gl0bSl9BQn3ecFg0KPgVbraibPo5mJrzqTu0R2ZQrSS6mzwJnZ_avesrm99k0WPCXxQZ_DYYFxGIH6pThT55ZxzgKH9kCA3xzDjY/s320/october-exhibitions-at-the-british-museum.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>A £1.3m sale of the Lacock Cup to the British Museum has been approved by a Consistory Court, with the judge appealing for battling villagers to make amends.<br /><br /> During the rarely-held two-day hearing at St Cyriac’s Church, Lacock, the Rev Justin Gau, Chancellor of the Diocese of Bristol, gave permission for the sale of the chalice, which dates back to the 1400s and is insured for £2.2m.<br /><br /> The origins of the cup, which has been on loan to the London museum since 1963, are uncertain, but it is believed to have been donated to St Cyriac’s Church by Sir Robert Baynard, of Lackham Manor, 400 years ago.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/latestheadlines/10089784.Plea_for_calm_as_Lacock_chalice_sale_approved/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from the Wiltshire Times</a></b>

Church to sell 15th century chalice to British Museum for £1.3 million

A £1.3m sale of the Lacock Cup to the British Museum has been approved by a Consistory Court, with the judge appealing for battling villager...

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British Museum to host major exhibition on Ancient Rome in 2013

The British Museum will be featuring the ancient Roman world in an exhibition during the spring and summer of 2013. Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum will bring together over 250 fascinating objects, both recent discoveries and celebrated finds from earlier excavations. Many of these objects have never before been seen outside Italy. The exhibition will have a unique focus, looking at the Roman home and the people who lived in these ill-fated cities.<br /><br /> This exhibition, running from 28 March – 29 September 2013, will be the first ever held on these important cities at the British Museum, and the first such major exhibition in London for almost 40 years.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://historyoftheancientworld.com/2012/09/british-museum-to-host-major-exhibition-on-ancient-rome-in-2013/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from History of the Ancient World</a></b>

British Museum to host major exhibition on Ancient Rome in 2013

The British Museum will be featuring the ancient Roman world in an exhibition during the spring and summer of 2013. Life and death in Pompei...

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