<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">"Strike-a-lights have a great magical significance in Scandinavian folk tradition as a safeguard against evil powers, and one may imagine that amulets shaped like strike-a-lights have taken over som of the actual strike-a-lights' magical functions (Thunmark-Nylén et al 1981:59). Miniature strike-a-lights were thus probably symbols of the holy life giving and cleansing fire. That they at times occur with Thor´s hammers - e.g. on the Hesselbjerg amulet (cat.no. 63) - seems to substantiate this interpretation: as a thunder god Thor ruled over lightning and the person who (symbolically) struck light borrowed some of his power (Kock 1990; Stenberger 1958:165-167; Skovmand 1942:162). In many cultures fire is a symbol for birth and rebirth, sexuality and conception (Cooper 1978:66-68), and such notions may be one of the reasons why strike-a-light miniatures are found in female graves in Scandinavia: perhaps they were fertility amulets. On Anglo-Saxon women's use of amulets Meaney (1981:247) writes that one might imagine that the woman who tended the hearth of the house carried something with which to start a fire. Were the small strike-a-lights such woman-as-lady of the house symbols which were worn with the wich that the fire may forever burn in the hearth - in a real and a figurative sense? In other words, the strike-a-light miniatures can act both as fertility and as protective amulets." <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">s 19-20.
Tja, särskilt mycket konkret info fanns det kanske inte i det stycket i alla fall...men som sagt, artikeln är 74 sidor, så det kanske finns något mer i diskussionen. Jag orkar inte ge dig all info om hennes referenser nu, men kan göra det om du vill (om du inte vill skaffa fram hela artikeln alltså...).
Hmmm, jag ska nog ta och titta igenom den här artikeln lite mer när jag får tillfälle...om inget annat för att se om det kommer något mer handfast om amuletterna senare. Återkommer om jag hittar något "scoop"! [:p]
/Vix.Statistik: Postat av Vix Hq — 21 maj 2004, 11:31
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