The Vi/ Weoh

Dolmen, Balder myth, vi, harg, hult, lund, heathen monument, Sparlausa, Oklunda, Malt, vising, Christianity, Sigurd,

There is a dolmen in the fork probably catching the Moon at spring equinox according to the direction E - W. The angle is about 6 days so it maybe for the catching of the New Moon after the moon has been in vane for three days. Maybe we should call it the Earth Mother's fork?

 … The syllable WI in Linear B could be written this way however there were no standardisation at the time. Usually it is just a fork with a stroke between the legs. The Cypriot WI shows a narrowing stream and in the inlet is a little stroke. Even at our rock we see this symbol in various forms.

The V-type dagger is seen on a year plaquette from Egypt ca 3000 BC and it could be understood as the Dagger of Isis. From the Alps we know the V-shaped dagger at the same time and it must have been a ritual weapon. Some of them are drawn as if the knob symbolised the crescent moon. Some of the carved axes look like the Egyptian ritual axe. We should perhaps see also the double axe, boat-shaped axe and some more as pure ritual weapon picturing some important fact in the myth.

In Aosta Italy Franco Mezzena excavated a cemetery with a platform in V-shape made of smaller stones. In connection a stone dolmen housed the bones. Besides is a ritual field with signs of ritual ploughing. It is only that they have not found a single evidence of agriculture in that ancient village. The people were living on metallurgy. Maybe they sold copper daggers and axes and at the same time the myth.

We see the wedge shape on many carved stones for instance in the tomb of Gavrinis Carnac. On Ireland they have the wedge tomb as type and in France some passage graves are the fork type. Even in Denmark there are some stone arrangements in the wedge shape.

The idea of resurrection must have been "born" out of analysing vegetative life. The plants have a "sleeping period" as seed. It is nearly magic when some hard kernel opens after a fire in the forest and resurrects for a period again after rest since last fire in the forest maybe 50 years ago.

We see already in early cave symbolism that they were speculating about the sex of the plants. It seems they created the hermaphrodite to symbolise all cases were both sexes are in the same being. The especially in domesticated plants. Maybe they could not see how the female plants became pollinated. Or maybe they did not care since it is not necessary to know at the early state of culture. Anyway they animated the vegetative culture with the animal/ human reproduction but seen as resurrection.

When they began scheduled agriculture they animated the ritual with animals and soon humanlike gods, but took some behaviour from the plants. Then they also developed the same ritual for sowing and funeral. However we cannot prove if they followed it everywhere. Yet it seems that the myth spread "all over the world". Even fishermen, hunters, stoneworkers, metallurgist needed a god explanation about how the world behave … at least they had an explanation when those small thing ask and ask over and over again.

In Nordic language the VI is root in the word "viga"= conescrate. With the old opposite syllable order we should read it GA-VI = "go vi" and still it means marry or consecrate. The idea is also uniting two parts and the sound is near BI which imply two parts.

From the Karelian law we know that they cut a string of turf and lifted it up. Then the brothers crawled under it to seal blood brotherhood. The same custom was in use when they married man with Earth when he bought land and surely in other connections too.

Some folk memory tells that the dolmen symbolises the womb and the pole is the male part, naturally. Then if we know the Inanna myth we understand that this was the symbolic marriage in spring. It gives us a clue to the meaning of the dolmen too.

British astronomers have found that it could be used to decide all important dates in year. Then it also shows that they used a squared model for the year and here 5 x 5 or 9 x 9 division. It is slightly rhomboid so it is near to think of it as a ship too. We see that there are three levels and the inner square symbolises the circumpolar area in the hood.

There is some clear Vi in our rock-carvings and it were a natural method to do the practical things around synchronising moon year and sun year at Ramadan and also define other dates in the ritual year. It seems that a fenced place named "harg" was a square used as common base for their practical astronomy.

The Balder myth is one of the greatest poems in the Edda epos and it is mainly about harvest time when Loke lure the blind Hauder to shoot Balder with a mistletoe. Murder is not allowed so he has to arrange a situation with "the innocent" killing the crops symbolised by Balder. The angle is the Vi and the Lady at left has her feet in the soil so it must be mother Earth carrying for her children.

On the early coins there was usually the kings head on the averse and some time symbols on the reverse. This order changed in the middle of 12th century when the church took over the function as "yearman or alderman" of state. The great archbishop Absalon was the first to appear on the reverse.

We see the Horse standing in the ritual place and that is Pegasus current at spring equinox. There is some other on which we clearly see the Vi.

The Vi was maybe the earliest ritual monument and also the latest in use in some places in the 18th century. It is mentioned in old texts, however none know for sure what it was. It seems that the word also VI pictures the V-shape and the female fork. The Vi was perhaps hard to understand for the first English and German monks. Or else it did not fit in the programme to learn the wild Scandinavians about Christ in Latin.

Some 13^th century Province Law forbade vi, harg, hult, lund and other heathen monuments. I suppose harg was a fenced square used for the local astronomy and the other two are small groves known from Celtic customs. However the principle was the same.

In America the Jesuits did their best to destroy "paganism" and as always in the Bible they could find the right lead. Deuteronomy 12: 2&3 order that "Ye shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations ... served their gods, upon the high mountains ... and hills ... overthrow their altars and destroy the graven images (i.e. sacred stones) of their gods ..."

During the 8th century AD, this tradition was again in evidence as a Papal decree brought to Ireland by the Catholic missionaries who were to "sanctify the pagan hilltops" and also urged to build churches wherever they found 'standing stones'. Nine centuries later, this mindset would be zealously transported to the New World by the Jesuit Order. In Europe we have only a few clear standing stone or signpost of a village left. Maybe the church destroyed them where they could … we should maybe mention that we see the signpost in the Hittitian culture in second millennium BC.

Anyhow on the very holy place of the foundation of Denmark they have found a Vi. It is simply two strings of stones in V-shape with the wing in 23,5 degrees' angle or 1/16 of the circle. We see that the mounds are on the median.

The Tibirke Vi on North Zealand is on the map from 1793 although we do not know for how long the local farmers used the tradition. Yet, maybe sand took the Vi later as there were heavy sandstorms.

The Tingsted Vi is on Falster and thing was hold there until 1720. It was still on the map from 1784. Some of the big mounds have no graves and they were perhaps only meant for the thing. We may speculate if they as a ritual buried the time as some manifestos of the beginning or ending of an era.

In Scandinavia are a lot of place names with the ending -vi. In folk memory is also the concept "vising = alderman or yearman" and in the symbolism we see the division between the ritual leader and the worldly leader. Sometimes it was all in same person the king, sometimes as a leading pair.

Other old determinations to place names are -inge, -lev, -um and old dative forms. Significant is that the first part is a "god name" or attribute to some god or similar. INGE means, "give in" and it is like a ritual dative meaning that the village lives and work in the name of a deity. The ending we have in common in the old Swebian area contending Old Germany and Scandinavia. The ritual age continued maybe longer in sparsely populated Scandinavia than in Egypt.

The ending -lev means perhaps "bread" and then the place name is "bread of god NN". The ending -um and maybe -a are dative and depending on the name in front it could be an old place name. There is a Danish place name Vium, which should read "for the Vi" in the same way as Ornum means, "for the boars".

Not all names are gods as for instance Viskinge = Twigsinge " (or bunch of twigs-inge). That bunch is seen on the rock-carvings at Laukeberget Bohuslaen. I suppose the twigs were some time symbol in May or maybe later. They invented the use of leaves for animal food too. They invented their place names in much the same way as we do today.

Rune texts about the Vi

As we see at the Sparlausa rune stone from ca 800 AD there are symbols similar to the time symbolism in rock-carvings as for instance at Flyhov with the ground grooves about 30 miles away.

Sparlausa rune stone ca 800 AD part of the text

 Naturally words and vocabulary have changed a lot through the ages. To understand we need much imagination and we must know what it is all about. In the ancient symbolism there is a "twig" or maybe man high branch they set up in the beginning of May. In folk memory on Dal they used to set up a rowan branch after they let out the animals first time in year.

The ball may be the rope we see in the symbolism. The horn is the new moon that should be in conjunction with a certain point at the ecliptic. In the rest of the text there is a word that may be "time law".

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Oklunda-rock Austra Husby East Gautland end of 9th century AD

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From this we understand that the Vi was more than just for time rituals. It was a sanctified place were a murderer got shelter. That gives also that there needed to be some fence that pointed out the borders of the place. A row of stones was enough.

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Forssa-ring Haelsingland 9th century

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This was before the kings so that the Vi = community got the fines. Sumerian symbolism shows that the king usually hold a stick. Here it is used as the club that falls and the decision is made. The same stick was used when a settlement was set when the parts hold the stick and let it fall. Surely it was a hazel stick.

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Malt-stone Jutland maybe should be read in this way

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These texts are pre-Christian and also from before the kingdoms were established. We understand that their vising or alderman was leader of the local community. The Vi was sanctified and the vising could be forced to defend the Vi.

This essay I write it pleasure since many archaeologists and historians have tried to make me believe that before Christianity my Scandinavian ancestors were primitive and wild barbarians, while I think they learnt something about feudal order of the barbarian Romans.

As far as I see there has always been the law and order society have needed. The ideas spread very fast in the Old World and that means for instance to the far north in Lappland. Sign of myths is seen on rock-carvings dated to the same time as the inventions were made in south.

In fact there is no big difference between Christianity and so called heathen world order and methods in making time rituals. Early Christianity used exact the same heavenly hood and symbols as their preceders and most of the Christian message is in fact heritage from Sumer and Egypt.

This rock contains pieces from the Sigurd myth when he fought the Dragon. He tastes the blood of the Dragon and soon he understands birds' song. Regin was shortened by a heads length. However there is more when we see the Yggdrasil three and the eagle and hawk and of course the Horse.

The rest of it is much older symbolism. It should be to snakes but in this case one of them is split in two and connected. The symbol on the joint is "rising moon node" we see on early medieval calendar sticks too. In the end of the lower snake there is a little bit. That is 11 days of the 13th moon when they synchronise moon year and sun year. That is seen in many rock-carvings. Under the snake there is the Berserk = Bearwatcher we know from the animal round but also as idol for the real man.