A small bronze figurine found in 1904 in a potato field at the farm Rallinge in Lunda parish, Sodermanland, Sweden, and held by the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm under accession number SHM 14232. The figure sits cross legged, clasps its beard with one hand, wears a conical cap, and is carved ithyphallic, a combination of traits scholars most often read as marking a fertility god, and most identify the figure as Freyr on that basis, though the reading is not certain beyond dispute. Dated to the late Viking Age around the year 1000, it is among the small number of surviving three dimensional figures thought to depict a named figure from the pre-Christian Scandinavian pantheon rather than a generic votive form. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Subject Matter
Devotional FunctionSourced to the subject's own accountScholars have long compared the figure to Adam of Bremen's eleventh century account of an idol of Fricco kept in the Temple of Uppsala, described as carrying an enormous phallus; the comparison is suggestive rather than proven, since no direct evidence ties the two together beyond the shared trait of exaggerated virility read as a fertility marker. 1 Classification
Object TypeSourced to the subject's own account Medium (class)Sourced to the subject's own account Physical Form
MediumSourced to the subject's own accountBronze figurine, SHM 14232, circa 1000 CE 1 Connections
Associated With
Freyr, Figures This source names Freyr directly: "god, and most identify the figure as Freyr on that basis, though the reading is not certain beyond dispute."
Source Rallinge Statuette (Wikipedia)
This source names Sweden directly: "in Lunda parish, Sodermanland, Sweden, and held by the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm under accession number SHM 14232."
Source Rallinge Statuette (Wikipedia)
Belongs to Tradition
Source Rallinge Statuette (Wikipedia)
Depicts
Freyr, Deities The seated, bearded, ithyphallic figure most scholars read as Freyr in Viking Age Scandinavian craft's own votive form for a fertility god, held by the Swedish History Museum, Stockholm, SHM 14232.
Source Rallinge Statuette (Wikipedia)
Additional Source Rallinge Statuette, File Category (Wikimedia Commons)
Sources
1. Rallinge Statuette (Wikipedia)
Wikipedialead, on the discovery and Freyr identification
The Rällinge statuette is a seated figure in bronze, discovered in Södermanland, Sweden in 1904 and dated to the Viking Age. The seven-centimetre-high figure, who wears a conical headdress, clasps his pointed beard and has an erect penis, has often been assumed to be the god Freyr.
catalogue record, medium/object-type description
A small bronze figurine found in 1904 in a potato field at the farm Rallinge in Lunda parish, Sodermanland, Sweden, and held by the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm under accession number SHM 14232.
View the Source Rallinge Statuette, File Category (Wikimedia Commons)
Wikimedia CommonsDepicts: FreyrQuote, Depicts: Freyr
Statyett av fro, Historiska museet, DIG 55086 (SHM 14232), Lunda, Sodermanland.
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