Richard Perkins - Thor the Wind-raiser and the Eyrarland Image (2001).jpg

Sometime around 1816, during excavations at Eyjafjörður, in northern Iceland, a small bronze image of a seated male figure was discovered. The object was cast by the "lost wax" process, sometime in the 10th century or earlier, and perhaps had once been gilded. It is 3-dimensional, 6.7 cm. tall. The seated figure appears to be naked except for a conical hat or helmet. His mouth is open, and he grips with both hands two vertical columns that descend from the vicinity of his chin and terminate between his knees in a clover-leaf design.

For reasons that are not entirely clear, the so-called Eyrarland image (EI) was already identified as a likeness of Þórr in 1820, when the first illustrations of the figure were published in the Swedish journal, Iduna. That identification has persisted to the present day, and many descriptions of EI confidently identify the object that is being grasped with both hands as Þórr's hammer, Mjöllner. The only problem is, it doesn't resemble other representations of Mjöllner, nor does it match the description of the hammer the dwarfs fashioned for Þórr. Partly for this reason, other theories have been advanced from time to time to explain the object in the figure's grasp. Among the more interesting was one proposed by Lotte Motz in a 1992 article in The Mankind Quarterly, that EI represents a musician "playing an instrument which shows a close resemblance to a double flute."

In Thor the Wind-Raiser, Richard Perkins presents what is probably the definitive explanation of the Eyrarland image, one that accepts the figure's traditional identification as a likeness of Þórr, yet is not far from Motz's vision of a wind-instrument player. Perkins begins by reviewing the importance of wind-power in early societies, and the widespread invocation of particular deities to assure favorable winds. This would have had especial relevance for Viking Age Scandinavians, who were distinguished for their seafaring exploits. Favorable winds bestowed advantage in trading and warfare; a contrary wind or becalmed seas could mean loss of fortune or even one's life. Yet the wind was a fickle and mysterious force. As Hávamál counsels,

much veers the wind ere the fifth day
and blows round yet more in a month.