Valknut (also Hrungnir's Heart)

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Valknut (also Hrungnir's Heart), Hrungnir's head, heart, and shield were made of stone. His heart had a peculiar shape, it was triangular due to which both the Valknut and the Triquetra have been called Hrungnir's heart. (Norse mythology)

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Valknut

The valknut is a symbol consisting of three interlocked triangles. It appears on a variety of objects from the archaeological record of the ancient Germanic peoples. The term valknut is derived from the modern era, and the term or terms used to refer to the symbol during its historical employment is unknown.

Scholars have proposed a variety of explanations for the symbol, sometimes associating it with the god Odin, and it has been compared to the three-horned symbol found on the 9th-century Snoldelev Stone, to which it may be related.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Several explanations for the symbol have been proposed:

Hrungnir's heart
Chapter 17 of the 13th century Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál contains the following description of the heart of the jötunn Hrungnir; "Hrungnir had a heart that was famous. It was made of hard stone with three sharp-pointed corners just like the carved symbol hrungnishjarta [Hrungnir's heart]." Comparisons have been made between this symbol description and the symbol known as the valknut.

Odin and mental binds

The Tängelgårda stone from Gotland, Sweden features valknuts below a depiction of a horse
Hilda Ellis Davidson theorizes a connection between the valknut, the god Odin and "mental binds":

For instance, beside the figure of Odin on his horse shown on several memorial stones there is a kind of knot depicted, called the valknut, related to the triskele. This is thought to symbolize the power of the god to bind and unbind, mentioned in the poems and elsewhere. Odin had the power to lay bonds upon the mind, so that men became helpless in battle, and he could also loosen the tensions of fear and strain by his gifts of battle-madness, intoxication, and inspiration.

Davidson says that similar symbols are found beside figures of wolves and ravens on "certain cremation urns" from Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in East Anglia.

Other
Due to the fact that the symbol appears on picture stones with Odin and on burial gifts in the Oseberg ship burial, Rudolf Simek says that the symbol may have been associated with religious practices surrounding death.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Hrungnir

Hrungnir (Old Norse 'brawler') is a jötunn in Norse mythology. He is described as a stone-made giant defeated in duel by the thunder-god Thor.

Prior to his demise, Hrungnir engaged in a wager with Odin in which Odin stakes his head on his horse, Sleipnir, being faster than Hrungnir's steed Gullfaxi. During the race, which Sleipnir wins, Hrungnir enters Ásgard, and there becomes drunk and abusive. After they grow weary of him, the gods call on the god Thor to battle Hrungnir. He is slain by Thor's hammer Mjölnir.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Prose Edda
In Skáldskaparmál (The Language of Poetry), written in the 13th by Snorri Sturluson, the god Odin is portrayed as riding his horse Sleipnir into Jötunheim when he meets the jötunn Hrungnir, mounted on his horse Gullfaxi (Gold-mane). They have a short verbal exchange about the quality of their respective horse, during which Odin states his willingness to bet his head (his life) on the result. Hrungnir declares that he has "a horse that must be much longe-paced, it [is] called Gullfaxi." Then Hrungnir gets angry, leaps upon his horse and follows Odin in a race towards Ásgard, "intending to pay him back for his boasting". Although Sleipnir turns out to be the fastest horse, the race is very close and Odin is not able to keep Hrungnir out of the place of gods, Ásgard. There, the Æsir (gods) invites Hrungnir for a drink.

Hrungnir becomes so intoxicated that he threatens to remove "Val-hall and take it to Giantland" and to "bury Asgard and kill all the gods", besides the beautiful goddesses Freyja and Sif whom he intends to keep for himself. The gods then call the thunder-god Thor to expel the unwanted guest, and the two of them agree to a duel. Thor arrives at the appointment with his servant Þjálfi, and Hrungnir is escorted by Mokkurkálfi ('Mist-calf'), a mighty creature made of clay, and with the heart of a mare. But the giant Mokkurkálfi is said to be "quite terrified" and he "wets himself" at the sight of Thor, whereas Hrungnir, whose heart, head and shield appear to be made of stone, is "standing unguardedly". After the fight is over and Hrungnir eventually defeated, Thor turns out to be stuck under the jötunn's leg. Thor's three-year-old son Magni is the only one able to lift up the gigantic leg among all the present Æsir (gods). As a reward, Thor offers him Hrungnir's horse Gullfaxi.