Awestave Hand Made Steel Helm of Awe Pendant with Blackened Shield Face, Knotwork Border & Brown Leather Cord | Norse Gift | RK-1640

This is a shield shaped pendant carrying the Helm of Awe, the eight armed stave with trident tipped arms, set pale against a blackened field and framed by a band of interlaced knotwork inside a bright polished steel bezel. A heavy flat bail sits at the top and it hangs on a round brown leather cord closed with a steel barrel clasp. It arrives in a small wooden box.

We should be straight with you about where this symbol comes from, because most shops are not. The Helm of Awe, Aegishjalmur in Old Norse, is not a Viking age design. The drawn stave you see here first turns up in Icelandic magical manuscripts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the version most widely copied today comes from the Huld manuscript, compiled in Iceland in 1860. What is genuinely old is the word. In the Poetic Edda the dragon Fafnir boasts that he wore an aegishjalmr, a helm of terror, before all people, and that phrase is what the later Icelandic magicians reached back for when they named the stave. This pendant is cut, blackened, set and finished in a Czech Republic workshop.

Specifications

Helm of Awe or Vegvisir, and how to tell them apart

These two get mixed up constantly, and once you know the difference you cannot unsee it. The Helm of Awe has eight identical arms radiating from a centre point. Each arm ends in a trident and carries a pair of short crossbars along its length, and the whole thing is symmetrical, which is exactly what you are looking at on this pendant. The Vegvisir also has eight spokes, but every one of them ends in a different device, so no two arms match. That asymmetry is the giveaway.

Their stated purposes differ too. The manuscripts describe the Helm of Awe as something worn or marked between the eyes to inspire fear and protect the wearer in confrontation, while the Vegvisir is described as a way finder, so that a person carrying it will not lose their way in bad weather even on unfamiliar roads. Both come from the same late Icelandic tradition rather than from the Viking age. We would rather tell you that than sell you a story.

The metal and the blackened face

The bezel and the stave are worked in steel and taken bright by hand, and the recessed field behind the stave is blackened so the pale lines read cleanly at a distance. That contrast is doing all the work on a pendant this size. Without it the fine crossbars on the eight arms would disappear into the metal and the symbol would be unreadable at arm length, which is the fault with most cheap versions of this design.

We are not going to call this silver. It is steel with a bright silver tone in the polished areas, priced for the hand work rather than for a precious metal content. It will not tarnish black the way sterling does, and it will not leave a green mark on skin. The blackened field is worked into the surface rather than being a coat of paint sitting on top of it, so ordinary wear will not lift it off in flakes.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel, the leather or the wood. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On this pendant the front is occupied by the stave, so almost everyone puts their rune line or their date on the plain reverse, where it stays private. See the engraving page.

Fit and sizing

The cord is a fixed length round leather with a steel barrel clasp, cut so the shield sits on the upper chest on most adults. If you want it to sit higher at the collarbone, or long enough to be worn outside a heavy jumper, tell us before you order and we will cut the cord to your figure at no extra charge.

To find your number, run a length of string around your neck and down to where you want the pendant to hang, pinch the point, then lay the string flat against a tape. That total is your cord length. Remember that the shield hangs below the bail, so it will land roughly its own height lower than the mark you pinched. The bail is wide enough for a heavy chain if you would rather wear it on steel, and the pendant is light enough not to pull a shirt collar out of shape.

Care

Take it off before swimming and before the shower. Chlorine and salt water are harder on a finish than a year of ordinary wear, and soap dries out the leather cord. Wipe the pendant with a soft dry cloth when you take it off. A jeweller’s cloth brings the polished bezel back if it dulls, and a soft toothbrush with warm soapy water lifts anything that settles into the fine crossbars of the stave. Dry it thoroughly afterwards, especially around the bail.

The leather cord is the wearing part, as it should be. Keep it out of prolonged water, do not sleep in it, and feed it with a small amount of leather balm once or twice a year. When it eventually gives up, the bail will take any standard cord or chain you like.

Made in the Czech Republic

This piece is made by hand in the Czech Republic, in a workshop that still works the old way. The steel is forged, ground, heat treated and finished by smiths who learned the trade from the people before them, and the wood, horn and leather are cut and fitted by hand rather than pressed out on a line. That is also why no two pieces come out exactly the same.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import these pieces ourselves, check every one when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done here in the United States after the piece arrives, so your runes or your own design go on before it leaves for you.

A note on handmade variation

This pendant is hand made, not machine made and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The blackening takes with slightly different depth on every piece, so some read as a dense charcoal and others closer to true black, the polish on the bezel is worked by hand so the highlight runs differently around the shield, the knotwork border is finished by hand and its line weight varies a fraction, and each leather cord takes its own tone from natural hide. The dimensions, the material, the symbol and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a genuine Viking age symbol

No, and we will not pretend otherwise. The drawn stave comes from Icelandic magical manuscripts of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. The Old Norse word aegishjalmr is much older and appears in the Poetic Edda, but as a helm of terror rather than as this diagram.

Is it silver

No. It is steel with a bright polished silver tone. It will not tarnish black in a drawer and it will not turn skin green.

Will the black wear off

The blackening is worked into the recessed field rather than painted over the top, so ordinary wear will not flake it. Over many years the highest points may lighten, which most owners think improves it.

Is the cord included

Yes. A round brown leather cord with a steel barrel clasp comes with the pendant, along with a wooden presentation box. The bail also takes a standard chain.

Can I have something engraved on the back

Yes, and the reverse is the usual place for it. Use the rune converter for Elder Futhark or send plain text through the engraving option.

How long does shipping take

One to two weeks of processing in the shop, then free shipping inside the United States. Engraving adds a few days.

What is in the box

• Hand made steel Helm of Awe shield pendant with blackened face and knotwork border
• Round brown leather cord with a steel barrel clasp
• Wooden presentation box
• Care card for steel and leather
• Lifetime warranty against defects in the making and the fittings
• Made and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in the Norse pendants, the Anglo Saxon and Celtic pieces and the accessories, or read the guides on Icelandic staves and what the sources actually say.